Live from the infinity - 10/24 transatlantic

[Andy]

Hi Ghstudio,

 

Thanks for your very compehensive report. Loved the captain's comment :) Have a wonderful cruise !

Edited October 25, 2013 by Host Andy

[hulamoon]

Thank you GHstudio!

[Bobby Dee]

Since you are on the Infinity, please try to find out if the SS United States still uses synchonized serving. We've only been on Infinity once, but in my opinion, she has the best specialty restaurant of any ship from any line. Somebody has to be the best. If you choose to dine there, I'll be very interested in finding out your opinion of the SS United States.

[Sparkle 123]

Really enjoyed your first report GH, thanks. If possible, could you try to find out how much they are charging to upgrade to the premium package from the "free" classic drinks package that many passengers received when booking? I am waiting to upgrade onboard after Celebrity confirmed on these boards that one would not have to pay the new higher upgrade price when upgrading onboard. I would be very grateful if you could confirm that this is definitely the case.

 

Thanks,

 

Eloise

 

Hi Eloise

I can confirm that the price to upgrade to the premium package is still $11.50 per person per day. We were on the Infinity 30th September cruise and upgraded from the "free" package for the final 5 days and that is what we were charged.

[Sparkle 123]

Since you are on the Infinity, please try to find out if the SS United States still uses synchonized serving. We've only been on Infinity once, but in my opinion, she has the best specialty restaurant of any ship from any line. Somebody has to be the best. If you choose to dine there, I'll be very interested in finding out your opinion of the SS United States.

 

Yes they do, I had the flambeed lobster cooked tableside and hubby had the Dover sole and it was fabulous! Radu the sommelier was excellent and paired our wines within the premium package. It was a wonderful evening.

[Eloise4Ever]

Thanks so much Abbafan, that's good to know. Interesting also that you were able to upgrade for only a portion of the cruise as the new policy states that you must now purchase a drinks package for the entire cruise rather than a few days into it as was previously possible. I assumed the same would apply to upgrades but obviously not. Thanks again.

 

Eloise

[shipshape sam]

Excellent report. Lots of details. :)

 

Hope for more updates on Captain's Club venues, benefits and differences.

[heatescapee]

Thank you for your postings, GH. I notice you are in AQ, someone posted a review recently complaining of wait of 30 minutes for seating in Blu. Have you had this experience?

[picture]

1) As usual, we were offered champagne,mimosas or oj when we boarded after a very quick, smooth check in.

 

2) some changes in fancy martini menu, but the martini bar has both small and large martinis for those limited by the classic package. Stoli elit large is still $11 for the large so I'm happy.

 

3) michaels club is now a VIP lounge for embarkation. We are elite with over 30 credits in aqua and we weren't invited. I'll try to find out the qualifications. Ok, it's penthouse and royal suites and top cruisers only..that's it. Michaels will only be a VIP lounge from 5-7 for the rest of the cruise. This seems to be an evolving experiment.

 

4) bistro on five is blessedly still empty at 12:30 so it remains relatively undiscovered for lunch when one boards.

 

5) someone is sitting on deck 4 for dining room questions/issues but no one is there with problems. Maybe it's because it's only 12:30.... There are always problems so this is strange.

 

6) enterprise/national car rental drop off is very easy at harwich. You drop the luggage, then park the car in the marked area of the short term parking lot, lock the car, drop the keys in a locked box and walk a short distance back to the cruise terminal. No surprises at all but it's unmanned so I'm hopeful the bill will be as expected.

 

7)wonderful but funny...the very first celebrity person we met greeted us and said: welcome ghstudio...seriously! She had been on a cruise with us and she even remembered my wife's name. It was a wonderful way to begin the cruise....

 

8) elite drink coupons...dated coupons for the entire cruise were waiting in our cabin...three per day per person and another 'you can't make this up' moment

 

The front says: valid for a beverage from the captains club menu....for use in bars or lounges, excluding cellar master, cafe al bacio, specialty dining and main dining...

 

Turn the coupon over and it says:

 

Offer valid .... for beverages up to an $8 value and beer up to $5.... Not valid in martini bar, michaels club, specialty dining room, mini bar and room service.

 

So are they valid at the martini bar and can you get any drink up to $8 or only from the captains club menu??? Hopefully their ship operating procedure and emergency manuals were written by someone else...or we are in trouble.

 

8a) the drink coupons are dated for every night except the first night...that's one more night then before....a plus.

 

9) elite coupons seem the same.

 

10) minimum bet at most casino tables is $6....a change aimed perhaps to inspire people to bet that extra $1 on the bonus bet which is a great deal for the house. It will be interesting to see how many play $6 vs $5/$1. Report...we have good gamblers...no one is betting the bonus $1....casino is very empty, but this is the first night so things may change.

 

11) fruit bowl gone in cabin...replaced by a tray with three apples which is a bit boring unless they change the fruit each day but maybe I will be inspired to learn to juggle :). Also a Full bottle of celebrity vintages brut blanc de Blancs bouvet-ladubay French sparkling wine from Maine et Loire (we're in aqua). We'll trade it in.

 

12) cabins were ready at 1:00, as announced and luggage arrived at 3pm. Very fast...great.

 

13) no footstool on balcony but I don't think there ever was on the m class ships. Balcony chairs and table look to be in great condition.

 

14) uneventful muster drill.

 

15) 50% specialty restaurant discount the first night at least for aqua passengers.

 

16) form for canapés but no place to ask for cheese or shrimp cocktail. There is a note that canapés will only be delivered to staterooms that are occupied at time of delivery. Not sure this a change, but implementation seems to be very erratic across the fleet.

 

17) stateroom attendant came by and introduced herself..we asked for isotonic pillows that later appeared.

 

18) funniest comment from captain's announcement as he went through all the opportunities to purchase things on board...ending with "the art gallery where you may get bargains, or not". Now there's a captain who's tuned in to reality.

 

19) aqua/blu...if you want to eat in the MDR, go to early or late seating, not select. I'll double check this.

 

20) very friendly celebrity staff...everyone is smiling, stopping to chat, upbeat. Great.

 

21) There are eight or nine craft drinks on new menus....I'll try to note some of the drinks in later posts. A couple are $8, but most are $9 or a little more.

 

22) one of our party is a vegetarian eating in blu. They gave her a vegetarian menu with a number of choices and said it changes each day like the regular menu.

 

23) no ice or ice bucket in our room....have to ask for one tomorrow.

 

24) incredibly smooth so far...if you don't look out you wouldn't know we were moving.

 

25) blu dinner. Escargot available. I had onion soup (too much cheese) and Caesar salad with anchovies (good) and the tuna which was good, but served with black over cooked rice and no wasabi. Others had filet which was very good. All desserts were excellent. One sommelier, but he was up to the task.

 

Enough for embarkation day

 

Day 2

 

1) blu...I'm impressed, poached eggs were not overdone...terrific. Breakfast plates were hot so breakfast was hot when served.

 

2) there are 570 elites on our cruise. Largest venue holds 300 which explains the coupons for drinks

 

3) they are offering 2 for 1 drinks....one per day. Yesterday it was apple martinis, today cosmopolitans.

 

4) we spent 28 days on the millenium last year and this is our first recent cruise on the infinity. The infinity is in far better condition throughout. Now since our cruise he millenium has been in an Unscheduled dry dock, so it may have been freshened up.

 

More later

 

GH

 

So what is the price for the smaller Martini's?

[ghstudio]

Continued

 

5) Sign up for computer time is the usual goat rodeo. No written instructions so everyone waits for the one tech to help them...it's just a horrible process. You really don't need help, I signed up last night when no one was around....I'd call it an ongoing disaster on every cruise. It would be so easy to have printed instructions for the 75% of the folks that could follow them.

 

6) Once signed up some Computers still won't connect wirelessly. My friend signed up but can't log on with his ipad. His ID works just fine through my ipad.....it's a mystery but the tech got him running...it was an ipad issue.

 

7) Excellent speaker this morning, Alan dowry from notre dame on "who discovered America". Jim Kennedy (ex nasa) is aboard as well speaking on space flight, of course. This is our third cruise with him so we skip his talks. Finally Ian wright is doing a series of talks about rock groups of the 60's and perhaps 70's..he travelled with the groups as a photographer and has some great stories and videos.

 

8) The 50% off specialty restaurant deal the first night was just for aqua guests. Since we are six people, I stopped by one of the specialty restaurant sales desks this morning and joked (intentionally) that we we're bribable. We now have reservations at Qsine for 30% off.....being friendly often gets nice back....never hurts to ask with a smile.

 

9) We are a party of six, all in aqua. When we arrived in our cabin, there was (a letter giving us an assigned dining time for the first night (which we ignored...blu actually doesn't care when you arrive)...and the letter said, in bold letters: please contact our desk in blu if you have a party of 6 or more between the hours..... So I stopped by and talked to the maitre d' who said they only have two tables for six, there are no reservations so we should be prepared to wait or split up if those tables were full. Ok....not exactly the response I expected...but we'll see how it goes. In actual fact they have at least four large tables and can combine 2 tops so it's another mystery. Maybe he's just trying to cover himself.

 

10) Since we have over 500 elites, the elite breakfast is in the MDR...and those who aren't elite but want a sit down breakfast eat in the select dining area.

 

11) The advanced cruise folks insist that the new on board credit offer is combinable with stockholder obc.....who really knows? They also say it should be combinable with the group rates offered by some large ta's but not with senior, fireman etc discounts. If you book on board and your TA has a group rate...and you move your reservation within 60 days of your booking, your rate should drop to the group rate....lots of shoulds....we'll see..

 

12) Yes, park west is with us and they had their first event today. Some passengers seem to love that entertainment (or they like the free sparkling wine). Fortunately they are unobtrusive.

 

13) Casino is running tournaments in various things. On previous cruises they had a blackjack tournament and at the end of that days tournament the winners got cash. As I recall the entry fee was $25 Now it's different (note..different doesn't mean worse). They are having "qualifying rounds" on each sea day and the top 7 qualifiers during the entire cruise will play for the $ pot on the last sea day. Buy in is $15 and as always you can enter as many times as you want to pay for. No complaints here at least for now I'm in the top 7 but lots of sea days ahead.

 

14) Very few kids on board but that's not a surprise. Everyone seems friendly, no pushing for elevators or chair hogs, but of course it's pretty cool out. There are blankets on the chaises if you want to sit outside which is a nice touch.

 

15) I know there are some groups on board, but they are transparent as are most groups. Just because there is a group on board doesn't mean they will take over venues, etc.

 

16) maybe others know this??I didn't. If you have the classic bev package you get a 20% discount on any bottle of wine; premium package discount is 30%.

 

17) elite drink coupons: ok, it's two to one that the front of the coupons is correct. There was a second note from jenny (cc hostess) that I missed yesterday that also said...good at any bar, excluding cafe al bacio and cellar masters so martini bar should be ok...and confirming that it's drinks from the captains club menu, not any drink up to $8. Maybe when they printed the coupons they didn't realize there was a printed back with different info.

 

18) lots of wine events between $15 and $20. Explore Porto tasting, food and wine pairing, world wine tour, connoisseur wine and cheese ($35), sabering at sea, new world wine tour, wine goes green, wine discovery plus the Iredell workshop, connoisseur dinner ($95) and chefs kitchen dinner ($?). Elites have a free wine tasting seminar as well.

 

19) there was a free galley tour today for anyone..and a backstage tour for elites (and perhaps select?) later in the cruise.

 

20) definition of smart casual: "no shorts, t shirts, flip flops, bathing attire, and no rips or holes in jeans, if worn". Hey, that's what it says...I guess you can carry jeans with you with rips and holes...just don't wear them:). ... Who writes this stuff?

 

21) there was a solo travelers lunch today in the MDR...I've never seen that before. Smart move celebrity.

 

22) I spent a couple of hours doing things on deck 4 and it was very smooth sailing. Returning to our cabin on 9, I stepped off the elevator and almost fell. It is much rockier on 9. My wife had to sit down to dry her hair. Should be an interesting night for some. Our friends who do worry about being sick from motion are on 11....good luck. (Note..they did not join us for dinner)

 

23) elite coupons work too well. Met friends at 6pm, had two martinis by 6:45 then went to bar at rendezvous lounge to get wine to bring to dinner. Bartender poured normal glass of wine, but I had an extra ticket my wife didn't use so I asked if he'd fill the glass for the extra ticket. Took that to dinner and I have no idea what I ate last night :)...but I did win at the casino.

 

24) they I change the fruit in the bowls....first day three of the same apples...yesterday two different kinds of apples and an orange.

 

25) We have not experienced any wait at blu...6:30 to 7pm. There does seem to be at least a short wait at select dinning.

 

More later....

 

GH

[ghstudio]

Craft cocktails

 

Spanish smash - grey goose cherry noir vodka, cardinal Mendoza brandy, maple syrup and bitters. $8

 

Last voyage - beefeater gin, aperol, Cointreau, simple syrup, pineapple and lime juice $8

 

Mexican firing squad - don Julio blanco tequila, orange bitters, lime juice, grenadine and soda water $9

 

Tiki old fashioned - zcapa23 rum, nardini amaro liqueur, grenadine and bitters $9

 

Gold standard - jack Daniels Tennessee honey whiskey, wood ford reserve bourbon, scorpion mescal, simple syrup and lime juice $9

 

Green thumb - ciroc vodka, green chartreuse, Pernod absinthe, simple syrup, cucumbers and soda water $11

 

Gin complex - Hendricks gin, green chartreuse, aperol, allspice dram liqueur, simple syrup,lime and pineapple juice $11

 

Caribbean cobbler - remy vsop cognac, mount gay extra old rum, amontillado sherry, lemon juice, simple syrup and bitters $9

[Eloise4Ever]

Thanks for listing the craft cocktails GH, several of them are right up my street :) Are they available at all bars?

Edited October 26, 2013 by Eloise4Ever

[ghstudio]

Social hour drinks

4-6pm and 10pm-12am

 

$5 cocktails

 

Loss of words - don Julio Bianca tequila, amontillado sherry, cochi Americans, simple syrup and lime juice

 

Spanish mule - Bacardi oak heart picked rum, allspice dram liqueur,ginger beer, simple syrup, lime juice and bitters

 

Spiced berry mash - ketel one vodka,green chartreuse,simple syrup, lemon,strawberry and soda water

 

Also

 

$3 draft beer and $4 select wine (by the glass)

 

 

Answer...craft cocktail menus are only in one bar and I forget which one...sorry...I drink martinis and it wasn't the martini bar.

[Eloise4Ever]

Answer...craft cocktail menus are only in one bar and I forget which one...sorry...I drink martinis and it wasn't the martini bar.

 

No problem GH, I will track those cocktails down!

[cinnamon]

Great info GH. Many thanks.

 

With the Elite breakfast in the MDR, is it only the usual Continental offerings or is it possible to have cooked breakfast there and still have the good OJ and Capuchinos?

[cannongate]

Some of these cocktails sound really good. Very interesting ingredients in some of them.

[cluso]

We just got off the Infinity on 24 October (12 Oct Wine Immersion Cruise). 1100 Captain's Club and 300 Elite.

 

Most of the large martinis are now $13 in the Martini Bar. One of the bartenders did comment that their business has slowed...

 

We did have a kettle in our cabin (stored in the cabinet at the desk), not sure if it stays on for the TA.

[ghstudio]

Some misc items

 

Per the maitre d in blu gratuities go to blu or the mdr on a nightly basis. If you are in blu and eat in the mdr for two nights, your gratuity will go to the mdr for those two nights.

 

I will check to see if One can still buy a drink package for 'the remaining days' of the cruise.

 

The sushi is still a great early snack at 5:30, but I wish they would learn that sushi rice is not supposed to be over cooked and mushy. It is still far better than the cabin appetizers in concierge and aqua class. It's sort of the same as the bagels, otherwise known as rolls with a hole in the middle.

 

Have not visited aqua spa cafe or regular buffet yet....if I get there I'll report my findings.

 

Someone told me that you can order a large martini in other bars, not just the martini bar. Something else for me to check out.

 

Perhaps more tomorrow when we are in port again....

 

GH

[ghstudio]

We just got off the Infinity on 24 October (12 Oct Wine Immersion Cruise). 1100 Captain's Club and 300 Elite.

 

Most of the large martinis are now $13 in the Martini Bar. One of the bartenders did comment that their business has slowed...

 

We did have a kettle in our cabin (stored in the cabinet at the desk), not sure if it stays on for the TA.

 

??? Large martinis with top brands are $11 plus tip on this voyage. Perhaps they had the 'tip included' pricing on the wine immersion cruise...or clusto is posting the with tip price.

[ghstudio]

Great info GH. Many thanks.

 

With the Elite breakfast in the MDR, is it only the usual Continental offerings or is it possible to have cooked breakfast there and still have the good OJ and Capuchinos?

 

Same breakfast as always, just a different location....

[drarill]

Excellent live review!! Thanks GH!:)

[Sparkle 123]

Yes on all the UK round trip cruises the tip was included in the price of the drinks, looks like they have gone back to adding it afterwards now.It all works out pretty much the same, its just that us Brits are not used to having a 15% service charge added to bar bills!

[excitedofharpenden]

Good to see you are taking advantage of the Stoli Elit bargain. I would keep those sea sick tablets handy from tomorrow. The weather forecast is not good. Take it easy.

 

Phil

[Blue Lagoon]

Thank you for using your internet time to keep us informed!:)

 

I am coming up on a TA on board Constellation next month. One of my favourite activities is the guest choir. However, in the past this has been hit and miss and dependent on whether the a capella choir or members of the production staff will take this on. Is there a High C's choir on Infinity?

 

Actually, there was no a capella group on Century last month (Pacific Coastal) and according to the CD (Ben) , they are not a definite entertainment group as in past cruises but most likely to be on transatlantic crossings.

 

Enjoy and thanks again.

[bhughey]

Absolutely enjoying your live updates! Thank you for taking the time to share. You mentioned Ian Wright hosting one of the seminars, I imagine this may be a common name, but is this the same Ian Wright from the PBS globe trekker series???? My gut says probably not, but had to ask!

 

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