#CelebrityFail (Infinity Antarctica Cruise 1/21/18 - 2/4/18)

We are writing to express our disappointment with this cruise. As this is our 8th cruise with Celebrity, we have known what to expect in quality, service and value of the cruise. We planned and committed to this trip around two years ago, including doing all excursions through Celebrity.

Issues about this cruise:

1. The practically last minute notification of the non-functioning engine and pod (propulsion system) was not clearly explained to us prior to the trip. Although an email was sent that stated the speed would be reduced ‘by a few knots’, that hardly explained the gravity of the situation. We constantly heard dire warnings that the ship had its speed reduced significantly thus impacting the stops we were to make and the safety of the ship in bad weather. Not reassuring. We also were deceived in believing that none of the other ports besides Porto Madryn would be affected, but the slower speed absolutely prevented our ability to stop at Port Stanley, as the day we should have been there (in normal boat speed) would have been fine weather, instead of the stormy weather we had there the following day which forced the captain to cancel yet another port of call. One navigation expert said the ship averaged 14 knots in this trip.
   
2. We were told that we would be in Ushuaia by 2:00 pm and we didn’t arrive before 4:30 pm, which shortened excursions, shops were closed, and this really impacted the visit to Ushuaia. We couldn’t even get the much touted ‘End of the World’ certificate because we had to rush to the excursions and couldn’t get to the government office to receive it. The cruise director and Mickey Live both mentioned this treat and we couldn’t even get it. We were just rushed to our excursion and by the time we got back, most stores were closed. The day started too late to be enjoyable.
   
3. The crew were working like dogs, extended shifts, and after 10 days at sea, even their customer service was understandably suffering. They were tired, over worked, stressed because their was no break. Supplies were running low, so we couldn’t get, for instance, proper orange slices in our drinks or paper cups for hot drinks. No spinach for eggs Benedict, etc. Provisions weren’t picked up in Port Stanley and even hot paper cups disappeared from the OceanView cafe.
   
4. Last night we complained to Guest Relations about the cruise and our disappointment in the severe changes to the itinerary. To not prepare your onboard staff for the onslaught of justified complaints is inexcusable. For them to say ‘tell it to Miami’ is disgusting. Give them answers for thousands of irate passengers. Today we witnessed hundreds of passengers meeting up in the OceanView cafe signing up for a class action lawsuit against Celebrity. Who wants to see this kind of behavior while on vacation? Why has Celebrity let it get so bad? The company could have nipped this entire negative situation in the bud and chose not to. Hey Celebrity, take the financial loss on this cruise and do the right thing. Reimburse passengers properly. Don’t make us wait to beg for compensation.
   
5. All of your seasoned staff, many with 10-20 years experience with Celebrity, are shaking their heads and have said they never saw such a poorly executed cruise. Even they agree that the company is being very slow to respond to the customers complaints.
   
6. If we had stuck to the original itinerary, all ports could have been visited. The day we were supposed to be at the Falkland Islands, the weather was fine. The propulsion system significantly impacted this trip. Admit it already.
   
7. Every person is aware that the only reason that Montevideo has been extended is to provision the ship for the next cruise. Celebrity has extended the hours to start at 6:00 am so they can provision the ship. What sights will we see at 6:00 am? None. The selfishness of Celebrity has been noted.
   
8. For Celebrity to not figure out another port for us to stop at to see wildlife is incomprehensible. And this is coming from your higher up crew! Your own crew, many of them, are shaking their heads.
   
9. With so many sea days on this cruise, nothing was done to add new activities and entertainment to the daily planners. Except for Jane Curry in the last night. Your band worked like animals and we hope you compensate them. Only the absolute minimum was added even with so many disappointed and bored passengers. How about an extra comedian, more free movies in the rooms, or other group activities to keep passengers from grumbling and wallowing in their negativity towards the 2 port cancellations, a third shortened out of 4?
   

Why do we have to write this letter? Why hasn’t Celebrity taken care of their passengers, captain club members, Aqua Class members?

Of course we will let Costco travel know of the lack of response by Celebrity. We hope not only every travel agent hears about this crusie but that travel sites like CruiseCritic get an earful.

We demand significant compensation back for this trip. Antarctica was fabulous, but was really the only thing that went right in this crusie. We have two future cruises planned with Celebrity, but we will be looking to see how this is handled before we decide if it’s time to have loyalty to a more professional cruise line.

Deleted, I was too snarky.

Wow...I am sorry to hear this. All I could complain about was the food in the MDR on our 14 day cruise this month, but this is really serious.

Sorry for the outcome of your sailing and its' unsatisfactory nature.

Sounds like there were attorneys aboard who could help with the Class Action... how fortunate for that.

bon voyage

Yes, very serious, and at least 500 passengers are trying to get their similar complaints onto social media. So far Celebrity’s response is that no more compensation will be forthcoming (beyond reimbursement for cancelled excursions).

I’m sorry you had a disappointing cruise. I do understand being frustrated about missing experiences you had been looking forward to for months or years. However, I have also recently seen complaints about cancelled cruises on Infinity. It seems as though Celebrity had to make command decisions to either cancel or proceed with scheduled cruises (knowing reduced speed might impact port schedules). Impacted passengers are unhappy either way. I do want to point out that this region is known for conditions that may cause even fully functioning ships to skip ports.

Based on your letter, it appears the ship had plenty of food (barring a few items) drink, and functional plumbing, heating and cooling. In addition, the staff and musicians worked hard to take care of passengers and keep them entertained. Personally, I would not be bored while being pampered on a beautiful ship, while viewing beautiful scenery (even that seen from the ship), but everyone is different. I hope you receive acknowledgment of your complaints from Celebrity, as well as swift compensation for cancelled shore excursions. I also hope you’re left with happy memories of this trip of a lifetime, despite having had disappointments.

I am so sorry about the many issues that you encountered on your cruise. The Infinity has been having issues, is old and it seems like Celebrity did not do the appropriate maintenance. We had entertained the idea of doing a cruise on her last October, but all of my research gave me an uneasy feeling, so I never booked. Furthermore, you are cruising in a part of the world that has a variety of weather conditions, but your complaints do not include this fact.

You, on the other hand, planned this cruise for two years, so I totally understand. Your cruise was very sub-par and it was not your fault. Celebrity's land tours seem to be canceled quite often lately, so next cruise, if you book another one, try using your roll call for small group tours. However, it seems as if you had chosen those instead there still would have possibly been issues, It is so frustrating to wait, anticipate and then be let down by a company you thought you could trust. I would suggest that you write a letter to corporate or a least give them a call, especially since you feel Celebrity dropped the ball on your cruise.

We all share disappointment in many different ways, depending on the situation. Again, I am sorry that your expectations were depleted and Celebrity could have done better on this particular cruise.

Thank you for your sympathies. We certainly weren’t “bored”, even with having 10 sea days in a row. We were still on vacation and were able to relax. The point is Celebrity recently won a multimillion dollar lawsuit from Rolls Royce regarding faulty jet propulsion issues on their ships, and their stock is doing exceptionally well these days. They can certainly afford to make a more generous gesture to their passengers for missing so much on this “cruise of a lifetime,” even if it were incentives for a future Celebrity cruise. I have no issue if weather or political unrest causes a port to be cancelled, but when itinerary changes are due to negligence by a huge corporation, then the corporation’s customers have a right to seek proper compensation.

Sorry to hear about the misfortune, but you are safe. We were on the Infinity for a Feb 2010 Antarctic cruise, In the Drake passage we hit 75 K winds and 38 ft seas and succeeded safe passage. It would be dangerous to have one propulsion system working.

I understand your frustration. We were on the Big Red Boat ( in the 90's) out of Miami and the 20 year old ship lost half of her propulsion in the Eastern Caribbean. We missed ports and limped back home. ..

Thanks, Floridatravelersforlife. Did you get any compensation for that Caribbean cruise with ports missed? Also, did you make the Port Stanley port after such a rough Drake’s Passage?

I support your actions in this. Only when a cruise line is taken to task do changes happen.

Filling out questionnaires and comment cards is total waste of time.

You paid for an expensive cruise. If the Infinity is not up to the task and it isnt, Celeb should not be using it in the challenging Antarctic environment.

If more took action as you have, other matters may also be improving. Instead it seems this cruise line has made some very unfavorable decisions on all kinds of levels and many loyal clients are looking elsewhere.

Running out of certain foods / products on the Infinity was not just because of missing ports; Miami is not properly stocking the ship. On our Christmas Infinity cruise the buffet ran out of hot chocolate packets about a third of the way into the cruise and they were never restocked. The cafe ran out of their specialty teas and paper cups by mid-cruise. Garnishes on mixed drinks also disappeared by mid-cruise.

Infinity guest services and staff were already stressed from our cruise with the elitist family groups yelling at them / disrespecting them, and the cartel kids running amok. Miami has the Infinity understaffed for the number of passengers Celebrity is boarding and the more extreme areas where they are cruising the Infinity.

Changing the docking time in Montevideo to 6 AM also occurred on our cruise; on Christmas Day! Not even the central Cathedral started Christmas Mass until 10 AM. Montevideo was a ghost town on Christmas, just a few vendors on the plaza and a couple cafes near the port were opened during our time in port.

It looks like Celebrity won't be sending Infinity back to South America after this season. It will be in Europe next year.

Sorry to hear about the misfortune, but you are safe. We were on the Infinity for a Feb 2010 Antarctic cruise, In the Drake passage we hit 75 K winds and 38 ft seas and succeeded safe passage. It would be dangerous to have one propulsion system working.

 

I understand your frustration. We were on the Big Red Boat ( in the 90's) out of Miami and the 20 year old ship lost half of her propulsion in the Eastern Caribbean. We missed ports and limped back home. ..

Thanks, Floridatravelersforlife. Did you get any compensation for that Caribbean cruise with ports missed? Also, did you make the Port Stanley port after such a rough Drake’s Passage?

Thanks, Floridatravelersforlife. Did you get any compensation for that Caribbean cruise with ports missed? Also, did you make the Port Stanley port after such a rough Drake’s Passage?

Ours was a different cruise with different issues. We missed Port Stanley and aborted Antarctica (storm) and sailed to Ushaia. Corporate then ordered the ship ( with no power issues) to sail again for Antarctica where we spent extra time. extraordinary. So we were compensated.

Infinity I believe is the only ship in the fleet that can sail to Antarctica due to its unique fuel requirement ( light oil instead of Bunker C) If Celebrity is pulling Infiinity off the itinerary, then no more Antarctic cruises. Perhaps all those Drake Passages took their toll.

Infinity I believe is the only ship in the fleet that can sail to Antarctica due to its unique fuel requirement ( light oil instead of Bunker C) If Celebrity is pulling Infiinity off the itinerary, then no more Antarctic cruises. Perhaps all those Drake Passages took their toll.

The Eclipse is doing this cruise the next 2 seasons.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Surprised to hear S Class ships have light oil engines and that they have Lloyds double hull certification. Learned something new.

Thank you so much for posting this. We were on the same cruise and you did an excellent job communicating the details. Celebrity Cruises clearlyprioritizes their profit and not guests. On our second night we had dinner with the Captain and he shared with us that they were expecting very rough seas on our return from Antarctica and that a possible solutionmight be staying in Antarctica a day longer to avoid them... That could have been a very appealing solution, but obviously that never happened and instead our ship was sent straight into the rough seas. Knowingthe weather and rough seas we were expecting, paired with the propulsionproblems of the ship - Logically, Celebrity would have known that it wasinevitable that we would have the other delays, missed ports, and problems that we encountered prior to our embarkation. Since our return, our experience with Celebrity Customer Service has also not been beneficial. If you have any success with achieving a proper resolution, please contact us - We would greatly apprecaite it.

Sounds unfortunate although it seems the Captain was doing the best he could in the circumstances. The alternative of cancelling the cruise would not have made sense given that the main point of the cruise was visiting Antarctica, which as you say was fantastic.

As for missed ports, in that part of the world you take your chances with or without propulsion system problems. Schedule changes are an unfortunate part of cruising and their effects cannot be anticipated in advance. I don't believe you were "deceived" into believing other ports would not be affected. You missed Port Stanley because of the weather which cannot be predicted, whether or not you were on schedule.

The other complaints seem like poor planning and an inability to adapt effectively when things don't go to plan. I can definitely sympathise with your complaints in that department.

Thanks for sharing your opinion.

In the need the only opinion that matters is each of our own.

Keith

Thank you, how do you join the classic action lawsuit?

Pure insanity to take a ship with a non-fully functioning propulsion system across the Drake. Nuts.

We were also on this cruise. We had our reservations one year before departure. Of course Antarctica was the main focus for us - all the wildlife we would see up close and personal. We saw very little because of a crippled ship and inept decision-makers. As stated in other reviews, we arrived at Ushuaia after 4PM. The revised schedule showed arrival much earlier. Then we were not able to get close to any structure to see wildlife in the places in Antarctica. The cancelled ports were cancelled because of poor planning and decisions. Had we been on schedule, we would have made at least Port Stanley. When the Captain knew we had lingered too long to make it to the Falklands before the storm, why would he have not stayed in Antarctica longer, and arrived in Port Stanley the next day? Montevideo was fun for us, but given a chance, we would have swapped Port Stanley for it any day!

if you had missed these ports due to bad weather I'd say it's happened to all of us, but it sounds like the majority of the problems are due to the broken propulsion system, I'd say Celebrity has a responsibility to put you on a working ship. (of course I'm sure it's somewhere in the fine print that the ship doesn't actually have to be fully functioning)

Back in the early 2000's when the M class ships were new there were many cruises cancelled or interrupted due to the Azi pod problems. We hesitated to book at the time, but Celebrity was stepping up & fully compensating those whose cruise was ruined due to the mechanical problems, so we cruised Infinity twice, & were lucky not to have problems.

I would hope that they will still stand up & accept some responsibility for sending out a ship that was not functioning properly.

Thanks for your thoughts.