Just off the constellation

[mom1965]

Just returned yest. any questions, feel free.

I will sum it up quickle, we were a large group(33 of us) and had a nice time, food and service are amazing, constellation caters to a older group, not much entertainment for the 30 to 40ish crowd, older passengers don't have much patience for children even though there were over 300 kids on board (it was easter week). Next time will try R.C again, but overall had a nice trip.

[camom]

Hello MOM1965:

 

We are the other group of 33. Did you also take a picture on the Grand Staircase? We have traveled many times with Celebrity and really love it, unfortunately the weather was not on our side and the Activities Director did not make alternative activities inside for the children. I would say that with well over 300 children on board they were well behaved and made the most of the ship. (I am also younger than the average age of a celebrity cruiser, but than again I wouldn't travel during Easter if I did like Children)

 

Celebrity does do a great job of making you feel special and like you really don't want the trip to end. The food this time was not the best nor was the activities director but we all had a wonderful vacation with memories to last a lifetime.

[suzadoll]

I too just got off the Connie ( a group of 11 with 5 teens) and was disappointed with several things. The bad weather and the rough seas (even in the Caribbean ) did not help us overlook them. I agree that the food was not that good most of the time. Some of the staff was amazing, but had a few bad experiences with the head waiter, and witnessed a few upper management types berating their underlings for no good reason. That really made my stomach turn because these poor people work so hard! The entertainment was basically boring, I was really dissapointed with the band Onyx that I heard so much about. The activties schedule was terrible, I could not beleive the lack of them especially with all the bad weather. Our balacony cabin 2A had much too little counter space and was poorley laid out compared to other cruise ships. Also I too was surprised by the negative attitude of the "older passengers" toward the well behaved 300 kids on board, I heard many a negative comment about "we can not stand all these kids on board" for no reason -just beacuse there were children on board!!! How sad is that.

We are in our 40's and our small group made our own good time.

 

I guess my expectations were high from reading all the wonderful things about Celebrity. I will not be sailing with them anytime soon.

[motherchic]

I am sorry that you didnt have a good experience. I have had all excellent cruises with Celebrity BUT, there is no excuse for the activities director not to have alternative plans in case of bad weather.Also, for cruisers of any age, if you are not fond of having children around then you should not travel during a holiday.

I just turned 50 and have 4 children. And i love my vacations with them . But, when my DH and I cruise we prefer an adult cruise with less children. So we dont choose holiday cruises.

I would say most cruisers, save and look forward to their cruise and it is sooo discouraging when you are dissappointed by a cruise. Especially when your anticipation is soo high. We sailed RCCL, only once, ( and I truly believe a vacation is what you make it ) but, this being said, we probably will never try RCCL again. I have NEVER heard comments about RCCL before but the week we went cruisers were very drunk and very loud by noon and it lasted all week. We had a good time, yet it left us with tainted memories.

Hope your next cruise is everything enjoyable

Nadine

[mmp13]

Sorry to everyone who had a bad experience. I agree that when you look forward to a great vacation and then it doesn't measure up it is very dissappointing. thank goodness there are so many cruise lines out there offering all kinds of experiences. Our first cruise with celebrity left me wanting something more and yet, my dh loved it. He talked me into doing the same cruise again on the same Celebrity ship and guess what! I loved it. I can't really say what made one so different from the other. At any rate I hope you wont's give up on cruising . Try a different line. I bet you find one you love. Most of us end up addicted to cruising.

[kstro135]

I was on this ship also and had a wondeful time. I am only in my thirties and found that there were plenty to do during the days at sea. This really made it clear to me that many people can be on the same sailing have a totally different opinion on the trip. My balcony room of 2c was very nice and the entire staff was extremely helpful to my family. I brought along two young children (under 10) and received nothing but compliments from the Senior cruisers. There were some kids (early teens) running around but it did not bother me.

[mom1965]

I am glad to hear that other people felt the same way, this is not my first Celebrity vacation and I still agree that it is a step up compared to other lines. The service is amazing. I have to say that the cruise director was terrible, I don't go to many of the shows and the first time I actually saw him in person (he was on the tv all the time) was on day 10. Also, we never even saw the captain - not even at the captain's club party. yes we were the other group of 33 our group ranged from the age of 5 to 80, and even our older group was disappointed about the entertainment. But as I said -overall we had a good time, with 33 you make your own good time, but I wish Celebrity would be more kid friendly especially with 300 kids onboard.

[Iamboatman]

I was also on this cruise and had a great experience (not perfect, but still great). Relative to the comments made so far:

 

1. I found the activities to be consistent with Celebrity's normal activities. If you go on Celebrity for a high energy activities program you were guided to the wrong line. I found more than enough to do, but then again, I love the Persian Garden, T-Pool, wine tastings, etc. (and am turned off by the pool games.)

 

2. I regularly sail on Celebrity when there are many kids. I found this cruise to be pretty well behaved. Yes, there were instances of some teens misbehaving (elevator games and such), but I did not see any of the truly poor behavior I have seen on other cruises.

 

3. I seem to be "stuck" with Onyx on every cruise I take. Never did understand why people love them. It doesn't make or break my cruise, though.

 

4. I though the food was good. Granted I did not eat in the main dining room on 5 of the 12 nights and I may have just picked well. I will say that Ocean Liners was excellent on all 3 nights we ate there. The service was so good that they actually delivered chocolate souffles to our suite for our children the evening of our third dinner there!

 

5. I did sense the staff "lived in fear" of reprisals for negative comments. That is the first time I have ever sensed this. It was as if the idea of encouragement to excel had become punishment if a passenger believe the staff member was not doing so. The vast majority of the service was very good to excellent, but when there was a slip-up you could just see the look in their eyes.

 

As for the weather, it was as bad as I can remember it being on a cruise. I can't blame Celebrity for that. Maybe I will just have to take another cruise.:)

[camom]

hello all:

 

I would agree that Celebrity is not high energy but when the weather does not allow you to be poolside the CD and AD should make alternate plans indoors especially when you have over 300 children on board. We also made our own good time and throughly enjoyed our time. There were a couple of teen activities which the children participated in and had a great time. When the Bar on the Edge is dead at midnight and the teens wanted to hang out and listen to the music it seemed a bit ridiculous for them to be told to leave. This seemed like the perfect place for them to enjoy themselves and have a hangout especially given the fact that by midnight the bar was empty.

 

I was disappointed as well with Onxy and even the DJ. He told us several times he could not play music we requested because the boss was there and he had to stick to the schedule. Seems dumb when the only people in the bar are asking for regge or island music and more current music and you can't accomdate.

 

But all in all we would sail with Celebrity again and really enjoyed the time with family and friends. Next ship I hope Jim Cannon will be the CD we had him on two cruises and really loved him.

[Iamboatman]

Most all of the children were very well entertained in the kid's programs. There also were many "family" activities from bingo, to karaoke to Easter egg hunts, talent show, etc. Several scavenger hunts were held and numerous other activities. Some of the older teens clearly did not engage in all the planned activities, so it may well have been more of a matter of choice rather than the lack of activities.

 

As for the Bar at the edge not being utilized for them, I think the concept was that activities were planned for and attended in the Rendezvous Lounge; so having two lounges for the teens would have been too much. (It was a very quiet cruise late in the evening, so what works on most cruises just may have seem a bit out of place for some on this one.)

 

It is hard to please all the teens all the time...while pleasing the other guests at the same time. Overall though it seemed both groups were enjoying themselves despite the weather.

[suzadoll]

Thanks everyone for being honest, it sounds like some of us agree on the same flaws of this cruise, I guess everyone tends to use all our past cruise experiences as a measuring stick to each new cruise we take, just human nature. And you are right a vacation is what you make it, but that is why this site is called "CRUISE CRITIC", so we can all give our point of veiw on our cruise experiences- good or bad.

 

There were some postive things I would like to add about this cruise

 

1. Embarcation and leaving the ship-both were flawless, hats off to X for that.

 

2. Our room steward and room service person were just wonderful, I could not ask for better service. Also all the asst. waiters were so nice and worked so hard to please

 

3. I really enjoyed the pasta station and the omelett station, both were excellant. I also enjoyed most of the chilled soups in the dining room although one or two nights they were off. The same goes for the Sorbet, excellant, only a few nights it was off. But then again food is subjective. The one night we planned to go to Ocean Liners I felt seasick, so we never made it.

 

On another negative, My immediate family had ask for a table for 4 at night. My husband and I like to have family alone time at dinner to connect with our kids, because at home we our all so busy we never get to eat together that much. The day we got on the ship we went to see the Matri'de and he told us the "ship is over booked" and he doubts he could accomadate us. My question is how do you OVERBOOK a ship? Airlines do it, but cruise ships? It does not make sense. To make a long story short 3 of the nights we sat at a table of 11 and the rest of the nights we "floated" and were seated at a differant empty table for 4 , never having the same waiter. That being said most of the head waiters were of course giving better service to their other tables, we felt like refugees. It was not the most comfortable situation, others had permanent tables for 4, even 2 ,it kind of felt like we were 2nd class Celebrity citizens.

If anyone reading this can explain how they ""overbook a ship" I would love to hear it.

Anyway, we made the best of it by telling ourselves we got to sit and see all the differant views in the dining room.

 

I have only sailed on Carnival, Costa, Royal Carrib, and now Celebrity. I truley wanted to fall in love with the X line, but it just did not happen, not on this particular cruise anyway.

[JCLNJ]

We were also on this cruise and overall had a great time.

 

There were times during the day where there were no activities and then they would have 3 things going on at the same time. My son 11 had fun with the childrens planned activities. There were not as many for my 13 year old daughter. She made some friends on board and had a good time. We had late seating for dinner so there were no activies for the kids during early dinner hours and they started up again at 8 so if you had late seating you missed them. We enjoyed the comedian and circul de suel(sp?) show.

 

Our cabin steward Salvador was great. We had Bernard for our waiter who was good. It seemed like dinner took longer than it should have. Our last cruise on Celebrity was back in 2000 on the Horizon and I remember the food being terrific. We went to Ocean Liners one night and really enjoyed it.

 

We would sail Celebrity again. In November we are going to be on the Disney Magic and are looking forward to it. We sailed with them 3 years ago and the loved the entertainment and kids activities.

[Iamboatman]

Just to correct the timing, the activities for the kids were 9-12, 2-5 and 7-10, with the teens having them until 12:30am. My son was in the 10-12 year olds and my daughter was in the 3-6 group and the times were the same for both.

 

Our kids do not like to dine with us on cruises (we do that every night at home), so we eat late and they are in the kid's club at 7 pm (unless a really good pre-dinner show is on). It works for our family...and each family is obviously different.

 

One interesting (and a little disappointing) thing was that Celebrity used to not charge for the late night slumber party on formal nights. Now it charges for all formal nights, but not the last night of the cruise. It is only $6 per hour per child, but it was a nice touch that has disappeared.

[sivia]

Can you tell me.....who is the current Cruise Director? Do you know if he/she will be onboard when the ship goes from NJ to London? Thanks.

[kstro135]

the cd is Derek, he will be on the transatlantic sailing.

[Tuna]

I think that the whole musical table thing would throw us off too. To us, connecting with the waitstaff really enhances the dining experience. A well-trained, personable waiter who becomes familiar with you and your likes/dislikes can really make dinner a special time. Sorry that you didn't get to experience all that Celebrity had to offer. Maybe another time.

 

On another negative, My immediate family had ask for a table for 4 at night. My husband and I like to have family alone time at dinner to connect with our kids, because at home we our all so busy we never get to eat together that much. The day we got on the ship we went to see the Matri'de and he told us the "ship is over booked" and he doubts he could accomadate us. My question is how do you OVERBOOK a ship? Airlines do it, but cruise ships? It does not make sense. To make a long story short 3 of the nights we sat at a table of 11 and the rest of the nights we "floated" and were seated at a differant empty table for 4 , never having the same waiter. That being said most of the head waiters were of course giving better service to their other tables, we felt like refugees. It was not the most comfortable situation, others had permanent tables for 4, even 2 ,it kind of felt like we were 2nd class Celebrity citizens.

If anyone reading this can explain how they ""overbook a ship" I would love to hear it.

Anyway, we made the best of it by telling ourselves we got to sit and see all the differant views in the dining room.

 

I have only sailed on Carnival, Costa, Royal Carrib, and now Celebrity. I truley wanted to fall in love with the X line, but it just did not happen, not on this particular cruise anyway.

[maryanngup]

We'll be going on the transatlantic on Friday. I guess we'll have the same crew and you mentioned the same C.D. Since we have 6 days at sea, I hope the shows and activities will be entertaining enough so that we don't wind up bored by the fourth day. Do they provide you with robes, and was there a Sunday Mass for the Catholic pax. This is only our 2nd Celebrity and the other was the Zenith which is a lot smaller than the Connie.

[suzadoll]

Yes, there was a Catholic mass. Yes, there are 2 robes in each stateroom (bring your own blow dryer, the one in the stateroom was so weak) also 2 umbrellas and a tote bag ( which was a nice touch). The CD was not much to speak of. I guess if you like bingo, art auctions,and the casino on your sea days you will not be bored. or hopefully you we have better weather then we did.

Have a wonderful cruise.

[newtocc]

I also pretended to be on this cruise, we had a great time, we always do! We met some great people!

A cruise is what you make of it. We like to spend our time meeting some wonderful new friends, talking, laughing and enjoying life to it’s fullest, we ignore the bad and enjoy the good, but, that’s just us!

I do have one complaint (I’m human) Derek, the CD, AKA: the ‘Plastic face man’, he sucked, no, let me think of a more polite term, he was absent of pressure, he was a complete vacuum, his personality registered in inches of mercury!

For the Engineering challenged, he SUCKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Cruise Cat]

Newt - This is why I think the room stewards and other wait staff ought to be paid a good salary, while the CD, His Staff, The entertainment, Purser and staff, and all the head honchos on the ship should be the ones working for the tips. Derek would not have earned much on this cruising.

[Iamboatman]

I have to agree that Derek was pretty terrible. I kept thinking "used car salesman". Strange looking, not genuine, and really didn't engage people. But, as Newt says, we look for the positive and he really didn't affect our cruise.

[suzadoll]

Iamboatman and Newt I kept thinking more like "funeral director" rather then CD.

[Iamboatman]

Iamboatman and Newt I kept thinking more like "funeral director" rather then CD.

 

Somehow I didn't think so highly of him!;) I just felt like taking a shower each time he shook my hand. (OK, I admit it. I didn't. I had a drink.:D )

[Diamond Lil]

Come on you lot Derek is not that bad !!! The poor man has a job to do under very trying conditions. We were on the Connie 4 weeks ago for two weeks. Luckily the weather was great and the days at sea were not tooo bad. I personally thought Derek tried very hard to please all of the people all of the time which as we know is impossible.

[camom]

I agree Derek was terrible as was the Assistant AD. Weather aside he did nothing to fill the days at sea with more entertainment than Art shows, bingo, food demos. We all made the best of our trip despite the weather Derek just did nothing to help. The Assistant AD was horrible as well I think he was already on his way home and could care less. We went to play Volleyball (on one of the nice days) he was sitting there waiting for adults to show up (three of us were there) and there were about 8 teenagers. Only when an adult made the sugggestion to have the teenagers join did he even include them - He told the kids previously that the activities were for adults only???????

 

Once the game started he left and when the ball was taken over the side by the wind the game was over since there was no AD to get another ball.

 

Unfortunately we traveled with two families who had never cruised before and the activities left much to be desired to them. Granted had the weather been nicer we would have been outdoors more but it seemed that there was periods of time with nothing and then 2-3 things all at once.

 

And what's up with BINGO when we sailed the Summit in 2004 the jackpot was $7200.00 how was this jackpot only $2800.00?