Saturday, January 10, 2009

Cruising the High Seas

It turns out 2 ½ years is the absolute worst age for a child to board a cruise ship and expect to have some fun. Not quite potty trained, Alex was banned from any of the “Ship Mates” big kid activities in the Youth X-Club like the slide, ball pit, swimming pools and more. A little too big for the “Toddler Time” in the baby room, he wasn’t welcome to play with little ones there either. That doesn’t leave much for a little guy with a lot of energy trapped aboard a floating vessel.

The Celebrity Infinity docks at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale. The eleven story ship carries 2100 passengers and 900 crew. It boasts a couple of swimming pools, the Aqua Spa, several restaurants for casual and fine dining, dance floors, a movie theater, casino, high end duty free shopping, and a collection of different musicians and comedians to entertain. While they claim excellent service, Pedro the stateroom attendant was much more helpful than anyone at the Guest Services, where you end up spending hours waiting in line every day because of one mix-up or another. The internet package for a few days of floating at sea will cost you more than a month’s rent, and you won’t be able to find ‘hot spots’ to use it outside business service office.

The four day trip cruise was suppose to make a ½ day stop in Key West, FL and then head south to Cozumel, Mexico for snorkeling and shopping, but after the ship’s navigation system broke down and we ended up marooned in Key West and rerouted for a few hours in the Bahamas as a consolation prize.

So, while the cruise wasn’t quite all it was advertised and Celebrity doesn’t deserve any praises, Alex did make friends with the pizza guy after 5 trips a day to get a slice, raced the elevators up-and-down, and learned how to eat ice cream in a cone. But, the highlight was his hours breaking the rules splashing in the Jacuzzi --- oops, hope those swim diapers work!