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

[WonderMan3]

We are at sea today. Since we left Civitavecchia on Tuesday the seas have been some of the calmest I have ever felt on a cruise. You wouldn't even know you were at sea unless you looked out the window. That changed today. It was off and on foggy and very windy and coolish with some small swells although it hasn't moved the ship around a lot. They have been closing certain deck areas because of wind since yesterday evening. Felt fine to me when sitting on my balcony, although I did put on a light sweatshirt. We slept in a bit this morning and then Mike went off for a pedicure at the spa. Afterward we had our first lunch at Oceanview which was quite good. It was an Italian themed lunch with lots of great choices. After lunch we took a walk around the ship to check out any areas we hadn't seen yet and then spent a few hours in the casino. Machines were pretty tight for awhile and then all of sudden started paying out left and right. Both Mike and I recovered all our losses from earlier in the day and I hit another jackpot. When we came back to the cabin we discovered a whole group of treats waiting for us. Our butler Jesus (who is very friendly and helpful) even took the two bottles of sparkling wine that we were ignoring (free as Suite guest and one from casino) and traded them in for a bottle of Perrier Jouet champagne which we had him send down to Tuscan Grille for our dinner tonight.

 

 

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[CanadaDeb]

Thanks for your great review. I have following along and am especially happy to see the pics of Malta! I lived there for awhile and haven't been back in a long time...Will be there on the Constellation next year and your review is making me so excited!

[WonderMan3]

Here is the Daily from the sea day

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

For dinner last night we ate at Tuscan Grille. We have two complimentary dinners there, one as part of our Blue Chip benefit and the other from a raffle prize. I liked the location up on the top of the ship as we got to have some sunset views. Food and service were great. We had arranged for our bottle of champagne to be sent to the restaurant so we enjoyed that with dinner. We both had the meatball to start, then I had a Caesar Salad while Mike had a small plate of spaghetti. For the entree we both got the Veal Marsala which was an interesting preparation. It looked more like Veal Milanese sitting in a Marsala sauce. I got a side of Cacio e Pepe with mine while Mike got potatoes. For dessert I tried the Fig Gelato while Mike got the Spumoni Donuts. After dinner we headed down to the casino for the rest of the evening.

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

 

 

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[delondin]

We are at sea today. Since we left Civitavecchia on Tuesday the seas have been some of the calmest I have ever felt on a cruise. You wouldn't even know you were at sea unless you looked out the window. That changed today. It was off and on foggy and very windy and coolish with some small swells although it hasn't moved the ship around a lot. They have been closing certain deck areas because of wind since yesterday evening. Felt fine to me when sitting on my balcony, although I did put on a light sweatshirt. We slept in a bit this morning and then Mike went off for a pedicure at the spa. Afterward we had our first lunch at Oceanview which was quite good. It was an Italian themed lunch with lots of great choices. After lunch we took a walk around the ship to check out any areas we hadn't seen yet and then spent a few hours in the casino. Machines were pretty tight for awhile and then all of sudden started paying out left and right. Both Mike and I recovered all our losses from earlier in the day and I hit another jackpot. When we came back to the cabin we discovered a whole group of treats waiting for us. Our butler Jesus (who is very friendly and helpful) even took the two bottles of sparkling wine that we were ignoring (free as Suite guest and one from casino) and traded them in for a bottle of Perrier Jouet champagne which we had him send down to Tuscan Grille for our dinner tonight.

 

 

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We never got goodies like this when we were staying in a sky suite. Is it because of the casino or were we just unlucky ?

[WonderMan3]

We never got goodies like this when we were staying in a sky suite. Is it because of the casino or were we just unlucky ?

 

 

I think it's our butler doing it. We haven't used him for too much so he's been trying to do extra things where he can. He's very nice. The only things we got in cabin from the casino were a welcome bottle of sparkling wine (in addition to the one that already came with the suite) and I think some chocolate dipped strawberries (I assumed they were from the casino). We are also Elite level so maybe that factored into it.

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

Here is the Daily from today

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

Well, it looks like this is it for this Live from thread. Internet has been near unusable the past 24 hours onboard (they even took it down for several hours today for maintenance). When I reported the slowness to an employee at the internet lounge he was a bit dismissive to not only me but another woman in the lounge. When he actually saw I could barely do anything on my phone he said he'd report it to IT and call with a follow up. That was about 6 hours ago and have heard nothing. I can't post any photos here and it takes 10 minutes to even post one on Facebook. Even regular text posts takes multiple tries. Already behind on updates and don't have time to catch up with several days and post new content. Thanks for following me up until now. Happy sailing all!

 

 

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[cruisecatmama]

:( We'll miss your posts, enjoy the rest of your cruise... :)

[pmymmw]

Sounds like they've started the refit/drydock early. Enjoy the rest of your cruise

 

 

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[FlorenceItaly]

Thank you for your efforts. I wish you continued luck in the casino! Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

[jameybano]

Thank you for all of your wonderful posts. I hope the two of you enjoy the rest of your cruise. Safe travels home.

[cocker2]

How frustrating for you and sad for us. Enjoy the end of your cruise. [emoji1]

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

Giving it another shot with smaller photos to see if it goes through... On Sunday we were in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. We had breakfast in Luminae before leaving the ship. Again it was a rather average experience compared to Eclipse. Food was a bit bland. I even had to send a juice back because it tasted funny. We left the ship and took the shuttle bus to the center of town that was offered. It costs 8 Euro pp round trip. If you want to do the Hop on Hop off city sightseeing bus, there is a stop right outside the cruise terminal if you are on the pier we were at today which when facing shore is the one farthest to the right. The trip into the center is less than 10 minutes. We weren't sure about the sightseeing bus picking up near the pier until later on so we went to the center and picked up the sightseeing bus there. It costs 21 Euro pp and allows you to hop on and off all day long at different points around the city plus gives you guided commentary as you ride. We thought it would be a good way to get an overview of the city and decide what places we might want to stop and visit. As it turns out there's not really much to see here. Everything is pretty much right where the shuttle bus drops you (cathedral and royal palace and access to shopping streets). The only other thing of significance not near the center is Bellver Castle which is on top of a hill about halfway between the port and the center. The sightseeing bus stops there so we took the bus up to that point and got out to visit the castle. On Sundays the castle entrance is free but there are no tours. The castle is pretty basic though and there is a museum about Palma history inside of it which does include a brief history of he castle. The highlight of the castle is the wonderful views of the city and harbor from the top. Overall though it's skippable if you don't have the time. I wouldn't waste a taxi ride going up and back if you haven't bought the sightseeing bus ticket already. After visiting the castle we got back on the bus (they come by about every 15 minutes) and followed it until it looped back to the center. We then did a walk around the area of the cathedral (closed on Sundays) and decided to skip the Royal Palace as it did not look interesting enough.

 

We walked down the Passeig de Born, a tree lined pedestrian area with shops and restaurants looking for a place for lunch. The place I had looked up in advance was closed on Sunday. We passed by several places that were either full or did not have menus that enticed us. As we did not want to keep walking forever we wound up settling on a McDonald's that had outdoor seating. After lunch we decided to head back to the ship (it was around 2:30 by now). Once we got back we decided to take a walk to a nearby mall called Porto Pi, about a 10 minute walk from the terminal, as they had a casino there. We played for about an hour or so on the slots; Mike won but I didn't. Overall this was the least interesting port of our cruise so far.

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

 

 

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[cocker2]

Thank you for battling on!

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

After we came back to the ship we headed up to the Solarium to enjoy the pool as we had not had a chance to do that yet. I liked the fact that it is a therapy pool versus the regular pool on S class ships. Unfortunately there were not enough jets in the pool for the number of people bathing. We stayed up through sailaway which was an interesting perspective. We didn't want to throw on slacks so we headed up to Oceanview for dinner. Got to eat outside on a beautiful evening with a gorgeous sunset.

 

 

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[bottomfeeder]

I guess the lesson for Palma de Mallorca is to not visit on Sunday. I had a wonderful day there on my transatlantic last fall, touring Palma plus a former monastery in a nearby town whose name escapes me at the moment. Made me want to move to Mallorca! I'd highly recommend you give it another try on any other day of the week in the future. :)

 

(I have run into the same thing with Naples. I have always wanted to visit the Archaeological Museum there, and have been to Naples twice on cruises but both times it's been on a Wednesday, which is the day of the week that museum is closed!)

 

I'm really enjoying your live report, thanks for doing this!

[WonderMan3]

Forgot to add this with the Daily from Palma. It's a Destination Guide. Kind of skimpy if you ask me. They only started including these in the Daily starting with this one so not sure why the previous ports were skipped. If this originates with the Shore Excursion team it doesn't surprise me as they have been very ill-informed this cruise. Example #1 - Sunday morning before exiting I went to the desk to inquire about the location of the Hop on Hop off bus just outside the pier. I had researched information pre-cruise that said there was a stop there but I just wasn't sure where it was in relation to where we were docked. The woman at the desk told me that the HOHO bus did not stop near the ship pier and we'd have to pick it up downtown. I was confused by this and mentioned what I saw online. She told me that all she knew was that the HOHO did not stop nearby and that there might be other sightseeing buses that came nearby but that they were not Hop on Hop off. I left and we decided to catch the Celebrity sponsored shuttle to be safe ($8pp). Of course as we drove out of the pier area on the shuttle li and behold there was the HOHO bus picking up passengers right outside the terminal building. So either she was being deceptive to try and steer us to the shuttle bus or she was totally uninformed.

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

Here is the Daily and Destination Guide from Monday

 

 

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[Spursgirl]

What a pity you didn't get to see the inside of Palma Cathedral. It is awe inspiring.

 

I love the city, the beautiful marina, Plaza Mayor, the streets of the old town, not to mention excellent shopping. And lovely places to visit outside the capital - Valldemossa, Deya, Soller to name just a few.

 

Hope you have the chance to revisit on a weekday

[WonderMan3]

I just want to say here that Palma wasn't a bad place. It being on Sunday didn't really impact much other than the cathedral so that likely wouldn't have changed my opinion much. I was rating it in comparison to other European ports I've visited on this cruise and other cruises. It just didn't offer a big wow factor for a day in port. It was pretty and clean and some place that I might enjoy as part of a beach vacation but I otherwise found it a bit of a void as far as learning something or getting a cultural experience. It felt more like a nice Caribbean port compared to the other stops on this cruise.

 

 

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[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Enjoying your thread. Brings back many great memories.

Shore Ex staff on Celebrity ships are basically useless. All they know is their own excursions. Their destination guides just point you to shops which provide a kickback to Celebrity. It really is necessary to do you own research. And absolutely, a private car is the only way to do the Amalfi Coast. Malta is awesome, would love to go back there and spend a few days.

Thanks for sharing your experience!

[WonderMan3]

On Monday we visited Cartagena, Spain. In preparing for this cruise my research noted that all the historical sites in Cartagena are closed on Mondays. But former cruise passengers said that when they arrived on a Monday the town actually opened all the sites in order to accommodate cruise passengers. I decided to go down to the shore excursion desk before exiting the ship to find out if they knew if any of the sites would be open. They told me that the sites are only open to cruise passengers if you are on an excursion. This was surprising to hear based on what I had read from past cruisers who had toured the sites on their own. She also said the District of the Roman Forum told her directly that they would not open even for cruise passengers. We decided to explore the town anyway but disappointed that there would be little to see. Then to my pleasant surprise when exiting the ship a woman from the local tourist authority was handing out maps and gave us a sheet showing us that all the historic sites were in fact open until 3pm that day. So once again the Celebrity representatives were wrong. My advice here is to make sure you do your own research in advance and don't trust what they say.

 

We were very surprised at how nice Cartagena was. Pretty waterfront area where the ship was docked and clean city streets lined with lots of shops and restaurants. We skipped doing the Roman Theatre first even though it was the first site we came to as there was a crowd of people waiting to get in. So we walked on to the District of the Roman Forum archaeological site where we viewed the remains of ancient Roman baths, a road and more. Climbing the hill above that site we entered a park and got to view remains of ancient city walls. We then stopped in the local artisan center to see art and craft works produced by locals. Afterward we headed back to the Roman Theater museum which was not crowded at all. Upon completing that visit we stopped at the Valor Chocolateria for some churros and chocolate which were excellent! We then finished our explorations of the town by taking the scenic elevator up to the top of the hill where Concepcion Castle lies. We didn't go into the castle but we strolled the park and got views of the ancient amphitheater they are currently excavating and views over the entire town and harbor and even saw a wild peacock. We then headed back to the ship to relax in our cabin for sailaway.

 

 

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