Live – Constellation Singapore – Rome 2017

[sarahspeedy87]

Hi Jim, sorry hear it's the end of your cruise, it sounds fantastic. does that mean that the constellation is now going into the dry dock?

 

 

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[Jim_Iain]

Hi Jim, sorry hear it's the end of your cruise, it sounds fantastic. does that mean that the constellation is now going into the dry dock?

 

 

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No. Constellation has one 10 day cruise left before dry dock. She departs this evening.

 

 

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[Jim_Iain]

 

On the way to Florence via high speed rail. The only way to travel.

 

 

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[Flamencacha]

 

On the way to Florence via high speed rail. The only way to travel.

 

 

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I agree. I can't believe the train station doesn't have an elevator. They usually do. Living in Southern Spain train travel is always my first choice.

 

Anyhow thank you for sharing your Journey with us. You are so blessed.

 

 

 

 

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[Sox59]

We're on the ship right now, happy travels, all

 

 

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[Jim_Iain]

We're on the ship right now, happy travels, all

 

 

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Hope you have a wonderful cruise.

 

 

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[Jim_Iain]

 

Took high speed train to Florence. It took about 2.5 hours including a change of trains in Rome. Amazing clipping along at about 160 mph.

 

 

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[ecslady]

Thank you for taking us long on the cruise. I hope you will continue to post from Florence.:)

[Jim_Iain]

Florence is a magical city. Rented a place using Homeaway. Very contemporary with 2 bedrooms and a neat bedroom in a domed basement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Flamencacha]

HI Jim,

 

I have a question about your on your own trip to the Taj Ma Hal. Did you arrange it through a CC group, or a tour company in India or you guys planned it on your own. The price I see is a bit daunting.

 

I am slated to go SOLO for now, so any insight you could give please advise.

 

 

Rachelle

 

Flamencacha@aol.com

 

 

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[Jim_Iain]

HI Jim,

 

I have a question about your on your own trip to the Taj Ma Hal. Did you arrange it through a CC group, or a tour company in India or you guys planned it on your own. The price I see is a bit daunting.

 

I am slated to go SOLO for now, so any insight you could give please advise.

 

 

Rachelle

 

Flamencacha@aol.com

 

 

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We arranged it on our own and customized it. If you click the blog button there are details. I never really kept th blog going but name of agent are there.

 

Price was at least 1/3 of Celebrity

 

 

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[Flamencacha]

We arranged it on our own and customized it. If you click the blog button there are details. I never really kept th blog going but name of agent are there.

 

Price was at least 1/3 of Celebrity

 

 

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Thanks, I could go on a separate trip to the Triangle for what X Charges.

 

 

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[andrea2609]

Hi Jim, Thanks for the great review. My wife mad I will sail on Constellation next August, from Venice. We really enjoyed Celebrity Equinox last year, and I was a bit unsure whether to book or not on a much smaller ship, this year....how would you compare Constellation, to bigger ships? One more thing: I'm a foodie (I'm Italian ; ) ), and I enjoyed the food at main dining room on Equinox, how's the quality and service, on Connie? (We won't eat at specialty restaurants)

 

Thanks a lot!

 

 

 

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[MSCruiseFan]

Jim,

 

Many thanks for letting us vicariously follow along with you on this cruise. We were especially interested as we will be doing same itinerary/same ship in April 2018. You have successfully ramped up the anticipation factor for us. Thanks again.

[ECCruise]

Hi Jim, Thanks for the great review. My wife mad I will sail on Constellation next August, from Venice. We really enjoyed Celebrity Equinox last year, and I was a bit unsure whether to book or not on a much smaller ship, this year....how would you compare Constellation, to bigger ships? One more thing: I'm a foodie (I'm Italian ; ) ), and I enjoyed the food at main dining room on Equinox, how's the quality and service, on Connie? (We won't eat at specialty restaurants)

 

Thanks a lot!

 

 

 

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We were on the same cruise as Jim so some thoughts.

 

Constellation is by no means a "much smaller" ship. Many of the same venues, just for 2150 pax instead of 2850. Menu in the Main Dining Room, subject to fleet-wide changes, will be exactly the same as on Equinox. Service is variable on both ships, there is no "constant" on any one ship.

 

Maybe not as much "giitz" on the Constellation, but unless that is a factor to you, won't be an issue. We've sailed every ship in the Celebrity fleet, some numerous times, and if the truth be told, still prefer M-Class ships (Constellation is 1 of 4 ships) to S-class ships (Equinox is 1 of 5).

[Ex-Airbalancer]

We were on the same cruise as Jim so some thoughts.

 

Constellation is by no means a "much smaller" ship. Many of the same venues, just for 2150 pax instead of 2850. Menu in the Main Dining Room, subject to fleet-wide changes, will be exactly the same as on Equinox. Service is variable on both ships, there is no "constant" on any one ship.

 

Maybe not as much "giitz" on the Constellation, but unless that is a factor to you, won't be an issue. We've sailed every ship in the Celebrity fleet, some numerous times, and if the truth be told, still prefer M-Class ships (Constellation is 1 of 4 ships) to S-class ships (Equinox is 1 of 5).

I was also on the Second leg of the cruise,

My mine complaint of the m class is there too many funny mirrors on the ship

They add about 50 lbs to your image:eek:

[bottomfeeder]

We were on the same cruise as Jim so some thoughts.

 

Constellation is by no means a "much smaller" ship. Many of the same venues, just for 2150 pax instead of 2850. Menu in the Main Dining Room, subject to fleet-wide changes, will be exactly the same as on Equinox. Service is variable on both ships, there is no "constant" on any one ship.

 

Maybe not as much "giitz" on the Constellation, but unless that is a factor to you, won't be an issue. We've sailed every ship in the Celebrity fleet, some numerous times, and if the truth be told, still prefer M-Class ships (Constellation is 1 of 4 ships) to S-class ships (Equinox is 1 of 5).

 

And you get the t-pool in the Solarium instead of a regular ol' swimming pool! To me, that's the best thing about the Connie vs. the S-class ships.

[Jim_Iain]

Hi Jim, Thanks for the great review. My wife mad I will sail on Constellation next August, from Venice. We really enjoyed Celebrity Equinox last year, and I was a bit unsure whether to book or not on a much smaller ship, this year....how would you compare Constellation, to bigger ships? One more thing: I'm a foodie (I'm Italian ; ) ), and I enjoyed the food at main dining room on Equinox, how's the quality and service, on Connie? (We won't eat at specialty restaurants)

 

Thanks a lot!

 

 

 

Inviato dal mio iPad utilizzando Tapatalk

 

The two class ships are very much alike when it comes to the service and the constant cleaning and upkeep. The main thing you will miss on Constellation is the specialty dining. The Ocean Liner Restaurant will be gone (replaced by Qsine :loudcry: ) The only other specialty will be Tuscan grill (we are not much of a fan) and Sushi on 5 which is al la cart.

 

The Ocean View Café is also different. Instead of having many individual stations all the stations are around a central hub and cause a bit of traffic jam.

 

We never ate in the main dining room as we were traveling in a suite and dined in Luminea. Having said that we often chose entree's or starters from the main restaurant or from Blu. I had a wonderful Chicken Cordon Blue from the main dining menu and loved it.

 

I have sailed all the Celebrity Ships and while I find the experience different it really depends on the itinerary. We became very comfortable once again on an M-Class ship and would not replace the trip for anything. Our next trip will be Fort Lauderdale to Buenos Aires (B2B) on Infinity and again, while I think I would enjoy an S-Class will be very happy with Infinity.

 

I know what you mean about food and Italians. We were in Italy for the past week and really enjoyed every meal we had.

[Jim_Iain]

I was also on the Second leg of the cruise,

My mine complaint of the m class is there too many funny mirrors on the ship

They add about 50 lbs to your image:eek:

 

LOL - I think they have the same mirrors on an S-Class ship.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

It was an interesting day traversing the Suez Canal and we have now entered the Mediterranean about 4 PM. The weather was beautiful (shirt sleeve weather for most of the crossing). Temperatures are on the cool side as we emerge from the canal. I would say about 65 degrees and the winds are around 10 knots.

 

One more sea day prior to arriving in Athens. This cruise has a lot of sea days (10 out of 15). We love sea days so have been really enjoying it.

Who do you think was in the convoy that had the 3 Apache helicopters following it , it was before the bridge

Some people said it was Pope as he was in Egypt that day

[Jim_Iain]

Who do you think was in the convoy that had the 3 Apache helicopters following it , it was before the bridge

Some people said it was Pope as he was in Egypt that day

 

We missed the helicopters. It wouldn't surprise me since he was in Cairo that day.

[jelayne]

Jim, thanks for all the info you have shared. DH & I will be doing Singapore to AbuDhabi on the Constellation in Feb. as the 2nd leg of a B2B. I checked your blog yesterday, contacted the company you used for your Taj Mahal trip & they have already responded. Looks like, thanks to your info, we too will get to see theTaj Mahal:D

 

 

Did you need to get clearance from Celebrity in advance In order to leave the ship for 2 nights?

Joan

[Jim_Iain]

Jim, thanks for all the info you have shared. DH & I will be doing Singapore to AbuDhabi on the Constellation in Feb. as the 2nd leg of a B2B. I checked your blog yesterday, contacted the company you used for your Taj Mahal trip & they have already responded. Looks like, thanks to your info, we too will get to see theTaj Mahal:D

 

 

Did you need to get clearance from Celebrity in advance In order to leave the ship for 2 nights?

Joan

 

Happy you will get to see the Taj - It was one of the highlights of our trip.

 

Yes you need to get Celebrity Pre Clearance to take a side trip. They recently implemented a fee of $60.00 to process this request. Other's I have spoken to say they did not have to pay the fee. May have been timing or inconsistency of Celebrity.