Live Celebrity Constellation 23 April 2024 Rome to Ravenna

[surfnsun]

Buonasera!  Good evening!  Live reviews are great before a cruise, so I thought I'd pay it forward and so we finally begin our journey and sharing with those of you looking forward to similar adventures!  It begins with our arrival yesterday in Rome, a four night pre vacation before we depart on the Constellation.  She is just coming out of dry dock, so I'm sure she'll be all polished and ready to welcome all of us departing on 23 April.  We always book several nights pre and post cruise because we like both a land and sea vacation and it's the best of both worlds.  Anyway, we begin our adventure in Rome and we have never really spent time here so it is a new experience.  We are very happy with the Hotel Dei Borgognoni.  Great location, service, air conditioned, terrace, breakfast included.  Very close to many sights.  Enjoy a few photos and the journey and thanks for following along!

  

Edited April 20 by surfnsun

[kk20]

Looking forward to seeing what was done to the Constellation during her dry dock (especially the cabins)! We’ve been looking at booking a 2025 cruise on her

[PurpleTraveller]

Thank you for doing this "Live". I will be onboard in June and look forward to seeing your review of the ship and ports. Hope you enjoy Rome which is one of my favourite cities and that you have a wonderful cruise! 🛳️

[Lost in Italy]

Looking forward to YOUR trip reports. We’ll be onboard in 2025. Have a wonderful trip!

[Travelling2Some]

Thank you!  We will be on board in June doing Ravenna to Rome.  Looking forward to your impressions. Hope you have a wonderful trip.

[Gia2cats]

We will be joining you onboard on April 23. 

[Beachlover1989]

Wonderful pictures!! Thank you for bringing us along on your LIVE report!

[Nancycat]

I have a very good friend on your sailing, if you see a high energy always smiling red head say hi her name is Teri

[May B]

Have a wonderful trip! Bon voyage.

 

Rome is a wonderful city, as you have by now already figured out!

[surfnsun]

6 hours ago, Gia2cats said:

We will be joining you onboard on April 23. 

Awesome!  See you on board!

[surfnsun]

4 hours ago, Nancycat said:

I have a very good friend on your sailing, if you see a high energy always smiling red head say hi her name is Teri

Love high energy and hope we get to meet Teri!

[surfnsun]

Today, we did a Walks of Italy tour to include the Colloseum with Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.  Walks is putting it mildly.  They were more pricey than others but we truly did get a VIP experience to include the underground.  Not for those that have challenges walking for at least 3 hours straight, climbing multple stairs, and navigating uneven surfaces.  Having said that,  I've no idea how the h*ll I managed!  Wonderfully exhausting on the best weather day yet.  So exhausting that at one point Pete turned to me and asked "when is there a sea day"?  Hahaha Ummmm, dear, we are not even on the ship yet!  And happy birthday Rome, 2777 years young today!

Edited April 21 by surfnsun

[81Zoomie]

Wow, that looks fabulous.  Have been to the Colosseum, but not underground.  Sadly, all the VIP tours are showing unavailable.  How far in advance did you book?

[surfnsun]

18 minutes ago, 81Zoomie said:

Wow, that looks fabulous.  Have been to the Colosseum, but not underground.  Sadly, all the VIP tours are showing unavailable.  How far in advance did you book?

We booked Dec 2023 for a tour in April 2024.  Walks of Italy are small group.   Good luck!

[Liao]

37 minutes ago, surfnsun said:

Today, we did a Walks of Italy tour to include the Colloseum with Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.  Walks is putting it mildly.  They were more pricey than others but we truly did get a VIP experience to include the underground.  Not for those that have challenges walking for at least 3 hours straight, climbing multple stairs, and navigating uneven surfaces.  Having said that,  I've no idea how the h*ll I managed!  Wonderfully exhausting on the best weather day yet.  So exhausting that at one point Pete turned to me and asked "when is there a sea day"?  Hahaha Ummmm, dear, we are not even on the ship yet!  And happy birthday Rome, 2777 years young today!

That VIP/small group tour was worth every single $$ we paid.  Wonderful pics too!!

[surfnsun]

Just now, Liao said:

That VIP/small group tour was worth every single $$ we paid.  Wonderful pics too!!

Agree!  We were happy to have very people underground that made it a more unique, private experience.  But we still saw it from above as well.  I have so many pictures!!

[gareths]

Thanks for this, we will be on board in June and are very much looking forward to it.

[peanut head]

Thank you for taking us along.  Have a wonderful journey.

[sootydog]

Joining the ship on May 24th.  Can’t wait and looking forward to following your live review 😀

[surfnsun]

Last day in Rome started with a very early morning tour with Walks of Italy again. This time to the Vatican, Sistine Chapel, and St Peter's Basilica. No photos allowed in the Chapel, but I took many of everywhere else.  Investing in an early morning tour is the way to go.  We started the tour at 745am and were done by early afternoon.  Between yesterday and todays tours, we logged about 28,000 steps.  The day we arrived, we walked quite a bit as well with visits to sites such as Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps.  Overall during the course of four full days, we saw a great deal of Rome.  Here are some highlights from our last day in Rome.  We board Connie tomorrow!

Edited April 22 by surfnsun

[tbmrt]

Looking forward to your Connie cruise on the newly refurbished ship!

[81Zoomie]

Thanks so much for taking the time to report live.  Love your pics and you have given us some great ideas already!  We will be doing the reverse cruise in the fall and look forward to your commentary 😃👍😃.  Bon Voyage 🛳️.

[ChilledGecko]

Constellation is on her way to you, have a great holiday!

[surfnsun]

A few tips/ lessons learned from our four full days in Rome before cruise blast off... Spend the money for a private or small group tour with VIP access. When you have a 3+ hour walking tour that starts later in the day, you may not want walk at least 10,000 steps beforehand. Similarly, it's best not to plan at 745am walking tour that lasts at least four hours when you just finished a 3 hour walking tour the night before. Check and double check your tour meeting point. We also had another tour with Walks to Italy which was the Night Tour to the Catacombs which we did not take. I totally got the meeting location mixed up and we missed the tour. First time ever something like that has happened. Perhaps a good thing as that may have added more steps than we could have handled. At least, that's my rationale for missing it. Sigh. Don't assume taxis are easily accessible. You might have to walk a great distance before you find a taxi stand, if it's even closer than your hotel. It might be worth getting a hotel with air conditioning. Even if you think you won't need it for cold air flow, opening the window could get noisy with street noise and interrupt your sleep. In some places, you can get 1/2 liter of pretty good house wine for only 6 EUR. Stay tuned for more fantastic tips and lessons learned from a traveler who can't even find her tour meeting point. 🙂

[surfnsun]

Welcome aboard!!  As the saying goes, let's get jiggy with it!  We left our Rome Hotel Dei Borgognoni via our precooked online SharedShuttle reservation.  Cost was 80 EUR plus tip in a shuttle that we shared with 8 others going to our ship and picked up before us at various locations.  Uneventful ride although the shuttle was late arriving at the hotel.  Rome is crazy busy!  We left at 1100 and arrived port 1215 and through security by 1230 and sitting down for lunch at 1245.  We are in a Concierge Class Balcony cabin so we enjoyed lunch in the San Marco dining room.  I'll post a few photos to include one shot of our port of Civitavecchia with a pretty cool looking ferry, the Main Dining Room, our lunch menu along with food photos.  Beef and salmon dish and both dessert options.  I shall need another cocktail before posting stateroom and some ship photos.  Connie is in very good condition after her long spa days with face-lift.  😀