Excellent time on Constellation Asia Cruise 10 February 2018

We have just returned from a wonderful 3 weeks taking a 14 day cruise on Constellation after spending a week pre cruise in Singapore. The cruise was Singapore to Vietnam, HongKong, Manila, Boracay, Kota Kinabalu and back to Singapore.

Pre Cruise: We stayed at the Park Royal on Beach Road, in an Orchid Club Room and were thoroughly pampered. The Orchid Club food was local as well as international, and the baby octopus starter in particular was scrumptious, and the Club staff were great. The room was spacious with a balcony and view across to the Singapore Flyer and Marina Bay Area. We have visited Singapore previously for both business and pleasure and we met up with Singapore based friends as well as making good use of our MRT e-z passes to get around, as well as taking taxis. I am not at all a fan of shopping but browsing in China Town and around Arab Street is fascinating in its own right. We also joined a couple of free walking tours with a local guide and a friendly group of International fellow visitors which gave unusual insights into the history and cultural background of Singapore.

Embarkation: we took a taxi to the cruise centre and were whisked through to be escorted onto the ship by the charming Nadia from Michaels Club. We met Joao and left the carryons with him and enjoyed a very nice lunch of seafood brochettes and Chardonnay in Luminae. We then met our butler Gene and cabin assistant Radon, who settled us in and offered to arrange anything else which we might need.

Suite: we had a Royal suite, having bagged an excellent price on an early booking. We had very much enjoyed Royal suites previously on Century and on Reflection. The layout of the Constellation Royal Suite was different, it had an enormous balcony and I thought that the balcony layout on Constellation was much better than on Reflection and the hot tub was better sited and more user friendly on Constellation. The ox-eye window in the bedroom was great fun, and we appreciated the spacious sitting room separate from the bedroom so that I could be up and about and catch up on world news on the TV without disturbing my sleeping husband.

The bathroom has been refurbished and I loved the behind the door glass shelving storage, and the powerful separate walk in shower. We did not use the light up jacuzzi bathtub, as it has rather high sides and we prefer to walk into a shower. It did not have the additional mini bathroom of the Royal suites on the S Class ships, but the bathroom was very spacious and was fine for the two of us.

The suite has tons of storage cupboards and also has a walk in wardrobe with loads of hanging spaces and shelving for shoes and handbags. I loved the vanity unit in the bedroom with the unobtrusive under desk array of different International electrical sockets. There was also a really useful separate working desk unit in the sitting room.

The suite was immaculately kept by Radon, and flowers and champagne appeared during the cruise as gifts from various folks. Gene kept my husband topped up with beer and ice buckets, and on our last sea day we held a small get together with cruise friends and he laid on a lovely spread of cheese and crudités and served us the champagne which I had been given. We had also ‘self quarantined ‘ on one day as my husband had been sneezing and wheezing , and we ordered our dinner from the MDR and Luminae menu and Gene delivered it for us to eat in the suite rather than be sneezing around other passengers. We watched the Winter Olympics after dinner curled up in the suite with glasses of Chardonnay ( there is a theme here!) while it was over 30 degrees outside! Joao checked on us to make sure we were Ok and I had plenty of Sudafed which sorted out the sneezing and wheezing.

Activities: we are trivia addicts, and we quickly met up with a smashing set of fellow addicts from the US, Australia, and England and enjoyed the fun and cameraderie engendered by the quizzes delivered by the lovely Gina and Gigi . We won a few times and had a load of fun. There was a hiccup for a couple of occasions- not down to Gina or Gigi in any way- when the ship had double booked trivia sessions into venues where something else was already happening- but this got sorted out. We did not do the art auctions, or the casino and had to catch up with the Podium Speakers on the TV as they were scheduled at the same time as Trivia. My husband and some of our trivia mates also did the archery on the last sea day, and loved it. We watched the officers v guests pool ball game and applauded cruise director Rich when he gamely joined in fully clothed to make up the team!

Entertainment: maybe I am easily pleased but we really enjoyed all of the theatre shows, with Monique and The Three Kings being particularly good. The entertainment around the ship was also excellent, with the Sea Breeze ‘modern classical’ violin duo and the easy listening pair Soph & Simon being outstanding. They played around the ship including in Michaels Club and Al Bacio- we really enjoyed a post dinner coffee listening to them.

Excursions: we took ships tours in Vietnam and Kota due to the distances from the ports to the sights. The Mekong Delta Trip was very interesting, and we loved the boat ride bits, but were less enamoured with the 3 hour coach trip each way to get there! We loved the Kota Trip, and were most impressed with the tour content and the city itself. We have visited Hong Kong before, ( we still had time on our Octopus passes) so we used the MRT and visited Lantau Island and the cable car by ourselves and enjoyed the frenetic pace of Hong Kong as everyone readied themselves for Chinese New Year. However, we understood from cruise friends who were on ships tours that the crowds thronging the city for New Year did cause some problems with the logistics of getting ships tours to the popular tourist sites. We were going to visit the IntraMuros in Manila, however this was the day that my husband felt really poorly, so we stayed on the ship- I went to Trivia, and then sunbathed on the balcony with my kobo and enjoyed the hot tub, and he stayed in bed to sweat out the sneezes and wheezes.

Food: we found Luminae excellent. The Maitre D was the lovely Russell, who was supported by an outstanding team. Our waiter was usually Stephen, assisted by Zaphora, and they were superb. I have Crohns and Stephen combed the Luminae and MDR menus for me to identify interesting but safe options for me. The only criticism I can make is that even when I asked for a small portion of an entree, it was still enormous! My husband was kept well supplied with a range of strong red wines by the sommelier, and a ‘special bottle’ of Tokai was produced to give me a glass with each meal. We also ate in Sushi on Five, which we both loved, and Tuscan which I found was far too heavy for me.

Michaels Club: the team of Suite Manager Lucy, Concierge Joao and his assistant Nadia could not have been bettered, they were charming, attentive and fun! They anticipated everything you might need, offered to book things, arranged a future cruise appointment, booked the taxi to get back to the Airport post cruise and printed out boarding passes. They arranged excellent entertainment in Michaels Club, and soon got it full of cruisers each evening, introducing us to fellow cruisers and to the ships officers. We met the charming Milana the Guest Relations Manager, Hanna the Retail Manager, as well as the Finance Manager and iT Manager and the Maritime Officers. As an accountant I had a really interesting discussion with the Finance Manager about the systems . There was also a Silent Disco one evening in Michaels which was a real hoot!

The stars of Michaels Club are also Victoria and Erlinda who kept us constantly supplied with beverages and canapés. I recommend Victoria’s delicious Brandy Alexander!

We also went down to Michaels several times for the afternoon tea ( or in my case Champagne!) and scones. We much prefer going there to the old arrangement of the Suites Trolley mid afternoon.

Public Areas: the lounges, restrooms, theatre and bars were in good order and were very clean. There was some saving of sun beds by leaving towels and flip flops out, but the pool butlers were in evidence and I saw them remove some offending items to enable folks seeking beds to be accommodated. I was also delighted to meet Dave the Travelling Barman on the 11deck, as he took round his cart of beers etc while folks sunbathed. I was also delighted to have the offer of fruit sorbets from a charming waiter going around the sundecks after lunch , even though I couldn’t have it.

Overall, we had a great time, visiting some lovely places, with a great crew and we met some delightful new cruise friends.

We were on that cruise as well and agree it was a great cruise- we liked it so much we didn’t get off:')

Thanks for your report and glad to hear that you had a great time.

Keith

Did the same cruise on Constellation in March 2017 - fabulous!

It was only topped by the cruise to Japan in October - different part of Asia, but soooo fascinating.

So glad you had a wonderful time! We will be back on Connie in 7 weeks for 25 nights and I am so looking forward especially with all this snow around at the moment! Dianne