Infinity, BA to Valparaiso, March 3. Long review.

[GeorgiaPeach51]

Some info about us: We are early 60’s. This is our fourth Celebrity cruise and Celebrity is our cruise line of choice. We like the people, the ships, the lack of smoking. Especially the lack of smoking. We have previously cruised on HAL, Princess and Carnival, a total of 12 cruises, we think. We travelled with my twin sister and her husband. We met lots of lovely people on this trip and this was the first 14 day cruise we’ve ever taken. LOVED it. It seemed decadently long and luxurious to be away from work so long. Of course, the payback is waiting when you return, but having two weeks was just fantastic. I’ll write in segments about our experience rather than in chronological order, mainly because I can’t REMEMBER the chronological order in most cases!

We are not super-picky people, and do not expect perfection since we are all mere humans. J It would take something of volcanic magnitude for us to be really upset by something on a cruise, since we are on vacation. That’s not to say that we haven’t had disappointments with cruises, etc., but 99% of the time we find plenty enough things to enjoy so that we feel we’ve had a good time. In all these cruises there is only one cruise that we all just really didn’t like and it was not Celebrity.

We flew out of Atlanta to BA. Long night, long flight, in steerage. No idea how to make it any better than it was. Here’s a suggestion--if you are flying Delta; or perhaps if you are flying any airline. We booked these flights almost a year ago. Doing so, we were happy to get two seats on the right, by ourselves, with the configuration of two seats on each side and 4 in the dreaded middle. When looking at our final paperwork I happened to look at the booking, and lo and behold, they had changed the airplane type and moved us, yes, to the dreaded middle. Consternation! Thus ensued some lengthy calls to Delta where they were persuaded to move us when we protested that we booked so early in order to not have to sit in the dreaded middle. They juggled things and we ended up where we started. So, be warned to not only check your seats but to check the location. Our seat numbers were exactly the same on both flights; had I not clicked on the seating chart I would never have caught that they’d moved us. Tricky little airlines, aren’t they?! As always, buyer beware!

The transit through the Buenos Aires airport was easy. Nice airport. We exited the plane, went down an escalator to customs. No wait, very quick. Picked up luggage first, ran it through scanners and we were done. We had made an online reservation with Taxi Ezeia, (not sure of spelling) which you can do online. If you reserve online they will have your name posted at their booth near the luggage carousels. The cost was $38 USD, straight to the Hilton. Hilton was okay, large rooms, and clean;service needs a boost or more training. My sister and her husband were there five days and never could get the housekeeper to give them two wash cloths,two towelsand two hand towels. Drove them nuts. They never knew if they would have towels or not. Some days they had one, some days two….but the staff did try. Near the end of their stay a maid arrived at the door with a pile of towels that reached over her head; so their heart was in the right place!

 

Our first day in BA was busy, a lot of walking in the city. We never go to bed after an all night flight; we just keep plodding along as best we can. We had a fantastic Calabresa pizza atEl Cuartito, which is supposed to be the best pizza in Buenos Aires. We would not argue, even my husband, who is a pizza snob who makes and tosses his own pizza. We got there as it opened, and in ten minutes the place was packed. Fabulous pizza. Wow. If you lived in that neighborhood you’d weigh 400 pounds, because you surely couldn’t resist that pizza. SO good.

 

The cabs are inexpensive....but those guys are nuts. I would say that lanes are just a suggestion.....we had several close calls that caused us to grab door handles and whimper a little. But no wrecks, which really was amazing. I told my sister that I could reach over and tie the shoes of the person in the car next to us, we were that close. Just close your eyes and don't watch, Ethel!

 

FONT=Cambria]On our first night we went to the [/font]The Argentine Experience. I highly recommend it. We had so much fun. It is a group of young guys, one of whom previously opened a restaurant in his home, which is apparently common in Argentina. He hosted dinners, allowed people to learn about Argentina and the food. A guy who attended became his financial backer and actually built a wonderful restaurant for him! The restaurant is very nice, beautifully designed. The first part of our evening was practicing our sommelier skills, trying to identify twenty different smells in the same way a sommelier would with wine. Fun and very tough. Then we did a mixology class, where we learned how to make three different cocktails with wine, and were served very nice appetizers to go with each cocktail. Then we went upstairs to the actual dinner...we learned how to make empanadas and there was a contest to see who could make the best original design for an empanada. The actual dinner was the best steak we’d ever had, mashed potatoes, a nice grilled vegetable dish, and dessert called alfajores, which is a like a shortbread cookie, but much better. It is not a typical cooking class, but you do learn about the recipes and go away with access to the recipes if you want to try them at home. The staff was fun and we learned a lot about how Argentineans communicate; customs, etc. They were also very professional. We’d do this again in a heartbeat and highly suggest that you book this. A lot of fun, and very different. Here is their website:

 

http://theargentineexperience.com/index/

 

 

Other things we did in BA: We went to the San Telmo market. Fun place to visit; lots of good things to buy; as you’ve probably read, the woven things and leather are the good bets. My husband bought several leather belts, very nice quality, about $10 each. Hard to beat. We did an interesting Art and History tour with Rick Powell…..the art is graffiti. Grafitti is an art form in San Telmo and the guide was full of interesting knowledge about it. It’s a walking tour, and lasted about three hours. We also went to Recoleta Cemetary and paid for a tour with a guide we found at the entrance. I think it was $10 per person. Well worth it. The place is huge and it was interesting, sad, touching, to hear the stories behind many of the vaults. I would say Recoleta is a must-do in Buenos Aires. Very worthwhile. My sister and her husband walked around on their own previously, and then did the tour with us. They said the tour was infinitely worthwhile compared to walking aimlessly around. We did not feel uncomfortable at all; it felt very safe.

We ate lunch at a traditional and well-known restaurant, La Brigade. It was nice, but the food didn’t begin to touch the food at The Argentine Experience.

Finally, it was time to board the ship. We waited till late in the day. We arrived via taxi at the terminal at about 3:00, and it was a breeze. We walked straight through from one point to the next, never having to pause, never having to sit. Easiest boarding we’ve ever done, and a relief after reading some of the horror stories about boarding in BA. We kept waiting for someone to jump out and say, “Just kidding, here’s the REAL line"…. And we would turn to see 4,000 people in a line that went around the building twice. One key to this success was that the Infinity was the only ship boarding that day. The Golden Princess was in port but boarded the previous day, so look up to see how many other ships are boarding while your ship is boarding and you’ll have an idea of what you’ll be up against. This was a cruise where you boarded the ship one day but it didn’t leave until the next day. This was the first time we’d experienced this, and it was fun, but different. We have our usual routine of going to The Bistro on Five for lunch, and exploring the ship, and this was definitely different.

Our most recent cruises have been on the Summit and Millennium so there were no surprises for us on the Infinity. We thought she was in great shape and was clean and well-maintained. We have been on one S-class ship, and we enjoyed both classes but like the ease of moving around on the M class. We had a veranda cabin on deck 7, forward, near the elevator.

 

Food

We ate three times in Qsine; two dinners and one lunch. We had all eaten there before, so no surprises, but it was fun, for sure. We knew what to order and what to skip. They had a special about halfway through the cruise that tempted us into a return visit for lunch. Even though we scaled back on what we ordered at lunch it still ends up being a lot of food. We also ate twice in the SS United States (like Murano). Very nice. We had Select Dining, which is always our preference. We like not having a set dinner schedule as much as possible. We often were able to walk right in. A couple of nights we were given a pager-thingey and waited in the lounge nearby. No big deal, perhaps 10 minutes at the most. We are still working and will always opt for anything that has no set schedule or clocks we have to adhere to. We were often able to sit with our favorite waiter, Roy, and we had no issues with our table location. I can say that contrary to our usual experience of being cold on ships, we thought the Select Dining area was hot. Consistently. We ate several times in the Bistro on Five for lunch, which was always nice and well worth the $5 surcharge. We ate twice in the buffet. When we first arrived on the ship they were in Code Red; lots of lines, lots of hassle, couldn’t touch anything. That went away sometime during the first week of the cruise. This is the first time we pretty much avoided the buffet for most of the trip. We had coffee and a muffin each morning in Café al Bacio. Catherine, Kenet and Andrea were excellent. Most days for lunch we were off the ship, which would have been our normal meal for the buffet. On the sea days we ate in the Bistro, twice in the buffet, never tried the main dining room at lunch. The two times we ate in the buffet it was a hassle to find a place to sit. I know weather has a lot to do with this; if you are cruising and the weather is cold, etc., outside, all passengers will be inside, so it will be more crowded wherever you go. However, this was the first time we can remember being completely unable to find a place to sit. We ate one lunch standing; not the best option and not fun. But we had searched for so long for a seat and it was turning into something so much like work that we were moments away from just skipping lunch and running away hungry.

We all enjoyed the food in the main dining room. Although at home we rarely eat red meat, this cruise can make a meat-eater out of you. We all had steak and meat entrees and they were very good. The pork chop the first night was very good. We remembered it from our last cruise on the Millenium. My husband resolutely attempted a fish entrée three different times. All three times he had to reject it and order something else. The fish is so thin that by the time it arrives tableside it is tough and overcooked. Also, our waiter, Roy, said that he never recommends the pasta dishes because by the time those arrive they are colder and more pasty than when they started. If you are a new cruiser know that they want you to be happy. Don’t sit there with something you don’t enjoy. Ask for something else. If you have a good waiter he will tell you what is best for the evening. Roy was fantastic, as was Novalia; Ana always stopped by our table to talk and give suggestions. Such lovely people with lovely personalities. They added much to our enjoyment of our vacation.

We had the premium alcohol package. No issues, no complaints, thoroughly enjoyed it. We have had it before so knew what to expect. In the main dining room we primarily interacted with the sommelier Daisy, who was excellent. She was knowledgeable and quick and never let our glasses get empty. Charming, funny person. We enjoyed Café al Bacio in the mornings; two cups of Americano each ($18). We would return for afternoon coffee and a cookie or pastry. ($9). We bought probably 4 large bottles of water a day. My husband had wine or beer with lunch if we were on board. We enjoyed one or two martinis each in the Martini bar before dinner each night; had wine with dinner; after-dinner drinks. We felt the package was a good deal, for sure. As probably hundreds have said, it is nice to not have to think about it; one less hassle for vacation. We previously purchased the package and paid for it in full. It was fun to have the Classic part of it free and only have to pay for the upgrade to Premium.

 

Staff

We thoroughly enjoyed the staff on this ship. We had only one negative experience and that was as we boarded. We had opted for the Classic alcohol package as our free incentive and they had no record of it. We went to guest relations and the first person to whom we spoke was very unhelpful, very negative, almost rude. She was the only sour note on the whole trip, saying we needed to call our travel agent and that it would take three days or more to straighten things out. We returned later, to speak with someone else and they couldn’t have been more helpful and eager to make things right. One employee in Café al Bacio even took it upon himself to try to fix the issue for us, I think it was Kenat, service way beyond expectations. We eventually got things fixed by day 2. Other than that one employee Celebrity has a staff about which they can brag. We thought they were lovely.

The Captain is Nikolaos Frantzis and this was his first cruise as Captain of the Infinity. Our first night on the ship we were sitting in the Martini Bar and he came by with another officer, stopped to talk and we ended up with an invitation to a Bridge Tour. This was an exciting first for us and we absolutely took him up on it! I know for many of you this will be a “been there done that”, but we were so excited about it and it lived up to our expectations. The Captain was fairly brisk and business-like, but personable. We enjoyed talking with him. He did lighten up on morning announcements later in the cruise. There was a comedian on board (more about him later) who did an exact and hilarious impression of the captain giving his morning talk. The next day on the announcement the Captain mentioned the comedian imitating his morning announcements and said, “And if you look on the port side of the ship, you will see Mike Doyle swimming to port.” Cute.

For those who might want to know, the Cruise Director was Alejandro Tortorelli. It took us a little to get used to him, but we liked him. Again, we thought the staff was excellent.

 

Entertainment

We had pretty much given up on entertainment on ships. Because we travelled with others this trip, we dutifully went to the shows and found, by golly, that they were very good! VERY good! Kudos to the orchestra and the leader, Tina Lorusso….they were great. Here is what we saw: Tony Pace, musical impressions (excellent). The Pampas Devils, Argentinian dancers. Nestor Santurio, guitar (excellent). An act called The Man from Mars. Aerialists Kelli and Troy. Ric Steel, ICE, a Michael Jackson tribute performer (very good), Hector, an illusionist--he did one of those tricks where the girl who was in the box is suddenly in the audience, and I'll be darned, it was near us that she appeared and we never saw where she came from!!), Leanne Mitchell (she was FABULOUS; the winner of The Voice UK in 2012); can’t say enough about her. The comedian I mentioned before, Mike Doyle….he’s a hoot. I don’t know if the entertainment was so much better due to the 14 day cruise (as opposed to a 7 day) or if it’s just better overall since we last went to shows, but we really enjoyed it. I would say that the ship entertainers, the dancers and singers, were perhaps a little better than average, but still well below the quality of the other entertainers.

We enjoy dancing; it was a little problematic. Dancing was in the Constellation Lounge; it seemed to start with the ship's dancers doing line dances, not our favorite, but lots of passengers seemed to love it. We would generally wait it out till the real dancing came along. The DJ was a little bit of a puzzle. If he said it was 50's night, by golly, if you made a request if it wasn't from the 50's he'd remark about it.

The demographic on the ship, by the way, was perhaps some 40's, most passengers were 50-60; some 70's. Very few that appeared to be 80's, but who knows. Formal nights, BTW, were mostly suits, some tuxes; one man in a fabulous kilt. Ladies ran the gamut from a few long gowns to mostly cocktail. Most people got into the spirit of things. We are among those who would not mourn to see formal nights go away, but if we're there we will participate.

 

Shopping

The best shopping, we thought, was in Buenos Aires and in Puerto Montt. We actually bought little; some belts for my husband, some woven shawls, scarves for me. We bought nothing on the ship and barely entered the ship stores. I’m sure there is plenty out there, but we just didn’t find it. They had the usual sales in the areas outside the stores and it looked like they were doing a brisk business.

 

Montevideo

The only port we had appalling weather. It rained, it poured, it blew a gale, it turned our umbrellas inside out. It tried to blow our hair off our heads. It was 15 degrees colder than forecast. First it would soak you from the front then change course and soak you from the back. We persevered, having booked a Tours by Locals with Shakalo. Nice walking tour. Unfortunately it was a holiday and most stores, etc., were closed. Disappointed to not see the Carnival Museum, also closed. Nice city. Would have enjoyed seeing more of it and with sun rather than buckets of rain.

 

Punta Del Este, Uruguay

Another Tours by Locals, with Gabriel. Nice man, nice tour. It is a resort-type town, upscale. Nice tour with a van. My favorite thing to see was the fisherman’s church. Lovely colors, tranquil.We walked a lot and ate at a restaurant near the dock.

 

Puerto Madryn, Argentina

A tour with Sentir Patagonia Travel. We went to Punta Tombo to see the penguins. 15 passenger bus; about 2.5 hours to the site, some interstate and some dirt road. Once you get there, you can walk along a boardwalk to the ocean and see plenty of penguins. Suggest that you walk quickly to the end, then take your time coming back. The penguins are everywhere and very close. Wonderful trip.

 

Cape Horn

Some beautiful views, rainy, some fog, but you could see land. The ship had one night in particular that the ship was really rolling. But all in all, things were fairly steady.

 

Ushuaia

Pronounced YOU-SCH(like telling someone to be quiet, shhhh)-WHY-UH. J We had every kind of garbled pronunciation imaginable, all of them an atrocity, I’m sure, to native Ushuaians! We strongly suggest Pira Tours. We rode in a van, then transferred to a Zodiac boat to the penguin island. Fantastic tour and the best of all the ones we did. LOVED it. The Zodiac boat is sheltered, and boy, when you hit the beach, there they are. All over the place. Magellanic penguins and gentoo and a couple of King penguins. If you can book this, do it. They only let in about 80 visitors a day, I believe, and we felt blessed to see it.

 

Punta Arenas

 

We walked around on our own. A lot of stores with touristy knicky-knacky stuff. The duty-free mall was closed. Not our favorite stop; perhaps there are some other tours that would be good. We were pretty low key and possibly missed something wonderful. I would investigate if I were you.

 

Strait of Magellan/Chilean Fjords

Beautiful cruising. Very scenic. Waterfalls. Lovely.

 

Puerto Montt

We took a taxi to a nearby town, Puerto Varas. It has a German influence, but was much less scenic than we anticipated. We had lunch in a little restaurant, then went back to the ship area, where there is a long line of artisan booths. We bought some knit/woven items and then headed back to the ship. Not our favorite place; I think we might have booked a tour and come away with a better impression perhaps.

 

Disembarkation

Not a hassle. We had arranged a tour of vineyards, Valparaiso Wine Tour, with Al Ramirez. So, we wanted to be off the ship quickly. By the time we were ready to go our number had been called; we exited, found our luggage and away we went. We had a 9:00 flight that night; got to the airport about 5. Whatever you do, be sure to hang onto both the reciprocity paperwork AND the small square paper that should be in your returned passport documents. You will need to surrender it at the airport. My b-i-l didn’t have his and had to stand in lines, etc., at the airport to get another one.

Our vineyard tour with Al was very good. He was born in Chile but raised in the states, so his English is obviously excellent. We went to three wineries; had lunch in a nice farm to table restaurant. Al is very good, knowledgeable, good value. There were 4 of us and we had a large van to ourselves. He recognizes that often people are getting on or off a ship for two weeks and the 4 of us had 8 pieces of luggage, 2 each, so he allows an appropriate size vehicle for the passenger size. Highly recommend his tour.

All in all we loved our vacation. We enjoyed South America and the people we met. Celebrity had two excellent speakers on the ship; Dirk Younkerman and MickeyLive. Both gave excellent talks on penguins, seals, sea lions, going around the Cape, etc. There was also an adventurer called Dave Cornthwaite, whose challenge was, I think, to do something new or great every day.

Edited March 30, 2014 by GeorgiaPeach51

[GeorgiaPeach51]

Sorry for the funky font issue; I was copying and pasting from Word and I'm obviously missing something in the translation!

[suncityga]

Thank you for the great review ! ! !

 

It brought back great memories of our BA to Valparaiso cruise on Infinity in January 2012. :)

[crimsonbird]

Sorry for the funky font issue; I was copying and pasting from Word and I'm obviously missing something in the translation!

 

You didn't mention the tax when you arrived in BA. We took this cruise 4 years ago, when there was no entry tax, but heard there may be a tax now. Since we plan on doing this cruise again, we were wondering what the status was. Please advise and thanks.

[GeorgiaPeach51]

The reciprocity fee was $160 per person. Pretty steep!

[sergeant655]

Just got off infinity after ba ti Mia and enjoyed the ports of punts del est and puerto montt the most of the first leg and Santiago on turn around day. The other highlight was Qsine when passing through the beagle channel. The Chilean fjords made me a bit home sick but were very scenic to cruise through (we actually got to see more of that area then planned as seas were a bit rough and the captain wanted to give us a smother and more scenic cruise )as they reminded me of the strait of Georgia. Alejandro was also fun to have as the cruise director. The comedian on the second leg made fun of the reminder about gi that the captain reads in the morning announcements while he was judging the dancing with the officers show. Code red came back in Lima and remained in affect for the final 9 days of the cruise. This time there was a noticeable reduction of service in some areas ( quarter of Oceanview closed aswell as all expect 2 of the drink stations were closed even on the hottest day. and intermittent closures of the liquor store). It lasted so long that entertainers started to joke around about it.

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review.

[lovestx]

Thanks for your review. This is on my bucket list.

 

Curious about the temperatures for this trip. Trying to figure out the best time to go.

[lara68]

wonderful review!! Thank you for taking the time. WE are going next January and are so excited. We are also wondering about the weather temperatures?

[smtcan]

We did this cruise in January last year. The weather was oppressively hot in BA and Montevideo, then got cooler as we travelled South. Ushuaia was bitterly cold with a very high wind, but so scenic that we had a wonderful day. We had rain in the Chilean Fjords, but by the time we reached Valparaiso and Santiago it was warm, but a better temperature for sight seeing than BA.

 

I took a thin windproof jacket with a fleece that fitted underneath if needed. I was glad of a hat, scarf and gloves in the south - not the really heavy type we wear in Canada, but thin enough to roll up and fit in a small back pack.

 

Have a great cruise

 

Sheila

[lara68]

Thank you Sheila!! I know it's a long way off but the weather and it's fluctuations was something I thought might be problematic for packing the right clothes. So, you brought a insulated jacket but no real winter coat?? I was wondering if I might need my coat!

[upwarduk]

We had only one negative experience and that was as we boarded. We had opted for the Classic alcohol package as our free incentive and they had no record of it. We went to guest relations and the first person to whom we spoke was very unhelpful, very negative, almost rude. She was the only sour note on the whole trip, saying we needed to call our travel agent and that it would take three days or more to straighten things out. We returned later, to speak with someone else and they couldn’t have been more helpful and eager to make things right

 

Interesting, sounds if the one member of staff that we had issues with, still works at Guest Relations.

 

We had OBC on our invoice, but not on our On Board Account.

A scan was taken of the invoice, to email to Miami, but when I followed it up a week later, there was record of it having been sent.:eek:

[GeorgiaPeach51]

Thanks for your review. This is on my bucket list.

 

Curious about the temperatures for this trip. Trying to figure out the best time to go.

 

We were pleased with the weather overall. BA was like warm spring weather, so summer clothes were perfect. As stated by others, the further south we went the cooler it got, and after rounding the Cape it was the reverse. There was no day that was Blazing hot and no day that was freezing cold. If this can be considered normal for this time of year, I would say take a waterproof jacket with hood, gloves, some thin sweaters to layer. We had umbrellas provided in the cabin by Celebrity. We did not take hiking boots, though I saw many with those on. Even for the excursions to see penguins, we didn't need boots...sneakers were perfect.

 

We felt blessed to see the Cape and the fiords weather gave us plenty of visibility, so I would give the March weathered for this trip an enthusiastic thumbs up!

[crimsonbird]

The reciprocity fee was $160 per person. Pretty steep!

 

Where and when does one pay the fee? Thanks.

[Northern Aurora]

I also wanted to thank the poster for this review. We will be doing the same cruise in 2015, and this particular leg is the middle of a B2B2B.

[drarill]

Great review!! thanks for sharing your cruise with us!! This one is on my bucket list!:)

[GeorgiaPeach51]

Where and when does one pay the fee? Thanks.

 

Just google Argentina Reciprocity Fee and the website will pop up. Then print the paperwork and keep it all the way thru...you'll have to show it several times.

[cruisehome]

hi

 

can you tell me the condition of the ship

 

also wanted to know about music and dancing in the evening

 

what are the venues for this

 

thanks