What's going on with the Connie?

[USVI-4-me]

I must have been lucky. Had a great waitstaff. My meals were ordered the evening before so they could be prepared salt free. My only complaint, if you could call it that,is that I never met the RM. Never saw him circulating around the room talking to passengers.The best RMs do that all the time. Be sure to meet Assistant Maitre d' Akar, really great.

 

 

Thanks for the tip to order salt free the evening before. Was that in the MDR or Blu? By prior arrangement w/Celebrity or on the ship? We want to book the b2b cruises on Constellation for Istanbul to Black Sea, back to Rome and TA.

 

Inspite of crew/food/linen deficiencies, the Black Sea Itinerary on Constellation offers new ports and the Connie is calling to me.

 

We're on another Celebrity ship soon. Ordering salt free food is good news.

 

-Marisa

[caladezi]

Food has been FANTASTIC under Jason. Everyone has been aving about it! Last night they did the Captain' Toast and the Chef received the loudest and longest applause. Just booked another cruise on Connie.

 

I have to disagree with the FANTASTIC part. We have cruised Celebrity for 15 years and ever since RCI took over everything food has gone downhill. We just got off the Connie yesterday and ate in the MDR every night. The service was excellent and the food quality was very good and hot. I thought that the menu was a little on the dull side and did not offer the choices that they did in the past but rather offered lower wholesale priced entrees. The food in the Seaside Grill was not all that good. Sometimes lettuce had brown edges and the salmon slices were more shredded than sliced. The hot dishes lacked flavor and the Asian offerings were not very well made. Overall, the grill was way below previous standards. The one and only time that I went to the pool grill to get a hot dog, the cook dropped the hot dog on a dirty counter while putting it on the bun and then picked it up and tried to hand it to me. I refused and walked away to his pleading for me to come back and get a new one. Yes, I did report this to the supervisor who I assume took care of it.

[Trep586]

We took our first Celebirty cruise on the Millenium a year ago, followed a few months later by a cruise on the Eclipse. We just did the Jan. 3 western Carib. cruise on the Constellation and I agree with some of the other posters...if this had been our first Celebrity cruise, we would not have been impressed.

 

What was odd to me was that the pre-Solcistized Millenium seemed to be in MUCH better condition than the post-Solcistized Constellation. There was a lot of rust (like on the light masts above the pool), very faded decks, poor varnish upkeep, etc. that I didn't see on the Millenium. I don't know if the Constellation has just been on some tough itineraries or what?

 

The mattresses on the beds were also ridiculously worn out and "cratered" and we were in a Concierge class stateroom. I would also say about 10% of the deck loungers were just plain broken and the others were in various states of disrepair (lots of broken webbing).

 

The service was still very good but we had some strange service experiences. For example, on night 1 the sommelier came up and asked my wife if she wanted to see the wine list. My wife said, "No, I would just like a glass of house wine." In a huff, the sommelier gathered up all the wine glasses on the table on stormed off. We had to ask the water to bring her back with a glass and a bottle!

 

Overall we had a nice cruise and we're not really the complainer types. But I honestly think Celebrity had better do some major work on the next dry dock if they want to keep Connie in their fleet and not tarnish their great brand.

[megessey]

During lunch, the buffet had sprinkles for the ice cream, but at dinner there were none. When asking the attendant for sprinkles, her response was, "not at this time."

 

I heard you can bring up to 2 jars of your own sprinkles, but they will charge you a unwrappage fee in the buffet.

 

 

 

:D:p:D:p

[gmjc2]

We were on the Transatlantic Nov 30th-Dec 15th. It was our second Celebrity and first Constellation. We thought that the service of the senior positions was awful! The assis Maitre D argued with me over a simple request to keep the salad dressings on ice in the buffet.!!!

The cabin maintanace was first class, they came immediately and fixed it immediately and our steward was great also.

The staff member who ran the Trivia most of the time was dictatorial and rude. He succeded in ruining our favorite pastime and many passengers stopped attending about half way through the cruise!!!

Food choices in buffet were repetative and MDR was so slow.... If we had not already paid for some upcoming cruise, we would not take Celebrity again..M.

[Oville]

We had a balcony cabin. It was not in the C class or Aqua class though. It was right next to a suite. When I was in the hallway the same day that I had asked for toilet paper, soap and towels (our room got skipped from being cleaned one night) I heard another guest complaining that they did not have any toilet paper. I thought maybe Celebrity was rationing it! :) Like I said, we have never had a bad cabin steward before on a cruise so I am sure this was a fluke. The assistant was just as bad. They seemed to blame each other for everything. We are sailing on Reflection in March with a group so hopefully it will be better. We got a C cabin for this one.

 

Best of luck in March on Reflection. We enjoyed the Connie more than the Reflection but had a good time on both.

[tas3086]

I'm on a business trip and just came up from a happy hr after having a few wines. I saw your post, and I just can't help myself....you BIL's tuna salad had 'similar isses' of bone and gristle???? That's one piece of tuna with some issues!!

 

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

 

Den

 

(Jan 3rd, 2013) :eek: I'm the BIL! Yes, both tuna and chicken salads had some ugly, bad stuff in it. No quality control here at all. Ships personnel were seemingly concerned ("Must have been that way in the can" ) and watched over us nicely for the rest of the trip. My only complaint about the cruise was the Juggler Show. It was the worst entertainment I've ever had on ship. No quality control here either. All of the other shows were excellent. I'd also like to compliment Ping and Ying, our dinner waiters. They were the 2nd. best team I've had on 31 or so cruises. Definitely ask for them if you can.

 

All in all, an OK cruise, but, old worn plastic deck and veramda patio chairs are out of place on any Celebrity ships, especially this one.

[Orator]

(Jan 3rd, 2013) :eek: I'm the BIL! Yes, both tuna and chicken salads had some ugly, bad stuff in it. No quality control here at all. Ships personnel were seemingly concerned ("Must have been that way in the can" ) and watched over us nicely for the rest of the trip. My only complaint about the cruise was the Juggler Show. It was the worst entertainment I've ever had on ship. No quality control here either. All of the other shows were excellent. I'd also like to compliment Ping and Ying, our dinner waiters. They were the 2nd. best team I've had on 31 or so cruises. Definitely ask for them if you can.

 

All in all, an OK cruise, but, old worn plastic deck and veramda patio chairs are out of place on any Celebrity ships, especially this one.

 

I am not a fan of juggling. However, I thought that it was a fine performance ( 2nd show) given the extreme ship movement. Frankly, I was surprised that they didn't cancel the show. There was a strong ovation at the end that would indicate to me that most appreciated the effort. Your opinion is your opinion and just as valid as mine. I agree that the other shows were quite good. The first show was one of the best productions I've seen on a Celebrity ship.

[phoenix_dream]

I actually thought our stewards did a good job. We did not compalin about the hole in the sheets. (LOL! we would have complained about no toilet paper- LOUDLY!)We really found it funny. I kept joking to hubby that except for the decor I would think we were on Carnival. After all- Carnival has great food-but louzy sevice in the buffet restaurant.

 

But you know, I think I had my expectations too high. I kept thinking of our 12 day transatlantic on the Connie that we took in 2007 and you can't compare a 4 day to a 12 day on the same ship 5 years plus later. In spite of everything, we still managed a few nostaligic moments and we did have a good time. If we do take another 4 day on her we will just remember that we are not doing a 12 day transataltnic or a Med cruise as we did on the Solstice last summer.

 

I will say this. I liked the Connie 5 years ago better than I did the Solstice last summer. She was a great ship when she was newer. She is just a little tired now but she is still a good ship over all. I wish they would make a newer ship like her. Maybe after the next refurish (April drydock) she wil get some of her sparkle back.

A line in your post caught my attention: "I wish they would make a newer ship like her". You are certainly not alone in this thought!! Why does everything newer have to be bigger?!? The M class ships have a great design and are a very comfortable size - neither too big nor too small. I really enjoy sailing on them, but do feel that they are starting to go downhill too much (some of that based on my recent Summit cruise, compared to even my cruise on her a year prior). If Celebrity really wants to expand the classy, elegant style, then mid-sized ships seem to allow the opportunity to promote that much better than the bigger ships (although they of course have alot of good things going for them as well). RCCL has Azamara, but these are quite a bit smaller (and alot more expensive). Newer M class sized ships would be ideal. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

[sea75]

I am not a fan of juggling. However, I thought that it was a fine performance ( 2nd show) given the extreme ship movement. Frankly, I was surprised that they didn't cancel the show. There was a strong ovation at the end that would indicate to me that most appreciated the effort. Your opinion is your opinion and just as valid as mine. I agree that the other shows were quite good. The first show was one of the best productions I've seen on a Celebrity ship.

 

I thought the same thing Orator; when I first heard "Juggler" I thought 'Oy' Ted Macks Amatuer Hour...this is pretty bad; but IMHO thought he did a great job, especially with the laser lights etc. He got a big standing ovation when he finished on our cruise also 12/15. Our sailing was smooth; it must have been really hard with ship movement.:eek:

[momofmeg]

A line in your post caught my attention: "I wish they would make a newer ship like her". You are certainly not alone in this thought!! Why does everything newer have to be bigger?!? The M class ships have a great design and are a very comfortable size - neither too big nor too small. I really enjoy sailing on them, but do feel that they are starting to go downhill too much (some of that based on my recent Summit cruise, compared to even my cruise on her a year prior). If Celebrity really wants to expand the classy, elegant style, then mid-sized ships seem to allow the opportunity to promote that much better than the bigger ships (although they of course have alot of good things going for them as well). RCCL has Azamara, but these are quite a bit smaller (and alot more expensive). Newer M class sized ships would be ideal. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

 

Yes, I thought the Solstice beautiful and she did not feel crowded (except I felt too many tables were crammed in too close together in the main diningroom) but our tender ports were big headaches even with our prioirty embarkation passes for being in a skysuite. (there was a major price drop after we booked and we were able to upgrade into a skysuite for the original price of an obsturcted balcony) All the passes did was get you on the elevator instead of the stairs-there was still a long line from the elevators. (which is similiar to what I thought about Caribbean Princess-she was a lovely ship but tender ports were a big headache)

 

Yes, I thought of Azamara-and like you said- the line is more than double to Celebrity in price-but perhaps it is time we cruised less. We average a cruise a year-with every other year doing a short cruise also, so I guess about every 8 months, averaging in the short cruises-but if we only went every 2 or 3 years on a line such as Azamara or Oceania-maybe we would enjoy it more.

[Orator]

A line in your post caught my attention: "I wish they would make a newer ship like her". You are certainly not alone in this thought!! Why does everything newer have to be bigger?!? The M class ships have a great design and are a very comfortable size - neither too big nor too small. I really enjoy sailing on them, but do feel that they are starting to go downhill too much (some of that based on my recent Summit cruise, compared to even my cruise on her a year prior). If Celebrity really wants to expand the classy, elegant style, then mid-sized ships seem to allow the opportunity to promote that much better than the bigger ships (although they of course have alot of good things going for them as well). RCCL has Azamara, but these are quite a bit smaller (and alot more expensive). Newer M class sized ships would be ideal. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

 

Agree with your points. I would like to see some smaller, less crowded ships that could navigate into some smaller and less crowded ports. Why must the new ships be larger?Simple: Economy of Scale.The more cabins, the more revenue generated. If you can squeeze more cabins into the same space, even better for the bottom line.That's why cabins have been added to exisiting ships. Unfortunately,it will be many years before we see new ships from Celebrity.

[h20cruzer]

WOW I am so surprised many many people have issues with the Connie. I am booked for th TA in November 2013, makes me 2nd guess that reservation. I was on the Connie a couple of years ago and it was wonderful.

I hope Celebrity is reading this and that all the folks that had issues and problems go directly to Celebrity customer service and voice their opinions.

If we don't tell Celebrity what the issues are how to we expect them to fix the problems.

I have the feeling of all the posts I read that the travelers love Celebrity and are disappointed, and that they are not just complainers.

COME on Celebrity read the posts, make the changes, listen to your passengers.

Norma

[ghstudio]

The Constellation was our favorite ship for many years but things change. Celebrity's focus recently has been solely on the new ship...they moved staff to the new ship and backfilled with inexperienced new hires....as well as leaving some of the lesser performers to train the new hires which made things worse. Apparently, the Constellation got decimated as did the Millenium and there were many reports of awful food, bad attitudes, etc. It's not clear yet if Celebrity focused on the problem or if those ships have not yet recovered. I think the Constellation reports were worse than the Millenium, or perhaps that's wishful thinking on my part since we'll be joining the Millenium for 28 days on Sunday.

 

I'm sure the ships will recover with food and friendly staff as before....just not sure how long it will take. I'll report, of course, on the Millenium.

[momofmeg]

I must have been lucky. Had a great waitstaff. My meals were ordered the evening before so they could be prepared salt free. My only complaint, if you could call it that,is that I never met the RM. Never saw him circulating around the room talking to passengers.The best RMs do that all the time. Be sure to meet Assistant Maitre d' Akar, really great.

 

No, it was wait staff in the garden cafe. After 11 am you could not get fresh coffee and they left the old stuff there for the rest fo the day. I said the main diningroom and Tuscan Griile were fine I thought. So was the Bistro on Five.

 

Our bed sheets had holes in them. I also did not like that the solaruim area was not restricted to adult's only. Little things but they added up.

[momofmeg]

We are still not sure if we will book another cruise on her. We are waitng to see if she has better reviews after the drydock. It made me very sad back in January as she had been a wonderfu lship just a few years ago. At least we did have a few moments of nostalgia on her back in January.