Constellation vs QM2 - opinions?

I'm not known for my brevity, so please bear with me...

We are seriously contemplating a cruise for next winter (2019) from Dubai to Hong Kong or Shanghai. So far we've narrowed it down to these 2 ships.

QM2 has a 20/21 day trip on a single booking. Connie would be a 29 day B2B, with the changeover in Singapore. Obviously, Connie's cruises would offer more port visits- especially on the Asian half of the trip. We would sail in a standard balcony cabin.

QM2 is a known quantity, as we've sailed on her before, and loved her. But we've never sailed on Constellation, nor any other M class ship; only S class. What reviews I've read of both the ship and this cruise have not been very favorable, so far.

And FWIW, the costs of these cruises are almost the same! Obviously more bang for the buck on Connie; but what value will that be if we won't enjoy the ship?

Tis a puzzlement. I'd love to hear opinions of anyone who has sailed on Connie in the last few months; particularly if they've sailed on either or both of these legs . How is the ship? What did you think of the ship excursions?

We have sailed both-Queen Mary how ever does not have enough Port stops in our opinion -I would choose the one with the more stops as we are “explorers “ hope this little bit of info helps

I love the QM2 and especially love the days at sea as there is so much to do. We love the speakers who are always a step above Celebrity.

The Connie is an older Celebrity ship so it doesn’t have all the specialty venues that are on the Solstice class ships. Unfortunately for several of the ports they will dock quite a ways from the main destination. The QM2 will often use the tenders that will bring you closer to the main attraction but it will depend on the stop.

We have cruised on both but the QM2 World Cruise segment will be extra special.

Connie is definitely a step down from Cunard. To get anywhere near the quality, you would need to go for suite or Aqua to get into the better restaurants. On the other hand, it's less formal, so you don't have to pack the DJ or long dresses or jewellery etc.

I haven't sailed the Cunard ship, but have sailed on Connie. For some reason there are a few posters on CC who seem to have a problem with her. In our experience, although Connie is one of Celebrity's older ships, she is lovely, well maintained and has been updated several times. I would not hesitate to sail on her again. Since they have removed Ocean Liners from the Constellation, I'd consider the price difference between a standard verandah and an Aqua class. If the price difference wasn't too great, I'd opt for the Aqua class and it's access to Blu. Those cabins are also larger than standard balconies on the M-class ships. The concierge class cabins are also larger, which may be valuable to you on a longer itinerary. I wouldn't pay a great deal for the upgrade to Concierge class however, since the only dining benefit is an embarkation luncheon in the MDR.

I'm not known for my brevity, so please bear with me...

 

We are seriously contemplating a cruise for next winter (2019) from Dubai to Hong Kong or Shanghai. So far we've narrowed it down to these 2 ships.

 

QM2 has a 20/21 day trip on a single booking. Connie would be a 29 day B2B, with the changeover in Singapore. Obviously, Connie's cruises would offer more port visits- especially on the Asian half of the trip. We would sail in a standard balcony cabin.

 

QM2 is a known quantity, as we've sailed on her before, and loved her. But we've never sailed on Constellation, nor any other M class ship; only S class. What reviews I've read of both the ship and this cruise have not been very favorable, so far.

 

And FWIW, the costs of these cruises are almost the same! Obviously more bang for the buck on Connie; but what value will that be if we won't enjoy the ship?

 

Tis a puzzlement. I'd love to hear opinions of anyone who has sailed on Connie in the last few months; particularly if they've sailed on either or both of these legs . How is the ship? What did you think of the ship excursions?

I haven't sailed the Cunard ship, but have sailed on Connie. For some reason there are a few posters on CC who seem to have a problem with her. In our experience, although Connie is one of Celebrity's older ships, she is lovely, well maintained and has been updated several times. I would not hesitate to sail on her again. Since they have removed Ocean Liners from the Constellation, I'd consider the price difference between a standard verandah and an Aqua class. If the price difference wasn't too great, I'd opt for the Aqua class and it's access to Blu. Those cabins are also larger than standard balconies on the M-class ships. The concierge class cabins are also larger, which may be valuable to you on a longer itinerary. I wouldn't pay a great deal for the upgrade to Concierge class however, since the only dining benefit is an embarkation luncheon in the MDR.

mom says - I have not sailed on on Cunard, so I won't attempt to compare/contrast. What I would do is ask you to tell us what is most important for you to have a good cruise?

I do think you can have lots of "value" by choosing Celebrity, but that really depends on what is most important to you. I agree with the other post that I quoted about looking into the upgrade to Aqua Class. If it is small overall (or a cost you can easily accept) for the B2B, then I would seriously consider this option. You will have a nice and cozy dining experience with dining at any time that pleases you. If it were me, and time was not an issue, I would jump on the B2B longer itinerary in a heartbeat.

Enjoy your cruise, whatever your choice ends up being.

Walter

Thank you all for your input. I really appreciate it, and we are seriously considering your recommendations.

While our cruises are primarily itinerary driven, the ship board experience runs a close second. So there are some lines we simply won't sail on. Cunard and Celebrity are by far our favorites out of the lines we have tried so far.

We do prefer the larger number of Port stops that the X B2B would give us (although I have a small worry about how well I'd hold up for a full month of tropical weather, lol). We already know that we will have to deal with longer transfer times on some excursions due to the distance between the port and the nearest sites. C'est la vie.

The only thing holding us back from booking the X cruise tomorrow is all of the negative reviews we've read about Connie (on CC reviews). We don't need all the bells and whistles of a new ship. But we do require good food in the MDR and buffet, an attentive and courteous crew, and a good variety of sea day activities.

Worst case scenario with boring sea days - we can likely entertain ourselves. As for the crew, barring outright neglect or rudeness, we don't need to be fawned over - just want competence and promptness. Even a smaller stateroom isn't THAT big a deal. We have never needed and rarely wanted to go to the specialty restaurants. I think we've done that only twice out of all our cruises. But this trip may be the exception, and dining in Blu may be the answer.

We already know that a Concierge cabin would only be $1000 more than a standard balcony for the whole trip (29 nights). That's less than $35/night. DH just priced out Aqua. It was just too big a jump in price on the first leg. But it's only $200 more than Concierge for the 2nd leg, so that's a no brainer. I don't mind changing cabins on TAD.

Walter, as I've written all of this out, it really seems to have clarified things for us. It looks like bumping up to Aqua class for the 2nd leg may be enough to allay our concerns.

Oh, one more thing. We will advance to the next Captain's club level at the end of the first leg of the cruise. Does that mean we will automatically be entitled to those benefits for the second leg?

Thank you all for taking the time to reply.

Sounds like you have a terrific trip ahead!

As to CC level, yes they'll honor the new level on the 2nd of your B2B BUT you'll need to alert the Captains Club hostess on the ship--the system takes several days to update on its own but allows for human intervention/overriding. This worked for me in January.

I always take bad reviews with a large helping of salt. They can help you understand the pros and cons of a particular cruise line but I find them generally useless for evaluating a particular ship. The vast majority of bad comments about a poorly reviewed ship on an otherwise quality cruise line come down to one of two things:

1. Bad luck

2. Bad attitude

Both of these things are more common on Asian cruises and on older ships. Asian cruises have a unique set of challenges which some cruisers struggle with and as a result they become more picky about (for instance) minor cosmetic issues on the ship.

Personally I love the Connie and I will be sailing on her again. My last cruise on her had some poor reviews and every bad comment was more or less valid from the perspective of the reviewer but none of them related to my experience.

To cut a long story short, if you are the sort of traveller who prefers seeing the sights to seeing the inside of a ship the Constellation is the best choice.

Thanks Cruisindoogals. I'll be sure to check with the hostess.

And thanks, too, Gek for the reassurance. This will be our longest cruuse to date, and is a true bucket list item. It's going to be a difficult wait!

 

The only thing holding us back from booking the X cruise tomorrow is all of the negative reviews we've read about Connie (on CC reviews). We don't need all the bells and whistles of a new ship. But we do require good food in the MDR and buffet, an attentive and courteous crew, and a good variety of sea day activities.

 

Worst case scenario with boring sea days - we can likely entertain ourselves. As for the crew, barring outright neglect or rudeness, we don't need to be fawned over - just want competence and promptness. Even a smaller stateroom isn't THAT big a deal. We have never needed and rarely wanted to go to the specialty restaurants. I think we've done that only twice out of all our cruises. But this trip may be the exception, and dining in Blu may be the answer.

 

The crew on Connie were excellent, helpful. The time aboard was also most enjoyable. The food in the MDR was good as was the buffet also. I have read many of the reviews about Connie that have worried you, but honestly I've scratched my head in bafflement wondering what the axe was they were grinding. I'm not saying that nothing can go wrong on any cruise, nor am I saying that they were wrong, but our experience aboard that ship was nothing other than a wonderful experience. The ship has been refurbished since our sailing, and on our sailing we had nary a complaint. Enjoy.