Celebrity Infinity Review

Anticipation
We had never been to South America, never cruised with Celebrity and never passed through the Panama Canal, so when I saw a great price on the Infinity I jumped on the chance to sail to new places.
Perusing the boards, I saw that some folks thought of Celebrity cruisers as fashion plates. I am more a fashion mug and worried a bit about standing out like a mismatched piece of china. I contacted a frequent Celebrity cruiser who eased my fears and packed as I had anticipated. In our case, we would be going to Peru and hiking the Inca Trail. We didn’t want to be burdened with large and multiple pieces of luggage, so we would have to pack well. The Infinity doesn’t have self-serve laundry so that was also a consideration.

Pre-trip and embarkation
We flew into Fort Lauderdale and arrived at our hotel quite late due to flight delays. Fortunately, there was a grill area still open and active at this late hour. We could have gone to the Taco Bell next door had we had no other options. We chose the Comfort Inn South because they had a free shuttle both from the airport and to the cruise port. Our room was the typical chain room, but that is fine for one night. We did notice that somebody had smashed a window of a car parked in the lot, but don’t know if that is a usual occurrence.

The location of the hotel worked out well because it was right next to a shopping center. It’s amazing what you can find at K-mart and Big Lots. Somehow, I didn’t do the best job of packing and forgot a few things like sunglasses, which were readily available at the Big K.

The shuttle to the cruise port is on a schedule. Depending on which ship you are sailing, you will have a different departure time. Be sure to sign up at the desk the night before to guarantee your space.

Disappointment

We had been told that we would be receiving an upgrade, so were a bit disappointed when we found out that this wasn’t the case. But, we had chosen a larger room at the from of the ship which we were quite happy with in the first place. The check-in process went quickly and we boarded within a matter of minutes.

We did stop at the purser’s desk to be sure that there was no change in our cabin. The woman at the desk and the sign on the desk alerted us to the fact that the ship was full and that there would be no cabin changes. More on this ploy later.

By the time we were on board, our room was ready, so we went and dropped everything off and headed off to get some lunch.

Sail Away