A pleasant itinerary with plenty to see and do
Celebrity Infinity Cruise Review to Europe - Western Mediterranean
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Reviews: 2
Helpful Votes: 87
9 Night Best Of Spain & Portugal (Lisbon To Barcelona)
Sail date: May 15, 2023
Ship: Celebrity Infinity
Cabin number: 6125
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 1 year ago
Review summary
We enjoyed this itinerary. Disappointed about Porto. Would love to have had the captain announce the Rock of Gibraltar (it was about 1am but I know it's doable as we passed a landmark on our Baltic Cruise that was announced on the PA at 2am). Adjustments need to be made for excursions so that participants can stay in town and still have access to ship shuttles to return. The Blu restaurant is phenomenal and a highlight for our cruise.Embarkation
Smooth as ever - very easy
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
We had access to Blu, one of the best restaurants on Celebrity ships. Not only is the food amazing, the staff is part of what makes the cruise extraordinary.
Onboard Activities
We don't often do onboard activities. We attended a "Deal or No Deal" afternoon event on a day at sea, and it was a fun, easy, 1/2 hour experience. The gym is full of good equipment is located at the front of the ship so while on the treadmill, the sea is in front of you. The gym staff was not good on this cruise (not friendly, not unfriendly, just indifferent; did not know how to appropriately run a HIIT class, and clearly did not assess the demographic of the gym attendees and chose horrible music that was played extremely loudly).
Entertainment
The musical groups were nice for evening lounge sit downs; they generated good energy with the music. Sometimes the vocals were lacking. The comedian was a 6.
Service and Staff
Extraordinary - this is what makes Celebrity the best. The staff at Blu was amazing. We dined there almost every night and for several breakfasts. They knew us by name; they knew what we liked to drink and snack on; they made our dining experiences wonderful. Our room steward and butler were fabulous. Coffee every morning at the requested hour, room kept clean and fresh.
Ship Quality
It always takes a day or two to adjust to the location of things on the ship. After that, we do well, only using stairs and foregoing the elevators. The ship is always well maintained and clean, just showing its age a bit.
Cabin / Stateroom
The size of our room was excellent. Our bed faced the water which was a treat. The closet and storage space were over the top generous. We were delighted to have a bath tub and used it! What disappointed us the most having paid extra for the Retreat and this kind of room, was that the external structure of the ship for hanging the lifeboats was right outside our deck. Our view was horrible. This room needs to have more detail on it when mapped out (other than "view may be obstructed") - if the view is obstructed by the next cabin's wall, or if the view is obstructed by ship mechanics.
Ship tip
Dine at Blu if you can.
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
We spent 3 days on our own in Lisbon before the cruise. The city has no life. There is no energy to it. It is not clean. The locals are not very friendly. We were approached every night we were out in the old town (Baixa) where our hotel was located to buy drugs (coke, hash, weed, heroin). We were stunned. Only one time did the sellers pursue us after we had said no thanks. On one of the streetcars, the driver told all of the riders (at 10:30pm) to "get off". When we questioned him why or how we could catch another tram (when his was clearly blocking the tracks), he simply told us to get off again, and that he didn't know. He sat on the tram for 15" and then moved the vehicle forward about 30 feet and then let us back on. The best part of Lisbon was the Yellow Bus hop on/hop off transportation and tour. There are two routes, both of which are interesting and completely different. We had no issues with headphones or the tour itself. It included tram rides and a river boat cruise (although we missed doing the latter). We toured the tile museum and walked up and through the Alfama. Both are worth while things to do.
Porto looked good and inviting and full of life and energy. The opposite of Lisbon. Unfortunately, the winds were such, that we missed docking in the morning, and couldn't get to port until noon, so all the excursions were canceled. It was so unfortunate. We took the shuttle (Celebrity offered it free because of the shore excursion cancellations) into town and did our own tour.
We loved Cadiz - the size of the town and the ease of getting to our excursion was great. We loved the bike tour with Bicis Naranjas (through United Cruises). Our guide Marina, was amazing, and she was very helpful and patient with a gentleman who needed an electric bike. Cadiz has a great small walkable town. We loved it. We ate at the local market where we could choose foods from a huge variety of stalls and then eat at tables outside.
We love Malaga and had spent a week here about 7 years ago. Malaga has received some kind of investment as most of the old town has been spruced up. It's a little too commercial now, but hanging out at the beach and lunching at a chiringuita were both fabulous. It's a great city to just wander. If you like the historic stuff, it is also wonderful and there is a lot to see and do; we had already done it before, and recommend this town.
This was probably our biggest disappointment. We did a bike tour offered by Celebrity. A shuttle took us to the bike shop. Our guide was good; he was accompanied by two young "bike mechanics" who had no clue what to do, and hung out with each other and smoked during the tour rather than checking in on the participants. The bikes were very old, not well-maintained, and many of the them had gears that did not work. I had to ask the two young guys to look at my bike - they fixed the gears but had no customer interaction skills whatsoever. It was as if they were bothered to have been asked to do this tour. The most interesting part of Valencia is the Science Center and the buildings around it. They are fascinating. The old town was okay. The market was interesting (however, if you have been to one market, it's not that cool unless you are looking for local specialities). What would make this tour better, is to allow the participants the option to drop off the bikes at either the market or the science center, and provide options to get back to the ship. The bike shop was closer to the ship than it was to town, so if any of us wanted to go back into town or to the science after the bike tour was over, we had to find local public transportation back and forth. The other option would be to give us an hour in the old town to wander while the guide stays with the bikes. We had no chance to see Valencia other than from the seat of the bike.
Palma De Mallorca, Balearic Islands
These comments are not about the port bu the excursion. We loved this excursion - it was the hike from Esporles to Byanbalfur on the old Royal Mail Path. The bus trip and organization was done well. The guides were amazing, and the hike itself, fantastic. This is one of the few times that the description of an excursion as "strenuous" was accurate. This is a 5-6 mile hike, the first part of which is uphill. The forest and topography are lovely. The downhill part is brutal if you have no knees (LOL), but the reward is amazing. We hiked right into the vineyard/estate of a local to a large reception room with two kinds of breads, cheeses, wines, potato pie, tomatoes and fresh picked oranges. What a delightful end to the hike. We would suggest lengthening this excursion to allow for about an hour to walk around an explore Byanbalfur. This excursion is wonderful; however, we chose this one instead of another and missed learning anything about the historic part of Palma. If the day could be lengthened so folks could do more than one excursion that would be ideal.
We love Barcelona and this was our third time here. We chose our own post-cruise excursions and had a blast.
Disembarkation
We were supposed to have had priority disembarkation. We were not informed at all about how that worked or how to get off first. That worked to our benefit because I don't know anyone who wants to get off a cruise ship at 6am unless they are going straight to the airport. I can't imagine getting off the ship and going straight to the airport after such a lovely relaxing cruise.