Dec 13 Constellation B2B - East/West Caribbean (Holiday) Cruise

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

4 hours ago, FFMilesJunkie said:

@Ken the cruiserHave you been contacted about how much delayed your boarding is tomorrow? Looks like she's booking it around the Florida Keys right now so may not be too delayed. (Delay is due to a medical evacuation which meant the Connie had deviate from course to get close to Miami for the Coast Guard to take the passenger off.)

I have friends who are currently on the Connie.  They're expecting to arrive around 10:00 a.m.

[Ken the cruiser]

12 minutes ago, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

I have friends who are currently on the Connie.  They're expecting to arrive around 10:00 a.m.

Thanks! Hopefully it doesn’t take the 591 passengers too long to disembark.
 

I remember when the Edge got in so late back back in early August, they had to call port security to remove a couple of passengers. For some unknown reason, they didn’t want to leave. We finally got to start boarding around 5:30 pm, if I remember correctly.

 

Edited December 13, 2021 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

We just got this text from Celebrity (which was also sent in an email):

 

Celebrity Constellation Sailing December 13, 2021

Once again, we look forward to welcoming you aboard Celebrity Constellation® for your cruise departing tomorrow, from Tampa, FL. As promised, we would like to provide additional information regarding your arrival and check-in time at the terminal. Celebrity Constellation’s arrival into Tampa will be delayed by a few hours tomorrow morning. The cruise terminal has therefore been scheduled to open for check-in at 1:00 PM. We kindly request all guests arrive during their newly assigned arrival window. Original Arrival: 12 Noon to 12:30 PM New Arrival: 1:00 PM – 1:30 PM; Original Arrival: 12:30 PM to 1:00 PM New Arrival: 1:30 PM – 2:00 PM; Original Arrival: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM; New Arrival: 2:00 PM – 2:30 PM. Boarding will close at 3:00 PM. Thank you for your cooperation. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Celebrity Cruises at 1-844-418-6824 in North America or (316) 554-5961 worldwide. We look forward to providing you an amazing Celebrity Cruises vacation.

Edited December 13, 2021 by Ken the cruiser

[richkinkade]

It looks like they pushed boarding back an hour.  I guess we'll just sleep a little later.

[ohiolovescrusing]

Just got off the Connie this morning. All passengers were off by 10am.  Had a great time with just under 600 passengers. Next cruise is around 300-400.  You always get slightly different answers. Holiday cruise I don’t remember but definitely over a thousand.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

14 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

 

I remember when the Edge got in so late back back in early August, they had to call port security to remove a couple of passengers. For some unknown reason, they didn’t want to leave. We finally got to start boarding around 5:30 pm, if I remember correctly.

 

 

Do any of us ever want to leave our cruise?  It's just that most of us are polite about it and leave when it's over.  Not that we wanted to.

[FLCruiser97]

On 12/9/2021 at 2:39 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

From everything I'm hearing the second leg is definitely going to be more packed than the first leg. A few days ago, I did a fake booking on the first leg and here is the count I came up with regarding available cabins to book. PH -1, SS -1, AQ - 72, C - 78, V - 113, OV - 105 and I - 132. I guess that's why they're still offering 2 for 1 deals to CC members.

Hi Ken, Looking forward to following you on this cruise. I'm just curious....when you book a fake booking, where do you find the exact amount of cabins still available? Do you count them on the diagram or is there some place that shows the amount left? Thanks.

[Ken the cruiser]

We have arrived!! We actually boarded the ship at 12:45 pm after first dropping our bags off and parking the car in the parking lot next to Terminal 6. Our car, although uncovered is about 100’ from where we exit the terminal when we get back. Just talked with our suite butler and he sail there are around 425 passengers on this cruise and about 1300 passengers with about 70 children on the next cruise. 
 

Here are some pictures from our initial walk around the ship after lunch in Luminae. 

 

 

Our SS cabin on deck 9

 

 

Our balcony, view and a great overhang to keep us in shade on sunny days and dry on raining days. 

 

If you like watching movies outside up on deck 12 aft

 

I was able to do a speed test while in port. I will try again when we’re out to sea. The 2.606 mbps we are getting on our balcony was quite sufficient to upload each of these 3 mb pictures in a few seconds. 
 

 

 

 

Edited December 13, 2021 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

3 hours ago, FLCruiser97 said:

Hi Ken, Looking forward to following you on this cruise. I'm just curious....when you book a fake booking, where do you find the exact amount of cabins still available? Do you count them on the diagram or is there some place that shows the amount left? Thanks.

First, you have to have plenty of idle time to do stuff like this. But, yes, you basically count the number of available cabins on the diagram. But obviously it’s not too accurate as I’m hearing there are only about 425 passengers on this cruise whereas when I made my earlier guesstimated count based on available cabins, it was much higher and I can’t believe 600+ passengers cancelled because they tested positive. So, throw that theory out the window. 😎

[goldsmip115]

please please give Gede in Luminae love and hugs from Trish and Karen and George. We sailed 11 nights with him last month/early this month. He is in the background of the Luminae photo you posted. He is a gem.  The best!

[Ken the cruiser]

10 minutes ago, goldsmip115 said:

please please give Gede in Luminae love and hugs from Trish and Karen and George. We sailed 11 nights with him last month/early this month. He is in the background of the Luminae photo you posted. He is a gem.  The best!

Will do.

[Ken the cruiser]

Here’s my first tidbit. We were talking with our butler who lives a 3 days drive from Mumbai in India. While the cruise lines were down during COVID, RCG kept in touch with the crew making sure they were ok and were able to pay their bills, to even include delivery some much needed supplies to where he lived in the mountains.
 

He used to work for Silversea and Regent, also as a butler, but when he came to work for Celebrity, he said it was definitely a step up! He told us various reasons why, but what stuck was the fact that RCG didn’t forget their loyal employees during the downtime, and there are a lot of them, and we thought that was pretty special. 😎

 

[scrapcreator]

Bon voyage!

[Ken the cruiser]

For what it’s worth I just checked the “streaming” internet speed and it is actually a little better now at 2.82 mbps than when back in Tampa. Also talked with our daughter at dinner and she was able to download a 100 mb file in about 20 minutes. I know, it’s a little slow, but she was able to still download the file without any interruptions.

 

[Ken the cruiser]

We just past under the bridge that links the Florida Keys to the mainland. It was so pretty, I had to take a picture of it.

 

[goldsmip115]

Ken, is your butler Anu?  The Sunshine Skyway actually connects Tampa to St Pete/Clearwater and not the Florida keys. I know that because I lived in Tampa for 20 years. Your pictures of sailing under the skyway are far better than those I took 21 days ago.  Ahhh, such memories. 

[Ken the cruiser]

26 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We just past under the bridge that links the Florida Keys to the mainland. It was so pretty, I had to take a picture of it.

 

Oops! This bridge actually is I-275 going over Tampa Bay from St Petersburg back to the mainland. 😎

[hrhdhd]

36 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We just past under the bridge that links the Florida Keys to the mainland. It was so pretty, I had to take a picture of it.

 

Shoot. DH and I have a view of the Sunshine Skyway from our rental house in Anna Maria this week and I wanted to try to catch y'all going by. Have a great first leg!

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, goldsmip115 said:

Ken, is your butler Anu?  The Sunshine Skyway actually connects Tampa to St Pete/Clearwater and not the Florida keys. I know that because I lived in Tampa for 20 years. Your pictures of sailing under the skyway are far better than those I took 21 days ago.  Ahhh, such memories. 

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner. We went to the True or False game show in the Rendezvous Lounge, then went to see the comedian, Jim McDonald, at the 9 pm show. From the way it’s looking with only a little over 400 passengers, it looks like there will be only one evening show at 9 pm.

 

Our butler is Suren and our steward is Ferdie.

 

Thanks for correcting me about the bridge. To be honest, with all the tasty wine we had at dinner, for some reason we were thinking we had already made it to the Keys as we’ve never sailed out of Tampa before. Thanks for keeping me straight!! 🍷 😎

[Ken the cruiser]

Here’s the Celebrity Today for Tuesday, Dec 14.

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Our initial impression of the Constellation after walking around the ship today is that it reminded us of the more intimate style of cruising, dare I say on the smaller HAL ships, we started cruising on about 9 years ago. Well, except for the multilevel “wow factor” main theater X is known for. It’s hard to put into words, but hopefully I’ll be able to show you in pictures as our cruise progresses over the next 3 weeks.

 

It’s definitely nothing like either of the more modern Edge or Solstice Class ships, but rather has a more cozy environment with more traditional settings. The only public space we haven’t visited yet, that we’re aware of which we will see tomorrow, is the Reflection Lounge up on deck 11, forward. But it looked pretty impressive when we took a peak in there from the entrance, as it was closed for some reason today. So, stayed tuned … 😎
 

Edited December 14, 2021 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

Just talked with Captain Agkas and our CD, Kelly Rose, in the hallway and the official count for this cruise is only 408 passengers. Now for a couple of stateroom observations. First, if you are over 6’2”, you’ll probably hit your head when taking a shower. Luckily for me I’m 5’10”. Second observation, if you don’t like to hear music “thumping” during the day on sea days, don’t book a cabin on deck 9 anywhere under or near the pool area. Other than that the bed was fantastic and we slept until after 9 am. Unfortunately, that’s when breakfast at Luminae ends, so we wound up eating at the Oceanview Buffet where we had almost the whole starboard side of the eating area to ourselves! 
 

We also missed the Beyond the Podium lecture which coincidentally started at 9 am as well which was fittingly entitled “Are you getting all the sleep you need?” 😂

 

BTW while I was typing this, I looked up and saw a waterspout off in the distance. It was so cool to see!! 😎

 

Edited December 14, 2021 by Ken the cruiser

[hrhdhd]

The sleep/eat dilemma is real! And luckily I am only 5'6". 😉

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, hrhdhd said:

The sleep/eat dilemma is real! And luckily I am only 5'6". 😉

This is very true. But I have to admit we do sleep great when we’re on a ship, especially when there is a little wave action rocking us to sleep. 🌊🌊

[Ken the cruiser]

We just finished a couple of trivias and the musical murder mystery up in the Reflections Lounge. Definitely a fun place to hold events with great views out the front and side of the ship.