Summary - Infinity South America Jan 18.15

A good day Cruise Critic members.

Some feedback regarding our Infinity South America Jan 18, 2015 2 week cruise.

Overall, good.

Three issues marred the cruise - an unwanted upgrade, significant noise and obvious decline in main dining room food quality.

1) Meeting Historic Celebrity Standards - The "Premium" line of the mass cruise lines

* Service Staff. Simply outstanding. We have sailed Celebrity since 1992, the first season of the Zenith. This crew was the best we have ever been graced with. Every staff member was friendly and so helpful. There were no staff shortages noticeable - plenty at the pool, bars, ocean view cafe. Alexandra, the Captains club hostess, was particularly outstanding and our room steward John was great. Our team in the dining room, Hugo and Dexter, provided the best dining experience we have been graced with on a Celebrity ship ever.

* The Elite breakfast and cocktails. Celebrity, this is a class act. Totally outstanding in organization, product, service. Alexandra was the hostess of the Elite product, so well done. This specific item made a huge difference in our cruise.

* Ocean View Cafe. Generally, the food quality and choice was very good and there was limited "cutbacks" that we could see. The cold meat "bar" was something we have not seen, perhaps related to the large european crowd on the ship.

2) Product Cheapening Well Under Way

* Officer Visability and Interaction. There was a signifcant decline in the friendliness of the officer cadre - they were visible but less engaging. This may have something to do with the captain who was very uncomfortable in public. At guest relations one night, about 6 officers assembled. I enquired as to what they would be doing and I got a real cold shoulder.

* Food item 1. This really is the example I focus on. On the room service tray was artifical coffee creamer - yes chemicals to pour into the poor quality coffee. No half and half as in the past. A "modern luxury" cruise line providing fake creamer? Real half and half was available in the ocean view cafe.

* Food in the dining room. Very apparent, the food quality and presentation has declined. At our table of 8 were seasoned travellers all of whom have travelled on Celebrity repeatedly. Each nite, approximately 25% of our table mates returned their food due to poor quality and smell. Some nights it ended up with half ordering something different. Never seen this before. The fish dishes were particularly bad. The food was very bland. There were no really outstanding dishes that we can remember. The 2 dishes I order on each Celebrity cruise - the tangine and the apple tart tartin where so cheapend that I was very disappointed. The pain au chocolate available in the morning in the ocean view cafe has been changed from pastry to bread - a very distinct difference.

* The chocolates are gone as previously reported.

* Bed linens. The thin sheets and coverlet and towels was something we really noticed. The bed was wrinkled and looked very cheap. We reviewed pictures of our room from previous Celebrity cruises and it is really noticeable the difference.

3) Specific Issues

Upgrade - Our file always includes a notation of "no upgrade". Upon check in at Valparaiso, the check in person indicated we were not in our booked cabin which created anxiety. We found out that Celebrity HQ had upgraded us to a 9 deck cabin with Blue dining. Neither ourselves or our travel agent were notified. We refused the upgrade. At guest relations we were able to get our original cabin back because we were on early. It also took alot of work to get our original early sitting table assignement back as early sitting was full.

The upgrade consisted of a cabin on the less desireable side of the ship (given the viewing of mountains to come) and under the pool. The ship was not sold out and these cabins were obviously less desireable given the itinerary.

Noise - About 2/3 through the cruise a banging started from the HVAC system which was so loud and frequent that you "started" if you were in the room. After complaining, we found out that many quests were impacted on decks 7 to 9. It was difficult to sleep (even with ear plugs and a white noise machine) so we were provided with an interior cabin at the front of the ship to sleep in. Essentially, we had 2 cabins. If the ship was full we would have had a very serious issue with health impacts. Discussions with the head of maintenance and housekeeping did not resolve the issue. They did seem perplexed.

In summation, the Celebrity cruise was good, the staff and tours and ship condition were fine. Our discontent focuses on the fact the experience was not "modern luxury" nor was it like previous trips on Celebrity with a high product quality.

Generally, product cheapening is well underway in restaurants, air lines etc, so this seems to be the way of things.

However, Celebrity no longer has earned our exclusive business.

In the end, we are privileged to be able to travel and for that we are blessed. These are small things in the scheme of the world.

Happy and safe sailing to all.

ABoatNerd

Thank you for the review and sorry you had some issues.

Could you advise what cabin you were in?

Thank you for your comments. We were on the same cruise and it is interesting to see someone else's perspective.

I would totally agree on the great service. Only exception was no reply to a concern left in writing at the Captain's Club office.

We didn't have a problem with the MDR food and found the fish acceptable. This was, however, only our second X cruise and the other did not go back as far as your long history with X.

Glad you could keep your cabin on the better view side. Our online TA blew that for us. I'd chosen one on that side and she didn't call it in until two hours later and there were no more in our category available by that time. I would say we only used the balcony very briefly as it was quite chilly most of the cruise and we were out in port on the warm days.

Thanks for these reviews. Which side of the ship is the best side (for viewing mountains) on this itinerary? Thanks again.

To respond to queries on my post:

1). Our cabin was 7111. The banging noise started once Infinity headed north after Cape Horn towards warmer weather. It was truly awful. Because the sailing was not sold out, there were numerous guests sleeping in inside cabins. The repetitive banging noise continued while tied to the dock in Buenos Aires.

2)

The port (left side) is preferable for scenery when leaving Valparaiso and the reverse if leaving BA.

The imposed upgrade was not a gift at all as it would have eliminated the best scenery viewing and created a noise situation being under pool deck.

ABoatNerd

Thanks!

Thank you for your comments. We were on the same cruise and it is interesting to see someone else's perspective.

I would totally agree on the great service. Only exception was no reply to a concern left in writing at the Captain's Club office.

We didn't have a problem with the MDR food and found the fish acceptable. This was, however, only our second X cruise and the other did not go back as far as your long history with X.

Glad you could keep your cabin on the better view side. Our online TA blew that for us. I'd chosen one on that side and she didn't call it in until two hours later and there were no more in our category available by that time. I would say we only used the balcony very briefly as it was quite chilly most of the cruise and we were out in port on the warm days.

Questions for you and OP, how did you get from Santiago to the port? And how were the seas? We do have a port side booked, but I'll keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't change. Did you have more cold days than warm days? Just thinking about how to pack.

Regarding further questions:

From Santiago to the ship at Valparaiso was via private guide and car/driver. We stayed in Santiago and spent half day in the Casablanca wine valley doing tastings. Was driven directly to our boutique hotel on hill in Valparaiso which looked directly onto the ship pier. We used private guide/car for our pre and post activities in Santiago, Buenos Aires and Rio. Worth every penny and created maximum efficiency and enjoyment.

The weather for our trip was better than average said ship staff. We had calm seas for 2 weeks including cape horn. Some cloud in early mornings in patagonia but we were fog free which was unusual. Generally it does not get warm ie over 60F until the Atlantic side. Sitting on your balcony was rare. Cape Horn was 40F. The trip before ours had poor weather - luck of the draw.

If people are considering the south America cruise I urge you to spent the extra $ and time to do Igguazu falls post tour. Fabulous and we'll done by celebrity. A wonder of the world and nice and not.

ABoatNerd

Thanks for your review and suggestion to visit Iguazu falls.

I have a serious question, no sarcasm whatsoever. What lines will you consider instead of Celebrity?

We had a similar noise issue for two weeks on the summit some years ago. It was horrible, and nothing was done about it. I have the Infinity booked in March 2016 and am not sure it is worth the price.

Questions for you and OP, how did you get from Santiago to the port? And how were the seas? We do have a port side booked, but I'll keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't change. Did you have more cold days than warm days? Just thinking about how to pack.

We were on an Enrichment Journey land tour in Peru/Chile for eight days prior to embarkation. We spent two nights in Santiago and then were transported to the pier by bus.

There were some rough seas but IIRC this was only one day or part of a day. We weren't bothered by it but neither of us gets seasick.

Responding:

Hi Rob The Cruiser. My alternates to celebrity are Cunard and Oceania. Both lines provided excellent product for me; food, service and adult context. Celebrity will do but they have lost my exclusive business due to the dramatic cheapening of their product in the past 2 years. I noted in my original post that everything in western society is cheapening due to rising costs; so celebrity's declining quality is to be expected.

As another poster stated if you have sailed with celebrity for a while you will see the changes. More recent cruisers do not have the historical quality context. Of course celebrity counts on new customers having no idea how standards have declined despite rising costs.

Our table of repeat celebrity customers spent considerable time commenting on the dramatic decline in the dining room food. Further, all of us deliberately boycott the extra charge venues.

Thankfully there is good choice in cruising so consumers can decide. Blond allegience to any brand is not necessarily apprpriate.

On the cabin noise - have sailed on M class 8 times in similar cabin area with no issue. Something was up with on Infinity.

ABoatNerd