first-timer's Infinity Alaska Review -- 7/30 to 8/6

[Welshlady]

I've enjoyed reading your detailed review - well done! It was very informative and often very funny - very entertaining! We too had a horrendous and very upsetting ordeal getting off the Infinity when she docked late on July 16th. It's happened so many times now that you'd think they'd have some sort of contingency plan in place in Canada Place cruise terminal when ships dock late. We got snapped at by one of the terminal staff that 'you are 6 hours late' and 'there are 3 ships here' as if it was our fault! Very unprofessional and very, very annoying. I'm awaiting Celebrity's reply........ Glad you had a good week cruising though and enjoyed what you saw. I think once you've done one cruise you're hooked. I can't wait to go again although not with Celebrity. We've had better experiences with Princess & P & O and Celebrity doesn't compare in terms of choice of food and restaurants, bars, viewing areas, walking areas on decks, shopping on board, etc. I'd like to try Royal Caribbean although they are the sister company of Celebrity, they seem to have better reviews and more choice of ships, itineraries, etc. Anyway thanks again for sharing your experience with us all!

[Alaska Boo]

Thank you for a most informative and objective review.

 

As to your thoughts about choosing a smaller line next time, I strongly encourage you to do so. I have sailed large cruise ships twice, and I am scheduled for a third such trip in January. I have done three other cruises on smaller lines: Lindblad in Galapagos; Viking in China; and Lindblad in Egypt. These smaller "soft adventure" excursions are a completely different, and to my mind more fulfilling, experience. Large cruise ships are for relaxing and being pampered. The smaller excursions are much more hands on, with the emphasis on education, not luxury. Lindblad in the Galapagos was particularly well done. In fact, that was the absolute best vacation experience we have ever had, bar none, and we are pretty well-traveled.

 

Thanks again for sharing your experience. I hope you can schedule a smaller cruise soon. I am sure you will love it. Then, come back for a Celebrity vacation when you just want to sit back and relax.

 

Vanessa

[many cruises]

quahog8: Thanks for your well written review. I felt like I was there with you. Wishing you wonderful future cruises!

[KeyDoctor]

Your experience with United sounds what we used to put up with when we lived in Monterey. Haven't flown with United in ten years and would only do so as a last resort. O'hare is best missed if at all possible.

[KeyDoctor]

Loved the Ice Cream. I still don't know where they walk around and give it to you. We always went to the dinning room to get it.

I tried quite a few flavors, most of them good. But I do have to say, that 2 that I tried were very grainy.... LIke it was made with splenda or something, and I had to through them away, I love ice cream, but not grainy kinds....

 

We had 8095,CC the view was awesome, the weather was cool, and DH, spent nearly his whole trip out there, he just loved it out there.

I asked him, if he would rather cruise 2 x a year, with inside cabin, or at least once a year, or go every 2 years, and have a veranda, and he said he would rather go every 2 years and do it right.

NOw me I would be happy with a port hole view, and go every year, but he said, every 2 years with a veranada. So, I guess that is how it will be....But I will take what ever I get

I believe ice cream is only served on deck by waiters on cruises to hot (climate) locations. Probably not lots of people sitting around an outside pool enjoying ice cream on an Alaskan cruise.

[Welshlady]

The ice cream is served afternoons only by the exit doors of the Horizon Grill. they serve muffins there in the mornings and then ice cream later on. There were plenty of people eating ice creams in Alaska on our cruise!! Including us! We were blessed with lovely weather though - only one day of rain on July 13th.

[bonbon663]

Alaska Bob is actually a motivational speaker. I googled him, and he's got quite the business going training crews of ships.

 

http://www.bobbasso.com/

 

I also saw that he was in episodes of Hawaii 5-0. That's too funny pointing to a map and imagining if it was there, because the same thing happened to us. His first talk was definitely better than that one. He's an interesting guy though, we were talking to him before the "talk", and he was Naval attache for JFK.

[KeyDoctor]

Thanks again for your excellent narrative. We are scheduled to sail on the Infinity on the 13th and I will attempt to post news to benefit all as yours has done for us.

Just got off the phone with Celebrity and it would appear that they are just in the process today of rearranging shore excursions for our cruise despite the fact that the change in port arrivals was started three weeks ago. We only hope that none of the three shore excursions we picked will be cancelled due to the changes in port arrivals.

One thing we learned (this is my 12th cruise) long ago is to stay over at least one day before and after the cruise if at all possible. This eliminates much of the problems with airlines who are often busy on Sundays anyway. As so many cruise ships tend to arrive and depart the major cruise ports on the same days, you can imagion the overload on the airports and airlines when thousands of cruise passangers are arriving or departing at the same time. You can see what happens when a ship is late arriving and some passangers have to try and reschedule on already often "overbooked" later flights. The day after the cruise ships arrive is generally less hectic on all involved. You get off the ship, ignore the busses and take a cab to your hotel

to relax before heading home the following day or so.

[golfnkitties]

quahog 8, :) You wrote a wondeful review, and we loved the 'chicken' :D ! We have a rather silly question, regarding your Asst.maitre'd Luis, :confused: was he a quite tall fellow, or a shorter man, with a white streak in his hair ?? We have sailed Infinity often, with our next journey on her in October. We knew two different Luis' and wonder which one you had, as they are both really great guys! Do you remember the name of the Resturant Manager ? Thanks ! ~~~ You should be able to put the bad ending of your 1st cruise behind you after a bit, and just remember the good.

[KeyDoctor]

We have experienced ice cream being passed out to all those on the upper decks outside by waiters on our cruises to the Caribbean. Thanks for the heads up on the ice cream service on the Infinite to Alaska. I will check it out next week.

[bonbon663]

As you know, I'm a first-time cruiser. I don't know if I'll do it again, but not just because of the debarkation debacle. Maybe the small ships are better suited for me -- the Xpedition, or Lindblad, or Cruise West. Still, I'm glad I tried it.

 

Most importantly, I'm so grateful to this board for all the help, advice, and advance work. I hope I've been able to give back a little in return.

 

Happy travels to all,

quahog8

 

I avoided the debarkation nightmare you describe by booking a shore excursion in Vancouver. They herded us all into a conference room, then coralled the herd through the terminal, onto a bus. So, I discovered this to be a good way to circumvent all that. As a first time cruiser like you quahog8, I really appreciated all the help I got on this board, and your review was more complete, and thorough than most. Thank you very much!:)

[snausman]

Thank you quahog8 for taking the time to write a really wonderful review. I enjoyed reading it. Looking forward to Aug. 27 when I will be sailing on her. Thanks again.

[quahog8]

quahog 8, :) You wrote a wondeful review, and we loved the 'chicken' :D ! We have a rather silly question, regarding your Asst.maitre'd Luis, :confused: was he a quite tall fellow, or a shorter man, with a white streak in his hair ?? We have sailed Infinity often, with our next journey on her in October. We knew two different Luis' and wonder which one you had, as they are both really great guys! Do you remember the name of the Resturant Manager ? Thanks ! ~~~ You should be able to put the bad ending of your 1st cruise behind you after a bit, and just remember the good.

 

Hi, folks,

 

Thanks for your kind words and well wishes. I enjoyed writing the review, and am so glad some of you enjoyed reading it. It helped extend the trip for me, to pretend I was still on vacation for another day.

 

One more bit about ice cream: at least 4 flavors will be available as dessert choices in the main dining room. Your better bet, though, is to head to the buffet area on Deck 10, and just inside the entrance (just past the sanitizing station!!) is an ice cream stand with at least 6 flavors of ice creams, 1 or 2 sherbets, and various toppings. During sea days, I think they open up both sides, port and starboard.

 

About Luis: I was referring to the shorter man with the white streak. He was very responsive, very professional.

 

About Dr. Bob: bonbon, what a site! That explains everything! He knows very little about Alaska, very little about nature, but has a very clear idea about what he calls "FUN." Thanks for googling him -- I howled with laughter when I saw his website. As I said in my review, he's no naturalist!

 

Happy travels,

quahog8

[Offtune Angel]

quahog8: Thanks for a great review. Very balanced and very positive. I don't think it is just Canada Place that Infinity experiences difficulty w/ disembarkation procedures. We had a lovely cruise on Infinity from San Diego to Hawaii and back to San Diego. Disembarkation was a nightmare and looked like a "Keystone Kops" routine. It was as if Infinity had never had a disembarkation before. Friends of our experienced the same situation in Los Angeles. I guess Infinity crew & staff must hate saying goodbye to us as much as we dislike leaving the ship. :D

 

Thank you also for mentioning your attendants' names. I remember Luis from most of our Dining Room lunches. Christina was the (ever hopeful, but never pushy) sommelier for our table, too. We met Budi a couple of times. I don't recall Hemi though, nor did we know Christine or Benjie.

 

I'm glad you had a great cruise. The advice to arrive one day early and leave one day after the cruise is good advice. The only time we deviated from that policy was after our Infinity cruise. Food for thought.

 

I hope you sail again, soon.

 

Terry

[minniemom]

I guess I wasn't out on the deck at the right time, but have no fear..... I managed to find the ice cream alright... Everyday in fact, I had to see what the new flavors were, and in fact, I tried most of them out. Wasn't that considerate of me to try them out????? I love sherbet, and they ususally had a REALLY good one there everyday.

 

bonbon, I didn't do the naturalist talk, I am not sure where I was, but it wasn't there, Was he good?? I think I need to go back, I guess I didn't do enough while I was on the ship. I know I came home, and was looking over the daily schedules, and there were several things I missed and would love to go and do over. Like the fruit carving, I saw that on the DVD we bought, and there was another nighttime buffet we missed, and it looks as tho most people missed it too, watching the DVD, there weren't many people up there eating.....

Well, I guess I better go again in a year and make up for it, but now the ?????? where do I go next???

[CStorm]

[quote name='quahog8']THE PORTS. Here, however, I had my most significant event of the trip: A BEAR! On the path, about 30 yards ahead of me. He was a gorgeous cinnamon brown, and a ranger later told me he was probably a 3-year old juvenile. We chatted for a little while (ok, I chatted, he kind of ignored me), and then he ambled off into the woods. It was thrilling! :D

The upside was that we saw plenty of orcas from the ship. On the first full day at sea, my mother spotted a pod playing in the wake of our ship just below where we were eating lunch. On the way back to Vancouver, I counted at least 3 pods in the two hours we weren't in fog.

THE "NATURALIST." As you can tell from my choice of excursions, I'm into the whole nature thing. Also based on recommendations from this board, I was very much looking forward to the naturalist's presentations; I'm kind of a geek anyway, so going to a lecture sounded like a terrific thing to do when we were at sea. And, hey, the handout said he was a "Dr." [They didn't say of what, nor from where, and I have my suspicions.] Oh my heavens was he terrible! Just awful. He was silly and patronizing and had no sense of how audiences process information. First was the cute music, and then he tried to compete with the music while he talked, even though a few audience members asked him to turn it down or off. Then he ONLY looked at the main floor, oblivious to anyone in the balcony. Even better, he walked under the balcony and gave some of his presentation from there, where we couldn't see him at all. It was more about audience interaction than it was about Alaska. Next, he set up a "battle of the sexes" trivia contest about cute Alaska factoids. After that, he showed some footage from Animal Planet with a 5-year old narrating. I swear to you, I am neither making this up nor exaggerating.

He had audience members dance, and "repeat after me," and all kinds of schitky fun. The few times he gave actual information, he rattled it off so quickly you couldn't possibly begin to comprehend or process what he was saying. At one point -- seriously, really -- he pointed to where things WOULD have been on the map had the map still be there. :mad:

If people reading this enjoyed his performance, I apologize in advance if my critique offends you. Everyone around me just looked embarrassed. For my part, I was very disappointed that "Dr. Bob" treated Alaska, a wonderous state with such stunning natural beauty -- both gigantic and subtle -- into a "gee whiz" fluff act. Who needs all the silly nonsense when there is so much amazing geological, ecological, and biological material that is so real that it seems unreal. Believe me, Dr. Bob Basso is NO naturalist. A naturist, perhaps, but we were at least spared that indignity.:eek:

I'd better take a break -- I'm getting all annoyed again just thinking about it!

One more installment to go,
quahog8[/quote]

It's amazing to me that we were on the same cruise! First of all, I bet we were on the same tender. Did you actually get on the first one?

Second, we never did see a bear and I never saw orcas. My DH saw orcas, but I missed them.

Thirdly, LOL about "Dr" Bob! I couldn't agree more!! And after meeting the naturalist from Princess, I'm completely jealous. She was AWESOME and so full of info. The Dr. Bob guy was/is a FREAK!

I'm just getting around to reading the rest of your review. I've been busy writing my own...

[Kruizefan]

[quote name='Rebel']I'm thinking you may want to send an email to Celebrity about the so-called naturalist "Dr. Bob", unless of course, you mentioned something in a comment card. If he was that bad I would hope Celebrity would want to know about it. Sounds like he was a waste of the passenger's time and Celebrity's money (I assume they pay him; true?)[/QUOTE]

Hi,
we saw Dr. Bob Basso on the 7/16 cruise.
Does anyone know, if Dr. Bob is cruising all summer long on the Infinity??
Peter

[bonbon663]

[quote name='minniemom']I guess I wasn't out on the deck at the right time, but have no fear..... I managed to find the ice cream alright... Everyday in fact, I had to see what the new flavors were, and in fact, I tried most of them out. Wasn't that considerate of me to try them out????? I love sherbet, and they ususally had a REALLY good one there everyday.

bonbon, I didn't do the naturalist talk, I am not sure where I was, but it wasn't there, Was he good?? I think I need to go back, I guess I didn't do enough while I was on the ship. I know I came home, and was looking over the daily schedules, and there were several things I missed and would love to go and do over. Like the fruit carving, I saw that on the DVD we bought, and there was another nighttime buffet we missed, and it looks as tho most people missed it too, watching the DVD, there weren't many people up there eating.....
Well, I guess I better go again in a year and make up for it, but now the ?????? where do I go next???[/quote]

There was more than one night buffet? When was that? It's not like me to miss a food opportunity.;)

[minniemom]

bonbon
I didn't know there was one either, but when we got home and watched the DVD, they showed there was one, and very few people were there, I would like to have known... I would much rather have gone to that one, then the one where everyone on the whole ship went out to see.. While it was very nice, it wasn't worth the crowd to wait and eat the beautiful food...

[many cruises]

[COLOR=Green][SIZE=3][FONT=Comic Sans MS]We also met the naturalist from Princess on Captain Larry's whale watching excursion. She was wonderful and her comments made this excursion even better. She told us that she speaks over the PA system on the Princess ship continuously explaining what passengers are seeing on the Alaska cruise. Unfortunately, Dr. Basso, the "naturalist" on the Infinity, could not be understood at Hubbard Glacier, because the PA system was so bad. [/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]

[minniemom]

manycruises
Are you saying that the naturalist was not only better on Princess, but how would you rate it as a whole comparred to X. This was our first cruise on X to Alaska on July 23, since I don't have anything to compare, I thought it was nice. We have done 2 Disney Cruises before, and we LOVED them, but wanted to see Alaska this time, so went X..
That being said, we want to do Alaska again with my parents and 2 teenages boys next year possibly, so would you do X again, or Princess. Since I know nothing of Princess I just don't know. I liked X, I thought the food was good, and we LOVED our tablemates, whom we didn't know before the cruise, but just trying to decided if you think Princess is better for Alaska, should we do Princess next year instead of repeat X ????
Would love your input or anyone elses.

[many cruises]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3][COLOR=Green]minniemom: The naturalist from Princess was very informative on Captain Larry's Whale Watching excursion. She was there explaining what we were seeing and we could understand her. From what she told us, she narrates over the PA system about the wildlife, glaciers, the inside passage, etc. As a whole, compared to X, I would rate the naturalist much better. Number #1, you could understand what she was saying, and number #2, she was very knowledgable and her narration was excellent. If we ever are lucky enough to cruise to Alaska again, I would ONLY go on Princess, because I feel cruising to Alaska is more about the itinerary. Unfortunately, we didn't see much of Alaska on the Infinity because of the pod problems. I doubt that we will cruise again on X in the future after our experience on the Infinity.



[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[c-legs]

[quote name='minniemom']manycruises
Are you saying that the naturalist was not only better on Princess, but how would you rate it as a whole comparred to X. This was our first cruise on X to Alaska on July 23, since I don't have anything to compare, I thought it was nice. We have done 2 Disney Cruises before, and we LOVED them, but wanted to see Alaska this time, so went X..
That being said, we want to do Alaska again with my parents and 2 teenages boys next year possibly, so would you do X again, or Princess. Since I know nothing of Princess I just don't know. I liked X, I thought the food was good, and we LOVED our tablemates, whom we didn't know before the cruise, but just trying to decided if you think Princess is better for Alaska, should we do Princess next year instead of repeat X ????
Would love your input or anyone elses.[/quote]
:D Hi, MinnieMom,

'' Better the devil you know''....specially if the '' devil'' happens to be X.
Their Alaska product, thru RCT Tours, (owned by the parent RCI ) , while not as extensive as Princess Tours, is very good. Our experience in '04 was superb...and we did do a Princess tour as well that summer; good as well but X defenitely held its ground.

Happy sailings
Cheers
Claude G
;)