It was a horrendous experience sailing on Celebrity’s Infinity in April 2008 on a Panama cruise from Fort Lauderdale to San Francisco.
Upon reaching the dining room table and pulling the chair out, the fingers became instantly dirty and sticky because the chairs were never cleaned. Upon seating, the hands were placed under the seat to move the chair forward. Now both hands were dirty and sticky. All over the dining room you could see that people were keeping the sanitary wipes, available at the door, to use to pull the chairs back and then forward.
The Maitre D’ never made an appearance. The assistant Maitre D’s took our special order for pasta puttanesca, a common Italian pasta. What was served the next night was veal Milanese. We reordered the pasta puttanesca and what came the next day was spaghetti with chopped tomatoes in water, a tasteless dish lacking capers, olives, garlic, and any seasoning. At another dinner, the farfalle came with the same tasteless “sauce” of chopped tomatoes and water. It made no difference what pasta was ordered, all pasta had the same tasteless, thin, watery, non-descript “sauce.”
There were no scones at a Captain’s Club elegant tea; no grapefruit halves at a breakfast in the dining room; and no Mojitos, because they were out of mint (and no one was going to find some). There were no mints in the bowl after many dinners. Often, there was not even a bowl.
The wahoo fish was very fishy; the shrimp in the shrimp cocktail was fishy and mealy; the poached halibut at the spa lunch was fishy; and the crab in the farfalle was fishy.
Even though it was on the menu, there were no stuffed zucchini. The vegetables are all cooked the same way, limp and tasteless, but the matzo balls were hard as a golf ball.
Most meats were tough and cooked cafeteria style. The osso bucco, which should fall off the bone, was as tough as can be.
An entire tray of entrées fell on the back of the lady at the next table.
When I asked the waiter for a piece of fish that could be undercooked (that is not dry and tough), I was told to preorder it with the Assistant Maitre D’. When a common item like extra bread sticks were requested, we were told that it had to be requisitioned ahead of time from the assistant Maître ‘D. The term “requisitioned” was used often to the point that the standing joke on the entire cruise was “I guess they have to requisition it.”
On the Lido deck buffet, there were too many drink machines out of order. Others were unmarked, and/or dispensed drinks incorrectly, such as dilute and watery ice tea and orange juice. Several ice machines were inoperative and two dispensed water, not ice cubes.
There were massive pieces of paint chipped off of the side of the ship revealing a metal base.
The large map posted on deck 3 showing the ships location was incorrect. It was one of South America and we were traversing the Panama Canal.
For spa service, a 75 minute salt glow and massage was scheduled by my wife. Ten minutes were devoted to completing paper work all designed to sell products. When she asked to use the restroom, it took three different attendants to find the rest room. During the service, the attendant did not know where the light for the shower was or how to turn on the hot water. There was no floor mat placed outside the shower so my wife stepped back out on salt crystals. The total service, including the wasted 10 minutes trying to sell her products, came to 65 minutes, not 75 minutes. No one thanked her or escorted her out. The next day she was called and told she did not pay. My wife was not directed to the front desk for payment upon conclusion; she was just left alone to change and leave. The spa manager never called back as she promised.
The toilet in our suite was broken and took four days to repair. The sink drain mechanism did not work. The water in the Jacuzzi was black and brackish.
The television set did not function; the remote was replaced three times and still did not work correctly by the end of the cruise. One of the remotes was held together by Scotch tape. The ITV person said that someone would fix the TV set the next morning when we were ashore; it was not. An assistant housekeeping manager came the next day and said that he would send someone immediately to fix the television set; that never happened.
There were two broken ceiling light (replaced) and when we departed, there was another broken ceiling light. The door locking mechanism was broken – the metal plate in the door jamb came off and although it was repaired, locking the door securely required a hard slam of the door.
The deck on the veranda was filthy with either bird droppings or paint spots. The gutter on the veranda deck was filthy. The Jacuzzi on the veranda was dirty with debris in it. The windows on the sliding doors leading to the veranda had not been washed for months. The cushioned fabric on the chaise lounge was old, worn, and dirty. The railing on the veranda had old, dirty and chipped varnish, making it impossible to rest your arm on the scratchy railing.
The veranda is useless because the design of the royal suites veranda is such that all the rooms on the three decks above look directly down on the veranda. We never had a morning breakfast on the veranda and could not use the lounge chairs or the Jacuzzi for that reason as there was no privacy. People above would stare right down at you.
The “advertised walk in closet” is 4-feet by 4-feet, large enough for one person to stand in a fixed position. Upon taking something off of the clothes rod, that person would then have to hold the item of clothing against the chest and then slide sideways out of the closet. The closet had three small drawers, to be shared by two people, and half of one clothes hanger rod was hidden behind the cabinet containing the three drawers and safe.
The Infinity book on the shelf in the room was eight years outdated. The IBM computer in the suite is a dysfunctional and outdated computer. IBM has not made personal computers for five years.
When I called another room, not my name but an incorrect name showed on their readout. The daily announcement stated that an “Attention to Detail” card was included. It was not. An oxymoron. There was no evaluation or questionnaire form and no invoice delivered at the end of the cruise.
I shared these deficiencies, complete with pictures, with the CEO, Don Hanrahan, and never received a reply.
Simply, the Infinity is an outdated, dysfunctional, and irrelevant ship.
Did you find anything worthwile about this cruise? This is quite a diatribe that goes against everything I know about Celebrity! Having cruised with them 23 times and having been on the Infinity a number of times, this seems quite out of the ordinary!
I am sailing on the Infinity in a month and will give a report. Maybe that letter to
Don H. got all those problems remedied.
The phone comment reminded me of our voyage on the Crown Princess. We were in stateroom 9111. When people tried calling us, they always got medical emergency. We finally figured out that instead of dialing just one 9 in from of the stateroom number that it was necessary to dial two 9's. This nearly ruined our cruise and of course we went to the purser's desk and asked for a full refund, shipboard credit and two additional free cruises.
I would say this is just an irrelevant post. I have never had any of the problems mentioned on any of my Celebrity cruises. As Char said, this goes against every experience I have ever had on "X".
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Infinity FLL-SFO 15 nts AND the Panama Canal! April 26, 2009
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