mini review 2/4/06 Constellation

[dabear]

This was our 4th X (and 10th overall) cruise, so we have some experience.

Cabin: we were in a sky suite and really enjoyed it. To me, it's a close call between an aft cc cabin with large balcony (stay away from 9th floor due to noise above.) Our butler was a treat and we enjoyed cappachinos almost daily..

Food: speciality restaurant consistantly excellent. The food in main dining room we thought dropped a notch from last year on the Connie.

service: generally excellent, however the sommilier in dining room was arrogant and not cooperative. We had to call over the ass't mater'd to have things resolved. The chair saving on the day at sea was disgusting. We came to the pool at 8:30am and there were no chairs. We got lucky, but most of the "saved" chairs remained vacant except for towels or old magazines for 3 to 4 hours. The pool butlers should do something, such as removing items after 1/2 or 1 hour without anyone there.

Entertainment: cds was wonderful. At least 2 production shows were the exact same as on our 1/05 cruise so we walked out. There were a number of shows for the late seating diners at 7:15pm rather than after dinner and most of us strongly oppose it and skipped the show.

Sudi: he's a wonderful mixologist and entertainer.

Disembark: we used the new valet service and it was great.

Finally, I want to say hello to all of the many wonderful passengers that we met on cc and in person.

[Blazerboy]

Thanks for the mini-review. We're looking forward to boarding in 10 weeks! Felt much the same way about our sommelier on Constellation Fall of '04- had to do the same thing with the Ass't Maitre d', but, as he wasn't that great either, we started ordering nicer glasses of wine by the glass from the bar waiter, and limiting ourselves (not hard after a few of Sudi's great concoctions! Sorry that he will just have gone home before we board). Other than that, the dining experience was great, so hoping your less-than-perfect experience was a hiccup. We were on Infinity last Fall, and actually thought the quality had gone up a bit. Here's hoping...:) And we're getting ready to book in Ocean Liners...YEA!

 

A question about CDS. Are they still doing the masked "white ball" thing in the Reflections Lounge? Or has that all been scrapped, and they're just having the show in the theatre?

 

Thanks,

 

Andrew

[RB Bonzo]

Thanks for the review; this is the 2nd time I've seen someone comment on the saving of chairs and the lack of any action by the pool butlers. The other person said that he commented on it, and the butler shrugged his shoulders and walked away.

 

If the policy is that chairs cannot be reserved, then the policy really should be enforced, and the pool butlers ought not make passengers "self enforce" it by removing peoples' personal stuff. 8:30 am is really too early to be "shut out" of a pool deck chair when the place is empty!

[nu2sea]

"...not hard after a few of Sudi's great concoctions! Sorry that he will just have gone home before we board..."

 

Oh no, after all I have read of this man, we won't get to see him in action?:eek: Bummer.

 

Thanks for the review. Like Andrew, we will be sailing on her in just a few (okay, so ten) short weeks and love reading all impressions of her. We are looking forward to the specialty restaurant during our crossing.

 

Sorry to hear about the chair hogs...

 

Susan

[Trail46]

This is the second time someone suggested skipping a bottle of wine and ordering a glass from the bar waiter because of problems. Is the bar waiter circulating around the room? On the QM2 we had no problems and on the Radisson Seven Seas Navigator wine with dinner was included. First time on Celebrity. Thanks to all!

[flashdog_1]

Usually as the dining room is just starting to fill the drink server will ask your table if they'd like something. I assume they have a certain area to cover, not the whole dining room! We've always ordered a glass OR bottle of wine from the sommelier who comes later. The sommelier will be very helpful to suggest a wine with the selections for dinner.

[Blazerboy]

Hey Trail46-

 

Some of the sommeliers are GREAT, and have wonderful knowledge of wine. It can be, unfortunately, the luck of the draw. One thing that I noticed does make a difference is whether the whole table is drinking wine or not. When we had the problem I mentioned, it was when most of the other couples weren't ordering wine, and I think the sommelier simply put our table on a lower priority than those whole groups that ordered bottles every night. It was frustrating to not have any wine service until after several courses had come and gone, thus my solution of the bar waiters. The bar waiters do wander around the dining room, and ours last time on Constellation was GREAT! He managed to do a stellar job of taking care of us, seeing the problem we were having with the sommelier. Needless to say, he got the extra tips that would have gone to the sommelier and Ass't Maitre d'. :rolleyes:

 

But I also don't want to make it seem as though this is normal, or was a huge part of our cruise experience. We've had many great sommeliers on Celebrity, ones that rivaled those on Cunard or Crystal. And the dining room experience on the whole was delightful, with a terrific waitstaff, and many fun long evenings at the table!:)

 

Because we also had a problem with the on-screen wine ordering from the t.v. in the stateroom, the wine issue was more noticable that time, but, again, not what we've had at other times. I only brought it up because the original poster mentioned the same problem.

 

Andrew

[dabear]

there was both a cds performance and later that night a masked ball at the bar at the edge of the earth (but this year there were no cds characters walking around).

the bar waiter does circulate separate from the sommilier. Please don't take my review as an overall negative experience; to the contrary, it just had some rough edges. In general, we still think the food is better on X than HAL, RCCl and Princess. I forgot to add that this was the first time that I recall having a very funny and helpful ass't matre'd come to our table every night (vs just the night before tips are distributed).

[dabear]

there was both a cds performance and later that night a masked ball at the bar at the edge of the earth (but this year there were no cds characters walking around).

the bar waiter does circulate separate from the sommilier. We did order wine bottles frequently, but one night we asked to split the cost in two (something I would think is common. He said it's not possible even tho we did the same at the specialty restaurant earlier).

Please don't take my review as an overall negative experience; to the contrary, it just had some rough edges. In general, we still think the food is better on X than HAL, RCCl and Princess. I forgot to add that this was the first time that I recall having a very funny and helpful ass't matre'd come to our table every night (vs just the night before tips are distributed).

[Nitrodog]

And here are some pictures to go with the review.

 

http://community.webshots.com/user/nitrodog51

[sweetair]

dabear: was the asst maitre d GORAN perhaps? this man was hysterical and went above and beyond on our last cruise! What a memory(caught on video tape)

 

i have to agree that after 7 connie cruises and 16 overall celebrity, i have to say that its the food decline that is very noticeable. Was on connie dec 10 and it was the most talked about subject. I will be going on march 11th and hopefully they got their act together with this new menu.

 

*sweet*

[dabear]

I believe the ass't matre'd was goran and he was a stitch. It would be a shame for x to let the food decline (for solely profit sake) and loose the reputation that they earned in the past. I've also notice there prices have creeped up (SOuth America is very high). I'm giving serious consideration to trying Princess again.

[uktog]

"...not hard after a few of Sudi's great concoctions! Sorry that he will just have gone home before we board..."

 

Oh no, after all I have read of this man, we won't get to see him in action?:eek: Bummer.

 

Thanks for the review. Like Andrew, we will be sailing on her in just a few (okay, so ten) short weeks and love reading all impressions of her. We are looking forward to the specialty restaurant during our crossing.

 

Sorry to hear about the chair hogs...

 

Susan

 

Does this also mean no Sudi on our trip on 20 May? (:

[ABSCruiseLuvers]

For what it's worth here is the text of the email I sent my TA when we got home from this same cruise. Notice many things the same as dabear...but my wine experience was much better.

 

 

 

Hotel

 

The El Convento Hotel is great. Rooms are very nice with large windows that open to a view of the bay (in fact we got up early and watched the ship sail in). It has a lovely courtyard with a tapas bar that we enjoyed before dinner. The restaurant, Il Perugino, was as good as any I have ever been to in any city! I would highly recommend the hotel and the restaurant to anyone wanting to stay in Old San Juan.

 

 

 

Ship/Cabin

 

The Constellation is in great shape, she looks just as good as she did two years ago when we were on her. In fact some things are better. They have redone the theater in more subtle tones to give it a much classier look and feel. Plus some things have been moved around to make them more easily accessible and create better use of space.

 

 

 

Our Sky Suite was great(6102). I was scared of being so close to the Celebrity Suite thinking it would block our view but we found it to create a good bit of privacy. Ours was just about the only cabin without a life boat directly under it which was nice. We will book this suite again on the Millennium Class ships.

 

 

 

Our cabin attendant and butler were great. In fact our butler Challs was the best we ever had. I would pick a suite in the future based on whether or not he was the butler!

 

 

 

Food

 

Celebrity has rewritten the menus since our last cruise in both the specialty restaurant and the main dinning room. The new menus are much more sophisticated. For example they have added Foie Gras as an appetizer to the specialty restaurant and Sweetbreads as an appetizer in the main restaurant.

 

 

 

Having said that I must also say that things in the main dinning room got off to a bit of a rough start for us. I actually did not eat the entrée on the second night it was so bad. However the Maitre 'D noticed I was not eating it and rushed to the table to offer another dish acknowledging that the fish was not up to par that evening. I think a full ship had something to do with the restaurant service as well. But by the third night things were going very smoothly and everything was ok.

 

 

 

Our sommelier Atilla was exceptional! The first night I told him of our taste in wine and asked him to select a different bottle every night that he thought we would enjoy. He was waiting for us every night at the table with the wine when we arrived and did outstanding job picking the wines. Even the Cellar Master stopped by the table one night to see how we were enjoying the wines.

 

 

 

The buffet is…well a buffet and we did not eat it but once or twice. But I did think of you and your friend and the waiter telling you where to get water. You will be happy to know that is not a problem anymore. Waiters now stroll around the buffet area with trays of water, tea and punch at lunch time offering it to the guests. A nice touch I thought.

 

 

 

Service

 

Overall great service. The crew was always in good spirits and very proud of their ship. Even the little things are nice like being handed frozen towels and complimentary water when we re-boarded after a long hot day ashore. Or the time the cabin attendant saw us coming down the hall and rushed to our room to open the door with her key for us.

 

 

 

Part of the good service may be a result of the new Hotel Director on board. Jos Coppers who spent 5 years with Radisson Seven Seas as Hotel Director has just joined Celebrity and is currently on Constellation. But I also believe that suite passengers get preferential treatment.

 

 

 

Shows

 

The only show worth talking about is A Taste of Cirque Du Soleil. It was excellent. How they were able to pull off a show like that on a ship I will never know. This was a good alliance for Celebrity to make.

 

 

 

Reunion Cruise

 

Lastly this was a Captain’s Club reunion cruise and I must say that was a true disappointment. Not only was there nothing really special about it but many of the things that we enjoy as Captain’s Club members they did not have due to the large number of members on board. I will not book another reunion cruise if I can help it. The good news is that this cruise should bump us to CC Elite status with 11 cruise credits.

 

 

 

Just one more thing. We took your advice and saved all of the receipts through the course of the cruise(way too many by the way, they have to stop with the nickel and dime game). Yesterday we took time to compare it to our final statement and I am happy to report that it matched to the penny.

[ILikeShips]

Hi: We too have just returned and have to agree with above posters that the food quality has declined since our '05 Summit cruise. We aren't sushi fans so cannot comment there, however. The buffet bacon quality has taken a significant plunge, in our opinion and extremely fatty. The previous 3 X cruises the bacon was lean and delicious - once we may have had double thick bacon, if memory serves correctly! Kept checking back each morning but no improvement. They used to have walnut halves to add to cereal, yogurt or fruit but now it is a granola mix. Omelets and waffles were very good. For the main diningroom dinner, one beef entree was not at all tender - the others were not exceptional - but satisfactory. Salmon was lacking in flavor -if I closed my eyes, I would not be sure what fish I was eating. One of the salad entrees featured crumbled bacon; however, there was none on my salad as well as one other tablemate's salad. Ordered scallop and pasta combo entree and 4 scallops were served. They were delicious - however a few more scallops would have been outstanding!

 

The Ocean Liners menu was a bit confusing with two formats to choose from. The service and atmosphere was great.

 

The evening pizza station was disappointing in that it was the most bland pizza we've ever experienced. Next to no tomato sauce and no spices that one would be accustomed to have. Perhaps the preparer was new to this station?

 

In summary, I believe there are a substantial number of X cruisers who look forward to exceptional quality meals. Just our opinion. . .

[smdubowsky]

We were on the same Connie cruise. We had a great time . The only drop in the food quality we noticed was in the main San Marco restaurant. Our maitr d' was very candid and warned us about some rough edges due to the new menu. We were told to let Celebrity know about the problems.

[cantfindaname]

we were on the same cruise and were disappointed in the dining room food only. This was our first celebrity cruise we were a little disappointed with the food , ship beautiful, waiter unfriendly, itinereary great. We went to the cruise critic party and looked in but nobody was there did we miss it.

[ABSCruiseLuvers]

I don't think many people went to the CC party.

[Nitrodog]

Actually there were 6 of us. We did however meet a bunch of cc people at the pool bar on Sat at 5pm.

[Texed]

We will be on Constellation in 10 days. We will enjoy the food as always. We also have 72 in our Cruise Critic "Connections".:)

[dabear]

I hope you enjoy your food.

[pgara]

I was just reading your review of the Constellation and it said to avoid the 9th floor. What is above it- avoid the 9th floor at the front, middle or back of ship???? All parts? We are booked for 6/3 on 9th floor? Please advise what type of noise we will experience.

[Moeve]

Lets add to this - don't get sick when you are on Roseau, Dominica!!! I had the "pleasure" of needing to visit this place with one of my guests. My guest took one look at this place and said "I think have just gotten better!!" Unfortunately the ships doctor wouldn't take my guest back until he had been ashore for the Ultrascan. Other patients vomiting at our feet, collapsing beds and falling down ceilings were just a few parts of our "Ultimate adventure Tour" in Roseau.

 

Capt Papanikulau is really great - he really enjoys the interactions with his Passengers. If you see him - speak to him and ask him anything you like. By the way he reads these boards too and comes to the cruisecritic meetings if he can make it possible.

[dabear]

hello moeve: hope your return home was pleasant and nitrodog and us have taken your comments about x into account regarding So America for a future cruise. At the current time we're strongly thinking about an Oceania cruise next winter. Take care

[ABSCruiseLuvers]

dabear...we were thinking about them too but were told the average age...average now...is 65...just something to know.