Onboard the Reborn Constellation in the Baltic - May 28-June 9 - Questions, Comments?

[Germancruiser]

Hi Dan,

great to read your posts- I was on the very last sailing on baord Connie- the TA to Hamburg. I like the changes I saw, even if I was a bit concerned before, cause I like the " old Connie" a lot. They have done a great job in bringing her up.

Did they do something about the rather shabby look of the Top - Deck- Jogging Deck??

I would love to se a redone balcony cabin.

thanks and have a great time in the Baltic Seas.

Michael

[bellybutton530]

Good morning Dan, it's bellybutton again. I just had a glass of champagne and blew out a candle on my 60th birthday cake (the reason for the cruise in November), when I realized something.

 

You probably won't be able to sneak a peek into the PH suite until the end of the cruise. And that is okay with me. I am in no real rush. In fact, if you can tell me if there is a laptop already in the cabin for our use, I'd be happy to know that too.

 

SO MANY QUESTIONS; SO LITTLE TIME....

 

I do appreciate you doing this for us.

 

Don't laugh, but if you could please ask the Hotel Manager if it is possible for me to bring my Tour de Champagne on board with me in November, I'd be eternally grateful. My party plans to have a different champagne at dinner every night, and I have put together quite an array of my all-time favorites. I even found a bottle of Cristal Rose' for the occasion. I am aware of corkage fees, etc.

 

Cheryl

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mrjim]

Hi Dan,

 

how long will Allan King be the cruise director on Constellation? Will he stay until after the Transatlantic in November?

 

Thank you!

[C 2 C]

Hi Dan:

 

I'm really enjoying your posts as well.

In the recent refurbishment, were more internet connections made available?

With Celebrity Online removed to make way for the Martini Bar, were additional locations added? I was really hoping for cabin access as part of the S-Class upgrade.

[shelbird]

Thank you for all the info and photos. I'm wondering if enough people complain about the techno music to someone other than the bartender,someone in a management position,also mentioning it on their comment cards, if they'll have it lowered by January when I cruise. I really planned on spending some quality time there, but not if I have to put up with annoying music.

[Dan Askin]

Hi Dan:

 

I'm really enjoying your posts as well.

In the recent refurbishment, were more internet connections made available?

With Celebrity Online removed to make way for the Martini Bar, were additional locations added? I was really hoping for cabin access as part of the S-Class upgrade.

 

Thanks Xellent, enjoying the voyage so far.

 

Sadly, the line didn't invest in bow-to-stern Wi-Fi on this go-around ($40 million and now full-ship Wi-Fi!), so I have no access in my cabin. As you can imagine, this can be pretty brutal for a writer on assignment. For the past two days, I've been typing furiously after dinner in my cabin (no Web) from about 11 p.m. - 12:30 a.m. ... and then running down to Deck 3's Gamma conference room, the location with the best access (says the Web guy), where I log on and do my fact checking and comment posting. Writing first before I sign on saves serious usage minutes -- the connection has been horrible so far, and the time it takes to submit the picture-posts is geological.

 

The Internet Cafe is on Deck 6, but I'll look into getting some info on the specific Wi-Fi access points.

[Texed]

Mr. Askin,

We are on Constellation at Christmas/New Year's, so thanks for posting. :)

[Andy]

Thanks Xellent, enjoying the voyage so far.

 

Sadly, the line didn't invest in bow-to-stern Wi-Fi on this go-around ($40 million and now full-ship Wi-Fi!), so I have no access in my cabin. As you can imagine, this can be pretty brutal for a writer on assignment. For the past two days, I've been typing furiously after dinner in my cabin (no Web) from about 11 p.m. - 12:30 a.m. ... and then running down to Deck 3's Gamma conference room, the location with the best access (says the Web guy), where I log on and do my fact checking and comment posting. Writing first before I sign on saves serious usage minutes -- the connection has been horrible so far, and the time it takes to submit the picture-posts is geological.

 

The Internet Cafe is on Deck 6, but I'll look into getting some info on the specific Wi-Fi access points.

 

Hi Dan !

 

Thanks again for all of your great posts and photos. When I was on Constellation in March, I was told they were not adding full ship Wi-Fi due to the Cost involved. Im surprised that the upgrade could be so expensive, especially with the constantly dropping prices of technology. Maybe they should have tried pricing it at Costco instead of Cisco :)

 

If it's actually $40 million, while a bit disappointed, I can understand their decision. We are sailing Connie again in November, and cant wait to see her revitilization. Thanks again for your great posts, and have a wonderful time onboard.

[h20cruzer]

Dan thanks for all the great information. Would you happen to remember the bartenders name at the ice bar aka Martini bar?

Thanks

Norma

[esther e]

The last time we were on the Constellation there was King Kong on one of the top decks. Is he still there? I'm quite serious. I loved that. Along with the steel man on Deck 5, who I thought was real for the longest time!!!

[Babo02]

Hi Dan,

 

I'm enjoying your comments enormously. The only other Celebrity ship we've been on has been the Xpedition to the Galapagos, and we're really looking forward to this Baltic cruise on Constellation. She looks lovely.

 

Do you know if there will be a shuttle into Helsinki? We have tours booked everywhere else, but couldn't think of anything we really wanted to see in Helsinki, so hope to do some shopping instead.

 

Looking forward to our cruise and I'm bringing sanitizing wipes just in case the crew forgets to wipe down some of the areas of our cabin.

 

We were on RCL Brilliance two years ago and one of the people at our table became quite ill, but nobody else got sick, so I figure the chances of us getting sick are low to nil (and I'm keeping my fingers crossed).

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

The last time we were on the Constellation there was King Kong on one of the top decks. Is he still there? I'm quite serious. I loved that. Along with the steel man on Deck 5, who I thought was real for the longest time!!!

 

You mean this guy?

 

[Dan Askin]

Today we called in rainy Warnemunde, Germany, which is a Baltic resort town with tons of shops and restaurants, and an exceptionally wide two-mile beach that attracts families and sun worshippers from all over Germany and Scandinavia. A number of Baltic ferries also call regularly. The real reason for visiting Warnemunde is that it's the cruise gateway to another, much more famous German city: Berlin. We docked for 15 hours (9 a.m. - midnight), and the length of the call gives passengers enough time to visit Berlin, which is roughly three hours away by train.

 

Not feeling up to that kind of in-transit time, I opted to visit the nearby university city of Rostock with a brewery tour thrown in at the end for good measure.

 

Rostock was once a city with beautiful medieval architecture, but like so many other German metropolises, it was almost completely bombed out during WWII, with most of its original buildings reduced to rubble. The city was a major contributor to the German war effort -- there were factories building planes, submarines and ships -- so you can imagine why the allies would target it.

 

By the time a Baltic cruiser arrives in Rostock, very few of the 13,000 or so college students are still around, so we definitely didn't find any collegiate buzz. What we did find was a charming enough European city, with a long cobblestone esplanades, big squares, parks, lots of cafes, bars, shops and a few traces of its medieval past (piece of city wall, nunnery) ... in other words, a nice place to wander at a leisurely pace, and stop for coffee and apple cake. Rostock is also known for its massive, 5-million-brick church (unverified figures from Margret, our guide), which, like so many European buildings, is covered in scaffolding, and for having one of the six best zoos in Germany. While the last distinction didn't seem to impress anyone, Margret's description of the area during a nice spring day did ..."You have the yellow of the grape seed flowers, the blue of the sky, Baltic Sea [in nearby Warnemunde] and about 2,000 lakes, and the green of the forests."

 

 

 

 

[Dan Askin]

In terms of recent history, East Germany is all about post-WWII identity and the collapse of communism (remember David Hassellhoff dancing on the wall). Being from the East, Margret lived through the reunification of East and West (she said, however, that she was pretty apolitical), and her new found freedom afforded her the ability to travel to the U.S. for a year and a half, during which she took Ethnic Studies courses at Bowling Green in Cleveland, Ohio. She told me how at grade school in East Germany in the 80's, she was taught that West Germany was the enemy.

East Germany's restrictions on travel and speech may have been severe, but culturally, those in charge were not as conservative in terms of things like "body culture," as Margret phrased it. The locals call this fountain, built in 1979, the "porno fountain" (real name is something like the fountain of joy). There was a lot more nude sunbathing in the former days as well, says Margret ... the map of Warnenmunde we were given on the bus ride back from Rostock still had two nude sections listed on the beach, but they were sandwiching a section called "dog beach." I wasn't sure why the order of beaches went nude beach, dog beach, nude beach, but Margret seemed to indicate that most of it was nude before.

 

 

[Dan Askin]

Before heading back to Warnenmunde, we stopped at Brahaus Trotzenburg, a micro-brewery. To call what we experienced a tour would be like calling peanut a meal (although some models are known to do that, so note the exception to the simile). It was probably 90 seconds long ... hops, malt, yeast, boiling, cooling, bottling ... but that gave us more time to sample the brewery's two beers: light lager and dark lager. The dark is similar to the light, except they use roasted malt for its coloring/flavoring. Very tasty small batch German lagers they were, and they were selling the beer in jumbo wine-like liter bottles, which passed through the cruise ship security checkpoint without issue. Bottles were 5 euros each, which is a very good price for small batch beer.

 

 

[Dan Askin]

Warnemunde (Warne takes its name from the Warnow River, Munde means mouth) is a seaside resort town on the Baltic -- it feels like the German version of Ocean City, New Jersey except people have been visiting since the late 19th century ... and the architecture, like its famous lighthouse (not pictured) reflects it. (Swap the Boardwalk with a shopping/restaurant street and take away the amusement park, too ... okay maybe not that much like Ocean City). The Baltic at this point is still under 60 degrees farenheit, but Margret told us that on some sunny days in May, people were already swimming. The other thing about Warnemunde is that there are an endless array of fish bars, all selling nearly the same thing. I'm going to get to the inside scoop from my German tablemates tomorrow at dinner.

 

In Warnenmunde, I wandered the wet beach and along the docks in the rain, photographed fish bars, took in the lighthouse and enjoyed a currywurst, which, as my onboard tablemate said, is sweeping the nation in Germany. The tubular sausage was fed into a slicer, and the meat dropped into a square plastic bowl. The sliced pieces of brat were then smothered in tangy brown sauce and sprinkled with yellow curry powder. You eat it with a roll and a little fork. It's 3 euros.

 

 

[Dan Askin]

Back onboard, they were offering a German-themed meal -- wiener, frankfurter, bratwurst, knockwurst, red cabbage, pork schnitzel, etc. -- and trying to coerce people to buy a Rostock pilsner specially brought onboard for the evening. Something about German food always puts me in a good mood, and the pork schnitzel and red cabbage was the best meal I've had onboard so far.

 

One thing I wasn't sure about was the difference between a wiener and a frankfurter, both of which were offered (and each looked identical and was said to be pork-based). No one seemed to know ... a man told me to taste each and then I would know the difference. Obviously, he was right on some technical level. I would look it up, but the Internet is horribly slow.

[Dan Askin]

A number of Celebrity vets have told me that there have been some unusual service quirks on this sailing. Getting the wrong food at dinner and seeing that your tablemate has your buffalo-style frog legs. Receiving your bathrobe on the morning of day 3. Paint fumes getting into the ventilation, then your blood stream, at which point you become paranoid that your cabin steward is trying to steal your remote, which has transformed into an ice cream bar. Tiny things to be sure, but touches that we take for granted on a well-oiled cruise machine. I'm thinking crew exhaustion may be partly at play. The cruise got off to a shaky start following the aforementioned G.I.-caused delay. To try to make up lost time while simultaneously maintaining Celebrity's "red flag" rules for G.I. prevention, the crew has had to work incredibly hard ... again, that protocol includes no self-service food or drinks, constantly required hand sanitization and a special fumigation of every cabin (pictured). I've seen some loopy displays from the crew ... like the hand sanitization guard stationed in front of the buffet venue who began doing bartender tricks with the bottle of sanitizer (flipping it, spinning around and catching it behind his back).

 

My cabin steward and his crew buddies got some time off starting at 9 p.m. ... so they had a few hours to hang out in Warnemunde and decompress, probably at the little outdoor bar just beyond the train station. (They had to be back onboard by 11:30 just like everyone else, so they don't want to waste time in transit). In talking to the crew, one thing you learn is that they're always short on time. So anything they do on their own, they do hard ... power napping, power eating, power drinking...

[judyfssw]

Dan,

Thank you so much for your posts. Since we'll be getting onboard on June 9th, this is so exciting to read and look at your pictures.

One question, how do you pronounce, Warnemunde?

[C 2 C]

One question, how do you pronounce, Warnemunde?

 

I believe it is pronounced "Warnuhmunduh"

[Germancruiser]

HI Dan,

great that you liked WARNEMÜNDE- and thanks for your brief history of the town. For us west germans it was impossible to visist these nice east part cities during the time of the wall and the communism.

This is exactly the cruise I am going to take on board Connie- soon.

So you liked curywurst- I don´t - never did, but some love them- very traditionell.

Have you seen the floor on Deck eleven? Did it get a refit also? Ah yeah and the Metallman, standing first in the Reflections Lounge, then after it got ugly, in Cova Cafe- has he gone completely?

Greetings

Michael

[Dan Askin]

Dan,

Thank you so much for your posts. Since we'll be getting onboard on June 9th, this is so exciting to read and look at your pictures.

One question, how do you pronounce, Warnemunde?

 

German "W" is like the English "V", and there's an umelot over the "U" (didn't show up the first time I wrote it) ... so it's "vaʁnəˈmʏndə."

[STXCruisers]

Dan, your posts are so very well written and so descriptive. With your descriptions and pics, it is almost like going along with you on your cruise. Thank you so much for posting.:D

Doris

[Dan Askin]

HI Dan,

great that you liked WARNEMÜNDE- and thanks for your brief history of the town. For us west germans it was impossible to visist these nice east part cities during the time of the wall and the communism.

This is exactly the cruise I am going to take on board Connie- soon.

So you liked curywurst- I don´t - never did, but some love them- very traditionell.

Have you seen the floor on Deck eleven? Did it get a refit also? Ah yeah and the Metallman, standing first in the Reflections Lounge, then after it got ugly, in Cova Cafe- has he gone completely?

Greetings

Michael

 

I liked the currywurst, but I typically go with the spicy mustard on my dogs, so about half way through the snack, I was seriously coveting a more traditional brat with mustard.

 

Is this the Metalman you're referring to? I'm working on a little montage of all the sculptures onboard (ape man, word man, who takes the award for creepiest, metal man, etc.). He's been relegated to Deck 3 by the bathrooms near the cinema. I double take every time I race by ...

 

[Dan Askin]

Hi Dan,

 

I'm enjoying your comments enormously. The only other Celebrity ship we've been on has been the Xpedition to the Galapagos, and we're really looking forward to this Baltic cruise on Constellation. She looks lovely.

 

Do you know if there will be a shuttle into Helsinki? We have tours booked everywhere else, but couldn't think of anything we really wanted to see in Helsinki, so hope to do some shopping instead.

 

Looking forward to our cruise and I'm bringing sanitizing wipes just in case the crew forgets to wipe down some of the areas of our cabin.

 

We were on RCL Brilliance two years ago and one of the people at our table became quite ill, but nobody else got sick, so I figure the chances of us getting sick are low to nil (and I'm keeping my fingers crossed).

 

I'll find out about the shuttle in Helsinki ... I've been there a few times now, on stopovers en route to the STX shipyard in Turku, Finland, and before and after a two-night Helsinki - Stockholm trip on Silja Symphony, a Baltic cruise ferry. One little tangent ... That was a surreal experience, a December cruise in the frigid Baltic during which there were about 700 passengers of ship's the 2,800 max occupancy onboard. It was like a ghost ship ... except for the buffet venue, which was packed during dinner. It was a serious smorgasbord, and I brought my game face ... for about $50, you get to fill your belly with 13 kinds of herring, caviar, shrimp cocktail (which inspires the same mad rush anywhere in the world), lobster, crab, sliced ham, turkey and prime rib, beer, wine, cocktails, cakes, cookies ... but it's not a rushed affair, and most passengers were there for three hours, faces becoming increasingly red and shiny as the evening wore on. By hour three, there was a passenger walking around serenading diners with what sounded like Italian love songs...

 

Unless you want a quick Helsinki panorama, I really don't think an excursion is all that necessary. The tram gets you to all the highlights, or if you're a big walker, it's not a bad walking city.

 

I've had G.I. once on a cruise -- pretty painful, but certainly not hanging over the toilet for 48 hours painful -- so I'm pretty vigilant about keeping my grubby hands away from my face.