We booked our cruise just about 2 weeks before departure. As a first time cruiser, right away we ran into a learning curve that I almost always failed. In reading the itineraries, I didn't realize that most of the cruises either sailed north or south, and you flew from there to your home airport. When I tried to book a connecting flight, there wasn't enough information for me to figure out why Eugene, OR wasn't an option. Since we are only about 8 hours from Vancouver, BC, we decided to drive. When I finally spoke with our travel agent, she explained all this to me. She was much shakier trying to explain the benefits of concierge class on the Celebrity line. Even though we were booking so close she said that we would get a call asking what kind of pillows we would like. That seemed exciting, so I was looking forward to it. When the call came, we were not home, and the message left on our answering machine sounded like a pretty standard, generic, Welcome, Aboard sort of message, with a 800 # left if we had any questions. No mention was made of any special services or questions, so I didn't return the call. I thought perhaps our room attendant would ask about our pillow preferences. Our drive was pleasant, and since we were travailing by car, we did take plenty of luggage. We actually used most of it though, so that was a plus. Crossing the international border was a pain, as it generally is, but we were rewarded with a wonderful hotel room at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Vancouver, BC. It was a great beginning to a wonderful trip. The quality of service and food in their restaurant set a high standard for the Infinity, but our attendants were wonderful, so it seemed just a natural progression. I was surprised that our agent wasn't able, or perhaps wasn't interested in, booking our hotel room. I did easily enough with the internet, but evidently Celebrity releases all unsold hotel rooms for their cruises 2 months before the cruise actually takes place. That was yet one complication of booking late. The Hyatt was only about 4 blocks from Canada Place, so we got there fairly quickly once we got the luggage all reloaded. We easily found the luggage drop-off point & was immediately impressed with the cheerful attitude, attention to detail, and quick service of luggage handler. Stress was starting to evaporate. We got good directions to the secure parking area, and were there in just a bit. They were nice people, but customer service wasn't as high on their mission statement, so we waited in the hot sunshine for a tardy shuttle with no water and a portable outhouse if we were desperate enough to use it. Everyone else had come with their luggage, so when the bus finally came, we were all squished onto it at capacity, with too many suitcases! At least people were in good humor. Back at the terminal we went thru Canadian customs again, and then had to wait for the US customs. It was very long & tedious. By the time we got to Infinity's check-in, it seemed as though that standing in line was all we had done for 2 days!! It was quite a shock to be assaulted by an overeager photographer trying to separate us into our natural groupings & making us smile when we were over heated, overtired, thirsty and stressed, again! It took a minute to realize that this really was finally it!! This was the true beginning of our pampered adventure at sea!! Now that was something to smile about! Things improved when we stepped onto the ship. The cool air-conditioning was wonderful after the heat of the afternoon. Someone greeted us at the door with a list & asked our name. They found us immediately & had an escort take us directly to our room. Unfortunately, I didn't think to ask to detour over to the free sparkling wine & cider that was being passed out, so we missed that opportunity. Our escort was very friendly, and told us as we passed different venues, what was in each area. It sounded convenient, and set up for fun! He quickly got us to our room, which already had some of our luggage in it. We were impressed to see our room was freshly made up. We already had our sparkling wine chilling, a full ice bucket, cold water in our carafe, fresh flowers & a lovely bowl of fruit. Since it was pushing 2:30 pm, and we hadn't eaten since breakfast, that was very well received. The air conditioning was lovely, & the view from our covered balcony was romantic. When we went upstairs to the buffet lunch, it looked delicious and was well presented. I was again impressed that someone was available to take my tray and help us find a table immediately. I appreciated that although there were hundreds of people about, all scurrying & hungry, we were all quickly cared for and comfortably settled onto tables that were arranged in smallish groups, so although visually, we had clear sight lines if any of our group was following behind they would be easily seen, we were in friendly-sized groups and did not feel like were we just one of the herd. Later I discovered that the buffet line staff were very accommodating of special requests, if I asked the correct people and was patient. All of them were very friendly and calming. Very reassuring of all we had gone thru just to arrive! The ship's decor was impressive in many ways, with onyx Grand Staircase, Venetian-style draperies, and Egyptian motifs in the casino. The library was a soothing retreat, and the Milano Cove cafe & tea area very nicely thought out. The Celebrity Theater was a wonderful venue for comfort and sight lines. The stage area really was multi-purpose, and the a-v techs on our cruise were superior. What surprised me the most though, was that the selection of art in the public areas was often too modern or too bold to be the best choices for any given area. I think the placement of much of the art could have been improved. Some of it looked as though it was made by a 2nd grader and was merely there because of family connections. I found that to be a surprising disappointment. I hadn't realized that the quality of art, and having it be matched appropriately in its environments would have had such an impact in even a subliminal way. It seemed that even if someone had walked through with the Park West people, improvements could have been made. There was no balance or theme. It seemed to be displayed more by size than by any other criteria. I actually found it to be a detraction. The pools and the spas were convenient and had a natural flow to them. It was so nice to have the bathrobes provided by the ship for coverage to and from our rooms. It was surprising that the 10 elevators were as quick as they were & seemed well-spaced for maximum access to all levels of the ship. It has 11 decks and 2300 guests, so that could be a major issue. The only time that there seemed to be a major wait was after the boat drill, when probably 2000 of us had to wait our turns to go to a different deck. I was impressed with the variety of activities and the opportunities for learning. There was at least 4 exercise classes offered each day, some with a $10 nominal fee. Bob Basso was on board to give us insight into Alaska, natural history, plants, animals, and good bets for places to visit. He made the material very interesting. Eric Dunn was along to talk about astronomy. He also was very knowledgeable, but was more along the lines of a college professor than an extemporaneous speaker. People could take interactive computer classes and improve their photography skills, both with the camera and PhotoShop. The entertainment was wonderful. The singers & dancers all did very fine work, & were quite adept at creating a mood with a look or a glance. The costumes were flashy and the sets conveyed the theme with a minimum of elements. A married couple who were acrobatic ballet people were esp. wonderful. The gymnastic parts of their act blended very well with their expertise in ballet, and certainly added a more athletic component that made the ballet more enjoyable for people that didn't think they like ballet. The stand-up comic was enjoyable and what I would expect, but they also had the best ventriloquist I have ever seen. His humor was funny, and at the end of his act, he actually had his puppet singing, plus he sang along in his natural voice. It was amazing. I appreciated the daily events program and how you could order shore excursions on the tv. I even checked my room balance on tv. The movies they offered on pay-per-view seemed a bit strange to me, but we each chose one, and it was surprisingly cozy to just stay in our room and just veg out. If I watched tv at home on a regular basis, I would probably would have been offended by what they offered onboard. As it was, it only seemed a bit odd to be watching old Bonanza reruns, or the Beverly Hill Billies, when I got tired of the cruise director giving me the daily events rundown. Celebrity has given up most of the massive midnight buffets. They offered gourmet bites most evenings. Waiters walk around with interesting canapes and nibbly things that you can help yourself to until you are full. On the night of the midnight buffet, they really pulled out all the stops and had at least 10 ice sculptures, all lovely, and 3 long main tables and at least 2 supplemental tables all full of food. The crush of people was like a huge party. Since we had 2nd seating at dinner, and had just finished eating an hour and a half previously, I wasn't interested enough to actually try anything, but it all did look delicious. We had 2 formal nights, when people really did look their best. They were great fun, and our waiter staff had gotten us so excited about their farewell, Grand Staircase Baked Alaska parade that it was pretty wonderful. Our main waiter and his assistant did an exceptional job of taking care of us in so many ways. They really did earn every penny of my generous tip. The food was always presented in such lovely ways, and almost always was excellently prepared. I thought I would gain a lot of weight, but actually only gained 4 pounds because I got a lot of exercise walking all over, all day. I went to only the events that interested me, and was too busy to read much more than 1/3 of only 1 of the books I had with me! That was a big surprise too! When we were in port, I had thought I would be busy in the off-shore excursions, and although they all seemed delightful, they all seemed fairly expensive. My companions never could make up their minds, so we ended up not doing any of them, but had a lot of fun just exploring the towns on our own, or even just napping back onboard. The tender boats were surprisingly easy to enter and get out of. We had to line up for another security check when we returned to the ship, but after the first time, that also seemed normal. Our room attendant never did ask what kind of pillows we preferred, but perhaps selection was limited at that point. It was difficult for me to find her when we did need something, so a note detailing how to communicate with her would have been as helpful as the note she left us with her name on it. She was thorough, efficient, and we rarely saw her. I was surprised that since there were 3 of us in the room, when she brought the canapes that came along with our concierge class, they always seemed to set up for 2 people. They tended to be dry, and overwhelmingly fishy, with either shrimp, caviar, or salmon in some form every night. At first that was exciting, but since we are not big on fish, they seemed dull and uninspired after a few days. The biggest highlight of the cruise was going to the Hubbard Glacier. It was lovely and seeing one in person is incomparable. My college-age girls had great fun going up to the Constellation every night to talk and dance with their friends. After a couple of nights, they started singing karaoke, and so they had lots of fun! When I went to the shore excursion desk, there were signs saying, Be sure to read the description of the excursion, to make sure it is the right one for you, but no where did I actually find the descriptions in the area. Fortunately, I had printed them of the Celebrity website before we left home, otherwise we would have had no idea what we were supposed to be choosing from. I was impressed that they had each excursion rated by physical ability, so you would have some idea of the amount of energy it would require to enjoy. The other frustration was that although the ship originated and docked in Canada, the guest services only had American postage for sale. It would have been nice to be able to send a postcard from Canada as well, and since we were there only on a Saturday & a Sunday, we had no opportunity to buy Canadian postage. The morning we left we had to have our luggage tagged and outside our door by 5 am. I thought that was remarkable. They gave us a letter detailing the disembarkation procedures, with a time and a meeting place. After we had waited for about 30 to 40 minutes, they called us by color and number. The transition was smooth, and went rapidly. We again went thru Canadian customs. The biggest problem on the return was finding a taxi to get back to our secure parking. That line was long! Our car was in good shape, just dirty from waiting in a gravel lot a week. It was nice to get back too, but we did miss the pampering of the cruise, & the constant entertainment choices.

The most surprising thing I found about the whole cruise was that each event was set up to most naturally and matter-of-factly, create a desire in me that lent itself to separating me from my shipboard credit. I have never been in an environment that was so creative and had so thoroughly thought through so many details to be profit-making in so many ingenious ways. Nonetheless, I felt that the overall experience was so wonderful that I added generous additional tips, beyond the recommended standard, to several of the staff that interacted with us most consistently. Their warmth, hospitality, and service were above and beyond what they would have had to provide if they were merely doing their jobs. That excellence is what makes me eager to spend more money and consider cruising to be really a very affordable vacation, that is worth the frustrations and learning curve of just getting on board.