Constellation Vs. Emerald

[cruisevaca]

We are currently deciding between Celebrity Constellation's 12/22/08 (11 day) sailing and the Emerald Princess' 12/20/2008 (10 day) sailing. Both have lovely itineraries and have been reserved until Tuesday.

 

We're a family of 4, two daughters who will be 17 and 21 at the time of the sailing. We've sailed and enjoyed Princess (as well as RCI), but decided to consider Celebrity. I've heard excellent things about the food and service on X, but are they lacking in entertainment and ship amenities? Is the ship well-kept?

 

Also, having never been on a holiday sailing, my daughter's are hesitant about the age of passengers on X.

 

If anyone could share their past experience, specifically on the Constellation, would be greatly appreciated.

[marmi]

Why not look for the review, for Constellation for the same period last year or this year

 

We have relatives who been on a Holiday cruise, with 10 and 16 years old children and they received nice Christmas gift from Celebrity Santa.

They also said that people, were in festive mood, they wear very very nice clothes especially on formal nights

 

We been on the Zenith for Halloween and we had a lot of fun, with costumes and everything, this year we are going for Easter and St-Patrick day, so we wil see at sea...

 

Constellation March 10, 2007:)

[tuggers]

Personally, I would take the Connie for Perry Grant and the wonderful nights you can spend in Michael's Club enjoying his shows alone! Well worth the trip for him alone, IMO.

But the previous advice was correct. Read the reviews then come back here and ask any specific questions you have.

My opinion is that you would enjoy either. Both will be festive and everyone will be in a holiday mood. Having sailed both I can tell you that you will find the food and service on X a notch about Princess. However if you travel P to be able to do Personal Choice Dining, you will not find that on X. It will be traditional dining and dress code with one option for Casual Dining upstairs in what is the buffet area during the day.

[jackdiamond]

They are both fine ships, but Constellation is a notch above.

[cruisevaca]

Thanks, I'll be sure to check out the review on CC now...Don't know how I didn't think of doing so before :o.

 

As for dinner seatings, we prefer not to have personal choice because we like the traditional aspect, where we have the same waiters, table mates etc.

[enyliram]

take the constellation.have sailed on the constellation mar-april07 as well as the emerald 10/27/07. constellation is so far superior in service and food. both ships were immaculate . emerald ,while not pretty, is glitzier in a muted way. the emerald is brand new. there are simply too many passengers. re the age group, emerald carried over 3000 passengers and many many many were elderly. constellation also had an older crowd but seemed more active than the emerald. entertainment was a tad better on the emerald but the theatre was very uncomfortable and too small to accommodate the number of guests.production numbers were standard cruise fare as well as the entertainers. but the constellation had PERRY GRANT. i will rebook constellation. i will not rebook emerald. as far as young people go, over the holidays both ships will have many families. ..

[2ndsailing]

We are currently deciding between Celebrity Constellation's 12/22/08 (11 day) sailing and the Emerald Princess' 12/20/2008 (10 day) sailing. Both have lovely itineraries and have been reserved until Tuesday.

 

We're a family of 4, two daughters who will be 17 and 21 at the time of the sailing. We've sailed and enjoyed Princess (as well as RCI), but decided to consider Celebrity. I've heard excellent things about the food and service on X, but are they lacking in entertainment and ship amenities? Is the ship well-kept?

 

Also, having never been on a holiday sailing, my daughter's are hesitant about the age of passengers on X.

 

If anyone could share their past experience, specifically on the Constellation, would be greatly appreciated.

 

We are also a family of 4 (two sons who will be 18 and 21 on this cruise). We have sailed Hal (Alaska) and Star Princess over New Year's 2005 and had a great time. There were lots of families with teens. I was concerned about my eldest because he was "too old" for the teen clubs, but he met lots of people. They just met at the pool, etc. We have booked the Constellation for Dec. 22/08 for the Christmas sailing. Take a look at the roll call. There is at least two other families sailing this cruise with children 18 - 22 age range and its still very early. My son kept in touch with a boy he met on the Star Princess and they are also considering this cruise. They had 3 children all late teen age. I see you're from Montreal....we're Toronto.

 

Also for families who have university aged kids, Christmas is the only time they all have vacation time together so you do find lots of families with children 18 plus. (at least the ones that still like to travel with their parents)

 

If you decide to book, join our roll call.

[cruisevaca]

Thanks for the input everyone. Who is Perry Grant...is it likely he'll be still on board for the 12/22/08 sailing?

Anyhow, we're going to put a deposit down for Constellation.

 

 

2ndsailing -I'll be sure to join the roll call when as soon once we finalize the booking. I agree, Christmas holidays should attract many families, but the length is much longer than the usual 7 days. I'll have one daughter in her first year Cegep (college here in Quebec) and one already in University so their only break available, at the same time, would be during Christmas holidays. Normally, we do summer cruises, but oftentimes it interferes with everyone's working schedules.