Brief Review of Constellation: 4/19/06 my first experience with Celebrity

[templed]

Itinerary: Bayonne, at sea X2, Labadee, San Juan, St. Maarten, at sea, Bermuda, at sea, Bayonne

 

Room: 9069 CC class

 

Embarkation: Wow... what a joy. We pulled up to the dock at 12:30 to waiting porters. Our bags were collected, and within 30 minutes, we were on board, Champagne in hand... With xpress pass, all our room cards were printed ahead of time... even with the dock agent being obviously new... we had not one delay... kudos.

 

Room: Beautiful, well appointed and very well suited to our needs... The drawers in the closet are a little small... but, there were enough of them for the 2 of us to pack everything away neatly... Loved the flowers... in the bathroom and the room. Pillow menu on the bed... etc. etc. everything was in order. One complaint... the location was prone to noise... not so much from above (although we did her some minor noises)... we were more affected by the staff doors which were right across the hall... At about 6 am every day, the cascade of door slamming began... it got to the point where I found the asst housekeeping manager and asked him to remedy the situation... The remedy was to post a sign "please hold the door"... which worked for the staff on the floor... but for those that were just "passing through"... it was still a problem... not a huge deal, but... worth noting...

 

Ship: What can I say... It far outdoes any ship I've been on yet... The public areas are impressive and immaculate... I'm sold... (so far that I'm already booked on Millenium for next year)... Our favorite places... The Martini Bar, Cova Cafe....

 

Service: Good... not "great"... there were some stand out's... some disappointments...

 

Cabin Attendant (Rodica) was efficient, kept our room absolutely spotless, met every need we asked of. With one exception... the pillow menu... I was under the impression that we would be asked of our choice for pillows... I had to seek her out and ask... Not a big deal... but I made a mental note of it... Also, I just found her to be sort of aloof... not really interested in speaking to us... I consider myself a friendly sort of guy... and tried a couple times to engage her in conversation, and didn't get very far...

 

Table 519:

Our waiter Murat was obviously a very good waiter, and very friendly... but he suffered from a VERY poor assistant... he was constantly having to make up for his slowness... it just seemed that the assistant's head "wasn't in the game", so to say... One example, on the first formal night, between courses, they served a sorbet, and 3 of our 6 at the table were served... the rest of us sat at the table for 15 minutes with our salad plates in front of us, until I called him over and gently suggested that he correct the situation.

 

Our Sommelier, Robert was EXCELLENT... so much so that we were ready to get him a superman cape. He was the best... always smiling, ready to laugh with us...

 

Of note: I never caught her name... but the bar service girl in our section was amazing... every dinner, she was there before us, with drinks on the table...

 

The Martini Bar:

Ochoa... the bartender... we had SOOOOO much fun with him... he was friendly, entertaining, and we made definate friends with him... made some great martini's... and entertained everyone to no end. Whether through his acrobatics, or with card tricks... we found ourselves sitting with him till the wee hours... (well... 12ish)... He is a jem... If you run across him, say hi from Dave.

 

Ports:

 

Labadee... a gem... people get nervous when you tell them you are going to Haiti... but, listen... don't sell yourself short... get off the ship... you'll love it. I did some snorkling... they have a couple plane crashes right there off the beach that have turned into artificial reefs... and the reef along the rocks isnt' all that great, but I saw some nice, colorful fish, etc...

 

San Juan... we walked out to El Moro (sp)... took so many pictures... I've never been to San Juan, and I was truely impressed. If you run across Don Henly (I think) cigar shop... grab a few... Great Cigars... and I am not a real big smoker... they're mild, non "stinky", and a nice mellow aroma...

 

St. Maarten... we went to Orient Beach... the island itself isn't too impressive... not very pretty IMO... but the beach was great... be warned... it's a nude beach... so... be prepared... (we weren't... lol)

 

Bermuda.... We took the Scenic Southern Shores tour... our cab driver, Robert was a bermuda native... and showed us that part of the island... he was knowledgeable and fun... I loved Bermuda, and will go back soon.

 

Dining Room Food, was exceptional on the whole... a few things were bland (ie. lamb shank needed some seasoning... )

 

Oceanliners... was awesome... no compliment is too much... Don't ever skip it... you HAVE to go... I had the Goat Cheese soufle, Steak Dianne, and "suprise" desert... I liken it to a 5 star in Manhattan...

 

Overall... Celebrity won me over... (This wasn't so brief after all... eh?)

[templed]

I forgot to metion... we CC'er got together for a sailaway party, which IMO was HUGELY a success... We all brought goodies from our various parts of the world... We made some great friends, and will definately be cruising with them in the future...

[crazy4bears]

We are considering Celebrity for our next cruise. Could you tell the average age of the passengers? We are thinking about taking our daughter who is 25. Also do they have handicap accessible pools? Thank you for your help.

[templed]

I think the average age depends on a couple things... 1) when you go 2) where you go...

 

We did a caribbean itinerary... when school was in ... so... there was a pretty good mix of older to younger (only 100 Kids on the ship)....

 

I'd say if you do the fall folliage tour... the median age will go up... if you do Caribbean... the median might go down... (not a bash on older folks... it's just my observation). Ie... the cruise after ours, was transatlatic... and even the crew was saying that the median age will go up dramatically...

 

As far as your 25 year old... I'd think she'd find some friends... our friend's neice who is 26 had a great time...

 

I believe that the pools are handicap accessible... beleive it or not... I never went in the main pool... so, I don't know 100%... but I've seen the question asked before, and if I remember correctly... it is.

[Lsimon]

We are considering Celebrity for our next cruise. Could you tell the average age of the passengers? We are thinking about taking our daughter who is 25. Also do they have handicap accessible pools? Thank you for your help.

 

To the best of my recollection...all the pools have some sort of step, or steps, to get in generally both steps up and steps down into the water. I think this is largely to set a small barrier around the pools to contain the water as when the ship rocks with the waves the pools tend to slosh & splash around a bit.