Thrifty cruiser and I thought a germaphobe goes on Celebrity Constellation Feb 4 to Feb 14

[cgolf1]

Well we made it. We booked this cruise before the pandemic and got a great deal, roughly 130 a night per person, includes taxes and port fees, with 150 OBC per person, gratuities, and the classic beverage package for an inside room. Probably the best deal we have ever had on a cruise because we really have no out of pocket costs. Will do some thoughts and pictures but warn you we didn’t do any excursions and only got off the ship in two ports. For us this was a very mellow and relaxing cruise. Our last cruise super bowl weekend 2020 was the kickoff of the pandemic in the US, and we are hoping our first cruise back two years later kicks Covid out of here and we can get back to the new normal. 

 

A short bio on us. I am late 40s and my lovely wife is mid 40s. We have done 12 cruises on Disney with our now adult child, 3 on RCCL just us, and one very early on the Edge. We both loved the Edge and the fact the music and the shows were geared towards people our age. After hearing all the talk onboard the Edge of people telling their friends not to judge Celebrity by the Edge, we wanted to try a non E class ship to see the real Celebrity so the Constellation was a perfect fit for that and a bonus that it hadn’t had the makeover yet. 

 

We had previously canceled a December Apex cruise, because at the time of final payment the protections Celebrity offers hadn’t been extended yet. Ultimately it was the right choice, but wish we could have been on the Apex after really liking the Edge. The Constellation cruise we debated a lot and I kept up with the Covid news. I work in a life sciences support role so I have a fairly good pulse on what is going on. So the supposed germaphobe helped convince his wife we were good to go. 

 

Will post over the next week. Unfortunately it is back to work bright and early tomorrow.

[cgolf1]

About a month before we put in a 50 bucks per person minimum bid on an oceanview room and found out 3-4 days before we sailed that it was accepted and we had an oceanview for 135 a night per person, a really great deal. We had bought the eMed Covid tests but did book apts at Walgreens just in case of any issues. The tests were easy to do and the people we talked with were very easy to understand. We passed the tests and canceled our Walgreens appointments. I will say the 15 minute wait for the results was very stressful lol. 

 

We finished packing and we continued to use the KN95 masks we had been using for work. We also packed some sanitizer etc. Up until this point I was still had issues touching random things and then sanitizing when I was outside of my Covid bubble. 
 

My wife made some nice pouches to attach to lanyards to hold our masks when not wearing them. 

[cgolf1]

We did book first class flights for the flight down to ensure we didn’t have a third person sitting next to us. We wanted to do everything we could to be healthy onboard after reading about some that were quarantined that figured they picked it up at an airport due to timing. We did have to change our flight due to the storm in the Midwest that unfortunately increased our layover time by 2 hours, but it was good that we switched because our original flight made it into Chicago but the flight to Tampa was canceled. 

 

First class was awesome with the free food and booze. Plus the extra log room was great. We booked last minute so it wasn’t cheap, but for future cruises if we can book early at a good price I would for sure travel that way again. We did an Uber XL to our hotel and it was more expensive than we expected because our flight got in during rush hour. Other than that our first Uber experience was fine. 

[cgolf1]

Last post tonight from what I wrote up while waiting for our flight. Rest need pictures from our cameras and the daily sheets. Unfortunately no pics of the sheets as they have our scribbles on them. 
 

The hotel we stayed at was the Hilton Home2Suites on Kennedy downtown Tampa. This was roughly 2 blocks from the port. The room was very nice and we could see the port area from our room on the 10th floor. We wanted to limit our potential exposure so we ordered Dominoes and were shocked the option to pay with cash was available when the pizzas were delivered. We didn’t want to use a food delivery service because I have heard they cut in on the restaurants profits quite a bit. We did check out the pool, and the only people masked in the hotel were people cruising like us. Starting in the hotel a lot of behaviors that seemed like I was a germaphobe were starting to show cracks that it was really just OCD and the sanitize if you touch anything was part of that routine, that I couldn’t shake. 

 

When we woke up in the morning the Constellation was front and center in our view from the room. Very exciting start to the day. We checked out of the hotel around 11 and it was a very easy walk to port. Yes we got there early, but it was fairly well setup and didn’t take too long to get onboard:). 
 

I forgot to take pictures when we walked into the room so you get the lived in version. 
 

Edited February 15, 2022 by cgolf1

[upwarduk]

Just had a 2 day cruise on Constellation in 2012, Amsterdam to Southampton to get us to Elite, so will follow to see if there are many changes.

Who was your CD?
Just read Sue Denning’s ‘Valentine’ post on Instagram, showing the decorations, but she didn’t mention when she joined the ship.

 

Edited February 15, 2022 by upwarduk

[Cruise a holic]

Enjoy your cruise!  We sail on the Reflection in three weeks!

[EatonDoolittle]

Sue is here on the Constellation  just for this Feb 14 sailing. Then she heads to Eclipse,

. Feb 4 CD Kelly’s contract was over. 

 

 

[jimbri]

Enjoy your cruise.

[cgolf1]

3 hours ago, upwarduk said:

Just had a 2 day cruise on Constellation in 2012, Amsterdam to Southampton to get us to Elite, so will follow to see if there are many changes.

Who was your CD?
Just read Sue Denning’s ‘Valentine’ post on Instagram, showing the decorations, but she didn’t mention when she joined the ship.

 

 

 

As someone else stated it was Kelly Rose. What I do want to add is that Kelly was out and around everywhere, we saw her multiple times a day. Had been reading reports that the CDs weren't all that visible, but that definitely wasn't the case this trip. Once we got home and saw how the Covid numbers have nosedived since we left, which may have had something to do with that as well.

[cgolf1]

So we did get a nice surprise at check in. The lady checking us said that we had been upgraded to cabin 6061. We had no clue until after lunch we walked into a nice veranda room on deck 6. Major score and clinches this as the best deal we have ever gotten. A veranda room for 135 per person per night after taxes and port fees with all the other extras. Just crazy good luck. 
 

We did find out later deck 2 was likely being used as a quarantine level for crew so not good luck for all. 

[jwlane]

56 minutes ago, cgolf1 said:

 

 

being used as a quarantine level for crew

 

That's not necessarily a negative thing---onboarding crew are required to quarantine a week (soon to be 3 days) prior to working.

[cgolf1]

38 minutes ago, jwlane said:

That's not necessarily a negative thing---onboarding crew are required to quarantine a week (soon to be 3 days) prior to working.

 

That is true, but we also knew that the previous cruise had higher than normal Covid numbers. We later found out we wouldn't have a celebrity produced stage show due to Covid issue amongst the cast members. So it could be used for both people coming onboard and people that tested positive during a cruise.

 

The weird thing was up until 2 days prior to the cruise they were selling rooms on deck 2 and our move up bid moved us to an oceanview on deck 2. I guess celebrity did us a favor there because they had to move us off deck 2. Had they put our move up bid to an oceanview on another deck we night not have gotten the free upgrade. Very confusing.

[blueboro]

We board on Monday March 7th so following along.  Just curious, since you said you arrived at the port early how long did you wait before you were allowed to check-in...and did the cruise depart on time?  

[cgolf1]

9 minutes ago, blueboro said:

We board on Monday March 7th so following along.  Just curious, since you said you arrived at the port early how long did you wait before you were allowed to check-in...and did the cruise depart on time?  

 

We got there around 11:15 with a noon check in and I am guessing it was 15 minutes tops. This may have been due to only having 564 people on board. On a more fully booked cruise it may be a different story. After we checked in we probably had to wait another 15 minutes to board. The cruise did leave on time.

[cgolf1]

Day 1 continued.

 

Ship Condition

Considering her age we felt the Constellation was in very good condition. I do want to clarify that that doesn't mean she isn't showing her age. There is rust and wear in some spots and the bathrooms in the room the tile has seen better days, but is clean and serves its purpose. None of this bothers us, but I don't want anyone to expect a like new ship:) The ship was very clean and we did notice crew wiping down high touch surfaces regularly.

 

Casino

Yup it has one and we walked through it a couple of times. Someday I want to do a buy in Hold em tournament that is limited to the buy in fee. For me I don't see that as gambling, it is just an entry fee to a game that you could win a prize of money.

 

Dinner

We did my time dining every night and because the food was always very good we never chose an upcharge restaurant. Based on the deals they were offering later in the cruise for those restaurants I am guessing we weren't the only ones making that choice. This was one of the spots where we think Celebrity slipped up on the Covid side of things. They used only the 4th floor dining room and had people eating side by side with the tables roughly 3 feet apart. With so few passengers they could have come up with a better way to spread people out.

 

More in a bit as I need to get caught up on Oak Island:)

 

Edited February 16, 2022 by cgolf1

[cgolf1]

We quickly found the rooftop terrace and really liked the seats on the back corners  of the ship and ended up spending a lot of time up there. Which side depended on the direction of the sun. The big electronic domes provided shade most of the time. If not we sometimes used benches at the entrance to the rooftop terrace where the side of the ship provided the shade. 
 

One bummer for us on the Edge and the Constellation is that the walkway on deck 4 doesn’t make a complete loop around the ship. We had this on Disney and Royal and loved walking around the ship. The walking track on deck 11 feels like an afterthought and was a disappointment. I would guess with a full ship it would be almost unusable. This isn’t a deal breaker but we do really miss these paths. 
 

I wish there was a mini golf course on the ship and other Celebrity ships. I don’t think that is just a kids thing. I still love mini golf and prior to trashing my wrist I liked using it to tune up my putting game for the big course. 
 

Bars

We used most of them at least once except for the martini bar. We used the Mast bar the most, and one of the bartenders up the, I Gusti, was super nice so we went there the most.  We tipped a few times and gave an extra tip to him on the last day. We didn’t tip with every drink, but with a few. We never saw anyone else tip, but that of course doesn’t mean it wasn’t happening. We never hung out at the bar, we generally grabbed a drink and went and looked out at the water. This was normal for us, but did also keep us from any close contact issues. 

[cgolf1]

Mask Usage

With the new policy maybe this no longer matters. We were very surprised that Celebrity allowed people to remain maskless in some venues if they had a drink in front of them but weren’t actively drinking it and in some cases not even that. In the reflections lounge in particular for some night time shows the majority people were not masked or had it pulled down. 
 

I am reporting what we saw and it was disappointing that Celebrity didn’t enforce it more and the fact people wanted to push the limits of the rules. 
 

Last I will comment on this as I don’t want to start a mask convo here. 
 

Pictures

I will share some, but I don’t take as many ship specific pictures as I used to. If anyone has anything they want to see I will dig through the pictures and see if I have it. 

Edited February 16, 2022 by cgolf1

[cgolf1]

Last thing we did for the day was catch the 7 pm show, comedian Dan Grueter. He was pretty funny and dealt with the small crowd quire well. He did focus a lot on one guest that sounded to good to be anything but a planted friend in the audience. To test this we went to the second show and he found a new guest or two to focus on. So it’s possible he just got lucky in the first show and found comedy gold. 
 

As you can probably tell we are more laid back and don’t look to meet people on the ship. We mostly go to relax and do a few activities. After all the stresses and frustration of the last couple years we were already finding ourselves just hanging out on deck either reading, doing a puzzle book, or watching the ocean go by a lot more than normal. My stress level is already pegged after one day back at work. 
 

One quick note is we were finding the live music talent to be a lot less than we saw on the Edge. It was ok, but we didn’t care to stick around just for the band. On the Edge we did stick around and would make a point to go see Michael Redon and others when they were playing. Next year we will find out if we just got lucky on the Edge with the singing talent. 
 

Have to say at this point we are liking the traditional Celebrity too. 

[ChiSloop]

We board on February 25.  Thanks for all the info.

[cgolf1]

5 minutes ago, ChiSloop said:

We board on February 25.  Thanks for all the info.

If you have any specific questions I may be able to help you out. 

[cgolf1]

Last 2 posts unless anyone has any questions

 

Key West

Got an armed escort in from 3 coast guard boats on the way in and the protesters were there The fact we needed them on the guns going into a US port isn't a good sign at all. Protesters left pretty quick and didn't get escort out. We stayed on the ship.

 

St Kitts

3 other ships there plus a Royal quarantine ship that they were taking crew from the explorer out to. Did look like some may have come back to the explorer to. We stayed on the ship

 

St. Martin

There were 6 ships in including 2 oasis class and a larger P&O ship. We took advantage of a brief shower and the fact the Oasis class ships weren't letting people off to run to a couple of shops to buy some gifts for people.

 

St Thomas

Saw 3 other ships in, even another Celebrity at the other dock. Did see a snorkel boat go out fully packed, which made us feel better about not doing excursions due to the close contact rules.

 

Dominican Republic

We briefly got off the ship and the shops in the port area were very nice. In the future we would like to get back to this island.

[dodo bird]

Thank you for posting your review.  We will be on the 25 Feb cruise and decided to splurge on a sunset verandah.  Looking forward to enjoy again cruising.

[cgolf1]

Last one

 

The buffet does have the food items labeled so it is easy to choose food if you have allergies. The lamb curry was probably the best tasting bite of food I have ever had.

 

On the last sea day we had a scary situation. We were in the solarium pool, which was incredible, and the ship listed hard to port and stayed there. It listed enough that the benches in the pool on the starboard side were dry. We looked at each other and didn't know what to do. The power briefly went out in the solarium and when some officers walked past I asked if they knew what was up, they didn't know and were trying to figure it out. Time is funny, but piecing it together and the actions I took I would say it was hard to port for at least 3 minutes. It took a long time for the ship to recover. We didn't take pictures because at that point we thought there truly was something wrong. We were sailing at roughly 18 + knots and slowed to 14 to 15 knots for several hours after this before picking up speed again.

 

I have a hunch what happened, especially with the power outage, but the story we got later from an officer was that it was caused by a deep sea current as we turned. I want to take him at his word, but it was really weird and scary in the moment.

 

To the officer part, they were walking around a lot. We also saw the security people walking around a lot too, not sure if this is normal and we don't notice due to a full ship or something new. 

 

Last pictures are of a sea day and the pool deck. Morning, afternoon and 5 pm. This is why it is awesome to cruise now and we will likely never be on a ship again where getting a seat by the pool this easy.

[cgolf1]

2 minutes ago, dodo bird said:

Thank you for posting your review.  We will be on the 25 Feb cruise and decided to splurge on a sunset verandah.  Looking forward to enjoy again cruising.

 

If you have any specific questions let me know. I cut it a little shorter due to lack of interaction. I have more info and pictures if you want it.

[blueboro]

9 hours ago, cgolf1 said:

If you have any specific questions I may be able to help you out. 

Does the Connie have the bulk dispensers in the shower?