Photo Review: Dec 24 2016 15 Night Infinity Cruise around South America

[mahdnc]

We booked a private tour with a Bike Tours Uruguay. The tour lasted two hours and covered 5-6 miles riding the roads along the beach and into town. The normal rate was $40 per person but we were charged $50 per person because Alicia (owner) had to rent extra bikes to accommodate us at the last minute. The bike tour through the ship cost $129 per person.

 

The trip was pretty nice and there were plenty of stops. All the bicycling occurred on the streets and there were a few roads that were pretty congested with cars which made staying together as a group rather challenging. There were around 18 people + 3 guides in our group.

 

The iconic beach sculpture, La Mano!

 

 

 

Riding to the Candelaria Church (to the right).

 

 

 

Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria, Punta del Este

 

 

 

I had to circle back on my bike to get this photo!

 

 

 

Punta Del Este lighthouse

 

 

 

El Torreon Building with luxury apartments and topped by La Vista Restaurant. Note electronic sign welcoming Celebrity Infinity to Punta Del Este.

[Mickey22]

Great review, love your pictures. What kind of underwater camera did you use?

 

Jane

[mahdnc]

Jane, thank you.

 

A GoPro camera was used to shoot the underwater video. An editor was used to get the still photos from it.

 

David

[mahdnc]

Celebrity Today

 

MDR Dinner Menu

I do not have MDR Dessert Menu

 

 

This was a nice port although we did not have any specific plans. We ended up getting off the ship late in the morning and we wandered around a retail area about a mile away from the ship.

 

11:26am The view of the pier from our balcony.

 

 

 

View from behind the ship. The Captain may have hit a few things while docking this morning!

 

 

 

MSC Musica is docked with us at Montevideo. This is the first port that we had to share with another cruise ship.

 

 

 

This was the retail area within walking distance of the ship that we visited. Some, but not all, shops accepted credit cards. They all accepted US dollars. Change was usually given back in US dollars.

 

 

 

Made legal to sell in Uruguay on Dec 10, 2013.

 

 

 

We saw many fine art galleries like this one.

[galensgrl]

Great review, I'm enjoying it. Looks like a beautiful trip. Thanks for posting.

[Buffyr]

Thank you for the great review! We're taking this cruise next January.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[mahdnc]

Our next port was Buenos Aires which is only 126 miles away. Because the final night of the cruise was an overnight stay at Buenos Aires, the evening that we left Montevideo would be the last one with all the shops, casino, photo store that would be open.

 

So I went to the casino one last time and I took my 21 year old son to play blackjack for his first time. The casino itself was never very crowded. It was always easy to find an open spot at the blackjack table. The lowest betting minimum was $10 during the entire cruise--which may have something to do with it. The rules are pretty standard: 8 decks, you can double down after any two cards, can double down after splits, could re-split pairs multiple times (except aces), split aces are dealt one card each, dealer hits on soft 17, optional 2:1 insurance, 3:2 payout for natural blackjack, and no surrender.

 

All the blackjack tables had optional side bets available. The most interesting one was you could increase the amount of your bet after being dealt your first card, if it was a ten point card. You do not know what your second card is and the dealer does not have a face up card when you are making your decision. The catch was that that you had to pay the house something like 10% of the increased wager.

 

The casino staff was excellent and very friendly. It was for that reason that I decided to take my son to the blackjack table for his first time.

 

My son and I played for about 1.5 hours. My luck was pretty lousy during the cruise and this night was not much better. My son was a lot luckier. For example, he was dealt a pair of aces on two different occasions. Both times when he split the aces, he was dealt 10 point cards. At the end of our playing session, he made $165 and now he thinks it's easy.

 

 

 

12:30 pm View from our aft balcony while docked at Montevideo.

 

Same balcony, a long time ago. This shot was taken from the exact same balcony on Infinity back on Feb 3, 2002 at 7:48am when the ship was anchored at St Croix, USVI.

 

 

 

11:59 pm Juices available for lunch at the Oceanview Cafe.

 

 

 

5:27pm Dredging vessel, Draga D-7, sails past us as we leave Montevideo to head on to Buenos Aires.

 

 

 

5:44pm A stow away that we picked up at Montevideo wants to get in on the Elite Cocktail Hour in the Constellation Lounge.

 

 

 

12:14am Ships that pass the night! This is the Norwegian Sun. She was leaving Buenos Aires to start her 14 night westbound cruise to Valparaiso. I happened to be at the Oceanview Bar (Deck 10 aft) when she silently glided by us.

[easyboy]

Enjoying yoiur review, and your nice photos.

View from behind the ship. The Captain may have hit a few things while docking this morning!

You should have given the Captain a copy of this!

[mahdnc]

Jan 7--our first day at Buenos Aires.

 

Celebrity Today

MDR Dinner Menu

MDR Dessert Menu

 

 

Our final port, but not our last day. The weather was pretty hot that day. It was in the low 90F's and we felt it.

 

MSC Orchestra was at the port with us and she was taking on new passengers before heading off to Rio de Janeiro.

 

There was a free shuttle bus to take you between the ship and the cruise terminal where there were many eager taxis waiting outside. When we came back to the ship, the shuttle station was very well marked to make it clear where to wait in order to catch the shuttle to the right ship.

 

 

8:58am Our not-so-awesome view of Buenos Aires from our balcony.

 

 

 

3:11pm The water at the pier was neither clear nor blue.

 

 

 

5:59pm View of the port from the Constellation Lounge. MSC Orchestra was in port with us. She was doing 8-9 night round trip cruises to Rio de Janeiro from Buenos Aires.

 

 

 

Closeup location of Infinity at the port and the location of the two airports that serve Buenos Aires. Nearby AEP is a mere 3 miles away from the port while the main international airport (EZE) is 22 miles away.

 

 

 

11:55pm While we were packing up our bags to set outside our cabin, the skies opened up and rained pretty hard. The rain cooled things down considerably.

[mrsgoggins]

I have enjoyed your review and stunning photographs. Definitely a cruise for the bucket list!

 

Do you know if Alejandro was the CD? We are on the Infinity in April and I am really hoping for Alejandro. Thanks.

[mahdnc]

mrsgoggins,

 

Thank you! And, yes, Alejandro was our cruise director aboard Infinity.

[mahdnc]

Buenos Aires Security Advisory Letter

 

I had already booked a sightseeing tour for the next day, so we decided to see Buenos Aires this day on our own on foot. After being dropped off at the cruise terminal by the shuttle bus, we talked to the information desk and told them that we wanted to go shopping. So they directed us to a nice retail area that was about a mile away.

 

On the way back, we were tired and decided to catch a cab to take us back to the port. Unlike the cab drivers waiting for us at the cruise terminal, this driver did not speak English. So we had to show him a photo of our ship and then he knew exactly where to take us. There is quite a look of satisfaction on everyone's faces when successful communication occurs between people who don't know each other's language! That happened to us a few times on this cruise.

 

However when we got there, I discovered that he didn't accept US dollars as we did not have enough Argentina pesos on us. (By the way, even though we didn't speak each other's language, he was able to communicate to me very clearly that he was not going to be satisfied with US dollars!). When I did the conversion, the fare was less than $5. I would have happily given him a $10 bill if he would have taken it. So I motioned to him to wait and I sent gave my son $10 and told him to go into the cruise terminal and get pesos. In a few minutes, my son had the pesos in hand and we gave the driver his fare and a good tip for the wait time and for putting up with us!

 

Map showing the ship at the pier and the immediate surrounding area. We ended up walking from the pier all the way to Galerias Pacifico which is labeled at the bottom of the map.

 

 

 

11:27am Even though it was only a mile walk, it seemed longer because it was hot and we had to deal with a lot of car traffic.

 

 

 

11:36am Totem pole at Plaza Canada.

 

 

 

11:51am Area near the Sheraton Buenos Aires Hotel and Convention Center.

 

 

 

1:03pm We wandered into a few shops, dodged some people trying to sell us stuff off the street. We ended up seeking refuge in this nice air conditioned mall, Galerias Pacifico. It was still decorated for Christmas.

 

 

 

1:04pm There was a beautiful Carolina Herrera Christmas tree inside!

[Germancruiser]

Oh what wonderful pictures- thank you so much for shareing! This is a cruise which is very, very high on my " to do list" ! Great to see that Infinity is still in pristine condition! Judging from what we could see!

[mahdnc]

Here is an excellent aerial photo from cruisemapper.com showing the port with the city of Buenos Aires in the background. Infinity is in the picture along with a few other cruise ships. During our cruise, Infinity was docked in the berth occupied by the orange hulled freighter at the bottom of the photo. Too bad, because I can see how our view from our cabin balcony was uniquely obstructed by that particular berth!

 

 

 

Another photo of the port taken from the Port of Buenos Aires website. The MSC cruise ship in the foreground is docked where Infinity was docked for our cruise.

 

[mahdnc]

Oh what wonderful pictures- thank you so much for shareing! This is a cruise which is very, very high on my " to do list" ! Great to see that Infinity is still in pristine condition! Judging from what we could see!

 

Thank you and you bring up a good point. Infinity was in excellent condition cosmetically and functionally. The public areas were in terrific shape and our cabin was great. Even the elevator interiors (the mirrored finish metal is so easy to damage and hard to maintain) were in immaculate condition. Sorry that I don't have too many interior photos to show this.

 

Now when you take into account that Infinity is 15 years old, it makes her awesome shape even more impressive. We were on Horizon back in 2005 when she was 15 years old. Horizon was not in as good of a condition as Infinity was.

[easyboy]

I was really fascinated by your photo on La Mano. It really look like the fingers were sticking out of the sand.

[RexC]

Thanks for this excellent review. We are on Infinity next month and this really gave us a taste of things to come. The dailies and menus were great to read.

[mahdnc]

Shore Excursion: BA35 Best of Buenos Aires (Ending at airport)

 

General Disembarkation Notice

Disembarkation Notice for those taking BA35 shore excursion

 

No matter how long the cruise is, I HATE getting thrown off the ship. We did not have any post-cruise stay planned and so we were leaving Buenos Aires on the last day of the cruise. Our flight did not leave EZE until 9:45pm that evening. I ended up booking the "Best of Buenos Aires (Ending at airport)" shore extortion, I mean, excursion through the ship. Made that decision on the last sea day of the cruise. It cost around $149 per person. Although it took care of the problem of what to do with ourselves and our luggage until 9:45pm, I was a bit disappointed with the shore excursion.

 

We were originally assigned to Group 19 (debark at 9am) based on our travel plans. But when I booked the shore excursion, we were re-assigned to Group 6 (debark at around 7:30am).

 

We debarked promptly at 7:30am and boarded the motorcoach that was parked very close to Infinity. Any carry-on luggage you had with you was stored in the bus cargo compartments. The luggage that you set outside your cabin on the last night of the cruise is sent directly to the airport curb where you pick it up at the conclusion of the tour.

 

I don't know the exact route that the bus took, but we were driven through the city of Buenos Aires and only stopped to get out of the bus at three places in the city itself. The famous Recoleta Cemetery (8:15am), a tourist shop in the Caminito area (9:30am), and a store at the outskirts of the city (11:20am). The tour guide pointed out a lot of stuff to see as the bus was moving such as embassies, sculptures, government buildings, etc. She did educate us a lot on the city's culture, history, and of course, Eva Peron. As a native of Argentina, she did a nice job with stories and information. I just wished we stopped more.

 

Eventually we were taken approximately 35-40 miles away from the pier to visit a ranch, Estancia La Mimosa, which included lunch. We were there from noon to 3pm. The ranch was fine and dancers were pretty good. The grounds had very nice landscaping, lots of farm animals, and horses. I didn't like the food all that much because the meats seemed to be overcooked (dry). I kept reminding myself that this would be the last meal I would eat that didn't involve a menu with prices on it.

 

The bus arrived at EZE at about 4pm or a little after that. When we got off the bus, we retrieved our carry on luggage from the bus. Right next to the bus on the sidewalk was everyone's luggage that was set outside the cabin from the night before. It was much easier to hunt your luggage down than what you go through at the cruise terminal.

 

 

8:31am Eva Peron's place of burial at the Recoleta Cemetary

 

 

 

8:37am View from the entrance to the Recoleta Cemetery

 

 

 

9:44am We stopped at this store in the Caminito area for 30 minutes. Waving from the balcony from left to right: Diego Maradona, Eva Peron, and Carlos Gardel.

 

 

 

11:24am Our third stop was at a store on the outskirts of the city where this pretty bird resides.

 

 

 

5:16pm Ministro Pistarini International Airport aka Ezeiza International Airport. It was a nice airport. The United Airlines ticket counter was not open yet and wouldn't open until around 6:30pm if I remember correctly. So until then we had dinner at a restaurant up in the mezzanine area where this photo was taken. We were able to watch the Steelers play the Miami Dolphins in the first round of the playoffs on the televisions there until the channel was switched to a soccer game.

 

 

 

7:58pm Our United Airlines 767 jet waiting to take us to Houston where we would catch another plane to get home to Chicago. I was impressed with the length of the jetway. There's another 30 ft of jetway that you cannot see to the left of the picture.

[whirlybird3]

Fantastic review!!!! Thank you!

[mahdnc]

Thanks for this excellent review. We are on Infinity next month and this really gave us a taste of things to come. The dailies and menus were great to read.

 

 

 

You're welcome. You will really love your cruise!

[mahdnc]

I was really fascinated by your photo on La Mano. It really look like the fingers were sticking out of the sand.

 

 

 

Another view of La Mano!

 

12:23pm Jan 5 2017

[mahdnc]

On Jan 7, we had to visit the doctor's office on Deck 2 to get my wife so more Imitrex, a prescription migraine medicine. While waiting, I noticed outside of the waiting room was a first aid vending machine. Everything in the coin operated machine required 2 quarters to purchase:

 

The item on the third shelf from the top appeared to be purchased the most judging by the amount of empty space. That item happens to be antacid!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mahdnc]

Here are some of the Christmas decorations that were on Infinity:

 

Grand Foyer was the most decorated area on the ship. Beautiful Christmas trees and poinsettias flanked both sides of the stairway. By around Dec 29, the stairway was cleared off and opened up just in time for New Year's celebration.

 

 

 

The Trellis Restaurant was classically decorated with lights, garland, and wreaths on the railings.

 

 

 

Snowman on the glass entrance door to the Constellation Lounge.

 

 

 

Entrance to the Constellation Lounge.

 

 

 

Most stateroom doors were not decorated. But there were a few that were simple but very nice.

 

 

 

But this one was by far the most ingenious. The photo was taken when the door was decorated to celebrate New Year's Day. Earlier in the cruise, these same strips of paper were re-arranged in the shape of a Christmas tree!

[mahdnc]

NOW and THEN

 

Here are a few pictures of Infinity that I took back in Feb 2002 compared to our Jan 2017 cruise! Besides the obvious change in the paint job, the photos of the stern reveal the structural changes that have been made.

 

Now!

 

Then!

 

 

 

 

Now!

 

Then!

 

 

 

 

Now!

 

Then!

[TFLG]

I sure like the old paint job better. Thanks for the post, I've never really been interested in a SA cruise but after seeing this thread my mind is changed and I'll definitely do one. And I'll be on the Infinity in October for the first time:D