Infinity Review - South America Trip - 12/17/06

[cruzin4us]

This is what I hope will be an informative review. Probably kind of long, but I’ve got lots to share; some good, some bad and some general information which you may find helpful.

We (my husband and another couple) booked our cruise approximately 9 months in advance. We thought the idea of spending Christmas away from home at the tip of South America sounded like a good way to spend the holidays. I’m 45 and my husband is 52.

Originally we booked cabin 6142. We thought having a balcony would be the way to go, especially if it was cold outside and we didn’t want to brave the upper decks. First of all, you have to understand, that I’m like a dog with a bone, when I can find a better deal, I will search, and search and search until I’ve driven everyone nuts. Everyday, I would get on the Celebrity website to check our prices, I’d heard they will occasionally have a special, and the only way to take advantage of it is to see it being advertised and to call your travel agent and have it adjusted. Please note, that travel agents don’t have time to look everyday, but if you do, you may save yourselves hundreds of dollars. One day, I noticed the price had dropped $500 per person on the CC or Concierge level. I thought what the heck, for only $200 more, we can have all the amenities that come along with it….you know, the pre-embarkation, the luxury robes, etc. We instantly decided this would be a good thing, so we jumped at the opportunity.

I still continued to check the prices on a daily basis, and there was another $200 per person drop a few weeks later. So, now we had saved $800 each and to top it off, I noticed an aft cabin come available so we snagged it as well. As if things couldn’t get any better, a couple of weeks before we sailed another aft cabin became empty so our friends got that one! In case you’ve never been in an aft cabin, the balconies are HUGE…….something 10’ by 20’ (I may be off on my measurements, but not by much).

Prior to leaving, we had to pack for cold weather, being that we live on the beach in So. California, we didn’t have anything much warmer than a windbreaker. Then came the luggage packing; since you can’t have any pieces of luggage that weigh over 50 lbs, it makes packing a little tricky. We wanted to have only 3 bags plus 2 carry-ons. We always pack an extra duffle bag for dirty laundry for the trip home.

My husband would step on the scale, I’d hand him a full suitcase, and then we would make some adjustments…..It’s so exciting getting ready for a trip!

Now, on to the trip…….

We left out of San Diego for Buenos Aires. We flew American Airlines from San Diego to Dallas, and Dallas to Buenos Aires. The travel time took about 16 hours, of which 14 hours were on the plane. My husband is 6’2”, and I’m 5’11”, so we were might uncomfortable. We took the red-eye flight so we arrived in BA somewhere around 9:30 a.m.

Buenos Aires: It is summer in Buenos Aires in December, so it was HOT. Hot and very muggy, it was somewhere around 97 degrees. When we got thru customs, there was a woman waiting for us with a large “CELEBRITY” sign. She told us we would be transferred by bus to the Sheraton. We seemed to wait for what seemed like an eternity for another couple of passengers, but probably we were just tired and wanted to get the show on the road.

We arrived at the Sheraton around 11:00 a.m…….we proceeded to check in easily and then went to the room and crashed. We got up around 3:00 and decided to see some sights. We headed for La Boca district, and did some street vendor shopping and watched some tango dancers that danced right on the streets. We were so hot; we stopped and had a beer with some local empanadas. If you’ve never had an empanada, I recommend you try one. They are a pastry filled with meat (carne) and they look somewhat like a calzone. We found some handmade scarves, leather wallets and sweaters made from Alpaca wool.

For those of you that have never been to Buenos Aires, I highly recommend visiting the city. The exchange rate makes things very affordable. We took a taxi from the Hotel to the pier and it was something like $3.00. Dinner was equally inexpensive, but very good. We went to a BBQ….in Argentina they are known for their BBQ’s. They BBQ over coals, everything from beef, lamb, pork, sausage, etc. The meat is wonderful. I recommend trying everything as long as it’s cooked. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the beef. The vegetables are also ripe and tasty, nothing like our store bought pithy tomatoes we get. We also bought 4 bottles of wine from the restaurant, and the total came to $7 U.S. dollars!

That night, we took a cab (about $6) to the casino that we saw when we went to dinner. The casino was 2 paddle boats (something like you would envision going up the Mississippi). Exchanging pesos for dollars was interesting. We each took $100 U.S., and they would give us chips to play, but when were finished, they paid us the first hundred back in U.S. dollars, but the remaining balance in pesos.

 

We found that most places took U.S. dollars, but the cabs only took pesos.

The next morning, we wanted to get to the ship early (I’m one of the eager ones that likes to sign up for massages, etc). So we were prepared to take a cab to the port. However, there was a representative from Celebrity at the Hotel, and she said no one would be boarding before 2:00 p.m. Me, not being all that trusting, and hating to be shuttled anywhere still convinced my husband to take a cab. Our friends chose to wait at the hotel and do their pre-booking so they could get on the ship whenever it was ready. We took all of our luggage with us to the pier.

The representative was very evasive in my mind, but I figured they wanted to keep people together rather than have everyone wandering around. Celebrity had set up a huge conference room at the hotel with coffee & pastries for everyone (this also seemed odd to me, because they already fed us breakfast).

Anyway, we got to the pier around 11:00 a.m. and a porter took our bags and then we settled down at a little coffee shop to wait. We had a bird’s eye view of the embarkation area, and we were 1st in line to board the ship. A woman from X did stop by and informed us there was a bus that would take us to the Sheraton so we could be comfortable until the ship was ready…….ready for what????? I’ve never in my 10 cruises seen this happen before. We told her we just came from the Hotel and were happy just to wait until 2:00. After that, they pretty much kept people from coming into the terminal, they just boarded them up and took them to the hotel.

After a while, people with masks and what I call Haz Mat suits were seen coming and going. They were spraying and wiping down everything in sight. We couldn’t see the ship, only the embarkation area. This doesn’t look right to me, or smell right for that matter, but I keep thinking that at least the ship will be clean and possible this is a preventative type of maintenance. Still no one would answer any questions. Eventually, a woman got on a loudspeaker and announced something about making sure you ALWAYS wash your hands and to use the sanitation stations located almost everywhere. I don’t think anyone could understand what she was saying because of the acoustics in the terminal.

We finally got in line to get checked in when the bus loads of people from the Sheraton started to arrive. They allowed them to board about 30 minutes before everyone else…. (Oh well, I made the wrong call, we should have stayed at the hotel…). We were still first in line, and we finally got to board……It was weird when we got on the ship, I was anticipating that fun feeling when you first step onboard, but instead all I saw was people spraying, and spraying and spraying. It’s not real comforting seeing everyone with masks on either. No one offered us champagne; it was just sitting on a platter/table while people were spraying bleach on everything.

Trying to not let this damper my mood, we went to our room and checked it out. We were so fortunate to have this wonderful aft cabin I can’t even tell you!

My husband was beat, so he lay down to take a nap and I went exploring. I went to the spa area and took the tour, booked a couple of massages, signed up for the Persian Gardens ($99 pp) and confirmed our reservations at the specialty restaurant. My first impressions of the ship were so-so, not because of the spraying of bleach, but the lack of charm in my opinion. The art work was funky and I thought the Christmas decorations were tacky. They appeared to be pulled out of a box from storage, they were dusty and lacked luster. I’m not a big Christmas fanatic, so this really didn’t bother me, just an observation.

The ship is huge, but easy to navigate. There is some normal wear; none of this bothered me either. When I say normal, I mean there are some places that could use some paint, the bed spreads are wearing out, the railings around the deck need to be lacquered. The flooring looked good. The hardest part to overlook was the bleach marks. When the chrome railing on the stairs was sprayed, they were wiped down, but there was still a film leftover. This would run down the glass and leave streaks. In the elevators, and on the slot machines, they would spray and then there would be streak marks running down the chrome/metal/glass. The ship never had the “ship shape” look. It was never in the 13 glitzy like one comes to expect.

When my husband woke up, we went to the Trellis Restaurant to find out where our table was. I know some people are excited about being seated with other people, and many look forward to it, but frankly when we found out we were seated at a table for 10, I was rather disappointed. We could have asked to be changed, I’ve done it before, but the late seating was full, and the maitre'd was being bombarded by others, so we just left. We ultimately decided to eat at the specialty restaurant for 4 nights and order room service for a few more, and eat sushi / pizza on the rest. We also were invited to share a table with some other cruisers we meet which was a lot of fun.

Let me talk about the food for a minute. Some things I really like, others I thought were pitiful. The escargot, breadsticks were wonderful, the lobster was the best I’ve ever eaten. The NY steaks were pathetic. I wasn’t keen on any of their salads, the buffet was an embarrassment. The sushi was better than expected but not what you would expect from a sushi restaurant. I would say it is better than store sushi. There was no sashimi, but I made my own. The rice was soft. The variety is your standard: eel, shrimp, tuna, salmon, and your basic rolls, tuna/cream cheese, vegetarian, spicy tuna & California. The pizza wasn’t bad and I ate it several times. The lunch menu was pretty basic and lacked flavor in my opinion. It seems like they used whatever was left over from the night before to make some kind of dish.

The alternate dining area wasn’t open on this cruise (I was told for a couple of reasons). I was told there were too many kids, and because of the norovirus breakout from the cruise before. This left the basic pasta bar, salad bar & buffet. The pasta bar tended to be the same thing everyday and wasn’t real good. The salad bar was ok, but it was also the same day in and day out. Everything was served by the crew. We couldn’t even get a packet of sugar for our coffee without having a crew member give it to us.

The U.S. Dining room (specialty restaurant) was acceptable, but I wouldn’t want to do it everyday, it was just too long of a meal. The service was great. I had the steak Diane, and my husband had lamb chops. Both were good, although I liked the steak better. The goat cheese soufflé was nice, but it was cold (maybe it was supposed to be). The desserts were a matter of taste, but I think they looked better than they tasted. The cheese tray was fun, and probably my most favorite part of the dinner. We did eat in the wine cellar one night, and that was nice……my favorite part of the U.S. Dining Restaurant is the fact that it is quieter than the main dining area. I enjoy being able to talk rather than hearing what I call “white noise”.

This was a holiday cruise, and there were kids everywhere. I really never thought much about cruising during a holiday, but I will never do it again. There were over 100 kids on this cruise but it seemed like 500. I don’t understand why kids were allowed to play chase in the casino, or why a parent would put a baby in diapers in the Jacuzzi. Be that as it may, I now understand the frequent threads regarding taking children on cruises.

We signed up for the Persian Spa at a rate of $99 pp, and I went the first day and it was so hot, I couldn’t sit down, even when using a towel. My feet were almost blistered. I asked if this was normal, and they checked it out, and they agreed it was WAY too hot. My husband thoroughly loved the steam rooms, but I’m one of those that hates getting ready in the morning then getting all steamed up and having to re-do my make-up/hair. So, for me I don’t think I would do it again, but my husband says it’s worth it.

For my husband’s birthday, we did a Rasul Spa Treatment. This is a treatment for couples. You are given some salt scrub, mud and lots of different lotions to rub all over each other. Inside the area there is a steam room and a separate shower. What you do in the room is entirely up to you, as long as you are done in 60 minutes. This was fun, and we did have a ball smearing each other up. I think the cost was somewhere around $99.

I also booked 2 other massages, one my husband took, and the other I had. What more can I say, massages are wonderful. I had the mud treatment with a full body massage. I told my masseuse not to try and sell me products (I hate the sales pitch), and she didn’t so she got tipped better.

Casino action…..I love casinos, and I loved this casino. The dealers and waiters were the nicest people. Maybe I liked it because we actually won money. That never happens. I played a $1.00 slot machine the first night and won $3,000. After that, we played 3 card poker, roulette, black jack and Caribbean Stud Poker. It didn’t matter what we played, we won. We won enough to pay off our cruise tab and still take home $8,000. Something was wrong with this picture, and I’m still dumbfounded. My husband even won twice playing bingo, and he only played 3 times. People were even coming up to us and saying “aren’t you the one who won?…..”

As for the shows……..I can’t comment on them because we didn’t go. We never were tempted by the shows because they all seemed to be boring to me. I’m sure the Xylophone guy was good, but I was anticipating a much better variety. This goes for the musicians as well. They were good, but not great. There wasn’t a whole lot of types of music to choose from. They did play classical / harp/ piano but there weren’t different themes like blues, rock, new age, piano, etc. We were disappointed in the selections.

Ports of Call:

Montevideo: We didn’t take a tour, we just walked into town. There are a lot of cafes along one of the streets; they were serving BBQ beef, pork, lamb, etc. We ate at one of the little BBQ’s where everything is cooked over hot coals. I have to say, this was probably the best filet of beef I’ve ever eaten in all my life. I can’t even tell you how good it was. I had a salad, huge beer and the biggest filet ever and the total bill came to $17 U.S. dollars. Where we live, this same meal would have cost us $150. Simply amazing!!

Puerto Madryn: We took a private tour out to see the penguins at Punto Tombo. The Magellan penguins are amazing little creatures. There are literally thousands of them nesting on the beach. They aren’t afraid of humans, which is kind of sad. I’m so embarrassed about how people acted around the little guys. I saw people trying to pet them, they laid down and had their pictures taken right next to the nests, I even saw kids chasing them. The weather was beautiful; I wore a tank top and got sunburned. The 2 hour bus trip was a long one (each way) but our guide was wonderful and very knowledgeable about the area & the wildlife. Would I do this excursion again??? Yes!

Cape Horn: We were lucky enough to get close enough to see Cape Horn. It’s not much to look at, just an island, but at least I can say I saw it. The weather was rough for a couple of days, quite a few people got sick. I personally like it, but there were many that hated life for a few sea days.

Ushuaia: I loved this port; the mountains were beautiful and covered with snow. It was super windy and cold. Not piercing cold, just cold. We hired a cab driver for something $15 U.S. dollars to drive us around for a couple of hours. It was Christmas, so we tipped him $50……We toured the prison, and this was worth seeing. We also drove up the mountain to get a good view of the ship, city and mountains. Our driver also recommended a place to eat King Crab so we got a taste of some local cuisine. I had mussels and crab. We did a little shopping and then headed back to the ship. The views from our balcony were spectacular.

We had dinner at the U.S. Dining Room, and it wasn’t as good as the previous visit. I ordered my lamb med-rare, and it was very rare. I could have sent it back, but I wasn’t that hungry anyway due to eating in Ushuaia earlier in the day. My husband had some kind of lobster pasta, which he said was “ok”.

After dinner we meet up with some friends and had a cocktail. I felt like I was starting to catch a cold, so I remember taking some Alka-Seltzer Cold medicine around 11:00 p.m. We had a cocktail and headed off to bed. Around 1:00 a.m. I got up and got sick……This continued every 30 minutes, and then I started to get diarrhea. Around 3:00 a.m. I was having both symptoms at the same time…..not real pleasant (sorry). This went on until 9:00 a.m. when we decided to head toward the medical facility on deck 1. Let me tell you, that is one long walk from deck 9 aft.

The medical staff & doctor were really nice. I figured I had the norovirus, and was prepared for quarantine. All I wanted was to quit throwing up. My husband had to fill out tons of forms asking what I had eaten in the last 7 days. This was tough, because I can’t remember what I ate yesterday. I really had no desire to fill out forms, so my husband did the best he could.

They hooked me up to an IV because I was very dehydrated. They also gave me some medicine to keep me from vomiting. (Thank Gold). I feel asleep until the IV was finished. At this time the doctor came and explained that I had to be in quarantine for 72 hours and my husband for 24 hours. At the time I wasn’t upset because we had 3 sea days coming up and I figured since we had an aft cabin I would be okay. They also took a blood sample and asked me for a stool sample. I complied with both. They also informed me if I was caught outside my room that they would put me off in the next port.

Life in quarantine for the 1st day wasn’t so bad; I was tired and slept most of the day. Day 2 & especially day 3 were horrible. I felt like a caged animal, I paced the floors, ordered room service at every opportunity, and pretty much was a grump. I understood the quarantine, and complied but I was going bonkers. The guest relations called me 2-3 times a day to check up on me (I think they were checking to see if I was still in my room). My cabin steward Ben came in and changed my sheets and disinfected my room with some kind of bleach.

We called the medical facility to find out the results of the tests, and they kept telling me they weren’t done yet. I asked if perhaps I was sick from eating the mussels and crab while in Ushuaia…..they told me it didn’t matter what I was sick from, I would still be in quarantine for 72 hours. The bottom line is, they never did tell me what the results were. Oh well.

The day I got out, was the day were docked in Puerto Montt. I missed Punta Arenas, but we were docked there on Christmas Day, so I was told I didn’t miss much. My quarantine was officially over at 9:00 a.m., and believe me, I was out of my room at 9:00 sharp. When we swiped our card to get off the ship, my card “beeped”, and I must have had this pale look on my face, but the crew member pushed some buttons and let me get pass.

Puerto Montt: We got off the ship and did some tourist shopping. We also visited the local fish market. I was tempted to try some of their fish, but after getting sick I thought twice. One of our new found friends rented a van, so we all jumped in and headed to Puerto ******. This was a cute German town about 20 minutes drive from Puerto Montt. It was extremely windy that day, so we just walked around for a bit, then stopped and got a beer. We then went and had Mexican food. Pretty good Mexican food too! After that, we headed back to the ship.

Sea Day: Fairly rough this day, but I liked it….my husband didn’t. This cruise was definitely rougher than most cruises I’ve been on. There were lots of people ill.

Disembarkation: This went very smoothly. Our flight wasn’t until late in the evening, so we chose to hang out on deck 10 until most of the people had already left. We also had our luggage taken directly to the airport, so we didn’t have to worry about finding all our bags. I give Celebrity a 5 star rating on this.

Valparaiso/Santiago: We took a taxi to Vina del Mar and went to the most beautiful casino. It would compare to Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. Afterwards, we headed to Santiago to catch our plane (11:30 p.m). When we got to the airport, we saw the flight was canceled, and the American Airlines line was full of people trying to get home. AA was re-routing some passengers and putting others up in a hotel. When we finally got to the counter (after standing in line for 4 hours), they told us we would be able to fly out the following night via LAN Chile Airlines. They also would put us up at the Sheraton, and gave us a dinner and free lunch……Not bad, right?

The Sheraton was beautiful and the meals exquisite. I’m not here to bash Celebrity, but they could sure take a lesson on some good food from the Sheraton!

We were treated wonderfully. The next day we took a private tour around Santiago which ended up at the airport. The LAN Chile Airlines was WONDERFUL. American is 2nd rate to them.

All in all, we had a nice trip. The itinerary was great. Would I do Celebrity again? I’m not sure. The excess amount of children on this cruise made this trip almost unbearable. The food was so-so. The crew was superb. I don’t hold Celebrity responsible for my illness. Things happen, and it just happened to be my turn to get sick. As far as the memories go, I met some terrific people and saw some places I doubt I will ever see again. Will I cruise again???? You bet.

[XatSea]

Thanks for posting your review. I'll soon be doing the same itinerary but hope all the kids will be back in school.

Would you remember where you ate in Monte Video?

It sounds like a great place to buy a meal.

[cruzin4us]

Thanks for posting your review. I'll soon be doing the same itinerary but hope all the kids will be back in school.

Would you remember where you ate in Monte Video?

It sounds like a great place to buy a meal.

 

 

I don't recall the name. The maitre'd at the U.S. Dining room is who recommended the place(s). When you get off the ship, if you follow the main crowd, you will come to an area of cafes. The cafes line the whole entire street (it's about 3 blocks from the ship). There are cafes that have umbrellas so you can sit outside, or you can go inside (it's a little hotter) where they cook all the meals. We chose the inside and would do this again. I'm guessing there are 25 or so inside locations to choose from, and they all pretty much serve the same thing. You won't be disappointed in the beef, it is wonderful.

[XatSea]

Thanks for the information. I will bring my appetite.

Did the maitre'd give you the name of the place or just the general location?

 

We won't have a grand balcony from which to view the scenery. Can you suggest times when viewing is great and dinner worth skipping?

A number of posts have appeared that may be giving misleading or even false information. Is there any time that it would be wise to get up early for spectacular scenery while at sea?

[cruzin4us]

Thanks for the information. I will bring my appetite.

Did the maitre'd give you the name of the place or just the general location?

 

We won't have a grand balcony from which to view the scenery. Can you suggest times when viewing is great and dinner worth skipping?

A number of posts have appeared that may be giving misleading or even false information. Is there any time that it would be wise to get up early for spectacular scenery while at sea?

 

 

The maitre'd gave only gave us a general location. You will understand when you get there, as everyone has a BBQ and most are offering the same types of food.

 

As for the scenery, it depends on which way you are heading....BA to Santiago or Santiago to BA. We went from BA to Santiago, and I don't recall the Fjords anything to write home about, but when we went thru the Straits of Magellean, it was beautiful. The night we left Ushuaia, there were glaciers around 8:00 p.m. Unfortunately, we ate dinner at the U.S. dining room that night so we missed them. Personally, I found the scenery in Ushuaia to be breathtaking. The mountains are similar to the alps. Just pray for clear weather or you may not see them. If you would like to see a few pictures of our trip, click on the link below.....I hope it works

 

http://travel.webshots.com/album/556851415bzdtZO

[hammybee]

Thanks for taking the time to write a well balanced review. It sure sounds like you experienced it all. I love your attitude about being sick. We all get our click on the rotary.

Special thanks for mentioning an alternative to AA too.

[cruzin4us]

Here are a few pictures of the trip...

 

 

http://travel.webshots.com/album/556851415bzdtZO

[XatSea]

Is there anything you would do differently if you were to do it again?

[Drew B]

I haven't finished your review -- it's great, but LOOOONG. I'll finish it tomorrow, but I wanted to comment on one thing. After this:

 

I played a $1.00 slot machine the first night and won $3,000. After that, we played 3 card poker, roulette, black jack and Caribbean Stud Poker. It didn’t matter what we played, we won. We won enough to pay off our cruise tab and still take home $8,000. Something was wrong with this picture, and I’m still dumbfounded. My husband even won twice playing bingo, and he only played 3 times.

 

How could you possibly remember anything negative? I'd be floating in the clouds for the entire duration!!!

 

Congratulations, and thank you for sharing the story.

[cruzin4us]

Is there anything you would do differently if you were to do it again?

 

Hmmm....

 

1. Well, I probably would have talked to the maitre'd and gotten our table changed to a table for 4-6.

 

2. I personally wouldn't have signed up for the Persian Gardens, and I just asked my husband, and he said he wouldn't have either....he would have used the free steam room in the men's locker room.

 

3. Probably the most important thing would be: I would have flown into Buenos Aires at least 2-3 days earlier so I could have seen the Iguazzo Falls and have seen more of Buenos Aires.

 

4. I would have flown 1st class if I could have afforded it.

 

5. I wouldn't book a holiday cruise due to all the kids

 

Hope this helps :)

[XatSea]

Hope this helps :)

 

Thankyou.. it does.. Your posts have been very helpful.

[mygirlscats]

Thanks for a great and comprehensive review! So sorry you got sick...been there (at home)...yuck!

 

Do you remember which tour operator you used at Puerto Madryn for the penguins? We will be leaving home this Wednesday for our January 14 sailing out of BA. and I'd much rather use a private driver than the ship's tour.

 

Was it difficult to navigate the rental car in Puerto Montt? None of us speaks Spanish, so I'm a little leary about direction signs, getting lost, etc!

 

At this point, I'm a wee bit apprehensive about noro, seasickness and all...but damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead!!

[cruzin4us]

Thanks for a great and comprehensive review! So sorry you got sick...been there (at home)...yuck!

 

Do you remember which tour operator you used at Puerto Madryn for the penguins? We will be leaving home this Wednesday for our January 14 sailing out of BA. and I'd much rather use a private driver than the ship's tour.

 

Was it difficult to navigate the rental car in Puerto Montt? None of us speaks Spanish, so I'm a little leary about direction signs, getting lost, etc!

 

At this point, I'm a wee bit apprehensive about noro, seasickness and all...but damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead!!

 

 

We used info@whalespatagonia.com.ar (Whales Patagonia) for our penguin tour. I highly recommend them. The cost was $55.00 U.S. dollars per person and we had 6 people in a large van that would have held 14. We go there before the buses did, which was REAL nice.

I don't know if I would rent a car if you don't speak spanish. I would just hire a cab driver when you get off the ship, just keep asking if they speak English. About 25% of them do. Don't settle for one that doesn't.

As for seasickness, there were only a couple of days that it was really rough. Just make sure you have your medicine....We were on the back of the ship on deck 9, so we really felt the motion, but like I said, I loved it, my husband hated it.

As for the noro virus.....I think it was my turn to get it. I did all the safety precautions but apparently that wasn't enough. I'm still not 100% convinced I didn't have food poisoning from the mussels & crab I ate in Ushuaia. It would have been nice if Celebrity would have told me the results of the tests......oh well, I have a $722 credit on a future cruise so life isn't all that bad :)

[Sheik]

Thanks for posting this very good review.

 

How long did you feel sick?

[cruzin4us]

Thanks for posting this very good review.

 

How long did you feel sick?

 

My first symptoms came around midnight. I vomitted :( The second symptom came around 3:00 a.m......the dreaded diarreha :mad:

 

Eventually I had both symptoms at the same time.....not good.

 

We went to the medical facility at 9:00 a.m. where they hooked me up with an IV. They injected something into the IV to stop the vomitting.....I could have kissed that person.

 

I had the IV in for approx 2-3 hours, then they sent me back to my cell (cabin). I vomitted 1 time after that and had diarreha 1 more time (sorry for all the description. This was about 1:00 p.m.

 

I felt very tired and slept most of the day. That night I had severe sweating. The next morning I felt pretty good and couldn't wait to eat.

 

So, to answer your question, I felt under the weather for about 32 hours.

 

Oh, the doctor gave me some medicine for vomitting which I took for 1 day, and some antibiotics. I also took some Immodium to stop the diarreha. I highly recommend you take some with you.

 

Hope this helps.

Laurie

[Sheik]

Thumbs up that you went to the doctor and knew that they would put you in quarantine.

 

Thanks for your answer, I hope everything is ok and that this never will happen to you again.

[dorijo]

HI

I enjoyed reading about your cruise. We were on Infinity Feb in 2004. We did back to back BA thru to Ft Lauderdale and got sick after Puerto Montt but we had respiratory not noro..You didn't mention the Falklands, we missed it because of the Pod engine problem and also missed Quito on the second leg. Otherwise loved the cruise. Did you get into the Falklands? We would love to go back to BA we flew in 2 days before and thought it was a great city.

[XatSea]

We were on Infinity Feb in 2004. We did back to back BA thru to Ft Lauderdale

Celebrity Century 1/22/07 back to back W. Caribe

I'll be cruising Infinity on the same route Feb 25. I hope to see you onboard Century in January..my B2B2B starts Jan 18th and goes to Feb 1st.

[cruzin4us]

HI

I enjoyed reading about your cruise. We were on Infinity Feb in 2004. We did back to back BA thru to Ft Lauderdale and got sick after Puerto Montt but we had respiratory not noro..You didn't mention the Falklands, we missed it because of the Pod engine problem and also missed Quito on the second leg. Otherwise loved the cruise. Did you get into the Falklands? We would love to go back to BA we flew in 2 days before and thought it was a great city.

 

Our cruise never stopped at the Falklands, I think because of the holiday schedule?? I could be wrong, but it was never on our itinerary.

 

We never had any pod problems that I was aware of, but we did have something interesting happen when we left Puerto Montt. We were hanging out on our aft deck when all of a sudden the ship made a big jolt to the port side.....My first comment and reaction was "oh no, we just blew a pod....." We ran to the railing and saw what really happened. The ship almost hit a buoy in the channel, and the captain made a sharp turn to the left. I didn't know the ship could turn so quickly! Everyone talked about it for a few hours, but no harm seemed to have happened.

 

We also would like to go back to B.A......hopefully, sooner than later :D

[BayAreaCruisers]

Thanks cruzin4us for posting the review and the link to your pictures. It brought back a lot of memories. We also were on the cruise, and we were also one of the unfortunates on the cancelled flight (although it was a very nice extra day at the Sheraton).

 

There were actually 350 children on the cruise. Yes, that's a lot, but that's always going to be the case on a holiday cruise.

[mygirlscats]

I love how you kept tweaking your deal on the stateroom...wish I could have organized such a deal this time, too!

 

Practical question: did X ever have a "bag o' laundry" service offered, or was it piece by piece for the whole 2 weeks?

 

I'll be bringing a child on this cruise :eek: although from speaking with special services, I'm under the impression there will be fewer than a dozen on board. Kind of impacts on the laundry question:rolleyes: .

 

Thanks!

[Eliger]

I've enjoyed reading this review and comments on the review. We will be doing the South American cruise next year.

 

On the "bag of Laundry" question, on the Summit to Hawaii - a two-week cruise - we were given a paper bag two days before the end of the cruise with the indication "why go home with dirty laundry". We could place as much laundry in the bag without tearing the bag for $25.00. That was the only time we received that deal. Actually it wasn't a really good deal. The bag was not very big.

 

Hope it helps.

 

Gerry

[BayAreaCruisers]

On the "bag of Laundry" question, on the Summit to Hawaii - a two-week cruise - we were given a paper bag two days before the end of the cruise with the indication "why go home with dirty laundry". We could place as much laundry in the bag without tearing the bag for $25.00. That was the only time we received that deal. Actually it wasn't a really good deal. The bag was not very big.

This was exactly the same on the 12/17 Infinity.

[cabo de hornos]

Same on 11/10 Millie. We did some piecemeal loads earlier, as we had been on the road for a total of 3 weeks. I now have our cabin number on the inside collar of every T-shirt, and that's all the info you get!!!

 

Cabo

[cruzin4us]

I have to agree, the bag of laundry didn't seem worth it for $25 as the previous poster stated, the bags are small.....HOWEVER, the dry cleaning service I found to be well worth the cost. We could get 3 shirts dry cleaned for the price of one glass of Merlot in the Casino. I think they charged something like $3.50 a shirt.

 

In hindsight, we would take less clothing and definitely use this service.