'Live' on Constellation 9 night French Riviera and Dalmatian Coast

[mirnsd]

We are officially on our way to Barcelona to join Celebrity Constellation for a 9 night sailing from Barcelona to Venice. Celebrity sell this sailing as French Riviera and Dalmatian Coast.

 

We are mother and son from central Scotland and this is our 4th cruise with Celebrity. This will be my first time live blogging as we sail but I've been inspired by the many others who have shared their sailings on here.

 

We are currently sitting in a very busy Edinburgh airport after staying at the Hilton Doubletree last night. Very impressed with the Hilton at the airport. We always fly in one or two days before our sailing, so will have an overnight tonight in Barcelona.

 

Not impressed by the organisation this morning in Edinburgh. Security was the worst I've ever seen it and I'm a regular in the airport here.

 

My main inspiration for the live blog is Constellation has been getting some mixed reports lately and before we sailed I didn't see many live blogs covering her. I hope to be able to answer any questions for those who are booked on future sailings and I hope to be able to confirm that some of the negative reviews were a poor reflection of the ship. That's the plan anyway.

 

We are flying through London Heathrow as we couldn't secure good direct flights at the times we wanted. British Airways both flights.

 

Anyway. I will update as the day progresses as we are due to board our London bound flight in the next few minutes.

 

I hope you will follow along.

 

Michael

 

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[Highpeaklad]

Looking forward to this as we are doing Venice to Barcelona in August. We only have Zadar as a port in common but am keen to see what you think of the ship. 

Hope you have a lovely time. 

[sandav]

5 hours ago, mirnsd said:

 

We are officially on our way to Barcelona to join Celebrity Constellation for a 9 night sailing from Barcelona to Venice. Celebrity sell this sailing as French Riviera and Dalmatian Coast.

 

We are mother and son from central Scotland and this is our 4th cruise with Celebrity. This will be my first time live blogging as we sail but I've been inspired by the many others who have shared their sailings on here.

 

We are currently sitting in a very busy Edinburgh airport after staying at the Hilton Doubletree last night. Very impressed with the Hilton at the airport. We always fly in one or two days before our sailing, so will have an overnight tonight in Barcelona.

 

Not impressed by the organisation this morning in Edinburgh. Security was the worst I've ever seen it and I'm a regular in the airport here.

 

My main inspiration for the live blog is Constellation has been getting some mixed reports lately and before we sailed I didn't see many live blogs covering her. I hope to be able to answer any questions for those who are booked on future sailings and I hope to be able to confirm that some of the negative reviews were a poor reflection of the ship. That's the plan anyway.

 

We are flying through London Heathrow as we couldn't secure good direct flights at the times we wanted. British Airways both flights.

 

Anyway. I will update as the day progresses as we are due to board our London bound flight in the next few minutes.

 

I hope you will follow along.

 

Michael

 

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You might already know this but Edinburgh Airport does Fast Trak Security for £4.49. We use it all the time and it makes quite a difference.

Sandra

 

 

[wendyam76]

Have a great cruise! We loved Constellation- did a B2B on her last summer. Your ports are great! What time were you going through security? Crazily it’s cheaper for us to fly out from Edinburgh (and travel down and have an overnight) and back into Aberdeen than do a return from Aberdeen! This time we are using KLM to avoid Heathrow.

Wendy

[wishuponasea]

Thank you for doing this live blog! We will be on Constellation (first time) in May 2020 from Barcelona to Venice - with some different ports of call. I believe that Constellation will just be getting out of drydock in time for our sailing. Anyway, I will be following along with great interest since we have not been on this ship before, nor some of the same ports of call as you.

[NBliving]

This would be a perfect itinerary for us!  Unfortunately, I don't see this exact one in 2020, darn!  Looking forward to reading your blog.

[mirnsd]

Have a great cruise! We loved Constellation- did a B2B on her last summer. Your ports are great! What time were you going through security? Crazily it’s cheaper for us to fly out from Edinburgh (and travel down and have an overnight) and back into Aberdeen than do a return from Aberdeen! This time we are using KLM to avoid Heathrow.
Wendy

We were at the airport for just after 5am this morning. Total chaos. I've never seen Edinburgh as bad. Ironically the transfer in Heathrow was a breeze in comparison. I guess we could have done fast track but even their line was bigger than I'd be prepared to pay for.

We have not long arrived in our hotel in central Barcelona. Full write up to come. Sitting on the roof terrace of the hotel with a small refreshment in the sun.

Thanks for following along

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[wendyam76]

That is so weird it was so busy - no major holidays or anything. I was looking at paying for fast track (I travel with 85 year old mum) but if even that had a queue think I’ll just take my chances! 

I love Barcelona! Where are you staying? Have a great time! 

[sandav]

We’ve never had a queue at fast trak but maybe we’ve just been lucky.We’ve used It many times. Anyway enjoy your cruise.

Sandra

[downsmead]

Looking forward to hearing about your travels. We have sailed on the Constellation a few times and am sailing on the Greek Islands cruise at the end of July on her. We are doing a round trip from Venice, but I adore Barcelona. We have done a few of the ports on your itinerary. I have always enjoyed my trips on the ship, I like the M class ships - just the right size and never seem too crowded.

[Jetstreamer]

Enjoy. We got off the Constellation last week and the staff we encountered onboard were excellent. It seemed like a well run and happy team. Wasn't sure about the cruise director Paul at first but he really grew on us and by the end we decided he was one of the best we have encountered (very funny guy if you ignore the "dad" jokes!)

[jameybano]

My husband and I will be boarding the Constellation on May 21st in Venice! Looking forward to reading your insights and tips!

[ak1004]

We are considering doing a similar cruise on Constellation in September 2019 (or possibly this one) as a gift to our for her 30th birthday. There few alternatives on newer ships (Relfection or Silhouette) that are more expensive, or Edge/Apex that are MUCH more expensive. For example: inside cabin on Constellation is around $190/200 CAD per night, Relfection or Silhouette are slightly more expensive, but Edge is around $300 CAD per night!

 

We sailed on Silhouette and Equenox - how Constellation compares to those ships and to Edge? I know it's much older, but how does it impact the overall cruise experience? It is smaller, which we see as an advantage.

[mirnsd]

Morning all!

Our overnight stay in Barcelona was great. We stayed at the Hotel Casa Camper
(https://www.casacamper.com) which was great and we are considering it again for our September trip.

Sadly I didn't get many good photos of the hotel as a lot of the decor is in deep red and other darker colours and don't photograph all that well! The hotel is very quirky and stylish. Most rooms have a separate living room complete with flat screen, hammock and juliette balcony onto the street below. The main bedroom is across the corridor and is complete with an amazing rainfall shower and private WC. You need to know your travelling companion well though as the shower is only semi-private to the room. I guess you could make use of the living space if you are travelling with someone you don't know quite that well !

The hotel has a very liberal attitude to living - all snacks and soft drinks are included as standard, as is breakfast. They have sandwiches, pasta, crisps and nuts available 24hrs and breakfast is both hot cooked and continental style. The only thing you pay for is alcohol, which is available at an honesty bar on a rooftop terrace. You simply take what you want and mark it down on a form - you are charged on check out.

We enjoyed a glorious sunny late afternoon on the terrace with a couple of drinks, had a light snack and had an early night as we had been awake since 4am.

We now await our taxi to take us to the port to meet Constellation for the first time. It will be our first M class experience and I look forward to sharing it with you.

Michael



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[di T]

We have sailed on Connie many times, and we have two b2b cruises on her this year! The first will start from Venice end of this month and I can’t wait! Hope you enjoy the ports and the ship, we find the crew are the best of all the Celebrity ships we have sailed on and we have sailed most of them. I don’t know why the reviews have been mixed because we have had a great experience every time. Will follow your blog with interest! Dianne

[mirnsd]

We have arrived safely on board and are shortly due to go to muster drill, so this will be brief.

I'll give an outline of our first thoughts and pictures of tonight's meal early tomorrow morning.

We managed hotel to ship in 25 minutes. That's not curb to ship, that's hotel to ship. So efficient was the check in process at Barcelona this afternoon that we had a glass of fizz in our hands 25 minutes after the taxi picked us up from downtown Barcelona. Amazing!

We checked into our fabulous Aqua class room and we have had a brief exploring session of the ship. Our muster drill is at 4pm for a 5pm sailaway and Celebrity have organised the CC meetup for 5.30.

I'll update fully from Monaco in the morning. In the meantime here is who is on board and our first daily.

Michael

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[mirnsd]

We had a great first day on board. After arriving I did a quick tour of the ship to familiarise myself with the layout, since this is the first M class ship we have been on.

One of the complaints I'd heard before boarding was that she was tired. I can't say that I really agree. Sure there are places where the ship could do with a lick of paint or some updated furnishings but nothing is as bad as some of the negative reviews have made out. The ship is extremely clean and the staff are excellent so far. I am really warming to her layout and the size of the ship compared to the S class, which we love.

I mentioned before that we are in an Aqua class room and I'll post some pictures of it below. We are on deck 9, below the overhang. We have an angled extended balcony and I believe we are below the Solarium or Spa area. No complaints about noise or disturbance.

Sadly I forgot to photograph last nights dinner but we had Beef Carpaccio and Calamari to start and we both had Filet Mignon as our main. The food in Blu was a great start to the cruise. The meat was succulent and cooked exactly as we asked. Service was a little slower than I thought it would be, but to be fair we went bang on 7pm when the restaurant was at capacity.

We didn't do a show in the main theatre last night but we did go up to the Reflections lounge for a night cap and to watch the Venetian themed show Masque. We had seen it before on a previous cruise but it was still entertaining. The highlight of our evening was bumping into Florian from the events team, who we have sailed with before. He remembered us from the previous cruise and remembered that I had won the karaoke competition on board Eclipse. It was great to meet him again and I know that he will keep everyone entertained on board.

Today we are in Monaco for an extended stop - 10am till 9pm. We haven't planned anything and plan to get off the ship in an hour or so for a walk around. Tenders have been busy all morning and it has been lovely watching the boats in the harbour.

Hopefully more from Monaco later if my phone signal holds up but here are some of the photos of our stateroom in the meantime.



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[mirnsd]

I also meant to add - our weather last night wasn't great. High winds and seas of 3-6 metre waves. Connie moved quite a bit overnight and being deck 9 forward meant we got quite a bit of movement.

Nothing that prevented a good night's sleep or was that aided by the Patron Margaritas !

I suspect we might get some more of that weather. There is a bit of strange weather happening around Italy at the moment and I suspect it is having implications on the wider area.

We are going to go and see the late show tonight. A show called Land of Make Believe, which if I am honest, sounds truly bizarre. We shall give it a go.

So far, so good on Constellation!

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[ak1004]

On 5/11/2019 at 6:20 PM, ak1004 said:

We are considering doing a similar cruise on Constellation in September 2019 (or possibly this one) as a gift to our for her 30th birthday. There few alternatives on newer ships (Relfection or Silhouette) that are more expensive, or Edge/Apex that are MUCH more expensive. For example: inside cabin on Constellation is around $190/200 CAD per night, Relfection or Silhouette are slightly more expensive, but Edge is around $300 CAD per night!

 

We sailed on Silhouette and Equenox - how Constellation compares to those ships and to Edge? I know it's much older, but how does it impact the overall cruise experience? It is smaller, which we see as an advantage.

 

Thank you everyone for responding, it was very insightful! 

[LIMPIT]

Hi,

thanks for your live blog.

We are sailing On Constellation 1st October Rome to Venice (Italy & Dalmatian Coast) 9 nights, first time on M Class also, following with interest.

[insley]

Thanks for sharing your cruise. We will be on the Connie Oct 20 for a 10 night cruise beginning in Cittavechia and ending in Barcelona. First time on the Connie. Also sailed the Infinity around the horn in South America. Looking forward to your posts. Enjoy!

 

[vickykay]

Enjoying your review.  We are doing a similar itinerary on the Connie early Sept. 2020 although after it is re-done.  Have always enjoyed the M class ships as well as the S class.  

[mirnsd]

We had a lovely day in Monte Carlo but didn't get up to much. Got to love a lazy day as well as an action packed one!

Dinner in Blu last night was great. Service was much more efficient than night one. We has chilled lobster salad and Spanish style poached egg to start. I was a bit confused as to what Spanish style meant but it came with Patatas Bravas and a sort of chorizo sauce. All very tasty. Mum had smoked chicken with Orzo, which I forgot to snap before she ate and I had a strip steak salad, which once again was a great cut and cooked to perfection. Our sommelier in Blu has been great with the wine recommendations so far.


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[mirnsd]

We went to see the main show 'Land of Make Believe' which was billed as a bit of a mix of fairytale stories all in one show. We have seen some Celebrity productions in the past and have had mixed experiences. Topper is still one of the strangest shows I have ever seen and I am a regular theatre goer on land.

Last nights show was actually thoroughly entertaining. Vocals good, dancing and aerial artists very impressive. I'm not sure I followed much of what plot there was, but a good way to pass an hour.

We then retired to the Rendezvous lounge for drinks and the British Invasion party. The band were quite good and got the crowd going. We had a couple of drinks and called it a night at around 11.30 as Villefranche is an early port. Weather much better last night and very calm seas.

Today we are in Villefranche, one of my favourite Med ports. Weather is 23°c and not a cloud in the sky.

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[wishuponasea]

While in Monte Carlo (May 2020 cruise), we will probably just walk around and explore. Do you have recommendations on "must sees"? This will be our first time there. Thanks again for your live blog and looking forward to reading more.