Celebrity Infinity

Celebrity Infinity was the second of Celebrity Cruises' Millennium-class ships, built by Chantiers de l'Atlantique at Saint-Nazaire, France, and delivered in 2001. At 90,940 gross tons she carries about 2,170 guests, and like her lead sister she was among the early adopters of azimuthing propulsion pods, the swivelling podded electric drives that were reshaping cruise-ship engineering at the turn of the millennium. Her godmother was Solveig Wilhelmsen, a nod to the shipping dynasty long associated with Celebrity's ownership lineage.

The Millennium class paired a turbo-electric power plant with pod propulsion, and Infinity shared in the growing pains of that technology. The pods proved troublesome across the class, and Infinity in particular suffered repeated propulsion problems in her early years that required unscheduled dry-dock repairs and, on occasion, disrupted her sailing schedule. The issues were emblematic of an industry-wide learning curve with a then-new propulsion system, and they were progressively resolved through repairs and design fixes.

As a Celebrity ship, Infinity offered the refined premium experience that distinguished the brand from the mass-market lines, with elegant public rooms, a signature specialty restaurant, and expansive glass-walled spaces oriented toward the sea. She was modernized through Celebrity's fleetwide refurbishment initiatives, which brought updated staterooms, dining concepts, and technology to the aging Millennium quartet.

Celebrity Infinity remains in active service, registered at Valletta, Malta, and has homeported at Fort Lauderdale's Port Everglades for parts of her career. In recent seasons she has deployed principally in the Mediterranean, tracing the classic itineraries of the region while continuing to carry the Millennium-class banner more than two decades after her debut.