Celebrity Infinity Returns to Service After Total Power Blackout Stranded Passengers in Greece
After losing all power in the middle of the night near Athens — toilets and all — Celebrity Infinity has been repaired and is finally setting sail again with 2,170 passengers aboard.
If you’ve ever worried about something going wrong on a cruise, the saga of Celebrity Infinity over the past two weeks is the kind of story that makes for both a cautionary tale and, ultimately, a reassuring one. The ship, which suffered a total electrical failure in the middle of the night while approaching Athens on February 15, is back on track — and as of today, February 27, it is departing Piraeus with approximately 2,170 passengers aboard for a 10-night journey through the Eastern Mediterranean.
According to Travel and Tour World, Celebrity Infinity lost all power at roughly 3:00 a.m. on February 15 while making its approach to Athens. And when we say all power, we mean it — electricity, air conditioning, Wi-Fi, and yes, even the toilets went offline. Greek maritime authorities traced the failure to a malfunction in the ship’s electrical distribution panels, the critical systems responsible for routing power throughout the vessel.
What Passengers Went Through
For the guests already aboard that voyage, the middle-of-the-night blackout was understandably alarming. With the ship adrift near the Greek coastline, local tugboats were dispatched to guide Celebrity Infinity safely into port. The cruise ended a day earlier than scheduled, and Celebrity Cruises stepped in to cover last-minute expenses — hotel accommodations, meals, and transportation — for those who were disembarked early.
Then came the domino effect: the February 16 sailing, an 11-night Greek Islands voyage, was cancelled outright to give engineers the time they needed to fully assess and fix the damaged electrical panels. Thousands of passengers had their vacations scrapped with very little notice — one of the more frustrating scenarios a cruiser can face, especially for those who had traveled internationally to board.
The Repairs and Return to Service
Celebrity Cruises worked quickly. Engineers in Piraeus addressed the root cause — the failed electrical distribution panels — and by February 24, the cruise line confirmed to guests booked on the upcoming sailing that their trip was a go. A letter sent to those approximately 2,170 guests stated that Celebrity’s team was preparing what they called “an unforgettable vacation experience.”
That’s a high bar to set after an incident like this, but it’s also exactly the kind of reassurance passengers needed to hear.
What the Itinerary Looks Like
Today’s departure kicks off a 10-night Eastern Mediterranean voyage that touches some of the region’s most storied destinations. From Piraeus-Athens, Celebrity Infinity will call at Nafplio, Heraklion (Crete), Rhodes Island, Kavala, and Thessaloniki in Greece, before crossing into Turkey for a stop in Kusadasi — the gateway port to the ancient ruins of Ephesus. It’s a genuinely spectacular itinerary, and for the passengers who held on through the uncertainty, the payoff should be worth it.
What This Tells Us About Modern Cruising
Celebrity Infinity is a Millennium-class ship launched in 2001 — making her over two decades old. At 90,940 gross tons, she remains a capable and well-traveled vessel, but incidents like this are a reminder that even well-maintained ships are complex machines with real vulnerabilities. Electrical distribution systems are the lifeblood of a modern cruise ship, powering everything from navigation to passenger comfort. When they fail, the effects are immediate and wide-reaching.
What Celebrity Cruises did reasonably well here was move fast on repairs and keep guests informed. The compensation offered to stranded passengers — covering hotels, meals, and transport — was the baseline expectation, and the swift turnaround on repairs helped limit the overall disruption to a single lost sailing rather than a prolonged drydock situation.
The Bottom Line for Future Passengers
If you have an upcoming Celebrity Infinity voyage booked — or any Mediterranean cruise this season — there’s no specific reason for alarm. Ships are repaired, electrical systems are replaced, and Celebrity has confirmed the vessel is seaworthy and ready to go. The February 27 departure proceeding as scheduled is a meaningful signal that the underlying issue has been resolved.
For cruise enthusiasts, this story is a useful reminder to always travel with comprehensive travel insurance that covers cancellations and unexpected itinerary changes. When a sailing is scrapped with 24 hours’ notice, having that financial backstop can make an enormous difference — not just for refunds, but for covering the scramble of last-minute hotels and flights that follow.
Celebrity Infinity sails on. And for the 2,170 passengers setting off from Athens today, we hope the only drama from here is how beautiful the Greek islands look from the deck.
Source: Travel and Tour World