We did this 11 night Alaska Cruise round trip out of San Francisco as the 2nd leg of a back to back, having done the 17 night Panama Canal cruise prior - we were thus onboard the Infinity for 28 straight nights. We sailed with our adult daughter who has a physical disability, so one of our two cabins was an accessible cabin, 7137. Infinity is a Millennium Class ship, which from an accessibility standpoint, is not nearly as accessible as any of the Solstice Class ships. None of the public bathrooms have an accessible power door opener - so you have to wrangle the door open on your own which is very difficult to do if you're in a wheelchair. Whereas on Solstice Class ships, ALL of the public bathroom doors are equipped with an auto opener. On Infinity, very few of the doors that lead onto the decks are auto opening, whereas on Solstice Class ships, yes, you guessed it, all public deck doors are auto opening. Also on the Infinity as on all Millennium Class ships, there are innumerable metal stops or thresholds on the public deck floors, everywhere throughout the ship, including the cabin hallways - which are major barriers to those that have physical needs - you have to be constantly looking down, being aware, so as not to trip or get your wheels somehow stuck or impeded. The door to our cabin was also not auto opening, whereas, they are auto opening on the Solstice Class ships. And inside our cabin, the hinges on the bathroom door are on the opposite side of where they need to be to make access comfortable. My daughter uses a walker and she had to roll past the door, turn herself around, reach and swing open the door, then go in - it's hard to picture, but trust me, the planning was very bad - something that was rectified across the board, on the Solstice Class ships.

Plaguing this cruise, supposedly, were the final remaining vestiges of the norovirus. The Infinity had been afflicted with it, as we came to realize, throughout the South and Central American itinerary. People get off the ship in these countries and eat things they should not, and get back on board with a case of Montezuma's Revenge and spread it due to their poor hygiene practices. The noro overall is a feature accompanying the Central and South American itineraries, period. It is appalling to me to observe passengers coughing madly into their HANDS, when everyone knows that you are supposed to cough or sneeze into your elbow. I believe that Celebrity needs to get aggressive on the South and Central American itineraries when the ship turns into the SS Dysentery, and preach openly about proper hygiene - wash your hands often and NEVER cough or sneeze into your hands. People just don't get it. We heard that there were three people sick on board at the beginning of the cruise - I know for a fact that one of them did not have noro at all, that it was something else entirely, but the ship people wanted to be sure that with the Alaskan itinerary season underway, that any and all sickness no matter what the source, was squelched at the get go. For 72 hours, the buffet was in lock down - not only could you not serve yourself your own food, but you couldn't even pick up a plate or your own napkin-wrapped bundle of silverware! To get coffee in the morning was a nightmare - tables were set up as barriers in front of the coffee stations, with staff pouring the coffee for you, giving you packets of sugar. Guests were encouraged to order via room service. Menus from Cafe Al Bacio, and all of the venues, were removed. Even the cloth hand towels in the public bathrooms were removed. Forget about a bread basket at your dinner table, or the trio of hummus, butter and herbed cream cheese. Bread was doled out individually by your server. 72 hours of the strictest restrictions were endured, but by the last several days of the cruise, all was back to normal. Even the Top Chef at Sea activity returned, which had been eliminated in the prior cruise, as it involved food and it was seen as a possible conveyance of the virus, if someone participated who was sick.

A big disappointment when the restrictions were underway, was that the captain was not forthcoming with information. I remember on Solstice, on an Australian/New Zealand cruise, we were encountering some very rough seas. The Captain actually made an informational video which he aired on the cabin TVs, with him in front of a weather map, showing the storm, the route that he was taking to avoid it, etc, explaining everything. The passengers really appreciated the transparency. The exact same thing should be done when the ship is facing a health problem. The passengers crave accurate information. We heard that only 3 passengers were sick, and that it probably wasn't even noro for any of them - so the measures that were put into place seemed punitive! In any case, people still had a great time on the cruise. The staff on board was excellent, striving always for the passengers to have a wonderful time. Read more