Wonderful time on our Mediterranean Cruise
Celebrity Infinity Cruise Review to Europe - Mediterranean
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 65
7 Night Mediterranean (Rome To Venice)
Sail date: August 17, 2019
Ship: Celebrity Infinity
Cabin type: Oceanview
Cabin number: 6012
Traveled as: Family (older children)
Reviewed: 5 years ago
Review summary
Overall, we very much enjoyed our trip. The extensive itinerary was interesting and kept us busy in port every day. We looked forward to dinner in the dining room every night and the evening show and of course using our drink package for pina cololadas, wine with dinner, morning coffee, and after dinner drinks. We wish Celebrity gave us more information prior to embarkation that would have made life easier planning-wise, like where exactly in the port to meet the ship, when and how to disembark, and when shows were so we could make dinner reservations accordingly. But once all the planning is done and you are on the ship, we had a blast! Would highly recommend Celebrity again!Embarkation
Would have been fine if Celebrity had told us ahead of time where in a huge port to meet the ship. Walked from the train station to the port only to find out we had to take a shuttle to another shuttle. Took awhile and a lot of sweat and frustration. If Celebrity had been more clear with their instructions, we would have known where to go from the get go.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
We had the drink package which was amazing! Had premium drinks and coffees every day. Especially loved the coffee bar on deck 5. Had coffee there every morning. The main dining room was lovely and the service was excellent. We loved our waiters and assistant waiters who waited on you hand and foot. Drinks were complicated. There's a sommelier who only deals with wine and a beverage attendant who runs back and forth to the bar to get you your drinks if you can catch him. Hard to understand what drinks are available in the dining room and which drinks require your cruise card to get from an outside bar. But the food was incredible. The menu changed every night, there was so much to try and you can order as much as you want. Everything was delicious. We went to Qsine one night. Very cute, nice experience, and the lobster is very good! Didn't spend much time at the buffet. They only open the full buffet during certain hours and I always seemed to hit it at an off time when only pizza and cookies were available. If you have a sweet tooth late at night, hit up the coffee bar. It's open to midnight and the pastries are free and delicious.
Onboard Activities
Loved the warm pool in the adults-only solarium. Always quiet and relaxing. Went to yoga one morning in the fitness center. It was ok, it was a sufficient yoga session but the sound of treadmills next to your head was distracting. Not very zen. But it was only $17.70 a session so worth a try if you want to try out any of the fitness classes. Took a behind-the-scenes tour of the ship on our at-sea day. Highly recommend. So interesting to see how the ship is run and take a peek at the daily lives of the crew. Not many other activities to speak of. There were art auctions, port excursion and shopping lectures, tons of events going on in the boutiques. The kids have their own area, looked like they were having fun. No climbing walls, water slides, or anything like that. Didn't even see a bingo game. We were too busy in port every day to bother with any activities like that.
Entertainment
Loved the shows! We made sure to hit them every night. The on board cast was fantastic, singing and dancing in different costumes every night. Non-stop fun. A few guest entertainers: singers and a magician. Also very good. Shows in the main theater ended early, around 10:30 and there wasn't much to do afterward. Sometimes there were dance parties or game shows we went to at night but most things died down by 11:30-midnight. Fine for us because we had to be up early for port excursions but not much to do for night owls.
Service and Staff
All service was spectacular. They treat you like royalty, attending to your every need. Everyone is friendly, even the maintenance staff says hello when they pass you in the hallways. Only staff who were a bit testy were bartenders when you tried to share your drink package or order a drink they didn't have at that bar.
Ship Quality
Everything was sparkling clean, rooms, hallways, even the pool deck is sprayed down every night. The ship shows its age not it overuse but in décor. The ship debuted in 2001 so it has a more late 90's aesthetic, apparent in choice of warm colors and beiges instead of stark whites and blacks. The theatre especially was a bit outdated. But that's just décor, everything is still beautiful, clean, and in great working condition.
Cabin / Stateroom
Our cabin was a handicap room so it was huge! Double the size of most rooms. So we couldn't complain about the size. However, the mini-fridge didn't stay very cold, the cabinet drawers didn't close all the way, the beds (when split into two twin beds) were tiny but comfortable, and the little loveseat with a pullout was lumpy, pullout didn't close all the way down. I think these things just show the wear of the ship. Cabins could be refurbished, but were clean and provided everything you needed for a comfortable stay.
Ship tip
Get a drink package, eat in the main dining room (try to get the same waiter each night and MAKE RESERVATIONS online a month or so before you leave), hit up that coffee bar, see the show each night, and spend all your free time in the solarium pool. Oh and make sure you get off the ship to see the extraordinary ports!
Thumbs up
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Ports of call
Spent 5 days in Rome prior to the cruise. Had an amazing time. So much to see in that city. Didn't spend any time in Civitavecchia, just trying to find the ship from the train station.
Nothing to see in Messina. Take an excursion or driver to Taormina or Castelmola or one of the other resort towns. So much shopping, so cute, such good food!
So much to do right off the ship. Don't need an excursion, can see it all on your own. Take the Barratka lift up to street level from the harbor. Don't miss St. John's co-cathedral. Tons of interesting musuems: grandmaster's palace, war museum, hospital and war rooms. Eat lunch at Café Cordina right next to the grandmaster's palace. Leave some time to wander the alleys and shop.
Took an excursion to see Drogarti Cave, Mellisani Lake, and Myrthos Beach. It was fine but spent a ton of time on the bus. Good way to see the island though. Would have been perfectly happy just making it a beach day. The beaches are exquisite. Also not much to see in town, good restaurants and tons of cheap souvenir shops. Take a taxi to a local beach or an excursion to the other villages.
My favorite. No need for a tour. The old town is small and beautiful and you can see it all on your own. Take a bus or shuttle from port to the old town. Walk the medieval city walls, check out the shopping on the Stradun Placa and the little alleys on either side of it. Take a cable car to the top of Mt. Srd to see the beautiful city from an aerial view. So much to do not enough time. You can even go swimming outside of the city walls.
Didn't stay in Koper, took a private tour to Ljubljana and Lake Bled. Beautiful! Ljubljana is like a fairy tale city and Lake Bled is picturesque every where you look. Took a boat to the island in the middle of the lake to visit the church. Also, try the famous cream cake. Didn't have much time, just over an hour, in each location because driving took a long time. Slovenia is the size of New Jersey so imagine driving all over the state in one day. Tons of driving and traffic but worth it to see the highlights of Slovenia. Didn't venture into Koper so don't know what there is to see there.
Venice is amazing of course, many people on our ship spent a few days there after the cruise. We only had a few hours until our flight so we stored our luggage at Piazzale Roma, took a vaporetto to Rialto Bridge, and meandered our way back through the alleys and across the canals stopping in glass shops and bakeries along the way. Then we picked up our luggage and took an ATVO bus to the airport. Would be nice to have more time there but we had already been to Venice so we skedaddled to the airport.
Disembarkation
What a mess! First off, Celebrity never informed us ahead of the trip what time we would be required to disembark. They make you leave EARLY! The whole ship is emptied out by 9:30am. We ended up spending our few extra hours in Venice so it worked out but it was a scramble to get breakfast at 7am and get our luggage and get off at 8:30, our assigned time. They didn't tell us that if we were taking our own luggage off, we would have to disembark at deck 1 instead of 3, so that was annoying. The elevators were full of guests and their luggage so getting an elevator to go down the extra 2 floors was hard. It just felt like the whole ship was pushing and shoving to settle their affairs and get off the ship. Long lines everywhere. Why they made us get off so early I'll never know!