Celebrity Infinity Review

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Review for the British Isles & Western Europe Cruise on Celebrity Infinity
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Hadley NY
2-5 Cruises • Age 70s

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Sail Date: May 2014

Let me begin by saying this is our 5th cruise with Celebrity Cruise line and may be our last. The four previous experiences left us anxious to book our next cruise. This experience was very different. I am not sure if there are budget cuts that translate into unhappy crew members or what. We traveled with another couple and all decided to upgrade to Aqua Class. Upon arrival, we immediately noticed a sense of chaos as we boarded the ship. When we went to our upgraded room, we found the room very dirty; For example, a dirty straw left on the desk chair along with some form of cracker or cookie crumbs, a mirror that had fingerprints and dirt on it and what appeared to be mold at the bottom of our shower door. Determined not to let this upset our vacation, we asked to have the room serviced. The person in charge of our room acted as if we had insulted him! The usual shampoo, shower gel, and body lotion were no where to be found. We had to call for them to be delivered and then replaced several times during the cruise. This is something that previously was done automatically, when the attendant cleaned our room. As for the q-tips that used to be provided....I guess this is another cut, so bring your own. The bath towels were similar to cheese cloth, with ragged edges. I have towels that I use for rags in better condition. After 3 days in Aqua Class, we were tired of the limited menu and poor preparation and started eating in the main dining room (Trellis). The food was a little better and the menu had a better variety, but not the quality we are used to on Celebrity Cruises. We decided to try the Boutique Restaurant on board. Everyone ordered the lobster which was to be prepared table side. It was prepared if you like sushi. In addition, we found the Maître d in the Blu Restaurant to be rude. For example one afternoon we went for lunch and were told the restaurant was closed....we missed lunch. My husband responded that according to the hours posted, lunch was served until 1:30 and it was 1:25. His response was, "Well, that's on your watch, maybe". Really? Three other people in line all had the same time as we did. I would have expected that it should have been handled better. (Hello, Customer Service 101). Perhaps, the most outrageous was the disembarkment process. We were left in the terminal for several hours, waiting for the taxis we were told would be there shortly. Celebrity's explanation was that there were 3 other cruise ships in port and so the taxi's were at the other terminals. Really? I would think that with the fact that Celebrity, Royal Caribbean and Azamara have all joined under one Corporate hat, they would have a little experience (and perhaps some clout) in dealing with assisting their passengers to find transportation. At the time the passengers were arriving to start their cruise, there were still a couple of hundred people waiting for transportation.

For those of you thinking that I should have made my concerns known while still on the cruise so that the situations could be remedied, I did meet with the Captain's Club Concierge who listened politely and did nothing. Please Celebrity Management, bring back that wonderful quality, customer service and perhaps the midnight buffet (with ice sculptures) that we have come to expect and enjoy.

Cabin Review

Our experience however left us cold. Upon arrival to our room, it was obviously not clean and in very poor condition. A used straw and what appeared to be cookie crumbs were left on the desk chair, the mirror over the desk was covered in greasy smudges and dust and the shelves haven't seen a dust cloth in months. The bathroom towels looked like rags, with fringed edges and we had no shower gel, bath lotion or shampoo. There was what appeared to be black mold on the bottom of our shower door and the "hooks" on the bathroom door intended to hold towels or robes were hanging on by threads. The room safe was not secured with bolts, so anyone with room access could have walked off with it. We called for the room attendant and about 30 minutes later "Katook" showed up. He introduced himself, said he was very busy but would send his assistant back with the toiletries. Determined not to let this situation destroy our mood, I cleaned the mirror and chair. The toiletries arrived later with a young man who was clearly confused. He was trying his best to do his job, (I respect that), but he did not speak or understand English very well. Each time we showered, there was a river outside of the shower on the bathroom floor and the bath mat was 10 pounds heavier with the water that had flooded out. A carafe of tea (which we never requested) sat in our room for 3 days, before we asked to have it taken away. Ice was only delivered to our room after we were able to track down our illusive cabin attendant (Katook) who appeared to think the request was irrational.The upgraded room had a diminished view because of the overhang from the deck on the 10th level.

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