Infinity Review 11/20 San Diego Hawaii

[Cruise Arizona]

Celebrity Infinity Round Trip Hawaii Nov 20th 2005

I always think that the best reviews are ones that provide you with enough information for you to determine if this cruise would be the right one for you. Hopefully I have provided enough details, but not too much so as to bore you.

The Celebrity Infinity Round Trip from San Diego to Hawaii Cruise on Nov 20th, 2005 was a delightful cruising experience for our family of 4.

We chose this itinerary for our family of 4 because we wanted to take the kids on a cruise and found that we could do the 15 day Hawaii Cruise for just about $1500 more than an 11 day Mexico or Caribbean cruise. We knew that we could never do a trip to Hawaii for a family of 4 for $1500, so we decided to do both and take a cruise to Hawaii.

 

Embarkation

 

Embarkation was really a non-event as we had filled out the express embarkation forms on line. We basically signed a few papers, got our sea passes and our kids muster station ID bands, and walked onboard. We had booked an outside quad state room that included two uppers, a queen and a sofa bed. We got upgraded to a veranda stateroom with one upper and a sofa bed. So with the sofa bed out we had a little less floor space which was made up-for by the balcony.

Right after embarkation, I went down to the dining room and found that we had a table for 4 in the Main/Early Seating just like we had requested. I also spoke to the Maitre’de regarding our wine service. I mentioned to him that we would be ordering wine every night with dinner and that we had had problem with our wine service on a previous cruise when the wine would sometimes sit on the table unopened for 20 minutes. He assured me that he would talk to our wine steward and make sure that we got excellent service.

It took a while for our suitcases to arrive, probably because all our tags had our previous room # on them. I wasn’t able to finish unpacking before the dinner and the shows, so that meant suitcases were still out at bed time.

 

Dining Service:

We received excellent service throughout the cruise in the main dining room. Our two waiters, Marlo and Neil were very hard working and attentive. They were especially good with our children. . For dinner we had set the expectation with our children that they were to order off the adult menu and to try one new food a day. My daughter waited with great anticipation every night to hear our waiter’s recommendations for the evening. The menu always provided us with many of varied choices. The kids were even brave enough to try some of the exotic appetizers including frog’s legs and escargot, as well as some more traditional items like shrimp cocktail and spinach turn-overs. The variety of soups kept us guessing each night. Some of our favorites included the two or three different varieties of consommé and the tomato bisque. One night I even got to try two soups as I was mistakenly brought the wrong soup, and with out having to mention the problem, then served the correct one shortly after. The salads were always fresh and crisp with several delicious choices of dressing. Of the four to five entrée choices offered every night, all four of us never had trouble finding something that we liked. The whole process of dining took about two hours and never felt slow nor rushed.

The wine service was near perfect. Our Sommelier, Segundo, was very knowledgeable of the wines on board. The first or second night of the cruise he even let my husband and I do a complementary wine tasting of three whites for me to try, and three reds for my husband to try. The wine tasting was just as helpful to him as it was to us as it gave him a good idea of what we liked. He used some interesting choices of words when advising us like “that’s just a regular wine” for something he thought we might find not up to par. When we ordered and Italian Borolo, he also wanted to make sure that we knew that we were ordering a very strong bold wine. Once we assured him that we had much experience with this style of wine, then he was confident that we would enjoy it. On that night, he brought us the very fancy long stemmed crystal. We mentioned how much we appreciated that, and he brought us the fine crystal every night.

The whole family dining experience was one of the most important aspects of our family vacation. We chose a cruise so that our children could understand fine dining and the etiquette involved in the whole process. We wanted them to have an opportunity to try new foods and understand that there is much more to life than burgers and fries at a fast food places. The cruise exceeded our expectations in this area. The kids truly loved every aspect of the dining room.

 

On Board Entertainment.

 

The Celebrity Singers and Dancers did a total of 4 production shows, and although I missed the second one, my only real disappointment was the “Spectacle of Broadway” production show. The singers and dancers just didn’t seem to put all their heart into this show. Perhaps they have been doing this show too long and it is getting old for them. However,I really loved the “They’ve Got Rhythm” and “Celebrate the World” shows. I would even so go so far as to say that the “Celebrate the World” show was the best show I’ve ever seen at sea. I was probably most impressed with the Irish dance section, performed extremely well by a group that for the most part had not studied Irish dance.

The Male Vocalist, Jack Walker had a pure strong tenor voice with an incredible range. He performed two shows, singing Pop, Broadway and Opera. The other performers that I missed either due to lack of interest, or just needing to go to bed early were an electronic xylophonist/marimba player, impressionist, and a comedian,

In Honolulu, we were treated to a wonderful hula performance by one of the top Hawaiian hula schools, Halau Hula Olana. I believe that they have been featured on the Travel Channel, Discovery Channel and Discovery HD Theatre. This show featured 7-14 year old girls, from this award winning hula school, performing traditional and modern hulas, all in modest dress that emphasized the beauty of the dance.

The party band Centerfold, provided most of the “party” music for the ships “party” venues. They sang 50’s music for the sock-hop party, country music for the country party, Motown favorites for the Motown night, Disco hits for the disco night. There seemed to be no form of music that they couldn’t provide for the ship. They loved to play to the crowd, and even played YMCA at my 7 year old daughters request. They were always smiling and waving to the passengers and generally having a good time.

The ship also had a harpist that played in the specialty restaurant , a string quartet, and a Hawaiian guitar singer/player.

 

Activities

 

Every morning my husband and I would check the daily for promising looking activities. My husband likes sports type activities and I like music activities. We both had just enough to do with-out wearing ourselves out. My husband liked the paddle tennis tournaments and free throw contests. My favorite was “Name that Tune”. Celebrity gave out nice prizes including card key lanyards and tote bags to the winners. I also participated in Karaoke. Though they had a good number of songs from which to choose, if you are big into Karaoke, don’t hesitate to bring your own CDG’s. The staff did a good job of running the karaoke fairly, giving priority to new singers, but early singers still had a chance to do one or two more songs.

Taking part in the passenger talent show was also a lot of fun. Some people brought their own sheet music, others worked out something to sing with the ships pianist. I brought my own CD. Passengers were encouraged and welcomed by the MC and a friendly audience.

Some of the activities that I know my fellow passengers enjoyed included bridge and card tournaments, rummy cube, ballroom dance lessons, line dance lessons and Bingo..

 

Enrichment Activities

 

Celebrity did a great job of providing passengers with fun learning opportunities while onboard. I heard very good feed back on the lectures by the man from NASA, though I did not attend. I attended or watched on TV several of the lectures by the naturalist. His lectures and A/V presentations on Hawaii’s Volcanos and coral reefs provided me with much needed knowledge for my day at Volcanoes National Park and snorkeling at Haeleakua Bay. They were fun and personal as he as slides of some of the ships staff and entertainers during previous voyages.

My husband and I also enjoyed the wine seminars presented by Patrick Prickett of Kendall Jackson and Pepe Vineyards. During these presentations Patrick talked about different Appalachians for wine growing. Everyone in attendance got three complementary wine tastes per seminar. Though these presentations were designed for the wine novice, even those of us who have loved wine for years got a lot out of the lectures.

Celebrity offerered Hawaiian themed activities including Lei making and hula dancing. I did not attend the lei making, but talked to several ladies who were wearing their self made leis around the ship. The Hula lessons were simple and fun for all ages. My 7 year old daughter loved them, and I’m sure that some of the ladies in the class were in their 70’s or 80’s. The lessons started on the way over to Hawaii so that we would be ready to perform the Hula at the out door deck party as we were leaving Honolulu. All the ladies and one gentleman who participated in the class added to the Hawaiian fun by wearing Aloha wear for the performance.

 

Children’s Program

My only criticism of the kids program was that the activities sometimes conflicted with or overlapped other planned activities. For example, the family disco was from 8:00 – 8:45, with the Captains toast at 8:30 and production show starting at 8:45. By the time we got to the theater, there were very few seats left. We found some for the kids and my husband and I stood in the standing room behind them.

Other than those few times where schedules conflicted, the kids program was perfect. My daughter loved the arts and crafts activities geared towards the younger kids. When those activities didn’t quite fit with my 9 year old son, they moved him up to the 10-12 year olds where he could enjoy activities like dodge ball, ping-pong and scavenger hunts. I was pleased that they were able to adjust to where my son best fit. The youth activities staff seemed to really enjoy the children, which definitely made the whole program more fun for the kids. They even had family activities where the parents were invited to the activities with their kids. These included family bingo for prizes, family scavenger hunts and family karaoke.

Every day the Fun Factory Daily was full of activities for the kids about which they were always excited. We utilized the “Pajama Party” two nights, once on the last formal night, after the production show we let the kids go to the slumber party until 1 pm at a charge of $6 per hour per child, and on the last night when it was free. Most of the time, the kids were ready for bed by 10 pm when the free program ended. The kids ate with us in the dining room on all but two nights: The night we were late getting in from Honolulu and ordered room service, and the night when my husband and I ate in the Specialty Restaurant when they ate at the kids make your own pizza party.

 

State Room Service

 

Our Stateroom attendant did a great job keeping our room for 4 clean and tidy. We had a few mishaps with my daughter having too much soda one night and wetting the bed and me falling asleep on one of the pillow chocolates. I alerted our attendant to the problems immediately and before we could return to our room the problems were take care of. The kids stuffed animals and special blankets were always cleverly arranged we our attendant did turn down service.

Room service was timely and friendly though they wouldn’t let me order cheese and fruit for more than two. It turned out Cheese and Fruit for two was really enough for 6 so not really a problem.

We could order off the dining room menu during dining times, but the state room attendant advised that this takes longer as you have to wait until the dining room kitchen is ready for the entrées until you receive your entrée. So we decided to go with the standard room service offerings.

 

 

Itenerary

 

How can you go wrong with Hawaii? . The weather was not perfect, but lets face it Hawaii is know as the Rainbow state, and you can’t have rainbows with-out rain. On each Island we had a mix of rain and sunshine, but you can hardly hold the cruise responsible for the weather in Hawaii. The nice part about the islands in Hawaii is that you just have to find the part of the island where the sun is.

We also made the decision early on in planning our vacation, not to do any of the ship’s excursions. We just thought with the two kids it would be better logistically to explore the island on our own. In Kauai, this worked out well, renting a jeep, driving to the fogged in Waimea Canyon Look-out and then down to sunny Pouipu Beach. There we enjoyed snorkeling and the natural beauty of the beach.

In Ohau, the self tour worked out well also. We had planned to see the Arizona Memorial and had done enough research to know that we might have to wait in line quite a while to get our ticket and time to visit the Memorial. When we got there the National Park Ranger was advising visitors that the wait for tickets was about an hour and that the visiting time was about 2 hours after that. This worked fine with our schedule as we had prioritized the Arizona Memorial as our number one attraction. It poured down rain while we were waiting in line but we just took it all in stride. We endured worse at Disney World.

In Hilo, the logistics of getting a rental car were horrible. The rental car companies just didn’t seem to be able to handle such a high influx of people at once. I waited at the pier with the kids for an hour to my husband to return with the car. Luckily, there were vendors selling souvenirs in the terminal so we were able to shop while we waited. In Hilo, We spent all of our time at Volcanoes National Park. We didn’t do the 3 mile each way hike to see the lava flow which we heard was half death march and half spectacular. We enjoyed the crater rim tour, steam vents, and Thurston’s lava tube hike. That night the ship sailed by the lava flow, and it was the best fireworks I’ve ever seen.

In Kona we did a combination deep sea fishing/snorkeling charter for just our family through Kona Seasports. We were glad to do the snorkeling, because we didn’t catch any fish. At least, we got see a lot of fish. The snorkeling at Kealakekua Bay was spectacular. There is group boat charter that also visits this bay.

Our last day was in Lahaina, where we had planned to get a ride up the beach to Kaanapali and snorkel again at Black Rock. The sky was a little overcast, and the kids were a little tired, so I just went into town to do souvenir shopping in Old Lahaina at the ABC store and Hilo Hatties, and also at the Lahaina Cannery Mall. I thought the shopping was pretty good, but I was only looking for things like T-shirts and sweatshirts. However there were lots of jewelry and art shops for those looking for higher quality souvenirs. It would have been nice if we were over night in Lahaina which would allow us to do the Old Lahaina Lua, but we had to be back on board by 3:00 for our 4:00 sailing. We did sea some whales in the waters between Maui and Molikai as we were heading out to make our way to San Diego.

Celebrity used to do this cruise either departing or returning to Ensenada. On this cruise we made out “Jones” act port stop in Ensenada. This meant arriving at Ensenada at around 11:00, then the crew signing a few papers, and then heading on to San Diego. The embarkation and disembarkation both in San Diego made things go very easily.

 

Summary

This was probably the best family vacation that we have ever had. We were totally relaxed and un-hurried during our days at sea. The kids said they enjoyed the cruise more than last summer’s 5 days at Disney World. The whole family was thrilled with the service, food, entertainment, and amenities. I would definitely take this same exact cruise again, just see some the things we missed on each island next time.

[SingBill]

Great review. We are hoping to do a similiar cruise in 2007. Glad to hear that you could do it on your own without ship excursions. Any problem with rough seas?

[Cruise Arizona]

I did get a little sea sick one when I decided to go off my medication because it was making me too sleepy combined with wine.

 

I kind of delt with it the old fashioned way. I just kept moving, I walked all around the ship, had a couple of diet cokes, ricola caugh drops and a bloody mary in there somewhere. I eventually got over it.

 

I had expected rough seas, so that is why I was taking the Bonine. But It just made me so sleepy, I just toughed it out and eventually got used to the motion.

[SingBill]

Thanks for the info on sea sickness. We will just have to come prepared and with the attitude that we will have a great time regardless.

[LuAnn]

We were on the same cruise and there were really only 2 days with "rough seas"...but even those were mild...but the crossing before ours was VERY rough..as per some of the crew...guess it's the luck of the draw...but for the most part we were on a lake!

[PattyMichael]

Thank you for the review. We have booked our trip. You have put my mind at ease. Thanks Patty

[Cruise Arizona]

The Sea Days were great!!! We could relax as much as we want or stay as busy as we want.

 

The 15 day itenerary was really great. I think you'll be very pleased with your selection.

 

Just keep in mind that you might have grumpy other passengers or bad weather in Hawaii.

 

Celebrity did a great job with this itenerary, Hopefully you'll have a great hula teacher and great hula performance. And a little better weather in Hawaii.

 

And if you get seasick, just keep moving.

[speakertosuits]

Hey, Suzanne, we were not that grumpy were we?:mad:

 

I enjoyed your review with the different perspective you brought. I think it is outstanding that you and your husband made the effort to train you children on fine dining. That training will hold them in good stead and it is even better that they enjoyed the experience. We did not engage that heavily in the wine experience though I wish we did attend some of the wine tastings. The mathematician's martinis were sufficent.

 

We did not partake much of the entertainment, but i agree, Centerfold is a great all round band. Doing your own tours makes sense from a cost perspective and it appears you did well, maybe better than we did.

 

Yes, we will likely do another Hawaii cruise in the future., Thanks for you take on the cruise. I think we all enjoyed it in different ways.

[Cruise Arizona]

As a matter of fact the memory of any grumpy people just doesn't even stick in my mind.

 

I put that comment in there really in response to another review on another ship that was a nice positive review, but the cruisers experience was dampened a bit by other passengers who were rather grumpy.

 

I sort of have good strategy for avoiding grumpy people. We usually had breakfast and lunch in the dining room, and since there were 4 of us, we usually got a table for four. I liked the food on the buffet, but that seemed to be where I've heard people can get a little testy.

 

Maybe it was my heavy wine drinking that blurrs the memory of the grumpy people???

 

Anyway, I really enjoyed meeting all the cruise critic people as well. It was so much fun to put at name or screen name with a face.

 

I didn't mention in my long review how much I enjoyed the cabin tour that you organized. It was so neat to see the different classes of cabins available and the pro's and con's of each. I was suprised how much I liked the design and lay out of the Celebtity Suite, even with-out a veranda.

I also fell in love with the aft cabins with the big!!! verandas.

 

I think seeing the larger cabins influenced our decision to get a FO cabin on the Merc next time. We won't have a veranda, but we'll have a lot more room than our current cabin.

[Cauvet]

Suzanne, great review. We didn't miss the balcony AT ALL. It is windy and wet crossing and not conducive to sitting on a balcony. But we loved sitting in the livingroom over the water and just watching the sea go by. The extra room in the Celebrity Suite was well well worth the price and no balcony. But the price wasn't that much more than a Sky Suite. Check it out!

[mahdnc]

Very well written review; I enjoyed reading it.

 

I think you will enjoy the Mercury FO that you booked. I had my family of 4 in one (Mercury 1152) and it worked out well for us.

[tomatopa]

Suzanne, did you have any trouble renting your jeep in Kauai? did you do it ahead of time or when you go off the ship? i enjoyed your review. we are sailing january 29th. did you eat on the island? take food with you? any helpful hints appreciated. thanks, Judy

[Cruise Arizona]

We used National Rental Car for our car rental. DH is an Emeral Ilse memeber with them through his company, so we chose them. I made my reservation through their Emeral Isle customer service 800# about 4 months in advance. I also used my cell phone (free included minutes to all the US states including Hawaii) to call all the local offices and talk to the offices individually about their shuttle service. I knew ahead of time, forexample, that the Hilo shuttle was supposed to be for drivers only.

 

As far as my reservation in Kauai, I made a jeep wrangle garantee reservation. I also confirmed that when we got there. In the other two places we had full size sedans.

 

I would highly recommend reservations, and make sure you know which office is located closest to the pier. There was one guy on our shuttle on the Saturday after thanksgiving with no reservation, and he was not able to get a car at National.

 

We did eat on the Islands. In Kauai we made the mistake of eating at one of the resort hotels, not that the food was bad, but it was expensive. Our family of 4 had hamburgers, french fries onion rings and drinks for $82. Not really a shock to us, but expensive none the less. I think we would have done better to eat at a local intown place, but we wanted to be at the beach.

 

In Honolulu, we ate right outside the Arizona Memorial Visitor center in a little outdoor food court near the Bowfin Museum entrance. We had pizza. Again nothing to get really excited about, but I think we got out of there for under $40.

 

My favorite place we ate the Kuhio Grill in Hilo. It is loacted in a strip center on the right as you are heading out of town towards the Volcanoes National park. This is a Hawaiian food/plate lunch kind of place. I had the Hawaiian Lau Lau, and my DH and DD got a Hawaiian fried check specialty, and DS got hamburger and fries. Food was good and we all enjoyed trying the Hawaiian foods. I don't rember the exact price, but I think that it was again around $40 for all 4 of us. I found that they were recommended by my Frommers guide book after we left.

 

When we did our Snorkeling tour the boat provided us with lunch. We didn't eat in Lahaina, though there seemed to be plenty of places in walking distance of the tender. If you are just planning a walk around Lahaina, you could easily get your shopping done and be back on board the ship by lunch time, which is what I did.

 

I know you will love Hawaii and theCelebrity ship. Have a wonderful trip.

[speakertosuits]

. . . and my DH and DD got a Hawaiian fried check specialty, . . .

After eating it, did you still have to pay it? I assume it tasted papery.:cool:

 

Our meals on shore were unremarkable other than the dim sum lunch at the Chinese cultural center in Honolulu which is highky recommended if you like Chinese food. Duke's in Kauai was OK, you paid for the view which was great. In Hilo, our tour provided lunch (Mauna Kea summit tour, bring packets of mayo or mustard). In Kailua Kona, we ate at some open air cafe on the waterfront. Good fish taco. In Lahaina, Maui, we ate at the Pioneer Inn, OK but not particularly Hawaiian. They did have cute little pigeons, about half the size of NYC pigeons (and will do corresponding less damage to your person if they overfly you ;-).

[tomatopa]

Suzanne, i booked a car today on Kauai. right now that is the only car we will book. the traffic and parking on Oahu does not sound like fun. not sure of the best way to get to the Arizona memorial, think i need to move my questions to the HI port site. thank all.

[Cruise Arizona]

We didn't have any trouble with the parking in threes places we visited on Honolulu, but boy did we have trouble with the roads and signs. I felt like I was on the Amazing Race and trying to navigate for my teamate and failing miserably. I'd tell him what road to take on the map and then when we'd get to exit it was too late to get over.

 

Anyway we made it eventually to the AZ Memorial and had no trouble parking, as most people there had arrived via tour bus.

 

We had a much easier time making it to the Diamond Head park, maybe it was the visual reference.

 

Then we even found a place to park right out infront of Iolani Palace to see the exterior and the King Kamehameha statue.

 

Kauai doesn't have too many roads, so you should have no trouble getting around there.

 

Happy travels.

 

Oh and it was Fried Chicken, which also I highky recommend also.

[alec n]

we leave mar 12 any suggestions for dinner in long beach

[Cruise Arizona]

Have fun, it is a great itenerary, Can't help you with the Long Beach dinner questions, as we left fron San Diego.

 

Have you been to your roll call thread yet? We had a couple of cc members from San Diego who were tremendous help to us in planning our time in San Diego. Perhaps you might have some Long Beach natives on your roll call that can help you out.

 

Happy Cruising!!

[Cauvet]

Does the Summit leave from Long Beach? That's where Carnival has their terminal. There are several nice places to eat in Long Beach. There is an excellent bus system, some of which is free. They also have a boat cab that takes you to several points around the harbor. If you have time, visit the Queen Mary in Long Beach. Better yet, stay on it. It is a hotel.

 

We rented cars on Oahu, Kauai and Kona. The best way to see the Arizona Memorial is on a shore excursion. There are long long lines and the shore excursions get you there early so you can get your tickets. Ours then took us on a tour of Oahu and then returned us to the Memorial. They way it works, you have to stand in a long long line to get a ticket and then you are assigned a time to see the memorial which usually is several hours later. The tours have plenty of time of take you on a tour and return you for a shorter wait. These people are great people movers and it is very organized. It's just that there are so many people wanting to see the memorial and only so many can go at a time.

 

We drove all around the island in Oahu which was very interesting, especially the north shore. Same in Kauai. In Luhue there is a saimin restaurant called Hamura (something like that). It is in an alley in the downtown area. Every guide book lists it as a must go to. Saimin is soup with noodles. The restaurant is the real deal. There is a counter only and jammed all the time with locals as well as tourists. Very good, very cheap.

 

In Kona, we went to a restaurant north of Kona where the highway ends. It has a nautical name like Harbor View, or Boathouse or something. Actually, it is across the street from the harbor and oil tanks. But the food was fabulous. I had a fish sandwich (ono was the catch of the day) which was the best fish sandwich I ever had. Fresh, grilled to perfection. Very nice indeed. Also had a pretty good Mai Tai.

[Happy ks]

The only ships that leave from Long Beach are Carnival ships, sometimes other Carnival owned ships.

 

All others leave from San Pedro, also known as the Port of Los Angeles, the name is World Cruise Center.

 

Suzanne, I liked your review, you know this is a dream vacation for me. Thanks for writing it:) .

[LuAnn]

My favorite is Kimos's on the west side of the street in Lahaina....best plum ribs in the world in MHO....been there many times over the last 20 years and always good...sit outside and watch the crabs crawl up the wall from the beach...and wear your Lahaina "Formal"....pearls and a bathing suit top!!! :) LuAnn