Live from Constellation

[probert]

Can you please explain what select dining in the MDR is?

 

What percentage of passengers are still wearing black tie and evening dresses? Friends who have flown to Hong Kong today prior to a cruise say they still'dress up' even though the dress code has changed. We don't know whether we should take formal evening clothes on our upcoming cruise.

 

Any advice about what we should wear in the evenings would be helpful as everything I have read so far is confusing.

 

Many thanks

 

Jo

[zowie57]

On Infinity round Sth America they would leave pool towels out over 6 chairs and not arrive all day!! We repeatedly told people this but NO ONE would do anything either pool butlers or guests. Think it’s time more people stood up for themselves and took the items to the pool butlers to keep for the selfish guests who display this behaviour! No one on Celebrity enforce these rules and it’s a disgrace!

 

 

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This topic is well covered in this link.

https://www.cruisecritic.com.au/articles.cfm?ID=3106&et_cid=3035279&et_rid=85367495&et_referrer=Boards_Million_Member_Newsub

[harz99]

Can you please explain what select dining in the MDR is?

 

What percentage of passengers are still wearing black tie and evening dresses? Friends who have flown to Hong Kong today prior to a cruise say they still'dress up' even though the dress code has changed. We don't know whether we should take formal evening clothes on our upcoming cruise.

 

Any advice about what we should wear in the evenings would be helpful as everything I have read so far is confusing.

 

Many thanks

 

Jo

Select is similar to Mytime, Anytime or any of the other lines dine when you want offerings. You can prebook online from a selection of times after your edocs become available, turn up at the appropriate MDR entrance when you want to dine, or book daily onboard if you wish. Bear in mind the busy times are 7-8pm, during which you may be given a pager and have a wait before your table is ready.

 

Evening chic is a rubbish marketing phrase, some will do Tuxedo/Gown still, others suits, others slacks etc. A lot depends on where the cruise is and where the participants hail from. I used to wear a dark suit/shirt/tie and wife a dark pant suit/dressy blouse for formal nights, nowadays we wear similar styles without the jackets and coloured shirts/blouses instead of plain white or similar.

 

HTH.

 

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[kenisawake]

Can you please explain what select dining in the MDR is?

Jo

 

I see you have signed up on our roll call today :) Welcome. I can answer your question on Select Dining It means you are flexible to choose what time you dine each evening as opposed to being on a fixed early or late seating where you would have the same table and table mates at the same time every night.

 

I'm also interested to know how many men wear black tie on Formal Night. This is something we still like to do, all part of the cruising experience to us but I realise times are changing on many cruise lines.

 

Isabel

[excitedofharpenden]

 

I'm also interested to know how many men wear black tie on Formal Night. This is something we still like to do, all part of the cruising experience to us but I realise times are changing on many cruise lines.

 

I saw quite a few wearing black tie on Elegant Chic nights (there are no formal nights on Celebrity any longer). On the whole this was a dressy cruise. I'll put that down to the time of year (dress up for Christmas and New Year) and there were a lot of Brits onboard. You certainly won't feel out of place if you dress up though. My mum always told me you can't be overdressed.

 

Phil

[excitedofharpenden]

I got back home yesterday and here are some random thoughts from me.

 

Overall we were pleased with the food for dinner in the MDR. However itinitially after being very impressed there were some negatives that crept in. One of them seemed to be regularly luke warm food which had to be sent back. I hate doing this because it just puts everything so far behind for the meal and if one sends back and another doesn't it's all out of kilter. Serving food on hot plates would be a great start! Our regular wait staff in the Select Dining area were a delight. Javier, Rohmann and sommelier Lawrence. We asked for them each night and got them every time except once when we were late.

 

Service at breakfast in the MDR was dire. We tried it twice. First time wasn't great. Second time was dreadful. So bad we laughed about it. I'm not sure where to start, but much of it comes down to training. The waiter leaning across you to serve someone else whilst you have a cup of tea raised to your mouth. We ended up with seven teapots on our table at one point as they weren't clearing them after. We asked for freshly squeezed orange juice and handed our cards over. They came back with a glass filled with the same ordinary juice, but in a bigger glass. The second morning I reckon we had six different wait staff serving us.

 

We ate in QSine one evening and it was really good. My friends hadn't been there before and really enjoyed it very much. Oh, but what have they done to that beautiful Ocean Liners restaurant? This classy looking space has now been transformed into a restaurant with orange wooden chairs. I thought it looked hideous. Such a shame. However a real plus is that Celebrity have resisted the temptation to squeeze in too many tables. We sat at the near end closest to the entrance and there was a lot of space around us. My recommendation if you go there is ask to sit here.

 

The Pool Deck was mobbed on sea days. Everywhere. There was much seat hogging and nothing done about it sadly. Just not a relaxing place to be.

 

I was fortunate to have access to Michael's Club and this was a nice sanctuary from the hustle and bustle. I used this room a lot and Nadia, the concierge and Elif and Viktoria the bar servers were all wonderful and looked after us. We regularly had afternoon tea which was very pleasant too.

 

Overall service on the ship was pretty good, but there were some real low spots which marred it. The crew seem either really good or pretty bloody awful. This came from all places on the ship too. Bar tenders/servers, wait staff, sommeliers. I really lucked out with my cabin steward though. If you get Cato from St Vincent looking after you then you will be fine. My room was always made up promptly and spotless and the few requests I made always dealt with in a friendly manner.

 

OK, so on the whole I didn't find this a relaxing cruise. I've said it before on this board, but the noise around the ship is everywhere, even when there aren't many people onboard. I really don't understand the need to play loud thumping music around the pool deck when there are very few there on a port day. There are just many service inconsistencies too and I would love to have shown Lisa Lutoff-Perlo some of the ways of "Modern Luxury", particularly sitting her down for breakfast those mornings in the MDR. Or listening to some of that noise around the pool. I realise now that perhaps Celebrity is going in a different direction to the one I prefer. I have cruised a lot on Azamara and find that a much more honest experience. However they have become very expensive of late. Will just have to see how it goes. I have two Celebrity cruises booked (both include Hawaii) and four on Azamara. In future maybe less cruises and more honest quality. In the final analysis I'm afraid I didn't find that on Celebrity Constellation.

 

Phil

[Lottie A]

Thanks for the honest and interesting review Phil.

 

As you know, I was considering a Celebrity cruise again but I don't think it is for me anymore. I hate that loud muzak everywhere and it does seem like standards onboard have slipped since my last Celebrity cruise in 2013.

 

I think it's still Azamara, Silversea, Viking and possibly Crystal for me in future.

[kenisawake]

Phil

 

Thanks for your last post on your cruise experience, much appreciated. We cruise a lot but haven’t sailed Celebrity since the Silhouette in 2011. From reading your experience I can see our memories of the Celebrity Cruise Experience are not going to match up to what we might find now.

 

Happy New Year and Happy Future Cruising.

 

Isabel

[excitedofharpenden]

 

I think it's still Azamara, Silversea, Viking and possibly Crystal for me in future.

Lottie, bear in mind those are all very different price points though. I just wish Celebrity would stop trying to be what they aren't and have a more truthful approach to their product.

 

Phil

[Lottie A]

Lottie, bear in mind those are all very different price points though. I just wish Celebrity would stop trying to be what they aren't and have a more truthful approach to their product.

 

Phil

 

I do take your point about the differing prices Phil and certainly I think we both agree that Azamara have increased their prices way above a reasonable rate and are playing games with "sales" that actually are not price reductions at all. If they weren't doing that then they would always be my first choice.

 

I have to say that Viking are broadly comparable to Celebrity in price and we really enjoyed our cruise on Viking Sea in 2017. The food and service was excellent and the cabin was wonderful. I would book another Viking cruise in a heartbeat.

 

I suppose "modern luxury" is whatever people think it is! 😄

[harz99]

Phil you were lucky to have the use of Michaels club, those of us using the bars around the ship ended up having to fetch and carry our drinks from the bar far to many times due to lack of servers and lack of supervision. This was the first Celebrity ship I've ever experienced no drinks service in the theatre and a temporary bar set up in the foyer area so you could get your own. People carrying two or more glasses to seats, negotiating steps, slopes and passing other seated pax - what could possibly go wrong. A comment to the HD brought one night of improvement, and then back to status quo.

 

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[HokiePoq]

Phil you were lucky to have the use of Michaels club, those of us using the bars around the ship ended up having to fetch and carry our drinks from the bar far to many times due to lack of servers and lack of supervision. This was the first Celebrity ship I've ever experienced no drinks service in the theatre and a temporary bar set up in the foyer area so you could get your own. People carrying two or more glasses to seats, negotiating steps, slopes and passing other seated pax - what could possibly go wrong. A comment to the HD brought one night of improvement, and then back to status quo.

 

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That is a new one to me....never seen this on any ship of any line. And yes, it is dangerous!

I'm thinking you, too, have just gotten off the Constellation. Can you tell us who the CD is and comment on the entertainment?

Thanks to you , Phil, and everyone for the info on the Constellation.

[Freckles49]

I got back home yesterday and here are some random thoughts from me.

 

Overall we were pleased with the food for dinner in the MDR. However itinitially after being very impressed there were some negatives that crept in. One of them seemed to be regularly luke warm food which had to be sent back. I hate doing this because it just puts everything so far behind for the meal and if one sends back and another doesn't it's all out of kilter. Serving food on hot plates would be a great start! Our regular wait staff in the Select Dining area were a delight. Javier, Rohmann and sommelier Lawrence. We asked for them each night and got them every time except once when we were late.

 

Service at breakfast in the MDR was dire. We tried it twice. First time wasn't great. Second time was dreadful. So bad we laughed about it. I'm not sure where to start, but much of it comes down to training. The waiter leaning across you to serve someone else whilst you have a cup of tea raised to your mouth. We ended up with seven teapots on our table at one point as they weren't clearing them after. We asked for freshly squeezed orange juice and handed our cards over. They came back with a glass filled with the same ordinary juice, but in a bigger glass. The second morning I reckon we had six different wait staff serving us.

 

We ate in QSine one evening and it was really good. My friends hadn't been there before and really enjoyed it very much. Oh, but what have they done to that beautiful Ocean Liners restaurant? This classy looking space has now been transformed into a restaurant with orange wooden chairs. I thought it looked hideous. Such a shame. However a real plus is that Celebrity have resisted the temptation to squeeze in too many tables. We sat at the near end closest to the entrance and there was a lot of space around us. My recommendation if you go there is ask to sit here.

 

The Pool Deck was mobbed on sea days. Everywhere. There was much seat hogging and nothing done about it sadly. Just not a relaxing place to be.

 

I was fortunate to have access to Michael's Club and this was a nice sanctuary from the hustle and bustle. I used this room a lot and Nadia, the concierge and Elif and Viktoria the bar servers were all wonderful and looked after us. We regularly had afternoon tea which was very pleasant too.

 

Overall service on the ship was pretty good, but there were some real low spots which marred it. The crew seem either really good or pretty bloody awful. This came from all places on the ship too. Bar tenders/servers, wait staff, sommeliers. I really lucked out with my cabin steward though. If you get Cato from St Vincent looking after you then you will be fine. My room was always made up promptly and spotless and the few requests I made always dealt with in a friendly manner.

 

OK, so on the whole I didn't find this a relaxing cruise. I've said it before on this board, but the noise around the ship is everywhere, even when there aren't many people onboard. I really don't understand the need to play loud thumping music around the pool deck when there are very few there on a port day. There are just many service inconsistencies too and I would love to have shown Lisa Lutoff-Perlo some of the ways of "Modern Luxury", particularly sitting her down for breakfast those mornings in the MDR. Or listening to some of that noise around the pool. I realise now that perhaps Celebrity is going in a different direction to the one I prefer. I have cruised a lot on Azamara and find that a much more honest experience. However they have become very expensive of late. Will just have to see how it goes. I have two Celebrity cruises booked (both include Hawaii) and four on Azamara. In future maybe less cruises and more honest quality. In the final analysis I'm afraid I didn't find that on Celebrity Constellation.

 

Phil

 

Totally agree, couldnt have put it better.

Although we ate in Blu every night which was good, not excellent but good.

We were on 7th Dec cruise and all of the above occurred.

 

We also love Azamara but have thought 1 Azamara cruise = 2 Celebrity cruises price wise but I think after this experience we would rather cruise once every 2 years with Azamara and have a much better experience.

[harz99]

That is a new one to me....never seen this on any ship of any line. And yes, it is dangerous!

I'm thinking you, too, have just gotten off the Constellation. Can you tell us who the CD is and comment on the entertainment?

Thanks to you , Phil, and everyone for the info on the Constellation.

CD, Ian Cresswell, competent with bad jokes. Entertainment wise, usual classical in Cafe al Bacio no opinions, production shows are all the 3 old style ones (and all the better for that) plus an adults only late evening one new to us, all enjoyed despite seeing most of them multiple times in the last few years. Guest artistes variable according to taste.

 

Two bands, the one with two females seemed easier on the ear, certainly lower volume, unfortunately both were too loud for the Rendezvous show lounge, in fact apart from the classical act all the music was too loud for me, must be getting old. Lol.

 

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[HokiePoq]

CD, Ian Cresswell, competent with bad jokes. Entertainment wise, usual classical in Cafe al Bacio no opinions, production shows are all the 3 old style ones (and all the better for that) plus an adults only late evening one new to us, all enjoyed despite seeing most of them multiple times in the last few years. Guest artistes variable according to taste.

 

Two bands, the one with two females seemed easier on the ear, certainly lower volume, unfortunately both were too loud for the Rendezvous show lounge, in fact apart from the classical act all the music was too loud for me, must be getting old. Lol.

 

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Thanks so much.

[uktog]

Sounds like modern luxury is not for us then! Regrettably we are also experiencing music far too loud in Spirits on Azamara. New look entertainment is coming there, I fear the worst.

 

 

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[takemewithyou]

Interesting review, Phil.

We liked the M class, but these changes don’t seem to add much value for us. The loud music has driven us away! We haven’t been on X since 2015. We were thinking of a possible return because Azamara is getting so expensive......guess Modern Luxury isn’t for us, either.

 

And Constellation was one of our favorites!

 

Have they refurbished the cabins?

When was the last cabin refurbishment?

[harz99]

Interesting review, Phil.

We liked the M class, but these changes don’t seem to add much value for us. The loud music has driven us away! We haven’t been on X since 2015. We were thinking of a possible return because Azamara is getting so expensive......guess Modern Luxury isn’t for us, either.

 

And Constellation was one of our favorites!

 

Have they refurbished the cabins?

When was the last cabin refurbishment?

The Concierge class cabin we had bore signs of ongoing maintenance but not of refurbishment, same bed, same tired fittings, same bathroom etc.

 

Can't think of any major refurb to cabins on Connie since built, only new cabins squeezed into various public spaces such as the deck 3 midships Oceanviews formed from meeting rooms, the Aqua class balcony cabins aft on deck 11 placed where the upper promenade walk used to be, and most recently the new Oceanviews on deck 3 midships formed from the Oceanliners restaurant foyer and part of the room itself.

 

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[excitedofharpenden]

Interesting review, Phil.

We liked the M class, but these changes don’t seem to add much value for us. The loud music has driven us away! We haven’t been on X since 2015. We were thinking of a possible return because Azamara is getting so expensive......guess Modern Luxury isn’t for us, either.

 

And Constellation was one of our favorites!

 

Have they refurbished the cabins?

When was the last cabin refurbishment?

I have been on Connie a few times and she was always a favourite of mine. I’m afraid the loudness of the shipboard music is a real turn off for me theses days. I had a friend who attended Catholic Mass a few times and it was held in the Reflections Lounge at the front. On one morning she had to ask three times for the music to be turned down before the service started because it was loud and disturbing. It’s also disrespectful. The Mass was listed in the daily as being there.

 

I had an inside cabin on deck 2 and it was in a good state. Bathroom was spotless, bed and pillows were comfy. The only thing I noticed was that the arms of the sofa looked a bit grubby, but to be honest the rest of the ship seemed in a state of very good upkeep.

 

I did the Christmas cruise on Azamara Journey last year. Had a great time. The price this year had gone up three fold and I couldn’t justify it so went with Celebrity Constellation. Interestingly enough a friend has just finished Azamara Journey's Christmas cruise and said it was marred by some rowdy and drunk groups onboard from different nationalities. Once again it proves to me that there isn’t a bad cruise, just bad people that can be on it who don’t know how to behave.

 

Phil

[nh282028]

Hi

Music around the pool area is very subjective. My wife and I love the music,and to us, it makes the day very enjoyable and keeps us young at heart.

 

 

 

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[upwarduk]

Hi

Music around the pool area is very subjective. My wife and I love the music,and to us, it makes the day very enjoyable and keeps us young at heart.

 

 

 

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I like to be able to hear conversation, loud music prevents that when you are getting on in years.

 

 

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[excitedofharpenden]

Hi

Music around the pool area is very subjective. My wife and I love the music,and to us, it makes the day very enjoyable and keeps us young at heart.

Yes, I agree it is subjective and gets talked about here regularly. I can only give you my own take on it and for me a lot of the time it’s too loud and used inappropriately. Music is great at creating an atmosphere. I took this video last year on Reflection. I’m not sure what atmosphere they were trying to create here. It was the same on this Connie cruise on a port day.

 

 

Phil

[harz99]

Hi

Music around the pool area is very subjective. My wife and I love the music,and to us, it makes the day very enjoyable and keeps us young at heart.

 

 

 

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It wasn't so much the pool area as the lounges and other venues inside the ship which affected us.

 

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[excitedofharpenden]

It wasn't so much the pool area as the lounges and other venues inside the ship which affected us.

 

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Yes, it was in many venues.

 

Phil