Infinity Vancouver Arrival Delayed 7/16/06

[CStorm]

I've found some info on code red in a recent article about the Mercury:

 

In the article Michael Sheehan, spokesman for Celebrity Cruises, said:

"If 1.5 percent of guests or 2.5 percent of crew report symptoms once the ship is under way, a “Code Red” protocol is established"

 

You can read the whole story at:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060409/news_lz1t09virus.html

 

Hopefully it will get a good bleaching while they fix the propulsion problems!

[KenM]

Does anyone have any factual data as to whether the cruise is cancelled or just delayed at this point..

I spoke with a friend who was waiting to board at 1pm Vancouver time and the ship had just docked.

[bonbon663]

:( :confused: I'm sailing on Infinity next weekend, on my first cruise, and am almost in tears reading this thread. I've spent so much time anxiously awaiting this cruise, and would be disappointed beyond belief if it didn't happen.

 

 

 

[cat616]

Bon Bon,

 

Please try not to worry, you will probably be OK.

 

They will probably have enough time to repair long before next Sunday and they will also have time to disinfect after whatever has caused the reported Code Red problem.

 

In the mean time you can research what compensation was given last time - I am thinking you may find that a full refund AND a voucher for your next cruise is the standard. Not too shabby. That would go a long way to putting the smile back on my face.

 

Then you can start researching a backup plan for your vacation. How about a road trip down and/or up the West Coast? I hear Seattle, and Victoria are beautiful cities to visit and I know Vancouver is Great.

 

That should keep you too busy to worry.

 

You have no control over whether Infinity will sail or not but you do have control over your vacation.

 

I am thinking of all of you who are being disrupted and sending out good thoughts for you.

 

Happy Travels

 

Cindy

[florisdekort]

:( :confused: I'm sailing on Infinity next weekend, on my first cruise, and am almost in tears reading this thread. I've spent so much time anxiously awaiting this cruise, and would be disappointed beyond belief if it didn't happen.

 

Right now we only know that Infinity skipped a port on Friday and arrived 7 hours late in Vancouver, sailing at half the normal speed. There is no confirmation that this is indeed because of the so very familiar pod problem. There has not been an official announcement from Celebrity, no cruises have been cancelled. If however Infinity should need a dry dock, resulting in a cancelled cruise, remember that you will receive a very, very generous compensation package: a full refund PLUS a free future cruise.

 

Fingers crossed, let's just hope it is not the pods again...

 

Best Regards,

Floris

[Pecoraro]

I'm sailing on Infinity next weekend, on my first cruise, and am almost in tears reading this thread. I've spent so much time anxiously awaiting this cruise, and would be disappointed beyond belief if it didn't happen.

 

You shouldn't be disappointed - you hit the Celebrity Lottery!! You get a cruise for free if they don't go next week. Every year thousands of people book these cruises - with the hope in mind that theirs will be the cancelled one and they will be cruising for free. You should feel lucky. Read through some of the older threads and you will see that this happens at least once a year and sometimes more for these Celebrity M-Class ships. The last was very recently the Summit which was out of service in May.

[florisdekort]

You shouldn't be disappointed - you hit the Celebrity Lottery!!

 

I would prefer a vacation-as-scheduled above a free cruise any day. I don't need to win this 'lottery'. :o That said, a free cruise would take away a big portion of my pain if a cancellation would happen to one of my cruises.

 

But again, there is no confirmation at this time that this is a pod problem, and no cruises have been cancelled.

[bonbon663]

I'm sorry for being alarmist....you're absolutely right, we don't know anything yet. I'll try to put my smiley optimistic face on.....see....smiling now.:)

 

Please post any new updates. I really appreciate it.

 

Donna

 

 

[Pecoraro]

there is no confirmation at this time that this is a pod problem, and no cruises have been cancelled.

 

Your right - Celebrity policy in the past has been to get you on the ship, go slow, miss ports or reduce time in the ports - and when you complain they point to their contract and state we have the right to do this to your vacation. Proceeding in this manner allows them sufficient time to ensure that the proper parts are ready and waiting at the drydock so that they only lose one week of revenue versus two or three. ......Ahhh, the Celebrity treatment - How will it effect you.............

[florisdekort]

The 'welcome aboard' flags are out, so it looks like the new group will board Infinity - 6 hours late. Let's hope they won't be sailing at half the usual speed all week... and that whatever was wrong with Infinity during the past 3 days is resolved now. I guess we'll find out what really happened or is still happening when somebody from the past cruise gets to posting on Cruise Critic!

 

[newmexicoNita]

Your right - Celebrity policy in the past has been to get you on the ship, go slow, miss ports or reduce time in the ports - and when you complain they point to their contract and state we have the right to do this to your vacation. Proceeding in this manner allows them sufficient time to ensure that the proper parts are ready and waiting at the drydock so that they only lose one week of revenue versus two or three. ......Ahhh, the Celebrity treatment - How will it effect you.............

Just like all other lines: we don't like it, but that is the way they work. NMnita

[newmexicoNita]

The 'welcome aboard' flags are out, so it looks like the new group will board Infinity - 6 hours late. Let's hope they won't be sailing at half the usual speed all week... and that whatever was wrong with Infinity during the past 3 days is resolved now. I guess we'll find out what really happened or is still happening when somebody from the past cruise gets to posting on Cruise Critic!

 

Let's hope the problems are solved, but I wouldn't hold my breath. NMnita

[bonbon663]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=380805

 

 

Check out this man's impressions of Infinity this week. :(

 

 

[3FCC]

As I have read numerious cruise critic posts over the past few years, I thought I should sign up and offer my opinion/views of what happened over the last week. My family and, including 3 little ones - 6 months, 3 years and 5 years, my husband and his parents, were on our first Celebrity cruise (1 previous cruise with HAL).

 

Overall, we had a great cruise - friendly, accomodating staff and beautiful scenery. We did start to experience trouble on Thursday night when the ship dropped anchor about 2 am and determined that there was a short-circuit in the starboard propulsion system which reduced our cruising speed from 22 knots to 17 knots. As we were supposed to stop in Sitka on Friday, the captain announced that we would not be stopping but beginning our return to Vancouver immediately. Later that day, they indicated that they would be arriving in Vancouver at 12:30 pm on Sunday instead of 7 am as planned.

 

Since we live close to Vancouver, we did not need to re-scheduale flights, but I'm sure that was a challenge for many. We did receive $500 per stateroom or $700 per suite for missing the port in Sitka refunded to our credit cards. We are also receiving a $200 per person credit for future Celebrity cruises. People who had to rescheduale flights that were not booked through Celebrity could recieve up to $100 per person (I think) for rebooking fees and could also get $150 per stateroom for hotel acommodations (which won't go far in downtown Vancouver...)

 

Regarding the norovirus, there were definately sick crew and guests (our daughter was sick for a day, but luckly the rest of us were fine). Some of the ship's surfaces (e.g., elevator chrome and glass) did not look very clean after that as they needed to be wiped down with a bleach solution that left them looking very streaky.

 

Prior to disembarking, I generally thought the crew and the staff handeled the situation well, and we were fairly well informed. However, today was a bit trying as we were schedualed to arrive at the dock at 12:30 but we were not cleared for disembarkment until about 2pm and then since we didn't have a flight to catch, we were one of the last people off at 5:30. By then, the kids were getting ansy and hadn't eaten since the buffet closed at 1pm - no drinks or snacks were available. The disembarkment process seemed to take forever (at one point the gangway was closed to half an hour) with very little direction from staff as to what our time line would be. When we did disembark, customs was short, but luggage was mixed up and it took a while to find out bags.

 

As we were leaving, extra staff were on hand with bleach and gloves to wipe down every surface before the next passengers could board. So I am assuming that as of a few hours ago, they were planning on setting sail sometime, although I don't know what kind of timeline they were looking at.

 

As an aside, my brother, who was housesitting, was wondering where we were and phoned the 1-800 Celebrity information line and was told that the Infinity had docked at 7am this moning - which is obviously incorrect and it was known days ago that we weren't reaching until at least 12:30. So that "information" was not terribly helpful.

 

Overall, we had a great time and the compensation for missing Sitka seemed appropriate. Today was a bit of craziness and I know there were people who left the ship before their luggage colour was called and had to wait for their luggage in the terminal, and others who likely raced to the airport or missed their flight schedualed for today, since we were told we would be disembarking shortly after 12:30 and it was after 2 pm before we were cleared to begin.

 

One side of the story...I'm sure you will hear more. We certainly have learned a lot about all the unpredictibilty of cruising, like all travel. ;) We are still smiling, but we are home in our own beds tonight. Others who are still in the midst of the chaos, or those poor people waiting to board today who may not have heard of the difficulites until they arrived at the port, may feel differently.

[bonbon663]

Thank you for the review...now, honest answer. Would you recommend this ship to others? Or the whole cruise experience for that matter. I'm seriously considering cancelling, and incurring any penalties I may face.

 

Thanks

 

 

[SkyGuy747]

Thanks for the balanced report on a difficult situation. I'm glad to hear you're still smiling!

[Jim_Iain]

3FCC - Thank you for a wonderful summary of your cruise experience. You have given a very well balanced review.

 

I hope others were not overly inconvenienced by the unfortunate Pod problems.

 

Jim

[wheretocruise]

Bon Bon, check with Celebrity on the penalty. I believe in my notes, I wrote down that after 14 days, there is no refund. In my opinion, if there is no refund, I would go on the cruise and just be prepared to miss some ports and enjoy the ride. Keep a positive attitude and be patient. It sounds like from the review, the OP enjoyed the trip but had some challenges at the end. I would also ensure that you stay overnight after disembarkment, just in case the ship is late.

 

My 2 cents.

[Andy]

Hi 3FCC !

 

Thanks for the honest review. I am glad things went reasonably well for you, under the difficult circumstances.

 

Welcome Home !

[uktog]

I see from the Webcam Infinity is still at Canada Place - hope all the folks are able to sailaway soon

[wvufan]

Good morning,

 

Thanks for your two cents, 3F-you're our kind of folk:)

 

Just a note on the comment about streaking after cleaning-in order for the solution to work right, it is left on instead of wiped off, so it looks streaky all over, particularly mirrored surfaces.

 

OOOEEE:D :D Bob and Phyl

 

Thought for today: If your steak is ruined because the mashed potatoes are lumpy, cruising may not be for you.

[florisdekort]

Thank you for the review...now, honest answer. Would you recommend this ship to others? Or the whole cruise experience for that matter. I'm seriously considering cancelling, and incurring any penalties I may face.

 

Hi Bonbon663,

 

Would you stop driving a car if somebody somewhere in the world had a mechanical problem with his car? Last week's experience on Infinity was unfortunate, but mechanical problems do happen! And when people are upset about a delay or missing a port, they tend to vent their frustration at other things (crew, service, etc.).

 

I have cruised Celebrity (and Infinity for that matter) many times before and the service, food, crew, etc. have allways been the best. I am tremendously looking forward to my next cruise on Infinity and there is no way I would cancel. Any day on a cruise ship is better then a day at work :D

 

Best Regards,

Floris

[florisdekort]

Thought for today: If your steak is ruined because the mashed potatoes are lumpy, cruising may not be for you.

 

LOL :D

This is by far the best quote I've seen on these Boards for a very long time. Can we put your name in for Cruise Critic member of the month or something? :D

[SkyGuy747]

Hey gang, have a look at this pic from the West Vancouver Cruise Cam... it almost looks like there's prop wash behind Infinity's stern. Would they be testing the engines at the pier?

 

Maybe I'm seeing things!

[dkjretired]

Your right - Celebrity policy in the past has been to get you on the ship, go slow, miss ports or reduce time in the ports - and when you complain they point to their contract and state we have the right to do this to your vacation. Proceeding in this manner allows them sufficient time to ensure that the proper parts are ready and waiting at the drydock so that they only lose one week of revenue versus two or three. ......Ahhh, the Celebrity treatment - How will it effect you.............

 

What a distorted view, you don't mention at all the free cruises and compensation they have given to thousands. Why not give both sides of the story.