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Our family of four just returned from our third “spring
break” cruise. We sailed on Disney for our first two cruises, but decided to
try another line this year. In addition to our boys, ages 8 and 11, my husband
and I were joined by my parents on the Infinity’s March 12 – 19 Eastern
Caribbean cruise.
We had a fantastic cruise -- great weather, smooth seas and
a wonderful ship. Although we have had wonderful cruises with Disney, I think
that the Infinity better suited our family at this time.
We flew down the night before the cruise and stayed at the
Courtyard by Marriott Fort Lauderdale Airport and Cruise Port. It is new,
clean, has a nice outside pool, a good morning buffet (not included) and a free
shuttle from both the airport and to the port. It's about 10 minutes from the
airport and 10 minutes from the port.
We took the hotel shuttle to the port and boarded the
Infinity around 11:30. Our room was ready, so we dropped off our carry-on bags
and went to the buffet lunch. The buffet area on the Infinity is substantially
larger than the Disney ships’ buffets, so it doesn’t feel as cramped and
"assembly line-like." Infinity's buffet seating area has more tables that are
spaced farther apart. Although there were more buffet food choices (both at
lunch and dinner) on Infinity, the food is still buffet food. It's funny; on
Disney we usually had breakfast in the dining room because it was quieter (less
little kids); on Infinity we usually had breakfast in the buffet because it was
quieter (less loud talking older folks).
Our favorite place for lunch on Infinity was the Spa Cafe.
It had great light lunches (like poached salmon or pita filled with baby shrimp
salad) and was quiet. On Disney we usually ate by the pool. We thought that
Disney's pool-side food was far better. We missed Disney's fresh fruit that was
served in bite size pieces right next to their ice cream area, but we preferred
Infinity's "real" ice creams and sherbets, as opposed to Disney's soft serve.
The dinner dining room food on Infinity was very good, much
better than Disney's dinner food. The beef was excellent, but the fish was only
so-so. I thought that the dining room service was similar; both were very good,
attentive and fun. The dining experience on the Infinity, however, was more
leisurely than that of Disney. I always felt rushed during dinner on Disney,
but found that we could linger over coffee on the Infinity.
The Royal Suite on the Infinity was pretty comparable to
the Cat. 3 suite on Disney, but we really missed the second bathroom you get
with a Disney Cat. 3 stateroom. (I'm glad that I don't have two girls.) I
thought that the stateroom attendants on Infinity were significantly more
efficient. Our room was "done" every time we came back from breakfast. I
assume that on Infinity the stateroom attendants have fewer rooms assigned to
them.
The butler on Infinity filled much the same role as the
concierge on Disney. He made reservations at the spa, specialty restaurant and
excursions. In addition to bringing any room service we ordered, he always
brought tea, finger sandwiches, pastries and cookies every day at 4:00 pm and
appetizers at 5:00 pm. Since my parents usually joined us for pre-dinner drinks
in our room, the butler also brought extra appetizers for them. Although
certainly not necessary, the butler service was a very nice luxury.
The boys didn't use the kids' club on Infinity, but then
they didn't use it the last time on Disney either. We really prefer hanging out
as a family. Even though we had perfect weather, the pools were empty on
Infinity (though the seating around the pools was hard to come by). Our boys
loved the fact that there were almost no kids in the pools. They had had
problems on Disney with unsupervised kids using water pistols in the pools. On
the other hand, they really missed the fresh water in Disney's pools.
I doubt that any ship can beat Disney when it comes to
family entertainment. We didn't go to any shows on the Infinity. They didn't
sound interesting to the boys and the show for the main dinner seating started
too late for us. The Infinity has a lot of lounges, each of which seemed to
draw a distinctly different clientele. We tended to hang out in Michael's Club
after dinner and enjoy the music and an after dinner drink, while the boys
played chess on the sets that were set up around the room. We also had a
memorable evening in the Constellation room (in the front of the ship) as we
sailed out of San Juan under a full moon. The two forts and the walls around
Old San Juan were bathed in moonlight. Beautiful.
We didn't do any organized excursions. We took the ship's
shuttle to Altos Chavon at Casa de Campo. (Not worth the time, but we wanted to
take the boys off the ship.) In San Juan, we took a cab up to the fortress El
Moro. After exploring the fort, we walked downhill through Old San Juan. We
had lunch at the restaurant in the famous El Convento Hotel. It was very good.
We did a "beach day" in St. Thomas. The Infinity was the first ship in port,
so we got off early and were at Magen's Bay beach by 8:30am. It was empty and
beautiful. We headed back to the ship around 11:30, had lunch on the ship, then
enjoyed an empty pool. On Nassau we just went to the Pirate Museum on our own.
The museum was small but well done.
The Disney and Celebrity cruise experiences, at least for
our family, were both very good but very different. There certainly were less
kids on the Infinity than the Disney ships and many more retired couples, but at
no time did we feel out of place. The other passengers seemed to expect that
more kids would be on board at this time of year, and the crew genuinely seemed
to enjoy having kids on board. We have a very fun and very relaxing family
vacation.
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