To Infinity

The plan was for the family to converge on Miami the night before the cruise. Thomas would arrive first from Atlanta. He hung out at the airport for a half-hour waiting for Janie, J. R. and Rebecca to land from Chicago. We picked up our checked luggage and took a hotel shuttle to a nearby Hampton Inn and waited for Alex. He arrived shortly before midnight from Houston and after waiting for the shuttle for awhile, finally arrived at the hotel. We talked for a little while then turned in for the night.

To The Ship and Lunch

We ate breakfast in the hotel and rearranged our suitcases to pull out the items we wanted for the first day on the ship. Janie called for an Uber, which came quickly, and we arrived at the port shortly after 11AM. After dropping off our bags with the porter, we entered Terminal G at the Port of Miami. There were no lines to check our boarding documents or security. The security agent wasn't happy about our backpack with a laptop (Becca's, so she could work on college essays) and several iPads. But we didn't trust putting electronics in our checked bags. There was also no line for check-in and we walked right onto the Infinity, picking up a glass of champagne on the way.

We headed straight to the pool deck to check out the Solarium and pools. The Oceanview buffet was not supposed to be open until 11:30, but when we got there at around 11:15, it was already open, so we sat down and had our first cruise meals. There was a good variety of food but the layout of the buffet was odd. There was a section up front with a carving station and Indian food as well as another section with other hot foods, desserts and breads. We ate from that and then J. R. walked to the back to find a restroom and discovered another section with pizza and pasta and a grill.

Christmas Decorations

We were excited to see the ship was decked out for the holidays. We had done a Christmas cruise in Norwegian a few years ago and the decorations had looked like they have picked them up at Party City at the last minute. But Celebrity put up decorations that rivaled Disney with a variety of gingerbread houses and several Christmas trees.

Staterooms

After having our first bar drinks, we heard the call that the staterooms were ready so we went down there to drop off our carry-on. The kids had an indoor stateroom on deck three while the adults were down the hall in an oceanview stateroom. While we were there our luggage started to arrive, so we took the time to unpack before the safety drill, which was held in the theater.

Sailaway

Following the drill, we skipped the elevators and climbed up seven flights of stairs to the pool deck where we found some chairs and waited for sailaway. As we left Miami, we saw "our" ship, the Disney Magic waiting to leave. The Magic is the ship we have sailed on the most, and was also the ship on which we had taken our most recent Christmas cruise.

Pool Deck

We were lounging by the pool as storm clouds gathered, so we passed on actual pool time and headed back downstairs to find an indoor bar, finally settling in the Rendezvous Lounge.

Showtime

Our cruise director, Lewis, introduced the entertainment for the night, which was Marcus Terell and the Serenades. The daily had said this was a celebration of "the music of Motown, pop and soul". This wasn't really our style of music, but we decided to try it and were glad we did. Terell had appeared on American Idol and America's Got Talent and came out with a lot of energy. While we weren't fans of some of the songs, he did sing some newer music as well as an original song that was very good. The Serenades, two female backup singers/dancers were also very good and added humor, particularly by cutting into Marcus.

Pre-Dinner

Prior to dinner, we headed to the martini bar for a drink. This had been our favorite place on the Celebrity Reflection over the summer, but the layout on the Infinity made it less enjoyable. There was not much seating around the actual bar and a limited number of waiters walking around serving guests. We finally flagged down a waiter, though, and got our first martinis of the cruise.

Dinner

We had the late seating in the main dining room with our waiters Raj and Raj. Dinner would be the least enjoyable part of our cruise, mainly due to the service, but also because we found the food to be uninspiring. The odd service began with the sommelier. He asked if we wanted any wine and J. R. asked if they had a wine list. The sommelier said to let him know if we wanted red or white and he would make a suggestion. J. R. asked again if they had a wine list, since there were some specific wines we liked from the Reflection and we wanted to see if they had those. The sommelier seemed confused that we wouldn't just take whatever wine he suggested and finally brought over a list.

We found the dinner menus to be uninspired on this cruise as opposed to the Reflection but the food was generally cooked well and tasty. All of us opted for the Crispy Thai Beef Spring Rolls and J. R. and Rebecca split Escargot. Several of us had the aged prime rib, which was well seasoned. For dessert, there was a Chocolate Cherry "Triffle" on one menu which was spelled correctly on another of our menus, which seemed strange. The servers sang "Happy Anniversary" to us, but in another odd experience, they sang it to J. R. (after coming around to find our which one of us was "John") and placed the cake in front of him. We were a little concerned they thought Rebecca, seated between Janie and J. R. was the bride! After dinner, we considered the 60's dance party, but after very little sleep the night before, we decided to call it a night and adjourned to our staterooms.

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