Hal cruiser considering Constellation

[whynotnow]

We are mainly Hal cruisers. Our only experience with Celebrity was on the Horizon 12/01 and it was not one we would want to redo, however we did agree to give Celebrity another try again one day.

We are looking at the 13 day Canada/New England Constellation Oct. 11 cruise. Any input you can share regarding this ship would be appreciated, especially with respect to quality of food and service -especially in the main dining room, and any cabin or ship problems.

Thank you.

[cruisebunny32]

We are doing the Connie in March. I was on the sister ship Millie last year and it was the best cruise yet. We just did Carnival, DON"T DO IT!

Celebrity goes above and beyond to pamper you and take care of you. The food and service are excellent. I say do it! Celebrate my birthday for me! I would love to do Canada/New England and see the leaves colors! I am so jealous!

Carnival Victory "Cruise to Nowhere" 10/04
Carnival Glory 2/04
Celebrity Millie 4/03
Celebrity Zenith 3/02
Celebrity Century 3/00, 3/01
Celebrity Zenith 6/99
Celebrity Galaxy 3/98
Celebrity Century, 1/97
NCL Dreamward 7/95

[cruisebunny32]

I just realized that I forgot to add my Connie cruise to my list, so here it is:

Celebrity Constellation 3/05
Carnival Victory "Cruise to Nowhere" 10/04
Carnival Glory 2/04
Celebrity Millie 4/03
Celebrity Zenith 3/02
Celebrity Century 3/00, 3/01
Celebrity Zenith 6/99
Celebrity Galaxy 3/98
Celebrity Century, 1/97
NCL Dreamward 7/95

[Danno]

It would probably help to know what about Horizon disappointed you... not all cruises lines are for all people.

Dan

Century X1,Galaxy X2,HorizonX5,VolendamX1,

Zenith Oct/04 (hoping!!)
Century Feb/05

[Jacqueline]

I did not care for the Zenith but loved the Connie, so I would not lump the two Celebrity experiences together. They are really chalk and cheese. It more has to do with whether you like the big ship experience and the variety that it provides.
I was very pleased with the level of service and the beautiful spaces on the Connie. The Seaview cafe is beautiful, even if the lunch choices continue to be as odd as they were on the Zenith. The good thing is that the aquaspa has nice lunch choices and the kids could eat from the grill at anytime in the afternoon. Also ice cream all afternoon, not just for an hour or two in the afternon.
The pool areas are nice (but not as nice as Princess). THe tdining room is lovely.
BTW - I do like some small ships- I love the old Ren ships. I just dont like the layout of the horizon/zenith and the fact that there is so little open deck space. Also didnt care for the decor in the informal dining area.

Jacqueline
Constellation 3/20/04
HAL Westerdam 7/30/04
Tahitian Princess August 2003
Grand Princess Western Caribbean 2003
Brilliance of the Seas Baltic 2002
Ocean Princess- Alaska 2001
Celebrity Zenith- Bermuda 2001
Grand Princess Med 2000

[whynotnow]

Thank you all for responding. I didn't want to include in my post a mini review of our Horizon cruise, but in response to Danno's posting, I understand some background information would give a better picture of why I have concerns.

We had read nice write ups about Celebrity and decided to try the line out with a 7 night Horizon cruise Dec. 2001.

Our cabin was beautiful, big and with more than enough storage space. Problem was every single time we used the shower, the water went all over the bathroom floor - there was a drainage problem. The first night it happened we thought we did something wrong. We used up all our towels to wipe up the water and then called our cabin steward. He told us they were aware of the problem. Every night our cabin steward watched for us to leave our cabin and he would go in and MOP the water up.

Our dining room table (for 8) had the worst "service" I have ever encountered anywhere -land or sea. For the entire cruise, our waiter never once smiled, talked other than to take our order, refilled our water glasses or coffee cups, and not once during the entire cruise did he give the right food to the person who ordered it. He seemed to disappear right after the food was served so that if you wanted something you had to wait and look for him. I do recall one evening one of the men at our table actually asked a waiter at the next table for something. Fortunately, the 8 of us at the table enjoyed our company so much we just played musical plates every night but to say we had service was totally inaccurate. Two of the couples said they had sailed Celebrity before and had never experienced anything like this. The other couple were traveling with us and this was only their second cruise -not a good impression.

The food we had in the dining room was fair -by our tables' experience anyway. One night the waiter actually brought an uncooked lamb chop to one of the women. He just could not care less. The last evening as we were finishing our meal, he came and just stood behind us -waiting for his tips envelopes. No conversation, no seeing if there was anything else we needed, etc.

The food in the buffet was excellent, very tasty, right temperature. We ate every breakfast and lunch there and thoroughly enjoyed it.

We enjoyed the entertainment every evening.

My husband and I agreed that no cruise line that had been talked so positively about could be as poor as the experience we had and we did feel that someday we would try Celebrity again. This Canada/New England cruise sounds like it will be that try. We will be up in NJ for a nephew's wedding Oct. 9 and with the Oct.11 sailing out of New York, it's perfect timing.

[sandthrush]

whynotnow - Minus the shower ordeal, we had a similar experience on our only HAL cruise on the Zaandam this past December. We had a wonderful time, and would not hesitate to cruise on HAL again, but have found the Celebrity M-Class ships more to our liking.

On HAL, the dining room service in the evening was nothing special, my husband and another gentleman at our table said the coffee was cold every night, and I heard the other gentleman at our table ask the head waiter why his vegetables were cold everynight. We ate in the dining room for breakfast twice and lunch twice, and I couldn't seem to ever get refills on either water or iced tea. We were served, and the waiter disappeared. I found the food in general, good, but nothing exceptional. On the last night of the cruise, we sat for at least 20 minutes in one of the lounge areas waiting for someone to take our drink order, but nobody ever came by the table. We moved on to the next lounge and were promptly served. Our cabin attendent was excellent, as they have been on every cruise we have ever been on.

On our only Celebrity cruise I would have to say the service was close to flawless.

I think both HAL and Celebrity provide a quality product, overall. It seems like service, and food are very subjective subjects and hit or miss experiences. While they tend to be what is most often talked about on these boards, they really are not my top priority when selecting a cruise line. The itinerary is most important to me.

[Jacqueline]

With a thousand people or more staffing these ships, it is not hard to believe that there are a few people who are just terrible at their jobs or are going thru some sort of a personal crisis.
I would say if I hit on a waiter as bad as any of you had described, I wouldnt be back for a third night. I have had great service on every cruise I have ever taken on all the major cruiselines without exception without ever even so much as changing a table assignment or talking to the head waiter, But if I needed to I would. I have no doubt that there are subpar people out there. BUt having had so many terrific people over the years, I know a reasonable level of service and would have no trouble at least trying to change it.
On the other hand I have never found the quality of the food to ever be exceptional. But its not an expectation.
I also cruise for itinerary, but enjoy the onboard experience.

Jacqueline
Constellation 3/20/04
HAL Westerdam 7/30/04
Tahitian Princess August 2003
Grand Princess Western Caribbean 2003
Brilliance of the Seas Baltic 2002
Ocean Princess- Alaska 2001
Celebrity Zenith- Bermuda 2001
Grand Princess Med 2000

[JimnKaren]

We sailed Constellation in January, our first on Celebrity. I have been on Costa, NCL, Carnival, Princess and Regency (no longer in business). I felt that Constellation was a good value. The decor and art is wonderful, the dining room is spacious and our cabin (balconcy) was very good.

My pet peeve was something that happened in the dining room. We asked for a large table and got that. However, there were only 2 couples at the table, the other 2 couples newer showed. I noted other tables where the same thing was occuring. It is too bad that several of the table mates could have been combined for a more pleasing dining experience. It is a sad aspect on today's cruising that alternative dining experiences have taken away from the "traditional" dining. Why can't folks who know that they will not ever dine in the main dining room inform someone, so that arrangements can be made to fill the table?

Beyond that, Constellation is a super ship, and we are going on Summit in November because we enjoyed the experience so much.

Jim

[T739]

We are long-time, loyal HAL cruisers with 50-plus days at sea. I have been aboard 7 HAL vessels. Last spring we sailed Celebrity's Constellation Southern Caribbean itinerary. We found it very similar to HAL in quality level. In some areas we preferred the Celebrity interior design, while in others we missed some of HAL's traditional decor. Service was equal, though slightly different in approach. Both are superb. Despite what we had read on these and other boards, we found the food also equal in the main dining room, occasionally better selection on HAL. In the Lido or buffet, HAL is far superior in my opinion. Room service equal. The specialty dining venue on Celebrity is better. Entertainment on the Constellation was much better than the normal HAL offering, although Oosterdam recently came a bit closer. Constellation's production shows are super, often drawing standing ovations. All in all, there are differences, but not really in guest satisfaction. You will be delighted with Constellation. I believe that you will become loyal to both brands. We plan to cruise both in the future.

[katiel53]

I have cruised both HAL and Celebrity. My last experience on HAL was in March and it is making me rethink going on HAL again. We were in a suite, (our first time in an s category). The first night when we went to dinner, our waiter gave my husband ALL wrong things for dinner. There was not one item that he ordered that he received. That was our last night in the dining room. On the first formal night, my husbands shirt didn't come back from being pressed in time for dinner. We went to the specialty restaurant with him in a sports shirt, which was embarassing. (We had most dinners in the specialty restaurant----they were wonderful.) The second formal night, we decided to have dinner in our room, and we called early to be sure it would be delivered when we wanted it. We were assured it would be. We waited half an hour past the time we requested our dinner, and then called to room service. We were told no order was there for us. They then said our dinner would be up shortly. Well----part of it was, but we were told the lobster tails would be up soon---------1 hour later, we were on our way out of the room and the lobster tails arrived. I have never had service like that on Celebrity, even not being in a suite. I do think that the lunches on HAL were better than the normal lunches on the buffet on Celebrity. We also had a flooding problem in our cabin. We had to leave our cabin for almost a full day so that the crew could vacuum and use fans to remove the water. (The flood was caused by the room next to us) We had to go to the Pursers office to ask what they could do for us. They never sent anyone up to help or give us options as to where we could go while this was being done. After it was all cleaned up, they did offer us a free dinner at the specialty restaurant, which we did take advantage of. I feel had we not asked them what they were going to do for us, nothing would have been done. I know every cruise line can have things that are wrong. I also think the service in general on Celebrity outweighs HAL. In all fairness to HAL, our cruise was just about a month before the automatic tips were being implemented and the crew might have been upset about the new policy. The best thing to me on HAL was the casino. I won more on slots there than I have ever won on all my Celebrity trips. I would give HAL another chance, but I would sail again on the Constellation any day before booking another HAL. The service is wonderful, the food in general is wonderful, the slots, not so good, but overall it's a great cruise. I think you will enjoy it and remember one bad time shouldn't change your mind about a cruiseline.