Connie January 16 Trip Report

[capecruzer]

Good "chilly" morning everyone. My husband and I just arrived home to Massachusetts after 10 gorgeous, warm, sunny days, 2 in Fort Lauderdale pre-cruise and another 8 aboard the Constellation.

 

When it turned out flights were $100 cheaper per person two days prior, we decided to make our pre-cruise a mini-vacation. I was able to cancel our 1-nite ressies at Sleep Inn Dania and book a two night with rental car at the Hard Rock Seminole in Hollywood. I'll post a review on that elsewhere but wanted to give a glimpse....yes, its smokey :( but it was easy to get to from the airport, the rooms were nice, the pool area was beautiful, and its a one-stop place. No need to leave the premises. Nice bars, good restaurants, and then of course there's the casino. My husband loved the complementary Fender guitars they deliver with amp and foot pedal to your room for the length of your stay!

 

Our rental car was Alamo who provided free shuttle from the airport to the cruise terminal. We arrived at the port around 11 am and embarkation was a breeze! Short waits, short lines, on the ship before 11:30.

 

Day 1: I must say we were underwhelmed by the ships grand lobby and staircase. There was no WOW factor. We did however like the welcoming Mimosa. Knowing that staterooms most likely would not be ready for a bit, we headed straight to Bistro on 5 for lunch. We were joined by only two other couples while there. It was a nice start to the cruise. We started with soup, Cream of Cauliflower and Chicken Noodle (both were just okay), followed by the Cowboy and (insert the name of the spicy crepe here lol), both very good. We then split the Banana Nutella crepe, yum. Perfect timing, staterooms are ready.

 

We had an OV on Deck 2. Loved the layout with the king bed facing to the door with the head at the window. The window was the biggest I've ever had in an oceanview cabin. Plenty of room for everything we brought, shower was especially spacious. Our two stateroom attendants were fantastic at their jobs and were pleasant and fun to talk with each day.

 

We toured the ship, stopping every so often for a cocktail to try out our Classic Drink package. For those with the classic let me say we never had a problem with getting anything we wanted. We were fully prepared to upgrade if needed. I didn't particularly care for the white wines on the package but brought on two bottle for the room for those pre-dinner, get-ready, drinks. We drank mimosa and bloody marys, pina coladas and painkillers, coronas and bud lights, Absolute Cosmos and Makers Mark martinis, all included. We had fresh squeezed orange juice and bottle water, Cafe Americanos and Cafe Diablos (coffee and liquor drinks), all without question. The last night my husband ordered a Knob Creek martini at the pool bar while we were watching the last sunset and that was the only drink on the entire cruise not covered. Had the bartender mentioned it, he would have switched to something else rather than pay the $13, but there was no MM on the bar so he just picked the closest thing figuring it would be included. No problem....if only our normal bar tabs were only $13 :p We spent alot of time at the Martini Bar, yes, smaller glass, more work for the bartenders, but not an issue for us. Enough about the drink package lol.

 

So a couple drinks in, a nice lunch, approval of the stateroom and its off to speak to the Maitre'd about switching to Select. Yahoo! he was able to do it. This was a great coup. Loved Select Dining. Will never go back to traditional seating. Dinner in the MDR the first night ~ can't remember everything we had but I do remember french onion soup and escargot, both very good. For the most part, our meals in the MDR were good, not terrific, but very few dislikes. Service was impeccable. We generally arrived about 7:30 and seated immediately, tables for 2.

 

We did see a couple of the shows, including a 2 pm Improvisionist Show which was pretty good. The ones we saw were decent, again not stellar, but worth the time to see if we could pull ourselves away from the martini bar. Other entertainment we enjoyed was late afternoon near the Cafe and the house band Shenanigans who played in various venues including near the pool.

 

Ahhh, the pool. Yup, chair hogs were out in abundance. We had already decided we weren't going to let this bother us. We arrive at the pool area by 9 each sea day and the only seats were shaded or second story. We were always able to find ourselves a couple of 2nd deck seats that were in the sun with a a good view of the pools and stage. We did envy the people near the pool the last full sea day as it was hot, hot, hot and we would have liked to have had closer "dipping" real estate. We decided to hit the area early so we headed down at 7:45 but nothing available even that early so up we went.

 

Drink service near the pool area was spotty, we often went to the bar ourselves. We had breakfast in the MDR twice and ate our lunches at the buffet two days and had burgers one day. All good. Here's a tip: Walk the whole perimeter of the buffet, the best options are hidden! The waffle bar is on the far end and near that is the Eggs Benedict station. At dinnertime, there's a sushi bar and the back grill does RibEye, chicken, salmon to order.

 

Ports: St. Barths, wouldn't get off the ship again for this one. We had no problem with the tenders and we were at our rental car by 10:45. The roads were difficult to manuever (hairpin curves and very hilly) but once I got used to the manual shifter of our $90/day Fiat 500 convertible (loved it) it was easier. We started at Flamands Beach, not impressed, did some sightseeing and ended up at the airport beach for a swim and a couple of cocktails, again not impressed by anything other than the airplanes straight overhead:eek: From there, we headed to another beach bar (can't remember the name) and had lunch. The lunch was good, casual feet in the sand, about $80 with a drink each. I had a flank steak curry, my husband had beef carpaccio with salad. We took some time to walk around the pier area. The shops were very high tier, parking was deplorable, very crowded, very expensive, not impressive.

 

St. Croix: Reminded me much of the square at St. John USVI. Rental car was a quick walk from the pier, $50/day, upgraded to a four-door Wrangler. So excited! Until we were told no taking the top off, what?:confused: And be careful about getting it dirty, and minimal beach sand, and a $5 charge in the event we might need service for a flat tire or anything else lol. Whatever. We drove by Rainbow Beach, spent a half hour lost in the Rainforest and although we had given up on finding the beer-drinking pigs, happened upon them while heading back to the Cruzan Rum Distillary. Bloody Marys all around and a few O'Douls for the pigs!:D Fun stop, fun people, CASH ONLY. Off to the distillary, again fun short tour, free drinks included. Tried out best to get get to Shorins Beach (I think that's what it is called) recommended by the car rental rep but got lost and turned around and exasperated so decided to head back to Rainbow Beach and the pier area when it started to rain so we called it a day.

 

San Juan: This was a fun half day. We took the free trolley to Cristobal fort area, toured it and then waited outside for 30 minutes for the trolley again. Finally asked someone working the area and they said because there were four ships in that day the trolleys would get tied up behind tour buses and such and that it was a 15 minute walk to the other fort, is it El Morro? So we walked it. It was an easy walk, the breakfast pina colada stand we found on the way didn't hurt either. Did some shopping at D&B, Coach, Polo and off to lunch for native puerto rican food, yummy.

 

Labadee: We had a nice day here. Headed straight for Nellie's Beach which was already crowded but we were able to find a little corner of our own near the furthest set of cabanas. Great pick. We had sun and shade as needed. The bar was a problem, apparently guests were very upset that it wasn't open when we arrived at 10 am and were told to come back in half hour. There was a mass riot, people yelling at each other and at the bartenders. Really? We would have liked a cocktail as much as the next person but I think you might want to check out your closest AA meeting if having to wait while the beer is iced down puts you into beast mode. When my husband went back an hour later, all was settled down and we started with pina coladas, yum. We are very grateful to the lifeguard that asked us if we were going to have lunch at the BBQ. Apparently the BBQ closes promptly at 2 and when we got there, they were putting everything away, literally before our eyes. I had a burger in my future but they lifted the pan as I was getting my plate ready and refused us. We were able to get a piece of chicken and some salad as they were taking it away. Oh well. So, all in all, I'd say Labadee was fun, a good beach day, but the service was far from fantastic. Maybe let people know the bar and BBQ hours to prevent issues?

 

Specialty Dining: Loved our dinner at Oceanliners, service was top-notch, it was nice to experience this level of dining. Also had dinner at Tuscan Grille and while it was also good, we didn't think it was on the same par, service or food. We ordered our usual pre-dinner martinis and waited a very long time for them. The waiter then informed us they had to go all the way to the Martini Bar to get them. Had we known that, we would have ordered something else...not a big deal. What we thought was odd was that they didn't have the ability to make martinis in a steak restaurant?

 

In close, it was a good cruise, we had fun, we'd do it all again :) What I would like to add, because I constantly read the "this cruise line is better than this cruise line is better than this cruise line" is this: I've now cruised Disney, Princess, Norwegian, Carnival, and Celebrity. I don't see much difference between them, not enough to make me pick one over the other. I am a bit partial to Disney and think the entertainment and staterooms were the best of all my cruises. I thought Norwegian nickle'dimed us to death but for things we didn't care about so we didn't pay for, Princess gets my vote for MDR food, Carnival is just alot of fun and the price is usually right, and Celebrity provided a few upscale things we enjoyed like cold towels at boarding and glassware instead of plastic.

[Texed]

Cape,

 

Thanks for posting. :)

[dgparent]

Thx for posting we loved the Connie. FYI the reason for that at the Tuscan is that it was just carved out of some other space it was not meant to be a restaurant at all it used to be a game room or something.

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review.

[gimletgal]

Thx for posting we loved the Connie. FYI the reason for that at the Tuscan is that it was just carved out of some other space it was not meant to be a restaurant at all it used to be a game room or something.

 

Hey Doug! Good to see you back posting. Unfortunately, I don't see where you will be on any of my cruises in the near future. :( Would love to sail with you and Amy again.

[smtcan]

We are also just back from this cruise and would agree with most comments. The only real problem we had was with Select Dining the first night. We were given a buzzer, and waited an hour and a half. We eventually went back to the DR and were told that they had been calling us and the buzzer must be faulty. They took us to the table we had been assigned to, where the other diners had already finished appetizers and were into salads. This was rather difficult, being at a different part of the meal to the others at the table. We complained to the Maitre d' and subsequent dining room experiences were much better.

 

Tendering at St. Barts was tedious. We heard that the island would only allocate room for one tender, imposed a speed limit in the harbour and required the ship to anchor a long way from the dock. This made for problems for many people. We had priority tendering (Elite) but when we returned to the ship they were still calling tender numbers. Captain Tassos was going back and forth on the tenders - good PR - and kept us entertained on the return journey. "This is Captain Tassos speaking to you from the navigational bridge on tender number 10."

 

We enjoyed the cruise and met some really congenial people. The service was excellent and we wouldn't hesitate to cruise Constellation again.

 

Sheila

[ghstudio]

Great reviews. Capt Tassos is incredibly and wonderfully involved with passengers...he's one captain that does make a real difference because he's so friendly, openly available setting the tone for the entire ship.

[capecruzer]

I'm just now hearing the comments about tendering at St. Barths. I was a bit concerned going in because someone had mentioned that it had been a problem in the past. We did as instructed: went downstairs to get tender tickets at about 9:15 (they said 9:30) but there were already about 20 people there when we arrived and then it took about 45 minutes until our number was called after getting the ticket. We were onshore at 10:45, about 15 minutes later than I expected. Until reading the boards today, I had no idea there was an issue:(

[bahi]

So glad that I can get a cosmo with the classic package, can you tell me where to get the good coffee? MB

[dgparent]

Hey Doug! Good to see you back posting. Unfortunately, I don't see where you will be on any of my cruises in the near future. :( Would love to sail with you and Amy again.

 

Thanks it was a great cruise ! We are on the one out of San Juan next March 28th join us !! Sadly only in a SS this time but it is next to the PH so I may slip over the balcony and reclaim the real estate after a few hours in my favorite chair :)

Edited January 29, 2015 by dgparent

[mpace58]

We also were on this cruise. Our experience with St. Barts tender is much different. In the TODAY it was recommended that you wait to get your tender ticket until you are ready to leave. So we went down to get a ticket at 10am. Ticket #24. They then called #8. We waited nearly 2 hours to get on the tender. We went ashore, walked around for about an hour, were very underwhelmed and returned to the ship. I believe they were up to #70 by this time. Friends we had breakfast the next day said they waited nearly 3 hours for a tender.

 

This was not the worst cruise I have I have been on, by far, but it was the worst Celebrity cruise I've been on.

 

As others posted the Anytime dining was a disaster the first night. The 2nd night went better, but the food did not improve. There were things on the plate were not on the menu, and items that were on the menu that did not wind up on the plate. To my DW and I the food was exceptionally bland, while usually we believe that Celebrity has the best food of the cruise lines we frequent, this cruise was the exception to the rule.

 

I'll end by saying that as always the staff was exceptional. Friendly, helpful and always available. Capt Tasso is a great captain, and a very funny guy. I hope he gets that ship turned around.

[Amwildwood]

Thanks for the review. We'll be on the ship in March.

 

How was the availability of loungers near the adult pool? Im more interested in staying out of direct sun.

 

We have 8:30 mdr seating. While I am tempted by select dining, my husband has multiple food allergies/intolerances and thought it might be better to stick to dining at one time. We do have one night at the Tuscan grill because by the sample menu it looked like there would be more safe food choices for him.

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for the review.