Athens Celebrity Infinity Cruise Canceled Day Before
Celebrity Cruises canceled an 11 night Celebrity Infinity sailing out of Athens, Greece, with the notice arriving the afternoon before the scheduled February 16, 2026 departure, citing technical issues that needed more inspection and repairs. For travelers, the immediate problem is not the cruise itself, it is the sudden collapse of a tightly timed trip stack, flights, hotels, transfers to the port, and any prepaid tours that were built around embarkation day.
What changed since the first reports is the detail level around compensation. Multiple outlets report Celebrity is issuing full cruise fare refunds, plus a Future Cruise Credit worth 100 percent of the cruise fare for use within the next year, and capped reimbursements for independent air, hotels, and short term incidental expenses.
Who Takes The Biggest Hit From This Cancellation
The highest exposure group is travelers who flew in specifically to sail, especially anyone who arrived into Athens International Airport (ATH) on separate tickets, or who planned same day transfers to Piraeus. A port day cancellation is inconvenient, but an embarkation day cancellation forces you into urgent inventory problems, which flights still have seats, which hotels still have rooms, and which providers will refund on short notice.
Travelers who booked air through Flights by Celebrity have a different problem shape, because the cruise line has a defined channel to coordinate changes and returns. Travelers who booked flights independently have more control, but they also own the rebooking risk upfront, and they have to document everything cleanly to get reimbursed under Celebrity's caps, or under their own travel insurance, or card protections.
Itinerary planners also take a hit. Cruise Industry News reported the sailing was scheduled to visit multiple ports across Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus, including Nafplio, Rhodes, Katakolon, Heraklion, Limassol, Kusadasi, and Antalya. If you booked independent tours for any of those stops, this becomes a vendor by vendor refund sprint.
What Travelers Should Do Now
Treat this as a documentation first event, then a routing decision. Save the cancellation notice, your booking invoice, and every receipt for hotels, flights, transfers, and meals that you would not have purchased but for the cancellation. If you are asking for reimbursement, your outcome usually turns on proof, not on how reasonable the expense felt in the moment.
Next, decide whether you are trying to salvage the vacation in place, or exit fast. If you can rebook onto a comparable sailing within a tight window, the Future Cruise Credit may be worth using quickly, because it preserves the trip concept, and can reduce the psychological cost of "we flew to Europe for nothing." If replacement sailings require expensive last minute airfare, or multiple extra hotel nights, taking the refund and using the credit later is often the cleaner financial decision. The key is to set a threshold today, because waiting while you "see what opens up" is how both air seats and decent hotel rooms disappear. (For more context on the earlier incident and how this disruption propagated, see Celebrity Infinity Piraeus Malfunction Cancels Sailing.)
Finally, align your claims strategy with how you booked. If you used Flights by Celebrity, push all changes through that channel first, because it can affect what Celebrity considers reimbursable later. If you booked independently, price out realistic flights home, then decide whether you will submit reimbursement to Celebrity under their caps, and also whether your travel insurance, or credit card travel protections, can cover what falls outside those caps. (If you want a broader explainer on coverage mechanics and claim behavior, start with Travel Insurance.)
Why A Ship Technical Issue Cancels A Sailing So Fast
Cruise turn days run on tight choreography. A ship arrives, clears inspections, disembarks, provisions, boards new guests, and departs again, all inside a narrow window. When the underlying issue touches propulsion, maneuverability, or shipboard power distribution, port authorities and safety checks can become the gating item, and the cruise line may not be able to promise a safe, on time departure until inspections and repairs are completed and certified. That uncertainty is why cruise lines sometimes cancel early rather than attempt a delayed sailing that would still fail, or that would trigger a cascade of missed ports and airline misconnects.
In this case, People reported Greek authorities described a loss of control tied to an electrical distribution panel malfunction, and that tug assistance was involved in bringing the ship back to port, while Celebrity characterized the event as a technical issue and confirmed the next sailing was canceled while maintenance was completed. Even when the ship is physically alongside, a "we are in port" status does not mean "we are cleared to sail," and that gap is what strands travelers who timed flights and hotels to a normal embarkation day.