Cruise Dates: April 3 - April 10, 2004
By: Linda M.
This was our second cruise ever, the first one was a long time ago, and the ship was nothing exciting.
We cruised with Celebrity this time, on the Constellation. It actually worked to our advantage to arrive about 8PM at the cruise terminal, there was no waiting in long lines. Celebrity helps to make things run very smoothly, they have 950 cruise employees, we were escorted to our room, which was a nice touch.
We would highly recommended getting a room with a balcony, it's so worth it. We ordered room service for breakfast each morning, and would sit on the balcony and enjoy the view of a new port each morning. Alot of people that got inside staterooms said they never knew if it was day or night.
The ship was just enormous, we did so much walking on the ship. We went to several of the shows, The comedian was good, not great, and a few of the broadway type shows we enjoyed, the pianist was not something we were really into though.
The main nightclub had some fun activities which we enjoyed, especially the not so newleywed game, which we got picked for. Also their 50's music trivia and dancing was a huge hit!
The lunch time buffet was a disappointment, the food just wasn't that good. We found the main dining room, called the San Marco, to be beautiful, we had a wonderful seat, by the huge front windows. The service was excellent, we loved our waiter + assistant, the food started out okay, and did get better.
We really found the best food was in the alternative dining room, the ship charged $2.00 per person, the menu was good and our entire dinner was excellent! I had the grilled salmon, fresh vegetables, baked potato and a wonderful sugar free chocolate mousse cake for dessert!
Celebrity has a wonderful added feature, about 11:30PM at night, they go around to all the nightclubs and public lounges offering you hot appetizers and an array of bite size desserts. And they were all so good, we couldn't ever pass this up.
When the ship stopped at different islands, we usually just hired a taxi to take us on a tour, they are all right there at the docks, and they are so willing to tell you all about their islands! Then we would end up back in the downtown area of the islands, have some lunch and do some shopping. By the time we got back to the ship, we were pretty exhausted, as it was hot and very humid.
On just one day, we did take the ship's excursion, it was a catamaran/turtle snorkling trip; I think choosing to partake in this kind of itinerary, might be best booked with the ship like we did, cause all your transportation arrangements are taken care of to and from the ship and to your docking area, I know it took alot of the hassle out for us, and the crew on the catamaran were just wonderful to everyone.
All in all Celebrity was a winner with us. The staff were very personable, we were also fortunate to have one of the officers have dinner with us one evening, and then on our last evening on ship, he came back to our table to see us, as ask how our cruise had gone.
Cruising is a whole other way to travel, but if you want to take advantage of all the things that are offered and see all the islands, it can be pretty hetic, so it's best to lay out your plans ahead of time, so you're pretty organized!
