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.
Do not book this cabin, 7048, or 9048. These are obstructed view cabins. You have no forward view due to the larger angled balcony on one side & the other side is where they stow the large apparatus they use to clean the outside of the ship. Repeat - do not book this cabin!
Nice facilities at the pier; good signage; helpful staff. Would definitely cruise out of Fort Lauderdale again.
If you're renting a car after you get back don't wait on the shuttle. Grab a taxi/Uber/Lyft instead as the shuttles are sporadic if they show up at all.
Cozumel is fun for shopping. We docked at the International Pier, shopped for a bit, then took a taxi down to the Forum Shops, which puts you right in the middle of the shopping district.
Careful what you bring for snacks. The canine unit pulled us over for a banana in our backpack - no fruits allowed!
As this was a substitute port we hadn't done any research & didn't book any excursions. We just hung out around the pier, which had the same shopping as Cozumel basically - just a different name on the t-shirt. There were more street performers, so make sure to bring small bills if you want photos with the performers or just to reward them for the entertaining shows.