South America on the Infinity???

[cascadecruiser]

We are booked on the Celebrity Infinity, February 1st, out of Buenos Aires to Valpariso with most of the usual ports. Has anyone been on the Infinity this season, and do you have any recommendations/concerns about the ship or ports? Where is the best place to see the penguins? Is it possible to pick up local tours rather than take the excursions offered from the ship? It's our first trip to this part of South America , so any helpful tips would be appreciated. Thanks!

[JEBurton]

go to Celebrity's rollcall for this sailing and you'll find a wealth of info.

[oavcech95]

Hi I just cam back from the Infinity, it was very nice and cool, recomendation, bring more dollars, oh and jackets for the cold, its really cold. The best place to see penguins is Puerto Madryn, in Punta Tombo there are many, or also you can go in the same city, in Punta Valdes you will see not too many penguins but also sea elephants.

 

Its better to take in some places the local tours, check my blog: http://celebrityinfinity.blogspot.com/ Im finishing for this weekend

[lawra09]

We also just came back from Buenos Aires to Valparaiso on Infinity. Absolutely recommend taking your own tours - ship tours are at least twice as much as you can get on your own. For example - in Urshuaia, ship's tour for catamaran cruise in Beagle Channel and train into National Park was approx $165 pp. We did it on our own for $80 pp. You can get both trips right off the pier - there are booths selling both trips. Any questions, will be happy to answer.

[JEBurton]

Can you please provide the times the beagle channel tour started from the pier and returned. And also the starting/returning times for the national park. I'm hoping to do both; one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Is that possible?

 

Does the ship dock in Ushuaia?

 

What boat do you recommend for Beagle?

 

thanks,

 

john

[Peregrina651]

Ditto what lawra09 just said. We did not use the ships excursions for any of tours. We arranged three tours in advance--Puerto Madryn, Falklands to Volunteer Point and Puerto Montt--and did the remaining three ports on our own. We just walked around Montevideo and I regret that we did not grab a cab and let it take us to see other parts of the city. I think we would have gotten a different impression of the city if we had seen more of it.

 

In Ushuaia, we did a Beagle Channel cruise to see the sea lions. You will find the ticket booths in a cluster to the right of the tourist information building just across the street from the entrance to the port. Cruises leave between 8:30 and 9:30am. (http://www.e-ushuaia.com/servicios/whattodo.pdf)

 

In Punta Arenas, 6 of us walked off the ship and arranged a van to give us a quick drive around the city and then take us out of the city to see the copuntryside. We ended up at Fort Bulnes, which is a drive along the coast. If you haven't had enough penguins at this point, you can also find a cab to take you Otway Sound. Prices are all over the place and you will get the best prices if you look for a cab outside of the port grounds. Vans will cost you more since if you want an English speaker, you will probably have to pay for a guide as well.

 

As someone suggested, check with the roll call for your cruise for information and to see if any one has space to share on a tour that they have already arranged (in Cruise Critic lingo, a 'tour share' and best done thru the roll calls and not the ports of call forum).

 

Our Volunteer Point tour cost us half of what the ship was charging and because of the nature of the tour, it must be arranged in advance. There are other penguin options available in the Falklands. Read Gixer's thread in this forum for all things Falklands.

 

Hope this helps,

Andrea

[lawra09]

We recently hired Michael from WineToursValparaiso to transport us from the ship (Infinity) to the airport in Santiago. Would highly recommend him. We were a party of 4 - he had to wait an hour for us to disembark the ship as they were late due to port authority. He took us on a tour of Valparaiso and then on to 3 different wineries in wine country for wine tastings, tour and delicious lunch with wine at one of them overlooking the vinyard. We saw many sites in Santiago and were dropped off at the airport at 7 pm in plenty of time for our 9:30 flight home. The van was a Mercedes and very comfortable with plenty of room for the 4 of us and all our luggage. Was a great experience.

[JEBurton]

For example - in Urshuaia, ship's tour for catamaran cruise in Beagle Channel and train into National Park was approx $165 pp. We did it on our own for $80 pp. You can get both trips right off the pier - there are booths selling both trips. Any questions, will be happy to answer.

 

Can you please provide the times the beagle channel tour started from the pier and returned. And also the starting/returning times for the national park. I'm hoping to do both; one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Is that possible?

 

Does the ship dock in Ushuaia?

 

What boat do you recommend for Beagle?

 

thanks,

 

john

[lawra09]

Yes it is possible to do both Beagle Channel Tour and train tour the same day. We did dock there and got off the ship early. You walk to end of pier and go to the right and you will see all the catamarans lined up - seems to be same company - you get your tickets and get right on. First trip was at 9:30 am and got us back by 11:30. At same place, you buy tickets for the train through the Nat'l park and the bus takes you right from the dock to the train and then back after the trip. We then had lunch in town and walked back to the ship. Full day but great. It's a beautiful place if the weather is nice. It was sunny but cool.

[PINEY10]

We did all tours on our own except for the last day in Santiago where we needed to take up time since our flight did not leave until late in the evening. For a cruise line shore excursion it was fantastic--it was the Casablanca winery tour and we had an absolutely fabulous time.

 

On other ports, this is what we did:

 

Montevideo (Real English Tours--Liz Crowley took us all over the city and to the outskirts to see some nice beaches and the Graf Spree museum)--lovely tour.

 

Puerto Madryn--used Monica Mato who took us to Punto Tombo and Gamain. She also was outstanding!

 

Falklands--Patrick Watts who in spite of an earlier not so complimentary review did a great job and was there to greet us. You just have to try to get off on an early tender but there did not seem to be any problems with that for all that signed up for him were able to get there in time (although we heard of possibly two that did not show up). Volunteer Point was a highlight of the trip.

 

Ushuaia--we used RumboSur Tourism and had a wonderful tour of the National Park and the Train to the End of the World. There were mixed reviews of that on this board but I have to say we truly enjoyed it a lot (great scenery) and then did a wonderful tour of the National Park that included great scenery and some good hiking along the lakes and channel. Our guide was a former park ranger and provided us a very knowledgeable and enjoyable tour. ($87/pp for 6 people in a comfortable van)

 

Punta Arenas--took a zodiac (but it does have a cover which we were pleasantly surprised to find out) with Aonikenk Turismo. It was great--a good guide and great zodiac drivers took us to Magdalana Island for the magellenic penguins, but the best part is they also stopped close to Isla Marta which is full (and I mean full) of sea lions. They even came up to the boat and did like a show of diving and all. That last island is not included in the ship's tour and I have to say that was the highlight of our trip. The sea lions were incredible. The ride was okay out to the islands but we did have a little bit of some rough waters coming back to Punta Arenas but nothing worse than you would have at disney world. Only 88/pp (and so worth it)!

 

Puerto Montt--took GV Tours which was okay but the weather also was a factor since that was our first real rainy port day the whole trip.

 

Also we were lucky to have a free shore excursion. One at sea day there were lots of whales to see alongside the boat (along with some dolphins). There were maybe 10 or 12 different groupings and what a sight to behold. Some of the largest whales we have ever seen and no cost at all! Since most of the whales are no longer at Puerto Madryn to see, this was a great treat!

 

For those of you travelling on the Infinity--one slight caution and was a common complaint on the ship. Do not expect the food to be perhaps what you might expect--this was probably the worst quality food we have ever had on Celebrity. Even the staff seemed to be aware. Hope this will be corrected but do not go with great expectations.

 

It was truly one of our best cruises ever--hope it will be the same for you all.

[lawra09]

Just back and don't want to spoil your trip but some things were disappointing. We've sailed many times on all of the major lines including one on the Mercury in April. Sailed the Millenium a few years ago which was fabulous. Food and dining room service on Infinity however was not up to their old standards - not awful but very mediocre. For instance at the breakfast buffet early on in the cruise, they ran out of half & half for coffee, and were watering down the o.j. Dining room service was very slow and variety of dinners was also very mediocre. On a 2 week cruise, you would expect to have lobster tails at least once. They did have them one night but they were mixed in with other seafood. Entertainment was pretty bad - violinist one night, singer one night, 2 production shows which were okay. No comedians - we were told that because half the passengers were So. Americans, language would be a barrier. They definitely need a new cruise director - he was never seen around the ship - even during the introduction of some of the shows, he was behind the curtains and just came out at end of show. Music in lounges was not very good with exception of one combo and a lot of the time, there was no music in the lounges. This is all poor planning by the cruise director. Did not take any ship excursions - did all private tours at half the price of the ship's tours. We were with another couple and did have a nice time - just were a little disappointed in Celebrity on this cruise.

[PINEY10]

Everyone may have different views but we also were somewhat disappointed. We did find that if we made our concerns known, that the staff tried to improve things, for example, with the poor service in the dining room, poor food (they gave us choices the night before for what we would eat the next evening), chair hogs in the aqua spa area (they started moving their belongings in the second week--those who would keep their stuff on chairs but be gone for hours). In the past we had found Celebrity's customer service to be somewhat lacking, but anytime we made a request or complaint, they generally did what they could. My comment was that the cruise line should charge for these chairs as they do on other cruise lines and then I am sure none of those "chair hogs" would hold on to them. It was my understanding that some of the people put their things on the chairs as early as 5 AM to ensure they had them throughout thte day. What was most disturbing is was the same people in those chairs every day and they would get very indignant if anyone tried to take the chairs away.

 

The food on the ship was not great--means less pounds to be put on. However, having travelled many times on cruises, even though they serve lobster tail it has generally always been very tough and not good quality lobster as from Maine (unless you are on Regent, Seabourn or Crystal). This is not the first ship to serve shoe leather chicken lobsters nor will it be the last. They did provide us food upon request that was not on the regular menu (but you need to ask a day in advance). I was disappointed that having been down in S. America that they did not purchase Argentinian beef (it was like butter in BA) and the beef they served was generally very tough. Even the SS United States was not as outstanding as it was in years past!

 

I cannot complain about the cruise director since I saw him everyday in different places around the ship. I thought he was very entertaining and extraordinarily capable of handling some difficult people. Different strokes for different folks! He was all over the ship at the various activities as was his cruise/activities staff.

 

I agree on the entertainment--the Celebrity dancers/singers were mediocre at best although there were some standouts. Their best performance was two days before the end of the cruise. We were grateful there were no comedians since I tend to find most of them boring and not funny! The xylophone, violinist and adagio types are on all recent cruises and I could do without them as well. The music in the lounges were far better, the a capella group was outstanding as was the guitarist. The tango/pampas dancers also we found entertaining (perhaps not as good as those we saw in BA but entertaining nonethless).

 

I understand that Celebrity has focused its best staff, chefs, etc on the new Solistice line of ships. We had the best and most personable captain ever but he is now off to the Solistice line. I also heard the food is much better. We actually prefer more of the alternative dining places that other cruise lines offer and Celebrity does not at least on the Millenium line of ships. Late seatings is a little late but early is too early. I would prefer to eat at our own leisure when we want. One other caution--I had read on the boards about the Brazilian barbecue type restaurant that they have at the Oceanview Grill on certain nights (called Ridizio)--some raved about it on these boards. We were not impressed although you could go when you wanted and not have to dress up but found the food extremely mediocre.

 

As I noted before, the staff seemed to be aware of the problems on the ship and hope that Celebrity will read the comments and do something about it.

[JEBurton]

Thank you lawra09 and PINEY10 for posting your experiences. I leave Monday, 1/26 for BA/Iguzau/Infinity/Santiago. If either of you stayed in BA pre- or post-cruise would you mind giving us a little info about your hotels.

 

Thanks again and best regards.

 

john

[PINEY10]

John

 

We did the pre-cruise with Celebrity (to ensure that we got there before the ship left) and they originally has us at the BA Hilton but was changed to the Intercontinental. This may have had to do with the Dakar Rally which was at the same time we were there. I will say that A&K also was staying at the Intercontinental (they were off to Antarctica). The Hilton is a lovely hotel but seemed to be a little out of the mainstream. the Intercontinental was fine as well but was located in San Telmo. Not too bad to walk around the city but I would be careful at night. Taxis are plentiful and reasonable; only take Radio Taxis (the name is on the side of the car and I cannot recall if it also was on the top). Those are the ones you can trust. If it does not have radio taxi we were told not to take them.

 

You will have a great time!

[Carmelita]

Piney10, where were you near when you saw the whales? Do you know what kind they were?

 

Thanks!

[PINEY10]

It was like the day or two after our stay in Puerto Madryn as we were heading to the Falklands. I am not sure if there was more than one kind, but I know that someone identified one grouping as South American right whales. Sorry I cannot be more helpful than that but it was a sight to be seen!

[cascadecruiser]

Thanks to everyone for your information on the Infinity, and the port tours. Piney10, your information on the Intercontinental was helpful as we are spending the pre cruise night there, but not as part of any Celebrity package. If you have any other information about the hotel or what's available within walking distance it would be appreciated. Thanks also to John -JEBerton, as you had some good questions, and it sounds like you will also be on the 1 Feb sailing.

Gary

[PINEY10]

Depending on when you get into BA, if you get in early they have a late check-in time which was kind of a problem since we were in at 10 AM and could not get a room until around 4 PM. What we found out a day later was that they have a place where you can shower, clean up and change before you get a room, have your luggage stowed and check out the city. Also I had requested a nonsmoking room but the room they finally put us in was definitely a smoking room (or at least had a previous smoker in it)--they did change the room and upgraded us although I am not sure what that meant--the room was a tad nicer. Ask for a high floor--those rooms seemed to be in better condition.

 

The area directly around the hotel is good--a bank across the street (a correspondent bank with Bank of America if you have an account with them: BNP Paribas). Also up a street or two is a supermercado which is where I got some reasonably priced wines that I took on the ship (Argentinian Trapiche brand which was excellent). The hotel also had a wine place which was not unreasonably priced considering being in the hotel. We were about 5 blocks away from Florida Street (generally touristy but a good way to get around the city). It also was not too far from Cafe Torino which we went to for a light snack--there was a line but it was worth it. At night, the area can be a little dicey but there are plenty of taxis around. The breakfast in the morning was pretty good, too. Not too far from the pier. Hope this helps.

[lawra09]

Thank you lawra09 and PINEY10 for posting your experiences. I leave Monday, 1/26 for BA/Iguzau/Infinity/Santiago. If either of you stayed in BA pre- or post-cruise would you mind giving us a little info about your hotels.

 

Thanks again and best regards.

 

john

 

John:

 

We stayed at the Bisonte Palace Hotel which was near everything, spotlessly clean and very reasonable (under $100 per night) and included a wonderful breakfast. I found the hotel on Trip Advisor and would definitely recommend it.

[Peregrina651]

To a certain extent, I think it all has a lot to do with you attitude going into the cruise. I read a lot on CC and was expecting mediocre food so I was not disappointed when that is what I found. Even without CC, I had felt the quality of the food had been going down since I first cruised =X= in 2001. Keep away from the beef dishes except for those made from the tenderloin. If you like lamb, you won't be disappointed. Service was only so-so in the dining room and I can't put my finger on exactly why I felt that way. Maybe I am just jaded. In any case, I decided not to dwell on the food or the service and just to be happy that someone else was doing the cooking, serving and cleaning up. I was on the cruise for the itinerary more than the food and in the dining room for the companionship and the chance to be sociable.

 

I did not go to very many of the shows while DH did not miss a single one of them. What I did see I thought was very well done but honestly, after enough cruising, they all look alike no matter how well executed they are. I was much happier going to sit in the Constellation Lounge and watch the scenery. As for the lounge acts, they were some of the best I have heard. There was variety among them-- classical, guitar, music to dance to and music just to listen to.

 

I have to disagree with the comment about the cruise director. We were constantly running into him. He was all over the ship and always willing to engage in conversation (unless it was 10 am and he was running off to the hotel director's daily meeting or at noon to the bridge for the captain's announcement). His jokes were corny but I had no problem with that.

 

The bottom line is that we loved the cruise. The itinerary was fresh because we have never been to South America before and we lucked out with excellent weather in all ports except one. Because of Cruise Critic, we met a lot of people on board. Two weeks just flew by and I am ready to do the same itinerary again just to see all the things we missed the first time around.

[christopherrobin]

To a certain extent, I think it all has a lot to do with you attitude going into the cruise. I read a lot on CC and was expecting mediocre food so I was not disappointed when that is what I found. Even without CC, I had felt the quality of the food had been going down since I first cruised =X= in 2001. Keep away from the beef dishes except for those made from the tenderloin. If you like lamb, you won't be disappointed. Service was only so-so in the dining room and I can't put my finger on exactly why I felt that way. Maybe I am just jaded. In any case, I decided not to dwell on the food or the service and just to be happy that someone else was doing the cooking, serving and cleaning up. I was on the cruise for the itinerary more than the food and in the dining room for the companionship and the chance to be sociable.

 

I did not go to very many of the shows while DH did not miss a single one of them. What I did see I thought was very well done but honestly, after enough cruising, they all look alike no matter how well executed they are. I was much happier going to sit in the Constellation Lounge and watch the scenery. As for the lounge acts, they were some of the best I have heard. There was variety among them-- classical, guitar, music to dance to and music just to listen to.

 

I have to disagree with the comment about the cruise director. We were constantly running into him. He was all over the ship and always willing to engage in conversation (unless it was 10 am and he was running off to the hotel director's daily meeting or at noon to the bridge for the captain's announcement). His jokes were corny but I had no problem with that.

 

The bottom line is that we loved the cruise. The itinerary was fresh because we have never been to South America before and we lucked out with excellent weather in all ports except one. Because of Cruise Critic, we met a lot of people on board. Two weeks just flew by and I am ready to do the same itinerary again just to see all the things we missed the first time around.

 

I was on the same cruise and agree that it is your attitude going into a cruise whether or not you have heard any negative comments about it. You are on vacation and there to have a good time.

 

Yes some things were lacking and in regard to the beef, we spoke with our maitre'd about it. He mentioned that the beef was a bit tougher as they have to buy it in South America where cows run free (as he put it) making the meat tough, when they buy it from the US, the cow is restrained in a certain area therefore making the meat more tender. If you think about it, it does make sense. We had no problem with the food at all and enjoyed it every night especially the desserts.

 

The cruise director was seen on the ship everywhere and did trivia on the sea days as well as jokearama. Yes there were some difficult passengers on board but I think the activity staff and him did a great job in handling them.

 

Just go and enjoy the cruise, especially the scenery, it was well worth the 12+ hour flight there and back again.

[Marl]

Ditto what lawra09 just said. We did not use the ships excursions for any of tours. We arranged three tours in advance--Puerto Madryn, Falklands to Volunteer Point and Puerto Montt--and did the remaining three ports on our own. We just walked around Montevideo and I regret that we did not grab a cab and let it take us to see other parts of the city. I think we would have gotten a different impression of the city if we had seen more of it.

 

In Ushuaia, we did a Beagle Channel cruise to see the sea lions. You will find the ticket booths in a cluster to the right of the tourist information building just across the street from the entrance to the port. Cruises leave between 8:30 and 9:30am. (http://www.e-ushuaia.com/servicios/whattodo.pdf)

 

In Punta Arenas, 6 of us walked off the ship and arranged a van to give us a quick drive around the city and then take us out of the city to see the copuntryside. We ended up at Fort Bulnes, which is a drive along the coast. If you haven't had enough penguins at this point, you can also find a cab to take you Otway Sound. Prices are all over the place and you will get the best prices if you look for a cab outside of the port grounds. Vans will cost you more since if you want an English speaker, you will probably have to pay for a guide as well.

 

As someone suggested, check with the roll call for your cruise for information and to see if any one has space to share on a tour that they have already arranged (in Cruise Critic lingo, a 'tour share' and best done thru the roll calls and not the ports of call forum).

 

Our Volunteer Point tour cost us half of what the ship was charging and because of the nature of the tour, it must be arranged in advance. There are other penguin options available in the Falklands. Read Gixer's thread in this forum for all things Falklands.

 

Hope this helps,

Andrea

We're on the Infinity, scheduled to come into port [ushuaia] at 10:00 a.m. and leave by 6p.m. Do you know if any of the catamaran companies start the Beagle Channel cruises later than 9:30 a.m? We may not be off the ship until 10:30 or 11:00. Do you think we'll be able to get a catamaran dockside?

Thanks for any info.

[helpmesailaway]

I think some of the Beagle Channel cruise companies alter their schedule for the arrival of cruise ships. We were on Star Princess in Jan. and did not arrive until about noon. When we went looking for cruises, they said what times they were going on that day. We took a 3 hour cruise. Some were 4 and that was too long for our port time.

 

Check in the kiosks and I am sure you will find one to fit your schedule.:)

[Peregrina651]

We're on the Infinity, scheduled to come into port [ushuaia] at 10:00 a.m. and leave by 6p.m. Do you know if any of the catamaran companies start the Beagle Channel cruises later than 9:30 a.m? We may not be off the ship until 10:30 or 11:00. Do you think we'll be able to get a catamaran dockside?

Thanks for any info.

 

You can use the link I gave above to get the names of the catamaran companies and contact them to ask them what the schedule will be the day you are in port. I cannot speak for the companies but I can't imagine that these companies are not going to alter their schedules for the day to accommodate the cruise ship passengers arriving that day--too much revenue to lose.

 

ALSO, if you are sailing east bound toward Buenos Aires, you will be passing the glaciers before you arrive in Ushuaia. Find out what time you will be passing them and if it is after sunrise, do make every effort to be on deck to see these most beautiful gifts of nature--especially if you have never seem glaciers before. Ask in Guest relations for the time you will be passing them.

[helpmesailaway]

We were fortunate to find a company that ran a schedule for the cruise ship arrivals. We were on the Barracuda and it was a great tour - old boat with charm.:)