Celebrity Constellation 12/17/2005 VERY LONG!

[MopedMama]

Celebrity Constellation 12/17/2005

Cabin 9008

 

About us - we're early 40s, no kids, and taking this cruise mainly to relax and do some beaching/snorkelling. We booked last minute and have never cruised Celebrity before, although we've done Princess, NCL, and Royal Caribbean twice.

 

Embarkation - it wasn't the worst but still not the smoothest overall either. It was sort of random which group of people got to leave the seating/waiting area and proceed to check-in. We saw groups that arrived later than us get called before us and also vice versa. Some got mad and just got up and walked in without being called. Some of those were sent back to the chairs and some weren't. We arrived at about 12:30pm and it took about an hour for us to get through check-in and get onboard. I noticed they were taking the hard liquor, but not the beer or wines purchased at the duty-free shop in

the port building. Our luggage arrived in the cabin about 3 hours later, still in plenty of time to take a shower and dress for dinner.

 

The Ship - I had read many reviews which said the ship was in pristine condition and how the captain was a stickler for details, so maybe my expectations were too high. Overall the ship was in average condition. From a distance everything was beautiful and the color schemes and art were nice. But up close it is showing some wear. The carpet in our cabin was showing wear pretty badly, the pattern was gone in the high-traffic areas. The curtains were very beaten-up from being slammed in the balcony door, and there was about an inch diameter stain on the bedspread. There was a big rusty spot on the railing of our balcony. And several of the chair cushions in the T-pool area were absolutely threadbare, with foam showing through.

My bathrobe was threadbare, the roping trim was hanging loose because its navy blue covering was completely gone in places. Everything was clean, especially the public bathrooms. Those looked much more well-tended than any other ship I've been on.

 

The layout of the ship was similar to the other ships I've been on, very convenient and easy to learn. I enjoyed the T-pool area very much for quiet time and reading. The main pool area was not quite as crowded as other cruises I've been on. I was able to get a pool chair pretty easily except on the one day at sea. :) The bar at the rear of the ship was also a nice place to relax and people-watch.

 

The cabin's TV had Room Service, Shore Excursion booking, and several other features on it. That was great! Wish other cruiselines would offer that. Its so much easier than having to wait on hold on the phones and face the language barrier. :) The movies were pretty outrageously priced ($9.95), we didn't order any of those.

 

I wish they had little coffee makers in the cabins, that's the only thing I missed that I didn't have room to pack. We're too unpredictable to preorder it on the room service menu at night. We get up whenever we get up, need that coffee immediately, then we're headed out to do stuff. The few times we ordered coffee through the TV Room Service dealy, it was delivered within 20 minutes, but that's still kind of a holdup to our day.

 

Food - in the main dining room, the food was great, everything was cooked to perfection and tasted great. I picked the wrong thing one night, taking a chance and trying something new, but our waiter was quick to bring me something else. The buffet was about average, some things were great others I didn't care for. As on other ships, there seems to be more meat dishes than vegetables, so many of my lunches were meat-only. The poolside burgers were good. The spa cafe food was wonderful, we ate there 2 days for lunch. Also the sushi bar was wonderful, we had a "snack" there one day at 6pm.

 

Entertainment - we only saw 2 shows, the Ventriloquist and the Taste of Cirque. I thought the Ventriloquist was very talented, being able to sing in two voices at once, but his jokes and dialogue were a little lame. The Taste of Cirque I'm on the fence about as well. 2 of the 3 acts were pretty good (the rolling hoop guy and the hanging hoop girl), but the jugglers messed up a lot and seemed a little less Cirque-ish. The people at our dinner table said they hated the Cirque show because they've been to what they called a "real" Cirque de Solei. I haven't, so I can't really judge. I thought it was

colorful and entertaining and needed to be longer with more going on at the same time. We went to the Cirque Masquerade Party afterwards. That was fun, but it was hot in there! Its really hard to dance in masks when you can't breathe, LOL. Other than that we had a good time, the Cirque Decor with all the projection screens was great, and the music was great. It was cool to see everyone's homemade masks. There were an awful lot of people not wearing masks though - I think they need a craft table with some colored paper, string, markers, glitter, etc. at the entrance and make everybody mask up!

 

Service - Our cabin steward Rebecca was great, very friendly and nice. Our waiter Hector and assistant Jose' were also great. Jose' was a big hit with the kids at our table, he had a falling cup trick that got them every time. There weren't as many pool butlers or wait staff as there have been on my other cruises. In a way that was good, no one hounding you constantly to buy drinks. On the other hand when you WANTED a drink, you had to go hunt one down. They did try very hard to please us. One day I got to the pool during that awkward 11am changeover from breakfast to lunch when there aren't any glasses at the self-service drink machine. I kinda grumbled that I wanted ice water and a guy cleaning up the area heard me and suggested the buffet had glasses. I told him thanks but that's just too far (I didn't want it THAT bad.) So I went back to my pool chair, figuring I'd wait for lunch restock of glasses. A few minutes later a pool butler magically appeared with a glass of ice water :) .

 

The Passenger Mix - This was winter break for Illinois and Puerto Rico school systems, so many many folks from those two places. Lots of families with children of all age ranges. Lots of Spanish-speaking passengers. Overall the children were well-behaved, there were only a couple of incidents of screaming children in the T-pool area. (They were swiftly and politely escorted out.)

 

General stuff

The water was kind of yellowish in our cabin, but it smelled/tasted ok and we drank it (and we lived through it with no apparent ill effects).

 

Immigration in St.Thomas was horrible! They made us get up early (7:50am) and stand in line for an HOUR. :mad: Everybody on the ENTIRE SHIP was in ONE line. The line went all the way around the ship and then doubled back the length of the ship again. That was ridiculous, they really need to work on that. We were given little cards with our times to report to the Celebrity Theatre, but the times only varied by about 5 minutes, and everyone's destination was the same. And so everybody got in line at the same time.

 

I don't especially like the "open seating" the first night. That is different from all the other cruises I've been on, and it seemed too unorganized with a lot of standing in line. I'd rather be on my assigned seating, so I could go straight to my table and have the same tablemates and staff as the rest of the cruise.

 

The ports

 

Starting out in San Juan might cost more due to airfare, but it is SO worth it! On all our other cruises, the first day and the last day is that cold windy Gulf crossing. This time we got straight off the plane into that wonderful tropical warmness. Heavenly! I shouldn't have even packed any sweats. Oh, and pack your mosquito repellent for San Juan, the buses and baggage claim area of the airport are infested with them.

 

Dominican Republic - The free shuttles to/from town were great! I found the shopping to be a bit on the expensive side though. Not a lot of selection and no negotiation. The Presidente' (beer) was excellent on the little plaza at the Marina. We found it very inexpensive to buy at the National Grocery Store, and carried a six pack back to our cabin for drinking on the balcony. Don't worry, we also drank plenty of the income-producing alcohol from the ship, our bar tab was several hundred dollars.

 

Grenada - We booked the Carib Cats Snorkel shore excursion through the ship's TV thingy. We wanted afternoon, but when the tickets came, they were for morning. There seemed to be a lot of confusion boarding the catamaran. We were bussed across the mountain (WiLD ride!) to a small dock where several cats were loading. Apparently a couple from a Princess ship were told not to board the cat they were SUPPOSED to be on, so they got on ours. And a party of four got tired of waiting to board from our group and bailed on the excursion, getting back on the buses. That took about 45 mins to straighten out. But after that, we had a nice sail/motor over to the snorkel site. The beautiful weather, nice crew, and free rum punch smoothed out the difficult start. Then we sailed/motored over to a nice sandy beach with a small market. The vendors hounding people as they get off the boats was kind of annoying, but the market was very interesting. Lots of scarves, tye dyes, hats, t-shirts, sandals, spices of course, and woodcarvings.

 

Barbados - This was our only rainy day. We took a cab and shopped downtown. I found a great deal on some amethyst earrings and a matching ring, for about half what the same thing was in the USA. We looked everywhere downtown for some of their local Banks beer to try. We finally found some in the duty free shop in the port area.

 

St.Kitts - We had planned on sharing a taxi to the beach with another CC'er, but we never met up with them, so we were kind of on our own. St.Kitts should take a lesson from Dominican Republic and offer some free shuttles (or even fixed price ones) to/from the most popular beaches. Taxis are outrageously priced and the system for getting one is *not* working. We were supposed to stand in the "holding area" until enough people showed up to fill a cab going to our destination - Turtle Beach. There was already one couple standing there, so when we headed that way, a guy out in the parking

lot started hollering for us all to get in his cab. The dispatcher said no, this other guy (a quiet older guy) is your driver. But apparently the other couple had been standing there a long time, they were mad and they went ahead with the loud guy out in the parking lot. So we stood around for 20 mins before another group wanted to go to Turtle Beach. Then I think our cabbie got sniped once again. Another guy came up to him and said something like "I'm going to help you out.", turned to us and said "this way". The older guy didn't object (not sure he spoke English??), so we followed the new guy. As we pulled out of the parking lot, we saw the quiet older guy sitting in his empty cab like he was waiting for us. Anyway, we arrived at a beach after a wild ride across the hills and curves. I'd never been to St.Kitts, so I didn't know the difference, but he'd taken us to the closer/cheaper ride beach. The rest of the people knew and said NO, we said Turtle Beach. He tried to get more money out of us, but no one was biting. So he got mad and took us on a VERY scary ride :eek: on to Turtle Beach. At this point, you're supposed to arrange for your cabbie to come back and get you at a certain time. But none of us wanted HIM to come back, so we were a little uneasy about being left in the middle of nowhere with no return. Despite THAT whole ordeal, we had a nice 3 hours of beach time. We had a few Carib beers, beautiful weather, and a swim in the little bay. For those of you who are beach conniseurs, you'd probably be disappointed in this beach, it was rocky with coarse coral sand and a lot of seagrass washing up on the shore. They had a guy with a wheelbarrow and pitchfork constantly cleaning it off the shoreline. There was a large boar (pig) there that kept everyone laughing by cleaning up everyone's leftovers. Silly thing ate the plastic utensils, chased the plate around, and tried to eat the chair. At time to head back to the ship, there was a lot of cabbie confusion once again. Many people left earlier and ditched their return rides, and many people were like us, hadn't arranged a return ride. We lucked up and found a taxi with room for 2 more after another about 20 minute wait. He charged us a little more, but we were tired of the hassle.

 

St.Thomas - We have both been here several times and had already found what we were shopping for, so we stayed on the ship that day. It was a perfect pool day, my choice of chairs, no crowds at the buffet, and finally a chance to check out the T-pool and hot tubs. A relaxing end to the day that started out with the immigration from hell.

 

Debarkation

Very quick, smooth and well done. I really like the idea of cargo trucks for luggage and separate buses for people. None of that frantic cramming of luggage underneath the buses like our other cruises. Great job Celebrity!

 

Would I do this cruise again? Yes, but not during Winter break.

[Schplinky]

Nice balanced review. Glad you had a nice time and thanks for the repellant tip. I am driven insane by flies and mosquitos and it would not have occurred to me. It's strange packing for sumemr while experiencing a Canadian winter and it is interesting what one forgets.

[gracecarmo]

Good review, thanks. Re the thread bare items: when does the Connie go into dry dock for refurbishment? Anyone know?

We were on the Summit last Feb. right after her dry dock and noticed that new carpets, drapes, etc. had been replaced.

[mahdnc]

Would I do this cruise again? Yes, but not during Winter break.

 

Thanks for taking the time to write this review. We are scheduled to sail on Constellation one year from today and we are looking forward to it.

 

Although the aversion to cruising during a peak school vacation time is common, your review didn't seem to tell me what your specific reasons were from this cruise. Could you elaborate? BTW not all Illinois schools are on break during that week, our kids' public school break did not start until a week later--on Dec 24. They also get the first week of Jan off as well.

 

In general, how did you rate Celebrity against the other cruise lines that you have been on?

[MopedMama]

Thanks for taking the time to write this review. We are scheduled to sail on Constellation one year from today and we are looking forward to it.

 

Although the aversion to cruising during a peak school vacation time is common, your review didn't seem to tell me what your specific reasons were from this cruise. Could you elaborate? BTW not all Illinois schools are on break during that week, our kids' public school break did not start until a week later--on Dec 24. They also get the first week of Jan off as well.

 

In general, how did you rate Celebrity against the other cruise lines that you have been on?

 

I just prefer fewer people in general on my cruises. And I kind of prefer the older crowds. Its just personal preference, nothing against kids or families or young people in general. I really didn't think that winter break would affect a cruise the way that spring break does. I figured everyone would want to be home for Christmas Eve and wouldn't be out cruising. Wrong guess on my part, LOL. And it wasn't a bad cruise, its just that I know now what to expect during winter break.

 

I think if Constellation had been recently refurbed in dry dock and was a 10-day it would be tied for #1. Due to the wear&tear and the shortness of the cruise, I'd put it second to Princess. Our favorite cruise of all time is still the 10-day Southern Caribbean on Princess. Connie had a few advantages over Princess too, embarking from San Juan was great, and our cabin was a little bit larger than the equivalent one on Princess. Both were "deluxe balcony" class. I think we only had a queen bed on Princess, and this one was a king. The shower was a little bit bigger too. The balcony furniture was nicer on Connie. Princess had plastic furniture which I thought was a little cheesy. Princess wins for best food, but only by a tad, they had the most heavenly chocolate dessert on face of earth, available every night, which was conspicuously missing on Celebrity. That is also kinda subjective, only fellow chocoholics would care. ;) And the portion sizes were a little bit skimpy on Celebrity. One of our tablemates got lamb chops and only got about 3 bites for their entree. The shrimp cocktails only had 3 shrimp in them. They were all GOOD, just small. Princess didn't seem to skimp on anything.

 

Celebrity definitely beats Royal Caribbean (by design, I guess, since they're owned by the same company, LOL). RC is my 3rd place, sort of medium-priced and dependably good, with great activities. And Norwegian I'd put at the bottom of the list, they were OK, we enjoyed the cruise, but they were not exceptional in any category. Actually NCL was quite poor in customer service after losing my shoe. I never forgave them for that.:p

[sacway]

thx for your review -- we had originally booked this cruise but changed to Princess when X dropped Grenada (later added back following pax complaints). We took a version of your cruise three years ago, when the ship was less than a year old, & noticed some of the same things then (stained furniture). It is a stylish and beautiful ship, though, and we share many of your positives, especially the plus of sailing from San Juan, which becomes one of our favorite cities when it's cold and dreary at home.

 

The Golden went clockwise while you were going counterclockwise. What I'd forgotten till you mentioned it was the hassle of the St. Thomas immigration process, there must be some "best" way (skip your assigned time, go a half hour later/earlier?). Our last full day was spent relaxing at sea and going through customs back in SJU was a snap.

 

There were many children on the Golden, but very little bad public behavior, perhaps its the larger dedicated areas/staff on Princess or the "Youth Security"?

 

Seven days seemed too short to us, too, possibly because of port intensity; we are tentatively planning 10 days next trip.

 

What chocolate dessert were you missing that is available every day? I was missing X's creme brulee that I got every night last time... Funny you mention portion size on X, we thought the portions on Princess were too large, so I guess we agree on this too.

[MopedMama]

What chocolate dessert were you missing that is available every day? I was missing X's creme brulee that I got every night last time... Funny you mention portion size on X, we thought the portions on Princess were too large, so I guess we agree on this too.

 

I forget the name of it, something like Chocolate Love Boat Cake. I think it had Love Boat in the name. They may not even have it anymore, that would be a shame. I tried to Google it and came up empty. It was a dark chocolate fudge cupcake filled with chocolate pudding/syrup stuff with chocolate icing on top. It wasn't very big, but it was OH SO good! :D