I can't blame Celebrity, it's agents or representatives for this mess as I picked this cruise as it fitted with my time off work and was going through the Panama Canal (which is what I wanted to do).

This cruise was awful! The average age of the passengers was over 75 (no I'm not kidding!). The trip didn't get off to a good start as there was no "meet & greet" staff at L.A. airport to assist with transfers to the hotel for an overnight stay-although there was one Celebrity rep at LHR to check details. There were some staff from a company called "Gateway" to assist with the transfers to the ship. I did speak to these people to voice my concerns about the lack of Celebrity staff. They did say that they had been spoken to by a great many on the same subject and tried to apologise on behalf of Celebrity. I told them that this was not of their doing and I would be contacting Celebrity directly.

After 4days onthis trip, I seriously considered "jumping ship" as I was completely bored out of my mind but I decided to stick it out as "being bored to death" was not a clause on my travel insurance. I spoke to the hotel director-a British guy-and he told me that even the staff had started to complain that there were no guests to serve at the bars as everybody went to bed or back to thier cabins after the early evening meal sitting had finished. I transferred to a late sitting after one night on my early sitting on a table with seven members of the living dead on it.

The five main bars on the ship were virtually empty all the time and the "nightclub" in my opinion was a joke. This consited of a very large room with a six-piece band playing on the stage. At any one time there were no more than fifty people in this room-and that was a busy night! An exception was for themed night such as county & western night and then people couldn't get in the door. One extreme to another.

Even the casino was empty all the time. Taking into consideration that gambling in illegal in almost all US states I find this quite remarkable. Apart from a few hard-core gamblers, the staff just sat a bout with nothing to do.

There was a theatre on the Infinity but I can't comment on the entertainment provided as I didn't see a show. The entertainment while at sea was another matter. All the activities seemed to cater for the pensioner and nobody else. Most of my days at sea cosisted of getting up for a late breakfast and then going back to my cabin to watch TV. There were several guest speakers and I did attend the lectures which I found very interesting. One guest speaker talked about the history of the Panama Canal and another lectured about US serial killers and terrorist groups. Although the latter appears quite gruesome, the talks on both subjects were very interesting.

The staff were very helpful and I can't fault them. But several of the staff who spoke to me (off the record) described the cruise as "barge of the dead" and "zombie cruise". Every time a lift door opened, I could almost gaurantee a wheelchair or electric scooter would get out of the lift. I almost expected to be offered some kind of walking aid to fit in with the crowd.

I got to know an American called Alvin. He informed me of an orgaisation called the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). This is the US equivalent of Saga. They block book cruise ships and sell the cabins to their members at a discount. Alvin did say that in his opinion that the AARP had got hold of this ship hence the very high average age.

The food on board was quite varied and a very high quality if you went to the main Trellis Restaurant. The Oceanview Grill was a different matter. This was mainly a buffet serving breakfast, lunch and evening meals if you didn't want to go for a "sit-down" meal. The main problem was that the food on offer didn't change one tiny little bit during the entire cruise. The selections for breakfast and evening meals was indentical all the time! A little variation would have been welcome. The lunch menu consisted of burger and fries (genuine) British fish and chips plus various sandwiches and snacks-mainly for the American taste which meant high fat content and fried stuff-not my particular taste.

Therer were some good points to this trip. The shore excusions were very good indeed. I pre-booked mine on-line. The trips were of a very high standard and quite varied. In Acapulco, I participated in a baby turtle release program which in a small way helped to save them from being eaten by the gulls etc..The turles that I released (along with 30 or so other people) were Gaulini turtles and were less than three inches long. The rest of the trips I booked were to the Spanish Inquisition in Cartegena, Colombia-bird watching/coastal sailing/general sightseeing in Mexico and although were quite crowded everybody seemed to enjoy them.

In conclusion, Celebrity Infinity-not good for families, very high average age of the guests, not a lot of activities no board (unless you are a pensioner), no night life (all the bars usually closed around 1 am) and nobody in the bars drinking! I will not be travelling with Celebrity again and I suggest to anybody considering doing so to think very hard before booking!