This was our sixth and longest cruise. We’ve cruised Princess, MSC, Carnival and The Red Boat. This was our first cruise on Celebrity Infinity and probably our last. We cruised with three other couples and chose Celebrity primarily based on the transit of the Panama Canal destination and sailing date. None of us sailed Celebrity before. We also used an agent who books with Celebrity and booked the cruise almost a year in advance. Two couples had ocean view cabins, one the 2nd deck and the other on the 8th deck. Two of us had veranda cabins, 2A both on the 7th deck. I might add I’ve read other reviews for this cruise line and ship, so I will try not to repeat a lot here found in those reviews. We found the cabins to be comfortable and accommodating. Space and furniture were comparable to the other cruises we sailed. The TV programming was good and offered a lot of variety programming. Cabin service was excellent mainly because of the hardworking attendant who performed well beyond our expectations and experience on previous cruises. We left an additional tip and identified his efforts to cruise management.

We found the restaurants and food to be good to excellent but mostly excellent as most cruisers expect. We ate in open seating in the main dinning room for most evening meals and were seated at several different table locations. Service varied between the different locations but was generally good but slow between courses. The longest time between courses was15 minutes. Generally we enjoyed the menus, but Celebrity did not perform above other cruise line meals we’ve had. We also ate a few times in the specialty restaurants- three times at Tuscan Grill and once at Le Petit Chef. Food was good and service excellent. Le Petit Chef animation was unique and entertaining. None of the specialty restaurants were anywhere near full when we attended. We booked prior to the cruise and should have waited until we were onboard to take advantage of the last-minute discounts. The buffet was a buffet. Plenty of variety and some unique specials if you were lucky to find them. As is common on most cruise ships, the buffet was crowded especially at breakfast and lunch. The buffet was named Ocean View and lived up to its name, with plenty of window seating and a nice outdoor seating area on the stern. Other snack areas were adequate but nothing special. The gelato place was costly, but good. The table service at the bars was almost nonexistent and very slow when available.

We like cruises for the destinations, food, entertainment, onboard activities and excursions. For us the Celebrity Infinity scored no better than other cruise lines in the food and excursions categories, and below standard in the in the entertainment and onboard activities categories. The Panama Canal transit was exceptional though and I would rate it as good, if not better, than visiting Glacier Bay in Alaska. Bill Fall’s lectures and personal stories with the canal were outstanding and made the cruise very worthwhile. One deficiency was his narration could hardly be heard on the ship’s outside speaker system and while transiting the canal most people were outdoors. We used Celebrity excursions at every port and found them to be varied, interesting and worth the cost. On ship activities were lacking especially towards the end of the cruise when everything was familiar. We also found shopping to be mostly high-end tax-free type merchandise. Not a lot of variety for lower scale items on a regular basis. Read more