Constellation - Live Ultimate Americas Dec 12

[ggo85]

We’re on this cruise.  I’m not going to post a blow-by-blow account but will post highlights and answer questions to the extent possible. 
 

Check-in was one of the fastest and smoothest I’ve experienced on any ship or line. Have your stuff ready and the whole thing takes less than 5 minutes. Cabins ready at 1:00. Both suitcases arrived by 2:45.
 

Dinner in Luminae was excellent but very slow - more than 90 minutes and we are super fast orderers and eaters.   They were crowded but wine wasn’t refilled and we often sat for 10 minutes waiting for the next course.  Evening had lots of music options, which I like.  

 

Have yet to see a child on the ship.  One crew member said the ship generally has very few kids.  Something to keep in mind, depending on your preferences. 
 

[Silent Penguin]

Thank you for sharing your experience.  I hope the dinner service gets better for you.  In my experience, first night's dinner always  seems to be the slowest and most chaotic.  On our last cruise things got much better until the last night.  Everything slowed down after the appetizer and it was kind of a bummer because we wanted to make it to a show.  I didn't want to say anything to the serving team, but we really, really wanted to make it to the show.  I asked my waiter if he thought we would have time to stay for dessert and still make the show.  That's all it took for everything to speed up.  

[mpdog42]

Looking forward to your review..could you post some menus?  Thanks!!

[ggo85]

Tonight and tomorrow we’re at Tuscan and Sushi.  Will try to take a photo of the Luminae menu when it’s posted.  

[basil1]

I am sailing on the Constellation in February. It will be my first time on the Constellation or flying into or out of Tampa airport. Did you fly to Tampa? I am wondering what is the earliest flight out I can book? I have booked early flights out of Ft. Lauderdale many times and it's been fine but have no clue for Tampa.

Looking forward to following along.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

1 hour ago, basil1 said:

I am sailing on the Constellation in February. It will be my first time on the Constellation or flying into or out of Tampa airport. Did you fly to Tampa? I am wondering what is the earliest flight out I can book? I have booked early flights out of Ft. Lauderdale many times and it's been fine but have no clue for Tampa.

 

One thing I know from reading these forums is that Tampa can fall victim to fog which can delay the ships - so I would not cut it too close without having options if you miss the scheduled flight.

[basil1]

1 hour ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

 

One thing I know from reading these forums is that Tampa can fall victim to fog which can delay the ships - so I would not cut it too close without having options if you miss the scheduled flight.

Thank you!

[Arzeena]

20 hours ago, ggo85 said:

We’re on this cruise.  I’m not going to post a blow-by-blow account but will post highlights and answer questions to the extent possible. 
 

Check-in was one of the fastest and smoothest I’ve experienced on any ship or line. Have your stuff ready and the whole thing takes less than 5 minutes. Cabins ready at 1:00. Both suitcases arrived by 2:45.
 

Dinner in Luminae was excellent but very slow - more than 90 minutes and we are super fast orderers and eaters.   They were crowded but wine wasn’t refilled and we often sat for 10 minutes waiting for the next course.  Evening had lots of music options, which I like.  

 

Have yet to see a child on the ship.  One crew member said the ship generally has very few kids.  Something to keep in mind, depending on your preferences. 
 

Following. Thank you!

What excursions are you doing in the ports, especially Colon, Puerto Limon and Cartagena.

[xamsx]

20 hours ago, ggo85 said:

We’re on this cruise.  I’m not going to post a blow-by-blow account but will post highlights and answer questions to the extent possible. 
 

Check-in was one of the fastest and smoothest I’ve experienced on any ship or line. Have your stuff ready and the whole thing takes less than 5 minutes. Cabins ready at 1:00. Both suitcases arrived by 2:45.
 

Dinner in Luminae was excellent but very slow - more than 90 minutes and we are super fast orderers and eaters.   They were crowded but wine wasn’t refilled and we often sat for 10 minutes waiting for the next course.  Evening had lots of music options, which I like.  

 

Have yet to see a child on the ship.  One crew member said the ship generally has very few kids.  Something to keep in mind, depending on your preferences. 
 

Was at Blu for dinner last night. Service was slow, sommelier was overwhelmed and very, very slow. No wine refills. 
 

Bar service has been excellent at the martini bar and pool bar. Once again very friendly crew.

 

We were on this ship for the TA that arrived in Tampa last month. The ship feels MUCH more crowded than it did on that sailing.

 

 

Edited December 13, 2022 by xamsx

[ggo85]

Today is another day. First, we drove to Tampa, so can’t help with flights.  They told me the earliest we could disembark was 0830 but will report back on this later in the cruise. 
 

Lots of good today. No chair hogs at the pool.  Plenty of chairs on a lovely sea day.  I’m pleasantly surprised by the number of free activities during the day.  The ones I observed were well attended.  
 

The production show was above average.  I wasn’t enamored of the “rock” songs they chose, but that’s more about me than the songs.  At least I knew about 75% of them. 
 

Had a massage -  also above average.  Ship is in good condition and the crew work very hard to please.  Internet speed is acceptable. 
 

We were at Luminae tonight (next 2 nights at specialty). Forgot to copy the menu.  I had chilled lobster salad.  It was good but not the presentation you’d expect. We had halibut as main course and it was nice. There was a potato pasta and ribeye and something else that I don’t remember.  Service was better tonight.  The only nit was one diner who spoke so loudly that everyone around him figured out how to leave early. Including us.  Nothing the crew could do - just want to make sure we don’t sit anywhere near him the rest of the cruise as having someone shouting sort of ruins the atmosphere. 
 

In terms of shore excursions, I’m doing the USS Kittiwake snorkel tomorrow.  We are tendering. I don’t recall what I picked for shore excursions for the Central American ports, but will report back on what we did later in the cruise. 
 

Demographics - most passengers are 50s to 70s.  Mostly couples though quite a few singles. Very few kids. 

[ggo85]

One other comment - for those thinking of paying for alcohol a la carte, you’d better be light drinkers.  Wine pours are meager. Fine if you’re on a package, but I’d be annoyed if I paid the cost of a bottle for at best 3oz.  The few mixed drinks I’ve tried (e.g. margaritas) are large on size and short on alcohol.  Again, not an issue if you don’t drink much or are on a package.  Not great if you’re paying by the drink and expect value.  
 

It is nice that, if you’re on a package, they don’t print a receipt - which to my mind is designed to encourage more tips.  Of course, you’re always free to tip your favorite bartender in cash and that might change what I wrote above.  
 

 

[mpdog42]

1 hour ago, ggo85 said:

One other comment - for those thinking of paying for alcohol a la carte, you’d better be light drinkers.  Wine pours are meager. Fine if you’re on a package, but I’d be annoyed if I paid the cost of a bottle for at best 3oz.  The few mixed drinks I’ve tried (e.g. margaritas) are large on size and short on alcohol.  Again, not an issue if you don’t drink much or are on a package.  Not great if you’re paying by the drink and expect value.  
 

It is nice that, if you’re on a package, they don’t print a receipt - which to my mind is designed to encourage more tips.  Of course, you’re always free to tip your favorite bartender in cash and that might change what I wrote above.  
 

 

Are the Beer prices simular to Royal? Thanks!!

Edited December 14, 2022 by mpdog42

[cruising teacher]

11 hours ago, basil1 said:

I am sailing on the Constellation in February. It will be my first time on the Constellation or flying into or out of Tampa airport. Did you fly to Tampa? I am wondering what is the earliest flight out I can book? I have booked early flights out of Ft. Lauderdale many times and it's been fine but have no clue for Tampa.

Looking forward to following along.

We were on the previous cruise. Early walkoff with luggage started at 7:15. Twenty to thirty minutes to the airport. However fog delays can be a real issue!

[CruiserMickey]

Do you know if Dewa is still working at the Martini Bar? He is such fun! 

[cruising teacher]

2 minutes ago, CruiserMickey said:

Do you know if Dewa is still working at the Martini Bar? He is such fun! 

Gede, Wira, and Razvan are the bartenders that we loved😍

[ggo85]

I will try to remember to check on beer prices today.  Here is last nights Luminae menu. Sorry if hard to read.  

[Cruise a holic]

Thanks for sharing.  We haven't been on an m class ship in about 4 years.  We used to enjoy the summit out of NJ every summer.  However, they no longer sail the dates that we are available.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[CruiserMickey]

11 hours ago, cruising teacher said:

Gede, Wira, and Razvan are the bartenders that we loved😍

Wira and Razvan weren’t on our sailing, but Gede was! He and Dewa were known as “The Bali Boys” and put on a great show every evening. 😃

[Cruzinram]

We were on Connie last week. Very loyal Celebrity fans, but had some issues. DW and myself came home with very bad colds/cough. Most of the health protocols have disappeared. You can now touch the dinner wear and serve yourself. I saw maybe 10 people including crew wearing mask. Our balcony could be used for the first seven days due to salt being all over everything. Rails, deck. furniture etc. We finally got around to asking for it to be cleaned , and it was taken care of. There were several cold spots onboard, The Reflections lounge was so cold I could only stay about 20 or  30 mins at a time. Other places onboard we had similar experience. Food both buffet and MDR lackluster. Not visually appealing nor tasty. Crew seemed to be sorta sad. The usual happy faces were hard to find. Stateroom attendant got off to a slow start. It took him about three days to get our cabin cleaned up by 11 am and 10 pm evening times.No laundry list in cabin and could not reach cabin attendant by phone. I went to guest relations and said they would see that a got some and would follow up with  phone call. No follow up and no laundry list. I finally caught an attendant in the hall ( not ours) and got one. We sailed Connie last year twice and had a wonderful time. Quite different this voyage. Aso entertainment was poor. Especially in the lounges.

[Shiba_Lover]

On 12/12/2022 at 9:06 PM, mpdog42 said:

Looking forward to your review..could you post some menus?  Thanks!!

For any one interested in seeing menus - here is a tip - 

 

You can get daily menus for any ship / sailing - go on the app, click the calendar icon on top, then click "add sailing" or "change ship/dates" - and choose Browse our ships.  You can choose any ship /current or upcoming sailing.  

 

Once in there, you can then go back and look at each restaurant (MDR, Luminae, Blue, Specialty) and see each day's menus).  There are no food pictures, but you can see each menu - breakfast, lunch, dinner (depending which meal is offered).

 

 

[ggo85]

Today we were in Grand Cayman.  It’s a tender port, using shore tenders.  Seemed to run smoothly.  I didn’t see much to do just walking around.  Stores mostly selling (high end) jewelry.  I wandered into a few T- shirt / souvenir shops and there was not the “pushiness” you find in some Carib ports.  Bought nothing.  
 

I did the Kittiwake snorkel ship’s excursion. Highly recommend.  The ship is a US Navy ship sold to the Caymans to sink for divers and marine life.  It’s in great shape.  It’s too deep to snorkel around it but the water is clear enough to see it well. We then went to a reef near the port.  So many fish!  I do a lot of snorkeling and this had more fish, including a x-mal barracuda, than I’m used to seeing. 
 

Details . . . You walk about 1/5 of a mile to the ship. It’s 30 minutes to the ship. We had about 25 minutes to snorkel, which was sufficient. The. 25 minutes to second site.  Another 25 minutes snorkeling. The. 5 minutes to the dock.  You don’t have to know how to snorkel, but you should be comfortable in the water / swimming with fins.  There were 12 on our excursion, so no crowds.  I don’t recommend going on this if you don’t snorkel - boat isn’t comfortable just to sit in - it’s transport.  
 

 

[mpdog42]

3 hours ago, ehall said:

For any one interested in seeing menus - here is a tip - 

 

You can get daily menus for any ship / sailing - go on the app, click the calendar icon on top, then click "add sailing" or "change ship/dates" - and choose Browse our ships.  You can choose any ship /current or upcoming sailing.  

 

Once in there, you can then go back and look at each restaurant (MDR, Luminae, Blue, Specialty) and see each day's menus).  There are no food pictures, but you can see each menu - breakfast, lunch, dinner (depending which meal is offered).

 

 

Thanks!!

[ggo85]

Today we were in Grand Cayman.  It’s a tender port, using shore tenders.  Seemed to run smoothly.  I didn’t see much to do just walking around.  Stores mostly selling (high end) jewelry.  I wandered into a few T- shirt / souvenir shops and there was not the “pushiness” you find in some Carib ports.  Bought nothing.  
 

I did the Kittiwake snorkel ship’s excursion. Highly recommend.  The ship is a US Navy ship sold to the Caymans to sink for divers and marine life.  It’s in great shape.  It’s too deep to snorkel around it but the water is clear enough to see it well. We then went to a reef near the port.  So many fish!  I do a lot of snorkeling and this had more fish, including a x-mal barracuda, than I’m used to seeing. 
 

Details . . . You walk about 1/5 of a mile to the ship. It’s 30 minutes to the ship. We had about 25 minutes to snorkel, which was sufficient. The. 25 minutes to second site.  Another 25 minutes snorkeling. The. 5 minutes to the dock.  You don’t have to know how to snorkel, but you should be comfortable in the water / swimming with fins.  There were 12 on our excursion, so no crowds.  I don’t recommend going on this if you don’t snorkel - boat isn’t comfortable just to sit in - it’s transport.  
 

 

[ggo85]

Someone asked about beer prices.  They range from 6 (miller lite and others) to $10 (Stella). 

[ggo85]

For those on Constellation in the near future, make sure you see the Vesseletes. They are packing them in. SRO at 10 pm. Wide repertoire and great music. Pic of dancers.