Found ‘deficiencies’ on ship
I found sailing from Fort Lauderdale to San Francisco on a Panama Canal cruise aboard Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Infinity, April 13-28, 2008, to be a horrendous experience. For a suite with balcony, the cost was $8,328 per person, double occupancy, excluding airfare.
In our suite, the toilet was broken and took four days to repair. The sink drain mechanism did not work. In the tub Jacuzzi in our cabin, the water came out black and brackish.
The television set did not function. We were told that someone would fix it when we were ashore; it was not fixed. The remote for the TV was replaced three times yet by the end of the cruise still did not work correctly.
When I called another cabin, not my name but someone else’s showed on their readout.
Two ceiling lights were replaced, and upon our departure another ceiling light had burned out.
The metal plate in the doorjamb came off and, although it was repaired, locking our cabin door securely required a hard slam of the door.
The design of the royal suites veranda is such that all the cabins on the three decks above look directly down on it. Since there was no privacy, we never had a morning breakfast on the veranda and did not use the lounge chairs or the Jacuzzi there. People above would stare right down at you.
In addition, the gutter on the veranda deck was filthy. The Jacuzzi on the veranda had leaves and debris in it. The windows on the sliding doors leading to the veranda seemed to have not been washed for months. The cushioned fabric on the chaise lounge was worn and dirty.
In the dining room, pulling the chair out at our table left my fingers sticky and dirty. After pulling my chair forward by its seat, both hands were sticky. We could see that people all over the dining room were using the sanitary wipes, available at the door, to pull their chairs forward and then back.
The maître d’ never made an appearance. The assistant maitre d’s took our special order for pasta puttanesca, a common Italian dish, but what was served to us the next night was veal Milanese. My wife, Rosemary, and I reordered the pasta puttanesca and what came the next day was spaghetti with chopped tomatoes in water, in my opinion a tasteless dish, since it was lacking capers, olives, garlic and seasoning.
At another dinner, the farfalle came with the same tasteless “sauce” of chopped tomatoes and water.
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 was no stuffed zucchini. Also, the vegetables all were cooked the same way, limp and tasteless. The matzo balls, however, were hard as golf balls. Most meats were tough and cooked cafeteria style. The osso bucco, which should have fallen off the bone, was as tough as could be.
When I asked the waiter for a piece of fish undercooked (that is, not dry and tough), I was told to preorder it with the assistant maître d’. When we requested extra bread sticks, we were told they had to be requisitioned ahead of time from the assistant maître d’. The term “requisitioned” was used so often that it became a standing joke among passengers.
My wife, Rosemary, scheduled a 75-minute salt glow and massage spa service. Ten minutes were devoted to completing paperwork, all seemingly designed to sell products. 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 onto salt crystals.
The total service, including the paperwork, came to 65 minutes, not 75 minutes. The masseuse said, “Okay, I am done,” leaving Rosemary to change and leave alone. Not having been directed to pay, my wife figured the charges would be added to the cabin account. There was no one at the counter, and no one thanked her or escorted her out.
The next day the spa manager called and told my wife that she had not paid.
Rosemary went back to the spa, had the charge added to our ship’s account and then expressed her displeasure about her experience the day before. The desk clerk promised that the spa manager would call back, but she did not.
The ship’s printed daily announcement stated that an “Attention to Detail” card was included. It was not.
I shared these deficiencies, complete with pictures, with the cruise line’s CEO but never received a reply to my letter.
Simply, I feel the Celebrity Infinity is an outdated and dysfunctional ship.
HARRY WONG
Saratoga, CA
ITN sent a copy of the above letter to Celebrity Cruises (1050 Caribbean Way, Miami, FL 33132) and received no reply.