Constellation Review - April 5th Sailing

[mnolan770]

We've been back for a few days now from our April 5th five day sailing on the Constellation. I thought it would be a good time to put my thoughts down in writing in the hopes of helping others with questions about Celebrity and the Constellation.

 

First, my wife and I are in our 40s with no children. We have cruised at least once a year for the past 6 or 7 years. We started out on Celebrity several years ago, loved it, but decided to try a few other lines just to make sure we were spending our vacation money in the right place. This cruise was our first back on Celebrity since then and our first on the smaller class of ship. It was also our first 5 day cruise.

 

Day 1

 

We drove from Atlanta to Ft Lauderdale on Fri-Sat. Friday we drove to Orlando and spent the night at the Hyatt Regency on International Drive. This isn't a review of the Hyatt, but I will say that the former Peabody Hotel was very nice. It is huge! Vegas style huge. But the rooms were nice, clean, and provided a great nights rest before continuing on to Ft. Lauderdale.

 

Saturday morning we left Orlando around 8:00am in our Avis rental car. We took our time getting there and arrived at the Avis lot at the Hyatt Pier 66 in Ft. Lauderdale around 11:45 or so. After returning the car and taking the shuttle to the ship, we were in line to board around 12:30.

 

We had originally booked an oceanview cabin. A week before the cruise I noticed that there were still tons of available cabins. So I called the TA and she was able to upgrade us to a Concierge verandah for the same rate. We also had the drink package from the 1.2.3 promotion. We were able to keep that with the upgrade.

 

Back to boarding. This was extremely smooth and fast. From stepping off the shuttle to boarding the ship probably took less than 20 minutes. A great way to start the cruise. Once on board, we decided to go directly to our room. We dropped our bags and headed up to Bistro on Five for lunch. While in Bistro on Five the announcement came that the rooms were ready.

 

Bistro on Five was great for first day lunch. I'm not sure how full the buffet was, but Bistro on Five only had 6 or 8 people in it. The food was great and the service even better. Both the assistant waiter and waiter were very personable and attentive.

 

Our cabin was 7190 just above the suites. The view as ok, but you can see from the picture that the canopy over the deck of the suite below does obstruct the view straight down. Here are a few more pictures of the cabin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(To be continued)

Edited April 16, 2014 by mnolan770
Image edit

[meatloafsfan]

Great start to your review!

 

Can I ask - did you upgrade to the Premium package or stay with the classic package through the 1-2-3?

[mnolan770]

Great start to your review!

 

Can I ask - did you upgrade to the Premium package or stay with the classic package through the 1-2-3?

 

Great question! We did upgrade to the premium package. We thought it was well worth the $115 upgrade. We enjoy wine and beer. It was nice to know we could pick from anything on the menu up to $13. And, if we wanted something over $13, we only had to pay the difference.

[mnolan770]

After lunch in Bistro on Five, we stopped by the bar in the Cellar Masters bar and upgraded our classic drink package to the premium package. As I mentioned in the comment above, this seemed like a great value to us. For only $115 for the two of us, we were able to order anything on the drink menu up to $13...which seemed like most anything. But if we found something we wanted to try that was more, we only had to pay the difference. We were told by the bartender that you could not do this with just the Classic package.

 

Speaking of the bar service. We recently were on Royal Caribbean and found that the bar service was abysmal once they learned you had the drink package. I had read on these boards that some felt the service on Celebrity was poor due to the drink package. We had drinks in the Martini Bar, Cellar Masters, Rendezvous Lounge, Sunset Bar, and with dinner. We found the service in all of these locations to be outstanding regardless of the amount of people in the bar area at the time.

 

Let's take a moment and address another one of the concerns I've heard voiced on these boards...the music. We first cruised with Celebrity back in 2009 or '10. During those cruises, the music on board was more of a classical nature with string quartets playing in the lounges of the ship. Has the music changed since then? Yes. But is it a bad change? For us, I say no. We really enjoyed the music in '09 and '10. But we really enjoyed the music now too. From the dance music in the Martini Bar and poolside to the Latin Trio and the Blues singer in the Rendezvous Lounge. We really enjoyed all of them. We didn't find the dance music to be too loud. We were easily able to hold a conversation over it. And the DJ was actually pretty good.

 

Back to day 1 of the cruise. We decided to dine in the buffet for dinner. The food was fine for buffet food. We were able to find a quiet area to eat back near the Sunset Bar. After dinner, we stopped by the Martini Bar and stayed there for the rest of the evening.

 

Here are a few pics of Cellar Masters, Bistro on Five, and the Martini Bar.

 

Cellar Masters

 

Bistro on Five

 

Martini Bar

[miched]

It is nice to hear that Celebrity has listened to everyone's complaint about the noise issue on the Constellation. When we sailed on it last Mar there was a DJ banging on a electric drum set by the Martini bar and at the pool area that was so loud it was just booming distortion.

 

Our recent cruises on the Eclipse the music was also at a tolerable level.

 

 

🎺🎷🎤

[Caribbean Chris]

Really enjoying your review and photos since we're on the ship in December. Thanks!

[mnolan770]

Really enjoying your review and photos since we're on the ship in December. Thanks!

Thanks. It's been a bit crazy at work this week, but will get back to the review later today.

[dodger1964]

You "dropped your bags"...do you mean in your room? If so, were the large brown doors closed on your way there...(I'm curious...I'm guessing that they are able to be opened from the outside but have never tried...i assume they have to be opened from inside or outside for safety reasons)

 

 

 

And you comment about not being able to look straight down...that is one of my biggest complaints about the S class ships...there is very few places on the ship that you can actually see down to the water line of the ship...I love the M class and the ability to actually see the water hitting the side of the ship...probably just me...

 

Thanks for your review!

[Iamthesea]

We had originally booked an oceanview cabin. A week before the cruise I noticed that there were still tons of available cabins. So I called the TA and she was able to upgrade us to a Concierge verandah for the same rate. We also had the drink package from the 1.2.3 promotion. We were able to keep that with the upgrade.

 

This really surprises me! :eek: You were on the cruise after me. Those rates were "special rates" and some on our roll call were told that they would lose their package if they upgraded. I was already in a Suite, so I didn't need to. However, I have been trying to upgrade for my upcoming Baltics cruise and am being told those rates are for new bookings, only, or I would lose my incentives. :(

[akowilm]

Great photos! Looking forward to the rest of the review! I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!!