Hello! We were on the 17 Dec 2018 sailing of the Celebrity Infinity, originally scheduled to visit Cozumel & Key West but diverted from the Keys to Costa Maya due to storms rolling across Florida. Overall we enjoyed our five-night cruise. The ship was small & easy to navigate with a mostly pleasant crew.
Pre-Cruise:
We live in Orlando so we rented a car & drove down the day before the cruise (Sunday). Dropped the car off at the Fort Lauderdale airport, which wasn’t as easy as I had hoped. As the car rental return is on property at the airport in one of the parking garages, we had to go find the ride sharing area between terminals to grab a Lyft back to the hotel, but once we figured that out it was fine. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn, 30 South Federal Highway, which was very nice. They had a nice breakfast spread & offered a shared shuttle bus to the pier for $10 a person, which you had to schedule the day before. The shuttle had a little trailer attached for all the luggage. Driver was personable & efficient. Make sure you leave early enough to allow time to pick up/drop off other passengers. We picked up more folks at a nearby hotel & stopped at two piers for drop off before ours.
Embarkation:
Originally, we had a Deck 7 2C Veranda but Celebrity offered me the chance to bid on a “better” cabin. I put in the minimum $50 per person bid & was “upgraded” to a Concierge C2 Veranda on Deck 8. Note you do not get any options to decline the upgrade after they accept your bid. You get assigned a cabin & that’s that. The location looked ok, so I rolled with it.
After going through the metal detectors, where we had to show our paperwork & IDs to prove we were cruise passengers, we used the first of our Concierge perks – a special check in line. We walked right up to the desk, answered the standard health questions, had our pictures taken, collected our cards, & were sent on our way for the obligatory green screen picture. As we had drink packages from our travel agent we confirmed that was printed on the card before leaving the desk.
We boarded on Deck 3 & admired the central staircase, which was beautifully decorated for Christmas. We had pre-purchased the wifi package, but couldn’t get it to work yet as they never seemed to have it on when in port.
Another Concierge level perk was a welcome lunch in the main dining room, Trellis, starting at 11:30, so we headed that way. Smartly, they had an area set aside right by the door inside in the dining room for folks to drop their carry on bags while they ate. The menu was limited, but just enough for a light lunch before setting out to explore the ship.
Cabins were ready a little after 1 pm. We discovered that our “upgraded” cabin, 8048, had an obstructed view as that just happened to be where they stored the big multi-deck cleaning apparatus for the side of the ship. Assuming that’s where they always store it do not book cabins 7048, 8048, or 9048. We figured it wouldn’t do any good to complain & the next cabin could be worse, so we just griped about it to ourselves whenever we went out on the Veranda.
At this point we realized we’d forgotten to check on our main dining table location, so we returned to the main dining room & were informed we were at a shared table for 10. We asked for a table for two & were told they’d see what they could do.
By the time we got back to the cabin, around 3 pm, the bags were there so we unpacked a bit then headed to the lifeboat drill. We were in Muster Station A1, which was Deck 5 of the Celebrity Theater. The crew was pretty obnoxious about trying to pack people in like sardines, even though there were plenty of empty seats to the sides of the theater. They really need to chill out about that. When they tried to squeeze another person on the sofa next to us I refused to squish in further & they relented.
Immediately after the Muster Drill we headed to the Cruise Critic Roll Call meet & greet. Unfortunately, it was Deck 10 aft, outside the Oceanview Café buffet, in the blazing sun so we didn’t stay long. We headed back to the cabin to finish unpacking & get ready for dinner. If you’re planning a Roll Call I’d suggest finding an inside location.
Cabin:
Aside from the obstructed view the cabin was great! Plenty of storage. Another Concierge perk that I figure they actually give anyone who asks is a pillow menu, so DH was able to get an extra firm brick of a pillow, which he loved.
Nice storage shelf under the TV (where we found the big loaner umbrella, which luckily we didn’t need). There was also storage on the side of the TV stand, & on each side of the desk. The top shelf in the bathroom was low enough I could put taller items on it – no need for travel size since we drove there! The safe takes a six-character code followed by the *. Our 30” suitcases didn’t fit under the bed, so we put one in the closet & just wheeled the other one around the cabin the whole time as a makeshift table. It would’ve fit in the closet with the other bag but then DH’s slacks & the loaner bathrobes wouldn’t have been able to hang down.
There were no power outlets in the bathroom & only two at the desk. Planning for this, we’d brought a charging block w/four extra electrical outlets & four USBs in our carry on.
There is also nothing in the shower to prop a leg on for shaving, so out it goes to get propped up on the toilet lid. We got extra towels to mop up the shower water that spilled out due to that maneuver.
I’ve seen lots of reviews talking about the Infinity not being in good condition, but in the cabin the only place the wear & tear was evident was the bathroom floor. It looked like the grout wasn’t so much dirty as disintegrating. Our Cruise Critic Roll Call group did a Cabin Crawl & this problem was evident in all five cabins we toured. All of the bathrooms were exactly the same layout with the same disintegrating grout. The only difference was some had the small brown tiles & some had the larger green tiles.
The fridge was fully stocked & there were two bottles of water on the desk. We asked our cabin steward, Gil, & he explained that even though we had the drink package the wet bar items weren’t included so we had him take all those items away. Interestingly, Celebrity still charged me almost twenty bucks for wet bar items. I’ve emailed them but that isn’t sorted out yet.
Gil was efficient & provided everything we asked for, from extra towels to ice. The key is we did have to ask for everything, including the free tote bag & free bottle of sparkling wine that were included as Concierge perks. The afternoon appetizers did show up without a request, but we found that kind of weird as they often ended up sitting out on our coffee table for a long time while we were away from the cabin. We didn’t eat most of them due to temperature concerns (DH is a chef, so he’s picky about stuff like that).
Main Dining – Trellis Dining Room:
They managed to secure a two-top table for us & it was great! Right at the back of the ship overlooking the sea – table #533. Our head waiter, Thamizh, & assistant waiter, Yonifer, were excellent. Definitely try for this table if you’re looking for a two-seater with a great view.
Food was good, but the portions were small. For example, the shrimp cocktail had four shrimp. At least you can order more! Service was excellent.
Inside Access Tour:
We had pre-booked the Inside Access tour online & our tix were waiting for us in the cabin when we got back from dinner since the tour was the next day, our first sea day (Tuesday). The tix asked us to arrive by 9:15 am at the Martini Bar on Deck 4 (which was closed, so no pre-tour water bottles there) for a 9:45 start. We filled out paperwork & collected our lanyards, which we got to keep at the end of the tour.
We thought this was a great tour! Our guide, Martina, took us to the bridge where we met the captain & got a navigation tutorial from one of the senior officers, down I-95 (the interior hallway that traverses the length of the ship – named after the east coast highway), into a crew-only bar/lounge, to the control room for the engines, to the laundry, & through the food/drink lockers & into the galley. We ended the tour outside the Tuscan Grille restaurant on Deck 3, after about 2.5 hours.
During the tour the Captain announced that due to bad weather off the coast of Florida we would not be stopping in Key West, but instead would be going from Cozumel to Costa Maya, with Friday being our other sea day instead of Thursday. We actually thought this was a great change as we’d been to Key West but our prior attempt on another cruise to visit Costa Maya was stymied by bad weather. The crew handled this change smoothly, changing up all the port material & quickly distributing shore excursion lists for Costa Maya.
Oceanview Café:
After the tour we made the first of many visits to the Oceanview Café on Deck 10 for lunch. Be sure to check both sides of the buffet as they are different. There was a little enclave near the entrance on one side where you could pick up bottled water & soda on the drink package, which was very convenient. They had booze too, but we didn’t try that out so I can’t comment on the variety or lack there of.
Overall we were pretty happy with the selection on the buffet. We never saw anyone doing drink service through the tables at lunch, but they were out at breakfast. At both mealtimes attendants promptly collected dirty dishes/glasses. A couple of times we had to hunt a bit for a table but always managed to find something.
Cabin Crawl:
Our Roll Call hosts were gracious enough to arrange a Cabin Crawl. Interestingly, every cabin had the exact same bathroom layout. The only difference was tile size & color. Some were the tiny brown tiles like ours & others were a larger green tile. All had the deteriorating grout.
• Deck 7 Deluxe Ocean View Balcony 2C – exact same layout as our cabin except with different light fixtures
• Deck 7 Family Ocean View Balcony FV – great aft corner balcony with a nice divider between the main bed & the fold out sofa area, which also had it's own TV
• Deck 8 Concierge C2 – same cabin as ours in a midship location w/out the obstructed view ours had
• Deck 8 Concierge C1 – another great aft balcony; otherwise the exact layout as our cabin
The Cabin Crawl led me to conclude that the Concierge amenities probably weren't worth the extra money since the other cabins were exactly the same as ours. I'm definitely going to shop for these aft balconies as they were way cool!
Ports:
In both ports we just went walking around & shopping, so nothing too exciting to report there. The ship had good signage directing you to the gangway & there were tents w/chairs set up just outside on the pier at both stops if you wanted to stop & put away your card, etc. Ice water was available from a dispenser but we skipped those on the way in/out to be on our way.
Both ports have street performers and folks in costume, so make sure you take along some small bills for tipping if you’re going to do photos, videos, or just enjoy the shows.
As I mentioned earlier, the ship wifi didn’t work for us in either port. In fact, in Cozumel we were docked alongside the Celebrity Equinox. I was able to pick up their wifi, but apparently Celebrity doesn’t sync the credentials fleet-wide as I couldn’t get logged in on theirs. Once we set sail we were able to get back on the wifi. We asked a few crew about this & they said the wifi was on in port & we must be doing something wrong; however, a few other passengers we talked to were having the same problem so I still think they turned it off in port, which is annoying when you pay for the entire cruise duration. We purchased a two-device unlimited package. It was fairly responsive & nicely this wasn’t locked in to the particular device so you could easily switch between devices (when the wifi was working), which is great as I like to use my phone when I’m on the move & a tablet when I’m crashed in the cabin.
Disembarkation:
Another Concierge level perk was a separate holding area in the Constellation Lounge on Deck 11. They had water & lemonade dispensers as well as hot tea & coffee, plus a few pastries. Unfortunately, getting off the ship was a tad delayed past our expectations as we weren’t able to clear customs & immigration in Key West the day before. As soon as they gave the all clear, around 7:30, our Concierge, Alexandra, sprinted for the elevator bank to hit the down button. I’m not sure how much the preferred departure actually benefited us as we exited the elevator only to end up in a long line of patrons that snaked through the casino & through the main foyer to the gangway. Once the line started moving it went pretty fast but we still didn’t get off the ship until about 8:15.
We docked at Pier 23, which unfortunately did not have a Global Entry kiosk, so we got in the regular customs line. We’d walked our bags off, but the baggage claim did at least appear pretty organized by group number. After a cursory passport inspection we headed to the curb, hoping to catch the Avis/Budget bus to get our next rent car. We saw three of their shuttles across the street at Pier 21 as soon as we were off the ship, so we figured one would come by our pier, but it never did. We walked down to the shuttle bus/taxi area, waited 30 minutes, gave up, & hailed a cab since the ride share area for Lyft/Uber was at the other end of the pier.
The Avis/Budget building is not on a main street, but is tucked down a side street right next to Thrifty/Dollar, which is right on the street. We did see several Thrifty/Dollar shuttles & if we had known they were right next to each we’d have hopped on their shuttle. Even with a reservation the line to pick up the rent car was huge & they only had two people working. The lady in line in front of me also complained about not having a shuttle come by her pier; she’d also caught a cab. Lesson learned – don’t count on the shuttle & immediately call a ride share.
Bonus story:
Cabin phone rings, six am. We’re sleeping. They tell DH they’re about to bring our room service. He tells them we didn’t order room service. They bring it anyway. I tell the delivery guy it’s not ours & he argues with me that we did indeed order room service. Uh, no. The guy in the cabin next to us comes out & claims the tray. No apology from anybody for waking us up, which they had to know since my hair resembled the nest of a large tree rat & I only had one eye open.
To add insult to injury, an hour later they call the room – waking us up again – and ask how we liked the room service. That person got an earful. When we were finally ready to get up we stopped by the Library on 8 where Alexandra, our Concierge, has her desk. She vowed to check into it. (Side note – there were always people in the library reading…books! Yikes!)
When we returned from Cozumel there was an apology note, a plate of chocolates, & a bottle of champagne in the room waiting for us. Nice recovery.
At dinner that night, two guys in suits come up to our table. The head of room service brought the actual room service card to show me the atrocious handwriting of the people in the cabin above us. Their nine definitely looked like an eight, so we got their room service. I thanked them for the gifts & was pretty impressed they took the time to not only figure out what happened but made the effort to track us down & explain. And if the people in 9048 are reading this then you need to write more clearly on your room service cards!
Read Less
