Norwaylady goes b2b in the Mediterranean on Infinity 24.5-10.6.23 LIVE

[Norwaylady]

Good morning from a ⛈️☔️⛈️ Marseilles!

 

It’s thundering and raining ☔️ 

The show started around 5.30am🤩

 

I’m in the zoo eating breakfast. Some plain yoghurt and a croissant 🥐 

The Queen is sleeping in before the meeting😴😴😴

 

 

[Norwaylady]

Stopped by the lovely crew in Al Bacio to have a Espresso Macchiato☕️ (need to get the day started) 

 

Was quiet as a hunting cat when I went up from bed. (No need to wake up the Queen, the thunder will do it😂😂😂) 

 

Today’s tour is booked last minute yesterday. 

The tours offered onboard are less options than online in the cruise planner. So if you find a tour online you like, book it. It’s not always offered onboard. 

 

So it was only 2- options that I haven’t visited before. 

 

So today’s tour is: Destination Highlight Avignon and Pop’s Palace. 

Paperwork says 6h the app says 5h. 

Time will tell😉

[upwarduk]

13 minutes ago, Norwaylady said:

if you find a tour online you like, book it. It’s not always offered onboard. 

Last night I cancelled a booked tour, as Celebrity are having a 35% off Sale.

I had an email confirming the cancellation, so immediately rebooked ( again using my OBC).

We have saved £28.78.

I was taking a chance, as I knew the tour was popular, as I had originally booked the last 2 places.😱

[Missusdubbya]

Fantastic review so far! thank you

[chemmo]

Really enjoying your review (as always)…

 

I am looking at some Infinity options at present. I am aware she has not been upgraded for a long time, just how dated/worn is she? I don’t mind a bit of rust on the rails but hope carpets and furnishings in restaurants etc are not shabby…

[Norwaylady]

Travel time from the port to Avignon is 1h 15.min. 

We arrived around 10.00.

When we left Marseilles, it stopped raining. 

On arrival Avignon it was all gray. 

 

Avignon city centre is a walled city/ UNESCO World heritage site. 

It’s 7 gates in. The bus drops and picked up at the same gate. It’s not possible to take a larger bus inside the city centre. 

 

It’s a 5.minute walk to the pop square. 

It’s a toilet stop on arrival. 

 

 

 

 

 

Tour started at the Pop’s palace. 

It’s 25 rooms. Video/pictures are forbidden in painted rooms. (It’s painted and covered in mosaics) Beautiful🤩

So pictures are only allowed in the non decorated rooms. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tour in the palace was 1h. 

 

After the tour, it was free time for 50.mins before departure back to the ship. 

It was drizzle outside☔️☔️☔️

 

I took a quick tour in the pedestrian shopping area before it was time to return to the bus. 

 

 

 

 

 

meet a fluffy friend🐈‍⬛

 

On the square next to the palace is the cathedral.

 

 

This tour has several stairs and uneven walk. It says in the tour info: must be able to walk stairs during the tour. 

There are no elevators. 

 

On arrival going into the palace, the first victim of “not a good walker, don’t lift the feet” fell up the stairs…..

It went good👍🏻 But you need to pay attention and be a good walker. 

If it’s too hard to walk stairs on the ship, this is not a good tour for you! 

 

The majority of guests on this tour had a hard time walking up and down the stairs, since they are uneven and taller than a new staircase. 

So our guide was keeping a sharp eye on those struggling. I case they were falling. 

 

All-in-all a decent tour, it’s a teaser of Avignon. It would be nice if it had a bit more time in Avignon before returning to the ship. 

 

So now we are on the way back to Marseilles⚓️

[Norwaylady]

I returned to the ship 14.00. 

The weather was clearing up and the sun was shining. You can really feel the difference in temperature for gray or sun out. 

 

The Queen was finished on the meeting and was waiting for me in Al Bacio😊

 

Ohh, what did I see in today’s selection of cake???

😋😋😋 🍋 🍋  Lemon Tarts😍 the good edition, the plain style NO meringue topping😍👍🏻👏🏻🫶🏻

(I’m doomed…) so of course I had to have one😁

 

The Queen went for today’s sugar free option. A really lovely profiterole😊 looking like a small piece of art🤩 

 

After the coffee we decided to walk upstairs to our room. 

The weather was good, so we decided to get some salad for lunch and find a lounger on deck. 

They were going to play some live music on pool deck. 

So it’s nice to just relax a bit her😎 

[catgirl411]

3 hours ago, Norwaylady said:

Travel time from the port to Avignon is 1h 15.min. 

We arrived around 10.00.

When we left Marseilles, it stopped raining. 

On arrival Avignon it was all gray. 

 

Avignon city centre is a walled city/ UNESCO World heritage site. 

It’s 7 gates in. The bus drops and picked up at the same gate. It’s not possible to take a larger bus inside the city centre. 

 

It’s a 5.minute walk to the pop square. 

It’s a toilet stop on arrival. 

 

 

 

 

 

Tour started at the Pop’s palace. 

It’s 25 rooms. Video/pictures are forbidden in painted rooms. (It’s painted and covered in mosaics) Beautiful🤩

So pictures are only allowed in the non decorated rooms. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tour in the palace was 1h. 

 

After the tour, it was free time for 50.mins before departure back to the ship. 

It was drizzle outside☔️☔️☔️

 

I took a quick tour in the pedestrian shopping area before it was time to return to the bus. 

 

 

 

 

 

meet a fluffy friend🐈‍⬛

 

On the square next to the palace is the cathedral.

 

 

This tour has several stairs and uneven walk. It says in the tour info: must be able to walk stairs during the tour. 

There are no elevators. 

 

On arrival going into the palace, the first victim of “not a good walker, don’t lift the feet” fell up the stairs…..

It went good👍🏻 But you need to pay attention and be a good walker. 

If it’s too hard to walk stairs on the ship, this is not a good tour for you! 

 

The majority of guests on this tour had a hard time walking up and down the stairs, since they are uneven and taller than a new staircase. 

So our guide was keeping a sharp eye on those struggling. I case they were falling. 

 

All-in-all a decent tour, it’s a teaser of Avignon. It would be nice if it had a bit more time in Avignon before returning to the ship. 

 

So now we are on the way back to Marseilles⚓️

Did this tour a few years ago. It was great but you are correct, it isn’t for those with mobility challenges. On our tour there was a woman with a walker who had no way of keeping up but expected everyone to wait for her.  I say this as one who is now waiting knee replacement surgery…know your limitations.

[Azulann]

On my first Celebrity cruise back in 2008, we took the ship sponsored excursion to Avignon. The bus trip from port  through  the country side  was beautiful.It was Sept.  Young man ,a graduate student in Art history, was our tour guide.  We toured the Pope's palace ,  built by two different Popes, had a catered lunch with free flowing wine in the square  beneath he place,  a wine tasting back in the palace, and still had free time to wander around for 1 hr. I bough a beautiful water color painting  of the town by local artist at a booth. She did not speak English, I do not speak French but it was a pleasant exchange in sign language and I made my  purchase.

 Your  excursion was much shorter, which is too bad. The town is lovely and the carousal in the little park was picture perfect. And the bridge outside of town is the source of a French children's song. 

I am enjoying your trip report and pictures.

 

 

 

[Jim_Iain]

Following along and look forward to your new adventure. 

[Norwaylady]

⛈️⛈️⛈️ did I hear thunder🤔🤔🤔

Oh yes! 

 

Had a look in directions of Marseilles city centre…. All dark and heavy rain ☔️ 

 

Said to the Queen, we need to move😅

She looked up from the book and said… 😮 ohh, let’s walk🫡

 

So we moved to dry deck downstairs by the pool.

Few minutes later the Sky opened up😝 and they started playing The weather girls, it’s raining men on the speaker’s😂🌧️🌧️🌧️

 

Tonight’s plan is show and dinner. 

It’s celebrity production show tonight, Broken Strings🎶🎶

I have seen it before, so we will see what this cast has to offer👍🏻

 

I really love the theatre of M-class. The sofas and tables are ❤️ (just missing Mr in the sofa😂) 

 

The cast and musicians did a good job. It will be fun to see the rest of the production shows. 

 

Captain was running by before the show to say 👋🏻 hello and to present some of his senior officers. 

 

We went straight from the show to dinner. 

Senior officers was out and about when we walked from the theatre to Blu. 

 

No line, so perfect👍🏻

Same zone as last night. 

Taken good care of by Alex and his teammates. 

 

We had the salmon tartare and barramundi. 

 

 

For dessert Lava cake and no sugar panna cotta. 

 

 

 

Entrée and main course was excellent, on target of perfect! 

The dessert was not bad, but the lava cake was cold and the banana would be much better if it was heated properly before it’s glacéd. 

The description of the panna cotta and what’s actually served is not completely matching. The toppings are not super. The red sauce/ raspberry coulis is definitely not perfect. 

So minor detail’s, but it’s important details🫡🤓 

 

After dinner it was bedtime time😴

[Norwaylady]

Today’s cruise compass Nice/Villefranche

 

 

 

[Norwaylady]

Good morning from VilleFranche😎

 

 

[Norwaylady]

22 hours ago, chemmo said:

Really enjoying your review (as always)…

 

I am looking at some Infinity options at present. I am aware she has not been upgraded for a long time, just how dated/worn is she? I don’t mind a bit of rust on the rails but hope carpets and furnishings in restaurants etc are not shabby…

Thank you❤️

 

I will give you a status in a few days. 
as of now, she’s definitely not in worse shape then Mille just before she went to dry dock😉

One big thing that reveals the age are the lack of sliding doors/electric doors around the ship and water taps on sensors in public toilets😅

 

[chemmo]

44 minutes ago, Norwaylady said:

Thank you❤️

 

I will give you a status in a few days. 
as of now, she’s definitely not in worse shape then Mille just before she went to dry dock😉

One big thing that reveals the age are the lack of sliding doors/electric doors around the ship and water taps on sensors in public toilets😅

 

Thanks for the response…I will look out for your updates. We were on Summit just before her revolution. We had a fantastic cruise but she did look in need of an upgrade and we had a bathroom issue they struggled to fix and air conditioning that seemed to have a mind of its own…Much as we can ignore a bit of ‘old fashioned’ I really don’t like sitting on soft furnishings that look well past their best. I am nostalgic for an M class experience but I don’t want to board and feel I am having a second class experience.
 

[trinitygirl]

On 5/25/2023 at 4:54 PM, upwarduk said:

Last night I cancelled a booked tour, as Celebrity are having a 35% off Sale.

I had an email confirming the cancellation, so immediately rebooked ( again using my OBC).

We have saved £28.78.

I was taking a chance, as I knew the tour was popular, as I had originally booked the last 2 places.😱

Thanks for the heads up!  I just cancelled and rebooked 4 of my shore excursions, saving $40.  And discovered that one of my excursions has tripled in pr8c3 sinc3 December!

[Norwaylady]

So, this sale you/aka non Nordic guests are able to utilise, it’s not available for me….

I checked all my future bookings and nothing is on sale/campaign. 

Just the usual discount they offer for pre booking. 

So again, your country of residence/booking is impacting your offer. 

So fingers crossed they will have something for me later😂😂😂

[Norwaylady]

So we are in VilleFranche😎

 

It’s Rally Monte Carlo this weekend. 

So Monaco is packed and closed off heavily due to the racetrack and races. 

We have visited Monaco several times before, so no big deal for us. (When we are in Nice for a weekend getaway, we like to take a tour to Monaco for lunch) 

 

We don’t have a big need to go into Nice city centre either🙃

 

So we took it slow this morning, enjoying our anchor process from our balcony and then went down to breakfast in Blu around 8.30. 

It was quiet and the rush was definitely finished for breakfast. 

We had some coffee, fruit, yoghurt and omelette. 

 

After breakfast we went upstairs to get ready to leave the ship. Towels, beach wear and sunglasses packed, off we went😎

 

They hadn’t announced free tenders yet, so we went down to the meeting point for captain’s club priority tenders on deck 5. 

They had left a notification on our door last night. 

 

We waited 5.mins before we were escorted down to a tender. 

Really appreciate this perk as a benefit for my captain’s club level. 

 

Tender dropped us off in the city centre of VilleFranche. So easy to take the bus or train further. 

 

We walked by the city centre to the beach. 

You are passing the train station when you walk in the city centre (not down by the beach/waterfront) the platform to Monaco was packed, people were standing in the stairs up to the platform entrance. 

 

 

 

 

We continued down to the beach. 

Found a good spot and now we are staying here. 

 

 

Gone to the beach 🏖️ 

 

The beach has 3 bar/restaurants. So you can get something to drink & eat. 

 

If you walk by the ocean, it’s several places to eat & drink on the waterfront. 

[Norwaylady]

So, not fitting the usual box on x😂😂

Thank you to the lovely crew😘😘

 

 

I’m not on holiday by my grandma 👵🏻 

And I’m not a crew, it was a mumbling discussion during our tour in Avignon. Since I went by myself and not by another person😝

So eventually someone asked….

 

But I know I’m looking younger than my age🤣🤣🤣  

 

#fishishealtyandgoodforyouandfreshair

Happy Cruising⚓️

[theopup]

What a lovely couple of days you have had so far, really enjoying reading all about it

[Sarah1974]

Hooray another @Norwaylady review 😀 but how have I only just found this?!  All caught up now and following along.  Have a fab time

[Norwaylady]

After some hours on the beach, we moved up to the waterfront to have some coffee & Perrier. 

 

Around 15.45 we decided to head back to the ship. 

The tender was ready, so we went straight away to the ship. 

 

The tenders has been supported by VilleFranche port. So it’s a big boat/not lifeboat tender. Some of the celebrity tenders has been operated during peak times. 

 

I was very happy for my mother❤️ (I could have ruined it completely on Jewel🫠🤥) 

My mother is the more concerned type then me….😳🫣🤔 She refused to fly for over 20years. She is terrified if there are turbulence or anything not a4 standard during the flight. 

And she has never been a strong sailor or enjoyed the ocean as I or my father do. She’s very in the zone for is it safe???

So ship is okay, boat is a little more 😰😱

 

When I took her on Jewel of the seas we had a tender operation from the ship to the private island for a beach day. 

Nothing unusual and this would normally go well. 

We boarded the tender, left the ship and halfway to the island, the motor alarms went off. 

The motors stopped and we started to drift away in the wrong direction of the island and ship. 

The 3 crews onboard was definitely not from the senior department of stripes🙄🫠

My mother and a large group of US ladies was starting to be a bit concerned. 

 

They tried to restart the engines, but it only died out and the alarm was screaming🚨🚨🚨

It started to smell fuel heavy and they had NO control of the situation. After 25.mins they managed to get us to the island. My mother and the large ladies party were ready to take a life jacket and jump in the ocean. 

It was really a bad day at work and not well handelt. 

They did not call for back-up or help on the radio before we had been dipping around for 20.minutes. 

We were all half asleep of the fuel smell. 

 

When we took the tenders back, my mother was pale white and prayed all the way to get back safely. 

She was a nervous wreck the rest of the cruise and said NO tenders! 

 

The crew said nothing, no excuse or any questions if all were fine after this event on arrival on the island or back on the ship. 

 

Later that evening of the event, it was a Diamond and beyond party/senior officers and captain event. So I attended, my mother needed to have some downtime. 

On Jewel is was a Norwegian captain and Finnish engine officer. 

 

So I asked them if they were happy about today’s situation and that from a passenger’s view, the situation was very poor handled. 

I told them that my mother was very scared, same as the big group of the US ladies we had on our tender….. 

 

The next day, the captain came by our table during lunch. 

He was really sorry and  told my mother that he was very sorry for the situation. 

It had been a leek on the fuel cable in the engine. 

And he completely understood that it was stressful situation for her and the others onboard the tender. 

 

So when I booked the Baltic cruise on Voyager, I made sure it wasn’t tender ports. 

And on this sailing…..

I crossed my fingers for a smooth ride & uneventful🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

 

❤️ X it all went perfectly! 

 

after arrival on the ship, I introduced her to the ice tea in Al Bacio👍🏻

 

Then it was time to prepare for evening chic🤩

[joyefullcruiser]

So enjoying your review.  It is almost as good as being there in person. 🙂

 

[Norwaylady]

Tonight’s show is Mark Donoghue, multiplayer musician. 

He was backed by the orchestra. 

Good show and music. 

But almost empty theatre… all toured out😂😂😂

 

All senior officers were standing by the Martini bar after the show. 

 

Today’s dinner starts by a beeper😝

Lots of late eaters…. (Many returning last minute) 

So we are enjoying the string duo in Cellar Master and a aperitif 🥂

[DaKahuna]

1 hour ago, Norwaylady said:

 

 

 

It is certainly easy to see where you get your youthful good looks! 

 

Glad that you and "the Queen" are enjoying yourselves.