Review - Constellation Cruise 26th May - Barcelona to Venice

[Rascal1]

We were on the cruise that was delayed by a few days from Barcelona and were one of many who had booked Grand Prix tickets independently: a little about us, we are a couple in our mid 40’s and this was our 7th cruise, previously we have cruised with Princess and Celebrity. This year we decided to try our firstSky Suite experience with Celebrity, previously we’ve had concierge class.

 

Sorry it’s a long one but hopefully someone will find it interesting.

 

Barcelona –morning of embarkation:-

 

We woke up all excited, made a cup of coffee in bed and for some reason I checked my emails (I rarely check as soon as I wake up but that day I did). I read the email and had to do a double take and even asked my husband what day is it today, that can’t be right we aren’t getting on the ship until Sunday.Unfortunately I had read the email correctly. We booked with the UK but the email was from the States. The US office was shut (timezone) and the UK office wasn’t open yet so after the initial panic we went into ‘what do we need todo’. We saw on the email it said about the Grand Prix but assumed they only would look after those who had booked through Celebrity and not independently like us.

 

Whilst we were waiting for the UK office to open, we talked about cancelling, the cruise was only 10 days and it felt like we were missing a lot of that and also theGrand Prix but then decided that worse things were happening, there wasn’t anywhere else we wanted to be, didn’t want to waste our holiday from work but also didn’t want to go back to work so decided to wait until we’d spoken toCelebrity.

 

From the email, we knew Celebrity would book us into a hotel, but it was bank holiday weekend and we thought they’d need about 2000 rooms so that wasn’t going to happen irrespective of how good their team is. We had booked the previous night in a suite in the hotel and was looking forward to a suite experience on board the ship, so the thought of a grotty room, in a grotty hotel on a busy street didn’t appeal to us.

 

Whilst waiting for celebrity to pick up, my sister in law texted me to say HappySailing, bon voyage and for some reason, I think the timing of the text, the stress, frustration and disappointment all hit and I just burst into tears right at the time a lady called Hannah answered the call. My husband spoke to her and say she was brilliant. She said as she couldn’t guarantee which hotel we would be in, she would authorise us to stay put if the hotel could accommodate us. She said to book in for another night and then go to the pier to talk to the ‘go team’ which Celebrity had sent overnight as soon as they heard there was a problem.

 

We managed to book a different room (but just as nice) with the hotel and then headed to the pier and spoke to Chris from the US team. Chris said if the hotel could book us for the second night, just book it and claim it back, he took our names and said he would try and get us to the Grand prix, it didn’t matter if we were booked independently. They were trying to arrange flights, transfers and hotels for everyone who had tickets. So off we went back to the hotel and to be honest didn’t know how they were going to pull it off. We did have tickets for the qualifying but were willing to forgo that and just do the race day if it was going to be lots of travelling.

 

They confirmed the amount of compensation up front, which we felt was more than fair and it meant something for them offering it up front and not to have to fight or argue for something.

 

We did learn that others weren’t so lucky and were 140km away from Barcelona and I might have felt differently then. I think by being proactive and speaking to the UK team and asking to stay put in our hotel, it worked to our advantage. At the pier there were people waiting to be coached to their hotels, not sure how long they were waiting, we did hear that they put about 300 people up in a spa hotel that hadn’t opened for the season and they were filling the pool up as they arrived.

 

We decided to practice the saying ‘choose your attitude’ and thought we were safe, we were together, the sun was out we weren’t at work so we were going to enjoy the time in Barcelona and just see what happened.

 

Celebrity kept to their word and rang us with updates and also emailed, so again can’t fault them. For us we felt they were trying to do everything possible to get us to the grand prix and never once did we feel they couldn’t be bothered or didn’t want to help.

 

In the end we were glad we didn’t do the qualifying, speaking to others who went, it was a really long day, with many events that weren’t down to celebrity (e.g. aborted touch down due to a plane being sat on the runway, guests not sitting down so delayed take off etc). But it meant they received email instructions at midnight, had to be in the airport at 5.30am and didn’t get back to their hotels until 1am, and then had to be back in the airport by 5.30 for race day.

 

Race Day:-

 

We checked out of the hotel to get to Barcelona airport by 5.30, when we left our rooms we met Kathy Barbrooke and Jo Rzymowska checking out and they were on their way to the airport tomeet the Grand prix group. We were really impressed that they’d sent the top UK/Europe leadership team, often nowadays the top leaders stay in the office and let others deal with unhappy customers, but they didn’t hide and were happy to talk. We had a plane which took us to Nice (through private arrivals which was a nice experience), then a short coach ride to Monaco and then after the race we were coached to a hotel in Genoa ready to join the ship in Genoa.

 

It was a great day, we were so thankful to Celebrity for getting us there, the guide was brilliant and everything ran smoothly.

 

The ship:-

We had only sailed on the Eclipse before, so can’t really compare what it looked like before but the ship was in good shape, you could tell some areas had been refurbished and the carpet in public areas had the ‘plush new’ feeling as you walked on it. There wasn’t any tattiness that we saw. The Sky Suite was in a great shape, everything working and nothing looked like it needed replacing. The bed was comfortable, plenty of hanging space and the additional space in the suite was welcome.

 

We liked the rooftop terrace, you could get a seat most days when we walked past but the noise of the film didn’t boom out around the deck, the volume was good.One night they showed the new animation ‘Sing’ for the kids club where they had headphones and we joined in the fun and sat and watched it with headphones inthe dark drinking cocktails. Quite surreal but we really enjoyed it. The films seem to be recent, from memory there was Fantastic Beasts, Rogue One, a DogsPurpose and some others that I can’t remember.

 

We didn’t like the new Top Deck Burger Bar, it didn’t feel special just looked like it had replaced the space of the old grill and it was just plain brown tables. I’d pay if I felt I was getting special dining but it didn’t feel special or an experience. I think they’ve missed a trick there.

 

The food in the buffet was nice, you could always find a seat but I prefer the layout of Eclipse.

 

Luminaire was nice, Michaels Club was very quiet and lacked atmosphere when we went, we didn’t try the speciality restaurants.

 

All the crew were really friendly and service was excellent. It must have been a hard cruise for them due to the start but they were fab.

 

We did the ships tour, which was really interesting, unfortunately we couldn’t go in the engine room, apparently for 2 weeks after dry-dock they stop the tours as they have to be available 24/7 for problems. But they refunded 25% of the cost and we saw the garbage room (strangely interesting) and more of the crew areas instead of the engine room. The 3rd officer on the bridge was really funny and answered any questions.

 

The bit we hadn’t appreciated was the impact on the ship of delayed boarding. They had 20% surplus food/drink as they order inventory 2 months out, so there were boxes everywhere, it looked like chaos but they knew what was happening (or they appeared to!)

 

600 passengers(I think they were a group booking) got off shortly after Genoa so the ship seemed really quiet for the last ½ of the cruise. I don’t know if other passengers chose to cancel but at times it felt like a ghost ship.

 

The only thing I thought wasn't so good, is that as we missed the embarkation inBarcelona we didn’t attend the normal muster so when we joined in Genoa, about6.30pm we got a note saying we had to attend the Gamma Conference room at 7pm for a muster. Some people didn’t get the note until 6.50 but still made it.No-one from Celebrity turned up, we tried to find people and flagged to 3 crew members that we were all waiting but no-one showed, we waited for 30 mins and then someone found a piece of paper so one of the group left a note saying ‘we were here but you weren’t’ and everyone signed. There must have been about 70 of us. I thought this was really bad to make a deal out of ‘we must attend’ and thenCelebrity not show. We didn’t get called back and never had any messages so don’t know if the Captain even got told that we hadn’t had the Muster. Most people had been on cruises before so knew what to do in an event of an emergency but others didn’t so it was definitely a miss on their part, not sure if it’s also against Maritime Law that we didn’t attend a muster. No way would this affect our enjoyment, but Idid think it was wrong – although another cocktail later I didn’t think about it again!

 

Overall, we liked the ship, but prefer the larger Eclipse.

 

Ports:-

 

Genoa –we wanted to board the ship, so decided to miss any excursions/sight-seeing.The coach transfer picked us up from the hotel about 10 and by 10.30 we were in our suite. Really smooth process.

 

Florence– we got the celebrity train excursion into Florence which worked really well and meant we had about 4 hours to explore Florence, which was enough due to how hot it was. We loved the city and will be going back for a long weekend.

 

Rome –we’ve done Rome before so decided just to have a chill out on the ship after the busy start.

 

Kotor –we had an invite for sail in on the helipad and the scenery was beautiful. We loved the old town, originally, we were going to try and walk the walls but it was so hot that we decided just to walk about. We didn’t dock until mid-day so by then the sun was at full strength.

 

Zadar –we didn’t do much here. We thought from research that the ship docked within walking distance from the town but they must have been old reviews as there isa new dock which is a 20-min shuttle service. It’s not finished and looks like they are building some kind of shopping centre right by the dock, but they are probably about a year from finishing it.

 

Venice– We did the Celebrity Murano and Burano excursion and on the way back the ship dropped us off by St Mark’s Square so we could have a wander round. The excursion was very good although for me the glass demonstration was too short(but I do glass as a hobby and have seen many demonstrations including on other celebrity ships so was probably expecting too much), the showroom had some fantastic pieces to look at, it wasn’t hard sell at all. We loved Burano and wished we had a bit more time there. The only thing I didn’t really understand was that the gangway was open 24 hours as it was an overnighter but the celebrity shuttle taxi finished at 10pm and where we were docked we couldn’t see any taxi or water shuttle service so I don’t understand how people could go off and explore Venice late at night but I might have missed something.

Disembarkation was easy, we found a taxi straight away and went to the airport.

 

Overall,I think Celebrity did a fantastic job or still making the holiday happen, I can’t fault how they treated us. For us, the cruise was a bit too port intensive and we missed sea days and it felt weird having the last night docked rather than on the sea sailing to the last port. But this is all personal preference. I'm sure some people didn't have such a great experience at the start, but this was our experience and I just hope everyone managed to enjoy their cruise in the end.

 

Our next Celebrity cruise is already booked, a 14 night one to the Baltics with more sea days and am on count down already.

 

Any questions let me know and I’ll try to answer them. I’m still sorting out the photos so will try and put some of the ship up over the weekend.

[vickykay]

Great review and really enjoyed reading it. Such a positive outlook and so glad you were able to enjoy your cruise.

 

We did the Baltic cruise several years ago and it was amazing. Enjoy.

[chemmo]

So nice to hear Celebrity being pro active trying to put as much right as they could in very difficult circumstances!

 

I do think your positive attitude helped too! Counting your blessings of what you could still enjoy rather than bemoaning what you have missed is a great attitude for all travelers. Things do happen, it is how companies respond and we cope that is important....

[tfg]

I was on this cruise too and agree with everything you said we had a wonderful time and my husband went to the qualifying we didn't hear till 2300 about times but celebrity kept us as informed as they could all evening.He got back at 1230 and was so glad he went.

I think celebrity did well with such a short space of time to arrange a charter,slots at the busiest week end of the year

 

 

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[ChucktownSteve]

Thank you for the very interesting review. I'm glad Celebrity stepped up for you; especially for the Grand Prix even though you had independent tickets.

 

I appreciate your including an observation about the Top Deck Burger Bar. Do you recall many people biting on the new "gourmet" burger or did you see what they looked like? If you happen to have a picture of it, I'd really like to see it.

 

Thankx. Happy sailing.

[BettyPC]

Great run down of your adventure! Thanks for sharing it with us.

[Ayton lady]

Thanks for the review. It is good to hear they treated you well in the circumstances. We are booked for Venice to Barcelona in September on Connie with extra time at both ends. Good to hear the ship is looking good after the dry dock. We have only sailed S class before so we're a little concerned about the age of the M class ships.

[Taylor D]

Great positive attitude sometimes people need to just make the best of it. We did Barcelona to Venice on the Connie last July and loved it.

[del scanlon]

Can someone help please ? Going on the Connie first time next Feb . No Murano on it is there something similar ?

 

 

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[Rascal1]

Thank you for the very interesting review. I'm glad Celebrity stepped up for you; especially for the Grand Prix even though you had independent tickets.

 

I appreciate your including an observation about the Top Deck Burger Bar. Do you recall many people biting on the new "gourmet" burger or did you see what they looked like? If you happen to have a picture of it, I'd really like to see it.

 

Thankx. Happy sailing.

 

Hi, We didn't see many people at all, at most I think there were 2 tables with people sat on it. I do have a couple of photos we took but I need to sort out a photo sharing site before I can share them ( I thought I could just attach but doesn't look like it as the file is too big). Will work it out over the next few days and post them.

[Rascal1]

Can someone help please ? Going on the Connie first time next Feb . No Murano on it is there something similar ?

 

 

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There isn't a Murano, there is a Tuscan Grille and Qsine, I've not experienced Murano but think it is a french restaurant and the Tuscan is more like a steakhouse. Qsine is totally different again, we've done it once on Ecplise which was fun to try something different, but didn't want to try it a second time although they have since changed the menu.

[easyboy]

Thanks for your review.

[yvonneh]

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this review. Looking forward to our upcoming cruise on the Constellation.... Just got the suitcases out.

I am happy you had a great time and X compensated you and tried to make everything as right as possible.

[Mr. Click]

Thanks for all the information. I am sure it was stressful put at least you got to the race. We have friends who were also on your trip and they got to enjoy the extra days in Barcelona so they were not too upset. The M-class ships are definately different but we have found that each class has its own special things. Your comment on the new burger bar make me glad I no longer eat burgers....In my mind that venue will be as popular as Sushi on 5 and it predecessor...