How's the infinity after dry dock?

[Toledo Cruiser]

We'll be sailing on the Infinity in early January. Just wondered how she looks after dry dock?

 

Thanks, Fellow Cruisers

[JeepLadyLtd]

We just returned from the Infinity 4 day cruise. It just came out of dry dock. Well she looked pretty good, but she wasn't ready for sailing yet. 1st stop Key West 1 day turned into 2 days and Cozumel turned into Nassau. I called it our 4 day cruise to Key West with a stop over in Nassau. I guess the software that communicated the steering of the ship broke down. They had to fly in specialist to fix it, so from Thursday Morning until Friday nite we were stuck in Key West. Thank G-d we weren't at sea when this occurred. We would have been adrift. We all got OBC from $80.00 for insides to $250.00 for Suites and CC balcony, what wasn't used was applied back to your credit card.

1st day the coffee makers were all broken in the buffet the ice machine all broke. Late dinner took 2 1/2 hours in the Trellis Dining room.

Any other questions??? I still had a nice time had a wonderful group of CC member that meet up and spent a lot of time together.

Marsha:):cool:

[benbess]

Have they replaced carpets, furniture, drapes, and repaired tiles, etc.?

 

 

Thanks!

[CKBob]

Just got off the four day Infinity cruise. The ship looked well maintained. I think they were a little short staffed because the lines were fairly long at the breakfast buffet the first day out. The problem seemed to correct itself as the week went on. Possible more staff joined the ship in Key West. I think they were in the process of adding more spanish speaking staff for the South American cruise season.

[JeepLadyLtd]

We were in CC 8082 stateroom and it looked like they recovered the furniture. Everything look very clean. Couldn't really tell if carpet was replaced. They seemed to be very unorganized. The Buffet the 1st day was a nightmare. Went up to eat lunch around 1:30-1:45 the line was just awful and didn't move for 15 minutes. There was no one there to tell you there were other Stations to get food. Like Pizza, Chinese and Italian..... It was our 1st time on this ship!

Marsha:):cool:

[Cruzinram]

A number of issues on the cruise. The ship was in nice shape. Our inside cabin looked as if the entire shower had been replaced along with a new curtain. Carpets appeared to be new. A few dents and dings here and there, but overall very nice. Some cabins had flooding issues, and the coffee issue on the first day was a nightmare. That was corrected by day two. Food and service was good all around. We had great wait staff in the main dining room, and cabin attendant was super. Entertainment was some of the best I have seen on previous Celebrity cruises. Although we experienced more problems than we have had in the past, we still enjoyed ourselves. We heard that the next sailing to South America was far below capacity. So, it may be possible that staff was reduced. Enjoy your cruise

[Toledo Cruiser]

Anyone know which areas were flooded???

[DJRed]

The ship itself looked nice, but there wer so many problems on the Dec. 3rd cruise, the first since dry dock. Chaos on the buffet lines, room service was always wrong or cold, and took an hour and a half to correct itself. We never did make it to cozumel. They had a whole new crew onboard, who didn't seem to know anything, and the public areas on the boat were cold. Ice machines broken, no cups for tea, promised things not fulfilled. The boat itself was nice though, with the room. Hopefully by the time you go, it will be all worked out. Our boat had a lot of angry customers on it.

[luv2vacation]

The ship itself looked nice, but there wer so many problems on the Dec. 3rd cruise, the first since dry dock. Chaos on the buffet lines, room service was always wrong or cold, and took an hour and a half to correct itself. We never did make it to cozumel. They had a whole new crew onboard, who didn't seem to know anything, and the public areas on the boat were cold. Ice machines broken, no cups for tea, promised things not fulfilled. The boat itself was nice though, with the room. Hopefully by the time you go, it will be all worked out. Our boat had a lot of angry customers on it.

 

I agree with this. There was nothing wrong with the ship that a little cleaning wouldn't take care of. This cruise had way too many things go wrong but they were things that could be worked out. It was just too bad for those of us who picked this particular date/ship for our vacation.

[hsubs]

The Infinity and its staff were in poor shape. Even as first time cruisers I was surprised at the poor service. I have to say, from what I hear, this is not normal for Infinity. Apparently they have a ton of new staff, this was verified by a waiter on board and a customer service rept I spoke to when we got back. I do see from other posts that the mechanical problems on board seem to be more common than a cruise ship should be. The customer service rept said they had an unprecedented number of complaints about the service on board, so my guess is they will try rectify the problems with the staff quickly. I think the water issues on board also put the staff over the edge. One waiter said he had to go 2 floors away to get clean dishes etc. The rooms did seem fine to me (regular balcony stateroom), we did not have troubles with brown water, cold water, toilets not flushing, mold etc like others we spoke to. I did see new carpets etc. Most of my complaints were immediate up keep issues (overflowing ashtrays (we don't even smoke and I noticed this), towels and empty drinks from day before scattered everywhere still the next day, not refilling soap etc) Hope this helps the toledo traveler, don't mean to scare you...I think (and hope) they will have worked out most things by the time you travel.

 

 

None the less, this is what we thougtht about our experience. Other threads I have seen have similar complaints. Frequent cruisers of and lovers of Celebrity don't respond well to the negative comments, but its just the story of what happened to us and we believe similar to many others.

 

The December 3, 2008 sailing to Key West and Cozumel was our first cruise ever. We really had few expectations , and unfortunately few were met in return! It started out great with a nice balcony room, bigger than I had anticipated, and well laid out. The buffet lunch was not very good, so I was hoping dinner would be better and it was. A chilly departure was a little late, but I figured that was normal.

 

We arrived in Key West on time and were surprised at how haphazard the docking procedure was, just a bunch of locals who showed up in street clothes with the guy in charge yelling at Infinity's crew "not to worry". We also had to dock at the Navy base, as another cruise ship was docked at the base of the downtown area of Key West (causing us to shuttle it into town instead of walk). No big deal.

 

Having previously lived in Florida, Key West was really not the destination we were looking for, but it was on the way to Cozumel! My husband and I had fun finding the restaurant we got engaged in.

 

The disappointment started when the captain announced technical difficulties with the navigation system causing a delay while someone came to fix it. We ended up leaving 24 hours later with Cozumel being canceled and Nassau, Bahamas being added. To say we were disappointed is an understatement. I was crushed, but insistent on making the best of it.

 

It became apparent, as I've seen from other reviews, that the crew did not have their act together. We ran into our waiter from the SS United States (specialty restaurant , which was spectacular and well worth the extra $30 per person) and he said they had 300 new crew and the ship was "not the same since it came out of dry dock" (just previous to our cruise), making staff morale and service poor. It was obvious there were water problems on board as well.

 

Trying to be brief, we found too many things unacceptable for a cruise ship of this nature: NO coffee, yes, NO coffee two mornings in a row! (we were told because of water pressure issues) People were walking around the buffet complaining and quite ticked off about this. Both nights we went to the martini bar they ran out of the glasses for the martini sampler. When I gave my $10 martini back to the bartender because it tasted like fruit punch, he looked at me and walked away, not even offering to try to make me a new one. Every time I got eggs they were stone cold, including room service and the buffet. We found the buffet food to be poor, but loved the Aqua Spa Cafe. We heard some complain it to be too bland, but we found it fresh, tasty and healthy for breakfast and lunch. We also found about 25 old beach towels and empty glasses on the top deck outdoor lounge area at 8am, obviously leftover from the day before. The ship was not kept very clean at all. I found it incredibly frustrating that by the end of the day 2 the Purell hand sanitizer stations were very frequently empty and it seemed I had to use 3 dispensers in the bathroom before I found one with soap. Asked for early seating, got late; asked for table for 2, got 8. I could go on more, but will stop, you get the picture.

 

After they canceled Cozumel, morale among the passengers started to get bad, but everyone commented that it was not just because of the redirection of the cruise, but the poor service on the ship. The guest services area was rampant with complaining passengers. I heard the phrase "this in my 10th cruise and its the worst!" on more than one occasion. Someone in the elevator said "this boat sucks".

 

When I got in the water, in the Bahamas, for a much anticipated snorkel (which was supposed to be in warm Cozumel) the frigid temperature took my breath away and caused me to curse one more time at Celebrity cruise lines. The roughly 8 year old kid in front of us almost had a panic attack it was so cold. We arrived back from our excursion to find our air conditioning broken and our room at around 80 some degrees.

 

Things were bad until the very end, it was extremely unorganized trying to get off the boat. Our designated exit area by the theater was jammed with people (mostly older and some on the frail side) and the doors were still not open an hour into the scheduled time to get off. We found another area that was open and they allowed us off, luckily our luggage was in hand.

 

No, it was not a very good introduction to cruising and the $120 refund (our designated amount with an outside stateroom, some got more, some less) was less than acceptable as a consolation prize. Never will I cruise Celebrity again, or recommend it to a friend.

[PINEY10]

I hope the problems do get rectified. We are also scheduled to go on the S. American cruise on Jan. 4. It is interesting though. I just returned from a Regent cruise (my first) and we had some of the same issues. We lost a day of sailing due to a fishing net that got caught in the propeller en route to Ft. Lauderdale from which our cruise began. Many of the staff were not that responsive either and seemed generally unhappy. However, there were many marvelous staffers as well. It was a themed focused cruise on chocolate and there was very little if anything of chocolate on the cruise. The ship is now in dry dock--not sure if that may have been a factor on the crew. Maybe it is something going around on cruises these days. I hope it improves on Infinity since we will be on the ship for 2 weeks.

[Cruzinram]

Just a side note. Two days ago a thread was started about this cruise. It was titled, "LIVE FROM the INFINITY". Many of these complaints were posted on that thread. Strangely, I can no longer find that thread! Wife and myself have sailed Celebrity 14 times. We are HUGE Celebrity fans! However, when the ball is dropped, as it was on this cruise, the Company needs to know about it. I would not judge Celebrity by this one cruise, but the problems need to be identified and corrected. We are looking forward to our next Celebrity adventure, on the Solstice..

[JeepLadyLtd]

Maybe Celebrity had the thread taken down!!

I found no problems with the staff....Hsubs, how would you know how the staff should act since this was your first ever cruise and post. I always had a HELLO and SMILE from all the staff members I saw as I walked around the ship. Maybe it was your rotten attitude. They will treat you the way you treat them. If you're nasty to wards them expect the same thing back.

This wasn't my 1st cruise as you can see in my signature and nothing that happened on The Infinity would stop me from sailing them again because it could happen on any cruise ship or line.

Marsha:):cool:

Edited December 10, 2008 by JeepLadyLtd

[hsubs]

I've been on plenty of vacations and to plenty of resorts. You don't have to have been on a cruise before to expect decent service. Room service on a cruise and in a hotel are basically the same. Running out of dishware and not cleaning up after customers is the same in a hotel as on a cruise. You get my point. And I don't think all those saying it was the worst cruise out of 6, 10 or 12 cruises they've been on would have said so if they thought it was a joyride.

 

In fact I only spoke with the front desk and one maitre de about problems, I did not go running around complaining to everyone, I tried to make the best of it. I was nothing but pleasant to the staff, even the ones who were rude to me.

 

Not knowing me, or how I acted on the cruise makes your comments in poor taste.

 

I heard plenty of others loudly complaining, though! And also find it strange that the thread about this particulare cruise disappeared.

 

It doesn't take an experienced cruiser to get a bad cruise and I agree it could happen on any cruise line, unfortunately it happened to me on that cruise and so when someone asks how the Infinity is after dry dock I tell them the truth.

[luv2vacation]

I didn't have any problems with the staff - in fact many of them were a bit unhappy themselves. My room steward told us that he was over worked. He said the devil wouldn't do his job and that cruising is bad. I did have a good time on my trip but it was because I was able to enjoy the time in Key West and Nassau. I would be lying if I said I received the service that is advertised by Celebrity. I actually tried to keep my feelings to myself but every person I met brought up the fact that there were a multitude of problems on this ship. I usually cruise Royal Caribbean but I thought Celebrity was supposed to be a step up. I am sure the experienced Celebrity cruiser would agree that this cruise was not the normal experience for this cruise line. Am I wrong in that assumption? If I went on another Celebrity cruise could I expect it to be better or was this cruise the standard product? As a first time Celebrity cruiser it is important to me to know this fact. Before this cruise I was wanting to book a cruise on the Solstice. Now I wonder if that would be a good decision.

[saltyair]

I think the unusual conditions for this cruise have been covered accurately on this thread. The original poster did ask about the condition of the ship. Overall, the furnishings looked good in the public areas, but the bathroom in our cabin was in need of refurbishing. Grout was broken and needed cleaning and the shower curtain was not clean and had quite a bit of mold in the center.

The staff that we encountered, particularly those in the dining room, were pleasant and cordial.

[Opal91086]

Any info on deck 11 Aqua class cabins would be appreciated.

[melsuli]

Seven years is a long time......;)