Athens Celebrity Infinity Sails Feb 27 After Repairs
Celebrity Infinity is scheduled to sail on February 27, 2026, from Athens (Piraeus), Greece, after the technical issues that triggered disruption earlier this month. The key change since prior coverage is that guests have now received an operational "go" signal for the February 27 embarkation, shifting the decision from contingency planning to execution planning.
For travelers, the practical meaning is lower cancellation risk for this specific departure, but not zero risk. When a ship returns to service after a power, or distribution issue, the last mile still matters, port clearance timing, boarding windows, and any last-minute operational notices that can change transfer and flight decisions.
Who Benefits Most From The Restart, And Who Still Has Exposure
The biggest beneficiaries are guests booked on the February 27 departure who were considering rebooking flights, adding extra hotel nights, or abandoning the trip entirely after the February 16 cancellation. With the sailing listed to depart Athens (Piraeus) at 5:00 p.m., the planning target becomes arriving early enough to absorb airport, road, and port friction without building an unnecessarily expensive cushion.
The highest remaining exposure group is anyone stacking tight connections into Greece, especially travelers arriving the same day into Athens International Airport (ATH) and attempting a same-day transfer to Piraeus. A restart day concentrates demand on taxis, rideshares, private transfers, and late-check-in hotels, and it leaves little margin if the ship's final readiness steps slip even a few hours. Another exposed segment is travelers who changed plans during the disruption, and now need to unwind those changes, airline fare differences, hotel cancellation windows, and third-party tour deposits that may not automatically reverse.
For background on how this incident unfolded, and what the prior cancellation meant for refunds and credits, travelers can reference Athens Celebrity Infinity Cruise Canceled Day Before and Celebrity Infinity Piraeus Malfunction Cancels Sailing.
What Travelers Should Do Before Flying To Athens
First, verify your specific reservation status in writing, not via social chatter. Celebrity's direct guest communication confirming the February 27 sailing is the useful artifact, save it offline, and screenshot it. If you are using Flights by Celebrity or a travel advisor, confirm who is the "system of record" for day-of changes, because that determines whether you call an air desk, an advisor, or the cruise line first if timing shifts.
Second, protect the trip stack where it is most fragile, airport arrival timing, ground transfer, and hotel placement. If you can arrive in Athens on February 26, 2026, and sleep within a predictable corridor to the port, you reduce the single-point-of-failure risk created by same-day air arrivals. If you must arrive on February 27, keep your plan simple: avoid tight self-connects, avoid ambitious midday sightseeing that can collide with traffic, and build a buffer that still gets you to the port early enough to handle lines and document checks.
Third, decide now how you will handle a renewed disruption, because decisions are harder when you are already in transit. If you have meaningful prepaid, nonrefundable costs, align your documentation plan and your claim pathways in advance. That means saving receipts, keeping a clean timeline, and understanding how your coverage works, especially if you are relying on Travel Insurance or credit card trip protections for delays, added nights, or rebooked transport.
Why A Restart Confirmation Still Requires Last Mile Monitoring
Cruise restarts after technical issues are less about marketing reassurance and more about operational gating. A ship can be physically alongside and still be waiting on final verification steps that affect clearance to sail. In this case, reporting indicates the earlier disruption involved electrical distribution panels, which is the kind of subsystem that can trigger conservative sign-offs because it ties directly to shipboard power and control reliability.
First order effects show up at the port: boarding windows, staffing, inspections, and the cadence of embarkation day services. Second order effects show up across at least two other layers quickly, air itineraries tighten as passengers reprice alternatives, and hotel inventory compresses as travelers add nights to create buffer or wait out uncertainty. Even when the sailing proceeds, the restart phase tends to produce more "micro-friction" than a normal turn, longer lines, heavier checking of documents, and more frequent app, email, or SMS updates that can change the timing assumptions travelers made when they booked flights.
The practical takeaway is simple. Treat the February 27 sailing as real, but keep monitoring active until you are onboard, and keep your transfer plan resilient enough that a few hours of drift does not break the trip.