LIVE from Constellation - May 2nd - Italy & Spain 10nt cruise

Hi everyone. My name is Adam and I'll be traveling on the Constellation's May 2nd departure sailing from Rome to Barcelona. I'll be chronicling my adventures as I go. Some of you may have followed along with me back in January in my LIVE thread about my Eclipse Caribbean cruise. We were a party of 7 for that cruise but this time around it's just me and my husband Mike. Just a little about us; we're from Stoughton, MA which is about 15 miles south of Boston. We've been together 21 years and married last year in May, so this cruise is a bit of an anniversary celebration for us. This cruise actually came up unexpectedly for us last November; we normally book our cruises at least a year out. When we received a free cruise offer from Foxwoods casino though we couldn't resist. They offered us each a free oceanview cabin but we were able to combine our certificates into a free concierge class cabin (we just had to pay taxes and fees, around $100pp). We prefer to travel in suites to get the benefits like Luminae and they offered us an upgrade to a Sky Suite for an additional $200pp. They then offered the 4 perks package for an additional $900pp so we took that as we tend to use the internet a lot and like the convenience and choice of the premium beverage package. So we wound up paying $2400 for two for a 10 night Mediterranean cruise in a Sky Suite with 4 perks which I think is pretty good. This will be our first time on an M-class ship so we are excited to try something new after 5 cruises on S-class.

When I was getting ready to reserve I saw that there was one Sky Suite cabin left, a handicapped accessible S2 cabin. Those cabins are a bit wider than the other S2s and don't have the tub in the bathroom which was a plus. But when I went to book with Blue Chip club the cabin was gone. All they had left were guarantee cabins. I took that and put a request for the cabin I had seen available the day before. I got lucky because when I looked in my account a couple days later we were confirmed into the cabin we requested. So we are on deck 9 port side right near the mid-ship elevator which is perfect. Things got even better when I went to book airfare. American Airlines was offering rock bottom rates, so I was able to snag flights into Rome and out of Madrid (including non-stop to Boston on the return) for only $550pp roundtrip which is the lowest I've ever paid for a trip to Europe. I was attracted to this particular itinerary because it included multiple ports that we'd never visited before like Sicily, Malta, Mallorca and Valencia. We added on two nights in Rome prior to the cruise and are renting a car in Barcelona after debarking and then driving south to the mountain village of Albarracin for two nights and on to Madrid for 3 nights before flying home.

We fly out from Boston tomorrow night and arrive in Rome on Sunday at noon after transferring in London. If you have questions about the ship or the places we are visiting along the way I'll try to answer as many as I can. I look forward to sharing my trip with you. :-)

Sounds magnificent Adam, I for one will be watching/listening to your special trip, hope you and Mike​ have a great anniversary cruise 🍸

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Looking forward to following your adventures. We are doing an 9 night from Rome to Barcelona on the Connie this July as a back to back. Hope you have a great trip!

Dianne

We will be joining the Connie in Barcelona on 26th May after the refit and I am curious who the senior staff will be for our cruise. Grateful if you could post some details after joining

Looking forward to you review. Enjoyed the previous one.

So looking forward to following you along on your adventures!

We are booked on the 24th of June , Rome to Barcelona.

Safe travels and best wishes!

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Was it Foxwoods or Celebrity that gave you the $200 upgrade to suite? Many years ago we were able to upgrade for $100, but now suites cost 2-3X concierge.

We are on Connie in July...looking forward to your updates. :)

Looking forward to your review!

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Was it Foxwoods or Celebrity that gave you the $200 upgrade to suite? Many years ago we were able to upgrade for $100, but now suites cost 2-3X concierge.

We upgraded through Blue Chip at the time we booked our reservation through them. Maybe we called at the right time when there were some sale prices on? I say that because I called Blue Chip a few months after we booked to see if I could pay to upgrade to a Celebrity Suite that had opened up but it would've cost us about $2500pp to do that so we passed as it would only have given us a bigger cabin but no extra perks over the Sky Suite and that amount was not worth it.

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Today is flight day! Our airport sedan arrived at our house right on time at 4pm. Traffic was minimal so we made good time to Boston Logan. No waiting at British Airways check-in. Security took maybe 5 minutes. Now just sitting waiting to board. Such a relaxed airport experience today. Hopefully the flights are equally as calm!

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Wishing you an uneventful flight, and wonderful cruise. Thank you for taking us along!

Safe travels and best wishes for a wonderful trip. Excited to follow along!

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Hi Adam,

I hope you and your husband have a great vacation on the Constellation. we have had several great cruises on that ship. Happy anniversary as well! Good luck in Fortunes casino , and please post back how you like the new program.

We upgraded through Blue Chip at the time we booked our reservation through them. Maybe we called at the right time when there were some sale prices on? I say that because I called Blue Chip a few months after we booked to see if I could pay to upgrade to a Celebrity Suite that had opened up but it would've cost us about $2500pp to do that so we passed as it would only have given us a bigger cabin but no extra perks over the Sky Suite and that amount was not worth it.

 

 

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Thanks for the reply.

We are getting off the day you get onboard.

Have been onboard for 8 weeks in a Concierge cabin.

Wonderful ship and crew !!!

Have fun !!!

Sounds like you snagged yourselves a real bargain. Enjoy your two days in Rome and your cruise. It's a fabulous itinerary

Will be visiting to see your blog every day - what a bargain you have! Have a wonderful vacation.

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Have a great cruise. We've just booked a cruise on the ship for the first time next year, so will be checking here every day to see what she's like. :-)

We are in Rome! It was a long and tiring 15.5 hour journey from home to hotel but we made it. It was probably the most stressful trip to Europe we've had (cramped seating on flights, annoying passengers sitting near us, long lines at Heathrow causing us to almost miss our flight to Rome, taxi drivers trying to scam us at the airport, etc.) so we were completely wiped out by the time we got here. A pizza place across from our hotel that came recommended was closed for renovations so we wandered on to a nearby fast casual type restaurant that had bland food and poor service. After that I just had to go back to the hotel and lay down. I had reserved tickets in advance to tour the Domus Aurea archaeological site at 3pm but we wound up skipping that and also skipped visiting Palatine Hill after that. Both of those sites are closed tomorrow and we board the ship on Tuesday so will have to hit those on a future trip.

The hotel we are staying at is called the Residenza Argentina. It is located across from Largo di Torre de Argentina, the location of Julius Caesar's assassination. It is an odd hotel hidden away behind two private residence courtyards and up on the 3rd floor. It has a modern Euro style and our room is comfortably sized but overall it's nothing special. I think it's Trip Advisor rating may be a bit overrated. We face into an inner courtyard so no worries about street noise.

We relaxed in our room for a couple hours and it totally rejuvenated us and gave us the energy to set out and explore the city a bit.

Travel Tip: When leaving Rome airport's baggage area you will be inundated by a slew of "taxi drivers" trying to offer you transport into Rome. Ignore them and head outside to the taxi stand. One guy tried to charge us 75 Euro (or 40 Euro if we agreed to share the ride) but the standard fare at the taxi stand is 48 Euro. Don't fall for this scam.

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So looking forward to following you along on your adventures!

We are booked on the 24th of June , Rome to Barcelona.

Safe travels and best wishes!

 

 

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So are we! Excited for follow along. Enjoy your trip!

I will be following your review as I am on the same cruise as you. We have been in Rome since Saturday and are heading to our hotel in Civitavecchia this afternoon after a tour with Rome in Limo. Maybe I'll run into you on board. Enjoy your trip, I know we will enjoy ours.

Looking forward to your review!

Picking up from yesterday. After a much-needed rest in our hotel room we took a late afternoon stroll around the historical center of Rome. We've been to Rome before but it's always great to see the classical ruins and amazing architecture.

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