Infinity Alaska Review 8/5-8-12

[yayvacation!]

In depth review of our cruise to Alaska (the title should say 8/12 - 8/19 clearly I'm losing my mind!) Disclaimer: these are my thoughts and ramblings on our recent cruise, this in no way is written to persuade or dissaude anyone else's opinion, and does not reflect the views of anyone else except me :D

 

A little about us. DH and I went on this cruise together (32 and 29 respectively) we have been on 4 cruises, all Celebrity, all in suites. We are fortunate enough to live in a city filled with amazing local restaurants and we visit them frequently :). DH is a foodie (he has eaten his way through Las Vegas Michelin star restaurants) I am a baby foodie (I appreciate fresh well prepared and interesting dishes). We travel often and we try to stick with hotels/airlines/cruises that provide impecable customer service, you might say we are picky, but never unreasonably demanding, we just expect what we pay for, if it's a 5 star hotel I expect 5 star service.

 

The cruise:

 

Embarkation: Incredibly easy. We checked in our luggage at the pier around 10:30am and walked a few blocked to Pike Place market to buy wine, we were back at the pier around 11:15am. We went through security, up the escalator, and into our check-in line, where an agent was available to check us in immediately. 5 minutes or less at the counter, she asked us to go to the specialty restaurant booth to reserve our complimentary SS United States dinner for that night. We made reservations and headed to the ship. Total time to go from security to onboard 15-20 minutes.

 

The Ship: Amazing and unbelievably well kept. The ship overall is beautiful and personally, I didn't notice much wear at all. Sure, she is a different style than S-class but I don't think that makes her shabby in any way. In fact, one thing I noticed immediately was that each and every single railing was perfectly varnished, while onboard the Solstice in January, her railings were in terrible shape. I even saw a crew member one morning cleaning the back and underneath of the carpeted staircase. I was impressed.

 

Cabin: We were in suite 6146 it was a great sky suite with an enormous bathroom. I was pleased to find a balcony with a cover which proved very helpful during some rainy Alaska days.

 

Food/Food Service: Not impressed, but not in-edible either. Our first night was at SS United States, I had surf and turf which was a mistake, the filet was good, well seasoned and prepared, but the lobster was rubbery and awful. DH had dover sole, not overly happy with it, but not terrible either. Service here was strange. Everyone (manager, mait're d' and waiters were all taking care of us) but our waiter came over after a few minutes, didn't introduce himself at all but immediately took our order, the assistance waitress never materialized with water or bread, and the sommelier was all but non-existent. We did get a bottle of wine which the mait're d' took care of for us and water which another waiter brought over. But the service seemed dis-jointed, we got everything we needed but it was still strange.

 

2nd night: formal we ate with Captain Margaritis and Chief Navigational Officer Adonis, great night, great service.

 

3rd night was the first we showed up to our table, table for 2 4th floor, and it was in an extremely awkward spot right at the base of the staircase (literally our chairs were pushed up to the first step) we ate there, the service from our waiter and assistant was wonderful, but we just felt very uncomfortable eating there out in the open with both of us on one side of the table staring at the rest of the dining room. Now, I know I should have said something immediately, but we had plans to eat off the ship in both Juneau and Victoria, so we figured we would order to the room the remaining nights. Our in-room dining was amazing, the bread was actually hot when it got to us and we were very happy.

 

When we decided to eat in the MDR on the last formal night, we asked our butler if he could see if the MDR had any available tables for 2 that were less awkward, he was able to find one quickly and we headed down to the MDR. While here though it was made painfully obvious that we were unwelcome in that waiters section. The odd thing was that we and 1 other table showed up for dinner that night, the rest of his section was empty. We were asked by 3 people (waiter, assitant waiter, and sommelier) were we were sitting before, why we moved and "your only here tonight right?" it made us very uncomforable, like we were intruders. I get that they may not have been happy about serving people they weren't getting tipped for, but we came prepared to tip the wait staff in cash because we were only there one day (I know there was no way for them to know that but I still didn't expect the service we received). It was just completely unexpected from the Celebrity brand for the servers to question us the whole night instead of just cheerfully serve us.

 

The food in general we found to be ok, not great edible. One thing I wish is that they would change up the menu a little, and restore quality (I feel like 3 years ago the food was better quality)

 

Other venues we tried were the Aqua Spa cafe for lunch which was always very good, I tried the pool grill my burger was great :) and even the buffet one day for lunch (my first time to the buffet on any cruise) and I was pleased with my pasta and bolangese sauce! Breakfast was delivered by our butler every morning and was always hot, as ordered, and very good.

 

Service: Excellent. We had a great butler and room steward who took excellent care of the room and us and kept our water pitcher full at all times. We had a few room requests (3 towels at all times instead of 2 and cheese and crackers instead of canapes) which were asked for on the first day and taken care of through the whole cruise.

The entire ships crew was friendly, helpful and visible from the officers to the cleaners. There is a great culture throughout the ship and we were very happy with service everywhere (except the MDR as noted above).

 

Alaska: Words do not describe how beautiful Alaska really is. We had verey calm seas for most of the trip (1st sea day was 2 - 3 foot swells and last sea day was 4-5 foot swells the last day was the only day I noticed rocking and I'm very prone to motion sickness). Ketchican started around 55 and rainy and very quickly warmed up to around 75 and sunny. Juneau was washed out and our helicopter and glacier trekk tour was cancelled as well as most whale watches because of the weather. Better safe than sorry, and we had booked though the ship so the credit for the tour was on our account before we got back on the ship from walking around Juneau. We ate at Tracy's Crab Shack in Juneau and it was amazing, it's a tiny shack serving enormous fresh crab. The shack is right next to the public library, if your headed to Alaska soon, make some time for lunch/dinner here! Skagway started out rainy, we rented a car and drove up to Emerald Lake, great drive and a very nice day!

 

Random Thoughts: Our future cruise sales manager was great we booked 2 cruises with her. Guest relations was painless to deal with, very helpful and friendly. Scheduling of the connections party (embarkation day at 8pm) made it difficult to attend because of dinner reservations. Shore excursions desk was very efficient and well organized we had our tour booked in less than 3 minutes (we knew which one we wanted which was helpful) and when the tour was cancelled a shore excursions desk representative called our room to let us know, and they had a credit processed immediately. We tried to, but could not, exchange our bottle of sparkling wine in the suite for a bottle of red in the MDR (the brand was not the same as served in the MDR) where on a previous cruise we were able to exchange. Entertainment - we didn't go to many shows just iBroadway which was pretty good and the comedian who was absolutely hysterical!

 

And that's it from me, if you made it this far, thanks for sticking with me!!

 

I kept all of the dailies from our week and would be happy to answer any and all questions you have about the ship, ports, people, meals, etc.

 

Andrea :D:)

[portofrome]

Thank you for the review.

[cherylroslyn]

In depth review of our cruise to Alaska (the title should say 8/12 - 8/19 clearly I'm losing my mind!) Disclaimer: these are my thoughts and ramblings on our recent cruise, this in no way is written to persuade or dissaude anyone else's opinion, and does not reflect the views of anyone else except me :D

 

A little about us. DH and I went on this cruise together (32 and 29 respectively) we have been on 4 cruises, all Celebrity, all in suites. We are fortunate enough to live in a city filled with amazing local restaurants and we visit them frequently :). DH is a foodie (he has eaten his way through Las Vegas Michelin star restaurants) I am a baby foodie (I appreciate fresh well prepared and interesting dishes). We travel often and we try to stick with hotels/airlines/cruises that provide impecable customer service, you might say we are picky, but never unreasonably demanding, we just expect what we pay for, if it's a 5 star hotel I expect 5 star service.

 

The cruise:

 

Embarkation: Incredibly easy. We checked in our luggage at the pier around 10:30am and walked a few blocked to Pike Place market to buy wine, we were back at the pier around 11:15am. We went through security, up the escalator, and into our check-in line, where an agent was available to check us in immediately. 5 minutes or less at the counter, she asked us to go to the specialty restaurant booth to reserve our complimentary SS United States dinner for that night. We made reservations and headed to the ship. Total time to go from security to onboard 15-20 minutes.

 

The Ship: Amazing and unbelievably well kept. The ship overall is beautiful and personally, I didn't notice much wear at all. Sure, she is a different style than S-class but I don't think that makes her shabby in any way. In fact, one thing I noticed immediately was that each and every single railing was perfectly varnished, while onboard the Solstice in January, her railings were in terrible shape. I even saw a crew member one morning cleaning the back and underneath of the carpeted staircase. I was impressed.

 

Cabin: We were in suite 6146 it was a great sky suite with an enormous bathroom. I was pleased to find a balcony with a cover which proved very helpful during some rainy Alaska days.

 

Food/Food Service: Not impressed, but not in-edible either. Our first night was at SS United States, I had surf and turf which was a mistake, the filet was good, well seasoned and prepared, but the lobster was rubbery and awful. DH had dover sole, not overly happy with it, but not terrible either. Service here was strange. Everyone (manager, mait're d' and waiters were all taking care of us) but our waiter came over after a few minutes, didn't introduce himself at all but immediately took our order, the assistance waitress never materialized with water or bread, and the sommelier was all but non-existent. We did get a bottle of wine which the mait're d' took care of for us and water which another waiter brought over. But the service seemed dis-jointed, we got everything we needed but it was still strange.

 

2nd night: formal we ate with Captain Margaritis and Chief Navigational Officer Adonis, great night, great service.

 

3rd night was the first we showed up to our table, table for 2 4th floor, and it was in an extremely awkward spot right at the base of the staircase (literally our chairs were pushed up to the first step) we ate there, the service from our waiter and assistant was wonderful, but we just felt very uncomfortable eating there out in the open with both of us on one side of the table staring at the rest of the dining room. Now, I know I should have said something immediately, but we had plans to eat off the ship in both Juneau and Victoria, so we figured we would order to the room the remaining nights. Our in-room dining was amazing, the bread was actually hot when it got to us and we were very happy.

 

When we decided to eat in the MDR on the last formal night, we asked our butler if he could see if the MDR had any available tables for 2 that were less awkward, he was able to find one quickly and we headed down to the MDR. While here though it was made painfully obvious that we were unwelcome in that waiters section. The odd thing was that we and 1 other table showed up for dinner that night, the rest of his section was empty. We were asked by 3 people (waiter, assitant waiter, and sommelier) were we were sitting before, why we moved and "your only here tonight right?" it made us very uncomforable, like we were intruders. I get that they may not have been happy about serving people they weren't getting tipped for, but we came prepared to tip the wait staff in cash because we were only there one day (I know there was no way for them to know that but I still didn't expect the service we received). It was just completely unexpected from the Celebrity brand for the servers to question us the whole night instead of just cheerfully serve us.

 

The food in general we found to be ok, not great edible. One thing I wish is that they would change up the menu a little, and restore quality (I feel like 3 years ago the food was better quality)

 

Other venues we tried were the Aqua Spa cafe for lunch which was always very good, I tried the pool grill my burger was great :) and even the buffet one day for lunch (my first time to the buffet on any cruise) and I was pleased with my pasta and bolangese sauce! Breakfast was delivered by our butler every morning and was always hot, as ordered, and very good.

 

Service: Excellent. We had a great butler and room steward who took excellent care of the room and us and kept our water pitcher full at all times. We had a few room requests (3 towels at all times instead of 2 and cheese and crackers instead of canapes) which were asked for on the first day and taken care of through the whole cruise.

The entire ships crew was friendly, helpful and visible from the officers to the cleaners. There is a great culture throughout the ship and we were very happy with service everywhere (except the MDR as noted above).

 

Alaska: Words do not describe how beautiful Alaska really is. We had verey calm seas for most of the trip (1st sea day was 2 - 3 foot swells and last sea day was 4-5 foot swells the last day was the only day I noticed rocking and I'm very prone to motion sickness). Ketchican started around 55 and rainy and very quickly warmed up to around 75 and sunny. Juneau was washed out and our helicopter and glacier trekk tour was cancelled as well as most whale watches because of the weather. Better safe than sorry, and we had booked though the ship so the credit for the tour was on our account before we got back on the ship from walking around Juneau. We ate at Tracy's Crab Shack in Juneau and it was amazing, it's a tiny shack serving enormous fresh crab. The shack is right next to the public library, if your headed to Alaska soon, make some time for lunch/dinner here! Skagway started out rainy, we rented a car and drove up to Emerald Lake, great drive and a very nice day!

 

Random Thoughts: Our future cruise sales manager was great we booked 2 cruises with her. Guest relations was painless to deal with, very helpful and friendly. Scheduling of the connections party (embarkation day at 8pm) made it difficult to attend because of dinner reservations. Shore excursions desk was very efficient and well organized we had our tour booked in less than 3 minutes (we knew which one we wanted which was helpful) and when the tour was cancelled a shore excursions desk representative called our room to let us know, and they had a credit processed immediately. We tried to, but could not, exchange our bottle of sparkling wine in the suite for a bottle of red in the MDR (the brand was not the same as served in the MDR) where on a previous cruise we were able to exchange. Entertainment - we didn't go to many shows just iBroadway which was pretty good and the comedian who was absolutely hysterical!

 

And that's it from me, if you made it this far, thanks for sticking with me!!

 

I kept all of the dailies from our week and would be happy to answer any and all questions you have about the ship, ports, people, meals, etc.

 

Andrea :D:)

Andrea,

 

Great well balanced review and congratulations on completeing the Bar Exam, this was a well deserved vacation for both of you. Good Luck!!

[opa1024]

We went through security, up the escalator, and into our check-in line, where an agent was available to check us in immediately. 5 minutes or less at the counter, she asked us to go to the specialty restaurant booth to reserve our complimentary SS United States dinner for that night. We made reservations and headed to the ship.

 

Andrea, Thank you for the details. I am interested in the fact that you received a complimentary dinner in the specialty restaurant. We are sailing in Sept and we are in a Sky suite. I contacted Celebrity because I thought we would receive a comp meal in the specialty restaurant. I was told not on Infinity. Now I am confused. Was this a special offer just to you or is a meal in the specialty restaurant part of a suite and the people answering at Celebrity are just not in the know? Thank you if you can shed some light on this. Ted

[AuntKrazy]

Andrea,

 

It was nice to meet you briefly during dinner with the Captain. It was a highlight of the cruise for me as well. I agree with you regarding the MDR service akwardness; however, we were fortunate enough to have an entertaining assistant waiter who went out of his way to make sure our entire table was taken care of.

 

-Kerin

[Texed]

Andrea,

Thanks for posting. :)

[yayvacation!]

Andrea, Thank you for the details. I am interested in the fact that you received a complimentary dinner in the specialty restaurant. We are sailing in Sept and we are in a Sky suite. I contacted Celebrity because I thought we would receive a comp meal in the specialty restaurant. I was told not on Infinity. Now I am confused. Was this a special offer just to you or is a meal in the specialty restaurant part of a suite and the people answering at Celebrity are just not in the know? Thank you if you can shed some light on this. Ted

 

Hey Ted!

 

"Officially" only the S-class ships offer the complimentary meal in the specialty restaurants with the suite reservations.

 

That being said, when the M-class ships (at least the Summit and most recently the Infinity) have space in the specialty restaurant the first night, they open up complimentary dining to suite guests. You do have a suggested tip amount of $5pp when the meal is free.

 

When we checked in (around 11:15-11:30am) the lady checking us in asked us to go to the booth to make a reservation, when we got to the desk, most of the spaces were already full, but they will continue booking up the restaurant until it's full.

 

If they do open it to suites you can only go the first night and it's only if there is space in the restaurant, so check in early! :) Hope you get in during your September cruise.

[yayvacation!]

Andrea,

 

It was nice to meet you briefly during dinner with the Captain. It was a highlight of the cruise for me as well. I agree with you regarding the MDR service akwardness; however, we were fortunate enough to have an entertaining assistant waiter who went out of his way to make sure our entire table was taken care of.

 

-Kerin

 

Hi Kerin! It was nice to meet your group! Any other cruises in the works?!

 

It's strange there were a few of us with MDR issues, on our previous cruises we've been pretty happy with the service and attention to detail. Maybe it was a fluke, or maybe a reflection of the MDR management?

[opa1024]

Andrea,

Thanks for the information about the specialty restaurant. It would be nice to get in for the price of the tip. You did a great job on the review - Thank you. Ted

[AuntKrazy]

Andrea,

 

I think the MDR might have been caused by too high a level of division of labor, instead of a "service team" approach/management. My perception was that the quality was there, but the execution a bit stunted. . . I think the tiny hiccups were more noticeable because in every other area the service was flawless.

 

I am definitely cruising again, and am ready to sign up for Celebrity; however I'm not sure the rest of my group would agree, so I did not take advantage of signing up on the ship. I am considering taking my mother on an Alaskan cruise next summer for her retirement present, but want to look into taking the train across Canada as part of it. (she's dreamed of doing that since she came to the US).

 

We all enjoyed the staff and crew of the Infinity immensely, and can't imagine a better first cruise experience. . . (randomly: Shelley & I would love to know what cologne Navigational Officer Adonis was wearing).

 

Personally, I want to do a Mediterranean cruise or something including Greece/Italy, and have begun looking into it. I'm thinking a cruise at least every other year might need to find it's way on my calendar.

 

-Kerin

[yayvacation!]

Andrea,

 

I think the MDR might have been caused by too high a level of division of labor, instead of a "service team" approach/management. My perception was that the quality was there, but the execution a bit stunted. . . I think the tiny hiccups were more noticeable because in every other area the service was flawless.

 

I am definitely cruising again, and am ready to sign up for Celebrity; however I'm not sure the rest of my group would agree, so I did not take advantage of signing up on the ship. I am considering taking my mother on an Alaskan cruise next summer for her retirement present, but want to look into taking the train across Canada as part of it. (she's dreamed of doing that since she came to the US).

 

We all enjoyed the staff and crew of the Infinity immensely, and can't imagine a better first cruise experience. . . (randomly: Shelley & I would love to know what cologne Navigational Officer Adonis was wearing).

 

Personally, I want to do a Mediterranean cruise or something including Greece/Italy, and have begun looking into it. I'm thinking a cruise at least every other year might need to find it's way on my calendar.

 

-Kerin

 

Lol. Too funny he was wearing Gucci Guilty, Jason has the same one, and it smells sooooo good. :D

 

We booked a Mediterranean cruise next summer on the Equinox, sailing 6/11 it would be great to have you on board!! ;)

[jennyjayfl]

Just curious who your butler was... we have a suite on our upcoming Infinity cruise in December (first sailing out of dry dock) and are hoping for a decent butler as we have not had the best of luck in the past...

 

I don't know if you discussed this with your butler or any other staff for that matter, but I am wondering if the staff currently onboard are going to remain there for the drydock period? I realize the crew have set contracts so I didn't know if the cruiseline worked it so the current crew would swap out with new crew after the dry dock? Thanks for your review!

Jenny:)

[yayvacation!]

Just curious who your butler was... we have a suite on our upcoming Infinity cruise in December (first sailing out of dry dock) and are hoping for a decent butler as we have not had the best of luck in the past...

 

I don't know if you discussed this with your butler or any other staff for that matter, but I am wondering if the staff currently onboard are going to remain there for the drydock period? I realize the crew have set contracts so I didn't know if the cruiseline worked it so the current crew would swap out with new crew after the dry dock? Thanks for your review!

Jenny:)

 

Hi Jenny! Our butler was Santoso, he actually departed the ship the morning we docked in Seattle to go home for a visit. The crew seems to be on revolving contracts, our butler and room steward left 8/19 for home, while the assistant has a few more months on board. From what Santoso said, he is *probably* coming back to Infinity after his contract renewal.

 

Fingers crossed you get a great butler! :D

[mandream]

Thanks for the review Andrea.

 

We will be doing the same cruise, leaving 9/9 - just less than two weeks away!

 

This will be my third time on the Infinity - glad to hear she is being so well cared for. It will be our first time in Alaska - so looking forward to seeing all there is to see from our Corner FOV - another first for us.

 

Would love to stop at Tracy's Crab Shack - but it likely will only work if our whale watching trip is cancelled - so I'm hoping to be able to save that for next time.:)

 

Mike