Has Infinity summer been cancelled

[Saintskathy]

2 minutes ago, Saintskathy said:

 

Seems strange infinity is doing Antarctic sailings in January before our Feb trip.

[foodsvcmgr]

There is no break in the new schedules, the Caribbean season is followed by a voyage down to BA then the Antarctica cruises next.

That’s why I believe logically it would seem that any renovations will occur between her imminent arrival in the Bahamas and the start of the Caribbean sailings this summer.

[fordpickup]

I was on the Aug 20th sailing but didn't love my options. I requested an Edge sailing from a different section of the L&S Excel file but I've been told that I need to wait 7 business days for approval. Has anyone else experienced that? Have you been denied? I'm really friggin frustrated.

[kjb1466]

Wanted: Opinions please!

Back story - I transferred my original Infinity cruise to a local, highly recommended independent travel agent. I got advice from her and chose concierge level staterooms at a cost lower than a verandah. In return, she receives commission from Celebrity.

(Does anyone know how much $ they get for commission?)

My question is should I use her to plan for my Lifted and Shifted 10 night Reflection cruise from Rome with seven ports in late June?

My husband and I who live in Germany are traveling with my 82 year old father and his wife who has some physical limitations. They live in Florida.

This TA says she will help with all of the logistics (recommended flights, transfers to and from port, excursions in each port, entry travel requirements for the country you are sailing plus the cruise line's requirements). She can offer several different types of insurance and assist in that selection.

The kicker: She charges $150 per household for cruise services. 

Thoughts?

[zitsky]

11 minutes ago, kjb1466 said:

Wanted: Opinions please!

Back story - I transferred my original Infinity cruise to a local, highly recommended independent travel agent. I got advice from her and chose concierge level staterooms at a cost lower than a verandah. In return, she receives commission from Celebrity.

(Does anyone know how much $ they get for commission?)

My question is should I use her to plan for my Lifted and Shifted 10 night Reflection cruise from Rome with seven ports in late June?

My husband and I who live in Germany are traveling with my 82 year old father and his wife who has some physical limitations. They live in Florida.

This TA says she will help with all of the logistics (recommended flights, transfers to and from port, excursions in each port, entry travel requirements for the country you are sailing plus the cruise line's requirements). She can offer several different types of insurance and assist in that selection.

The kicker: She charges $150 per household for cruise services. 

Thoughts?

You could ask her…. How much does she charge, if any, without those extra services?  We can’t know her commission.  How much OBC is she offering?

 

Were you looking at Aqua veranda or regular veranda?  Why concierge?  Do you want those services?

Edited February 6, 2022 by zitsky

[deliver42]

This seems to be the first TA that charges for their normal job. They get commission for everything they book.

[fordpickup]

On 2/3/2022 at 3:35 PM, fordpickup said:

I was on the Aug 20th sailing but didn't love my options. I requested an Edge sailing from a different section of the L&S Excel file but I've been told that I need to wait 7 business days for approval. Has anyone else experienced that? Have you been denied? I'm really friggin frustrated.

So my lift and shift was denied. Any thoughts on how to figure out what to do next, or if there is someone that can help with this?

[zitsky]

54 minutes ago, fordpickup said:

So my lift and shift was denied. Any thoughts on how to figure out what to do next, or if there is someone that can help with this?

I sympathize because I told our TA our Portugal cruise should be changed to a Med cruise not a trans Atlantic.  And she argued with X but we were denied.  We got a refund for our downpayment.  In the end, I booked another more interesting, more expensive cruise that my partner and I liked.

[LizikinsLivesToCruise]

On 2/8/2022 at 9:28 PM, fordpickup said:

So my lift and shift was denied. Any thoughts on how to figure out what to do next, or if there is someone that can help with this?

We were also denied. Our cancelled cruise was in April and the L&S options in May = inconvenient time for work. We wanted to shift to July.

[zitsky]

27 minutes ago, LizikinsLivesToCruise said:

We were also denied. Our cancelled cruise was in April and the L&S options in May = inconvenient time for work. We wanted to shift to July.

Were your replacement cruises similar?  A friend and us were offered TA instead of Portugal.

[citruscruiser]

 A heads up for anyone who shifted their Infinity cruises due to the repositioning.  Celebrity automatically shifted the November 28, 2022 TA from Lisbon to Rio to the TA, same date, Ft Lauderdale to Rio.  My travel agent verified all the information by the stated date for the Lift and Shift, and I received updated invoices.  

 

Yesterday I was checking and the TA had disappeared from my Celebrity website bookings and my chosen cabin was showing available.  After a number of hours and 5 representatives giving very inaccurate information,(you don't even want to know what they were telling her!)  it was discovered that on Celebrity's end someone had cancelled the original TA's without checking if they had been shifted.  I am again booked on the TA, Ft Lauderdale to Rio.

 

Bottom line, check your bookings for the Infinity's that had been rescheduled so you don't have any surprises.

[zitsky]

I’m glad I’m done with that mess.  Never got an answer why a Portugal cruise was turned into a TA.

[omeinv]

Well, I really was looking forward to the Lisbon to Rio TA.  I did a similar TA a few years ago, and sailing from Europe to Rio made for great weather the whole way. 

 

However, this switch worked out great for me.  I originally had the Lisbon to Rio, B2B with the Rio to Buenos Aires cruise December 9.  When they cancelled the Lisbon-Rio TA, I lifted and shift to the Edge Rome to Ft. Lauderdale TA, and was pretty happy to be on the edge for the price of the Infinity.  THen when they announced the new itineraries, I jumped on the Ft. Lauderdale to Rio cruise, re-establishing the B2B with my Rio to BA. 

 

But then, things got crazy.  I saw that the next cruise on Edge after the TA was a 4-night to Cozumel, and back to Ft. Lauderdale, which ends on November 11.  On November 11, the Infinity does an 8 night Caribbean with some ports we'd not been to before.  That ends on the 19th, when Infinity does a 9-night with a few more new portss.  Of course that brings us to the 28th for Ft. Lauderdale to RIo. 

 

Surely Celebrity had this plan to get me to turn two bookings into six all along, right?  🙂

 

Harris

Denver, CO

[DEL67]

A  update on our ongoing "discussions" with Celebrity through our TA.

 

We can not take one of their lift and switch cruises because of scheduling and we can only get OBC.  I checked other Celebrity sailings and found that the ones that interest us cost twice what we paid for the Infinity for fewer days. Therefore we had our TA ask Celebrity for any other options.

 

About 3 weeks ago they asked that I provide options that would be acceptable to us.  I sent them 5  options: return the money we paid them, transfer our FCC to RCCL, and do a lift and switch to one of 3 different cruises.  They immediate!y rejected 3 options leaving lift and switches on one of 2 cruises neither of which really interest us, but at least we would not lose our money. They misunderstood one option (purposely?) And did not comment on the last one.

 

I clarified the option they misunderstood.  They responded yesterday rejecting that option and saying they would discuss the last one, an upgrade to an outside on an April Apex Caribbean cruise. They gave no indication when they would decide.

 

When I sent them the options an outside on the Aoex was only about $100 pp more than our OBC.  Now even an inside is more.  Therefore, if they reject that option, I will have to pay extra for a cruise that does not interest me just to use the OBC.  Meanwhile airfares are rising increasing the cost to us.

 

After reading other posts, I realize that we are not alone.  Given Celebrity's poor customer service to us and others, I will think twice before booking with them again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JanaAZ]

12 minutes ago, DEL67 said:

A  update on our ongoing "discussions" with Celebrity through our TA.

 

We can not take one of their lift and switch cruises because of scheduling and we can only get OBC.  I checked other Celebrity sailings and found that the ones that interest us cost twice what we paid for the Infinity for fewer days. Therefore we had our TA ask Celebrity for any other options.

 

About 3 weeks ago they asked that I provide options that would be acceptable to us.  I sent them 5  options: return the money we paid them, transfer our FCC to RCCL, and do a lift and switch to one of 3 different cruises.  They immediate!y rejected 3 options leaving lift and switches on one of 2 cruises neither of which really interest us, but at least we would not lose our money. They misunderstood one option (purposely?) And did not comment on the last one.

 

I clarified the option they misunderstood.  They responded yesterday rejecting that option and saying they would discuss the last one, an upgrade to an outside on an April Apex Caribbean cruise. They gave no indication when they would decide.

 

When I sent them the options an outside on the Aoex was only about $100 pp more than our OBC.  Now even an inside is more.  Therefore, if they reject that option, I will have to pay extra for a cruise that does not interest me just to use the OBC.  Meanwhile airfares are rising increasing the cost to us.

 

After reading other posts, I realize that we are not alone.  Given Celebrity's poor customer service to us and others, I will think twice before booking with them again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You may be missing the point of lift and shift….doing a lift and shift you get the new cruise for,the,price you paid for the original cruise.  so If your original cruise was $2000 for example and the new cruise your lifting and shifting to is $4000…you get it for the $2000 you paid on your original cruise 

[zitsky]

4 hours ago, JanaAZ said:

You may be missing the point of lift and shift….doing a lift and shift you get the new cruise for,the,price you paid for the original cruise.  so If your original cruise was $2000 for example and the new cruise your lifting and shifting to is $4000…you get it for the $2000 you paid on your original cruise 

Good point.  But I was presented with 3 options not interesting.  3 TA when I had booked a Med cruise.

[Guppy99]

4 hours ago, DEL67 said:

A  update on our ongoing "discussions" with Celebrity through our TA.

 

We can not take one of their lift and switch cruises because of scheduling and we can only get OBC.  I checked other Celebrity sailings and found that the ones that interest us cost twice what we paid for the Infinity for fewer days. Therefore we had our TA ask Celebrity for any other options.

 

About 3 weeks ago they asked that I provide options that would be acceptable to us.  I sent them 5  options: return the money we paid them, transfer our FCC to RCCL, and do a lift and switch to one of 3 different cruises.  They immediate!y rejected 3 options leaving lift and switches on one of 2 cruises neither of which really interest us, but at least we would not lose our money. They misunderstood one option (purposely?) And did not comment on the last one.

 

I clarified the option they misunderstood.  They responded yesterday rejecting that option and saying they would discuss the last one, an upgrade to an outside on an April Apex Caribbean cruise. They gave no indication when they would decide.

 

When I sent them the options an outside on the Aoex was only about $100 pp more than our OBC.  Now even an inside is more.  Therefore, if they reject that option, I will have to pay extra for a cruise that does not interest me just to use the OBC.  Meanwhile airfares are rising increasing the cost to us.

 

After reading other posts, I realize that we are not alone.  Given Celebrity's poor customer service to us and others, I will think twice before booking with them again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anytime someone doesn't get exactly what they want (or a better deal), the cruise line has terrible support and customer service. 

[omeinv]

3 minutes ago, Guppy99 said:

Anytime someone doesn't get exactly what they want (or a better deal), the cruise line has terrible support and customer service. 

True enough!  All Celebrity was obligated to do was refund monies paid, or if FCC had been used then reinstate the FCC under the original restrictions.  Anything else is above and beyond.

 

Harris

Denver, CO

[Cruise Junky]

So what does everyone think of Infinity’s odds of doing Europe 2023?  We’re booked on a B2B but are debating a land trip instead. 

[sunlover33]

6 hours ago, Guppy99 said:

Anytime someone doesn't get exactly what they want (or a better deal), the cruise line has terrible support and customer service. 

If Celebrity have cancelled a cruise to suit their own business model, why should customers be inconvenienced and lose money? I totally  agree with Del 67. Celebrity should be going out of their way to make sure their customers who have had to change plans, flights and other travel arrangements,  are compensated either with a better cruise or refunds. We too had our infinity cruise cancelled. Luckily we were able to have a refund for the cruise as it wasn’t booked with FCC,  but it cost us money in cancelled flights, a ridiculous amount of time to try to rearrange another holiday, cancelling hotels pre and post cruise, kennels, taxis etc etc. Trying to simply speak to someone at Celebrity was an achievement in itself.   Why wouldn’t someone expect good customer service and a better deal as recompense for the inconvenience of it all? Celebrity are not the only cruise line and they need to value loyalty otherwise they may find they are struggling to retain their customers base in the future. 

[sippican]

On 1/12/2022 at 8:13 AM, foodsvcmgr said:

We are booked for Antarctica next January at an extremely reasonable fare.

I hope Celebrity changes ships if Infinity is sold off rather than canceling entirely.

Hopefully they would do so as they are selling these cruises for ‘24 on Eclipse so these are not just one off itineraries for them.

 

The entire "Antarctica" question has been up in the air for some time. Due to the Polar Code and the ban on large ships in The Falklands, it is a mystery as to how those itineraries will even be possible. 

[zitsky]

8 minutes ago, sippican said:

 

The entire "Antarctica" question has been up in the air for some time. Due to the Polar Code and the ban on large ships in The Falklands, it is a mystery as to how those itineraries will even be possible. 

Ban on large ships?  When did that start?  I’m glad I visited on NCL in 2018.

[zitsky]

10 hours ago, omeinv said:

True enough!  All Celebrity was obligated to do was refund monies paid, or if FCC had been used then reinstate the FCC under the original restrictions.  Anything else is above and beyond.

 

Harris

Denver, CO

If every business had that attitude they could do whatever and whenever they want.  Lawyers would love it.  

“We’ll yes we took your money for a cruise but we never said the restaurants would be open.  Eat at the buffet and read the fine print next time.  Snort.  Chuckle.”

 

🙄

[LoveThatCorgi]

On 2/17/2022 at 3:16 PM, citruscruiser said:

 

Yesterday I was checking and the TA had disappeared from my Celebrity website bookings and my chosen cabin was showing available.  After a number of hours and 5 representatives giving very inaccurate information,(you don't even want to know what they were telling her!)  it was discovered that on Celebrity's end someone had cancelled the original TA's without checking if they had been shifted.  I am again booked on the TA, Ft Lauderdale to Rio.

 

Bottom line, check your bookings for the Infinity's that had been rescheduled so you don't have any surprises.

Agree!!!  We did a lift and shift on the phone with our vacation planner during the day leaving from Rome instead of Ravenna, and that same evening we selected flights for the new itinerary online.  A few days later, our flights disappeared.  After a bit of panic and a call to our vacation planner, we found out they had cancelled our flights assuming they were still related to the original itinerary.  They were able to reinstate the flights at the original price, but what if it hadn't been noticed until closer to departure??? 

[zitsky]

32 minutes ago, LoveThatCorgi said:

Agree!!!  We did a lift and shift on the phone with our vacation planner during the day leaving from Rome instead of Ravenna, and that same evening we selected flights for the new itinerary online.  A few days later, our flights disappeared.  After a bit of panic and a call to our vacation planner, we found out they had cancelled our flights assuming they were still related to the original itinerary.  They were able to reinstate the flights at the original price, but what if it hadn't been noticed until closer to departure??? 

When you say they disappeared…..  how did you know?  Phone call, email, text message???