Just back from Constellation 14 day cruise

[wi gal will cruise]

We did this cruise last year and food and service was excellent. I'm sorry to say it wasn't the same this year. Service in dining room was horrible (15 minutes to get bread basket, 25 minutes to get second glass of milk). And the food was bland and tasteless. I was very surprised as it was so good last year. We did have a outbreak of some kind of stomach virus and the service got worse. The room was great and clean, the ports were great, the weather was great, but the ship needs a lot of TLC. The railings need varnish, the carpets need replacing. Since this ship isn't doing the 14 day cruise out of Ft Lauderdahl next year we are not following it to it's new 5 day cruise. Instead we are doing the Century thru the canal.

[dmk]

We did this cruise last year and food and service was excellent. I'm sorry to say it wasn't the same this year. Service in dining room was horrible (15 minutes to get bread basket, 25 minutes to get second glass of milk). And the food was bland and tasteless. I was very surprised as it was so good last year. We did have a outbreak of some kind of stomach virus and the service got worse. The room was great and clean, the ports were great, the weather was great, but the ship needs a lot of TLC. The railings need varnish, the carpets need replacing. Since this ship isn't doing the 14 day cruise out of Ft Lauderdahl next year we are not following it to it's new 5 day cruise. Instead we are doing the Century thru the canal.

 

I am always suspicious of OPs whose first thread is negative????

[2ndsailing]

We did this cruise last year and food and service was excellent. I'm sorry to say it wasn't the same this year. Service in dining room was horrible (15 minutes to get bread basket, 25 minutes to get second glass of milk). And the food was bland and tasteless. I was very surprised as it was so good last year. We did have a outbreak of some kind of stomach virus and the service got worse. The room was great and clean, the ports were great, the weather was great, but the ship needs a lot of TLC. The railings need varnish, the carpets need replacing. Since this ship isn't doing the 14 day cruise out of Ft Lauderdahl next year we are not following it to it's new 5 day cruise. Instead we are doing the Century thru the canal.

 

I am always suspicious of OPs whose first thread is negative????

 

 

We were also on this cruise and I agree with the op regarding the dining room. Our maitre came to our table on the second night and asked how things were going (he already knew the answer) We all hesitated and didn't say anything at first and then he said, I know it hasn't been good, but it will be. The next night he was assisting our waiters in bring the food. Our waiter and assistant were working together for the first time so they just didn't seem to have a system. Things did improve. The first two nights we were still waiting for dinner and they were preparing for the 2nd seating around us. It did get better but I have to say this was not up to the Celebrity standard we are used to. I did think the food was good though and I enjoyed it very much.

 

Yes, there was an outbreak of illness and the dining staff had to serve the rolls, butter, even pour your cream in your cup for you. It was a lot of work for the staff, but it was necessary. I didn't notice the railings or the carpets so I can't comment on that. I know that all the staff stepped up and worked very hard at cleaning and trying to keep the virus from spreading and always had a smile and a greeting for the passengers. Hats off to the Constellation crew for that!!!

 

The entertainment was the best we have ever experiences and Sue Denning the cruise director was fantastic. Enjoyed her very much.

[Jem 12]

We did this cruise last year and food and service was excellent. I'm sorry to say it wasn't the same this year. Service in dining room was horrible (15 minutes to get bread basket, 25 minutes to get second glass of milk). And the food was bland and tasteless. I was very surprised as it was so good last year. We did have a outbreak of some kind of stomach virus and the service got worse. The room was great and clean, the ports were great, the weather was great, but the ship needs a lot of TLC. The railings need varnish, the carpets need replacing. Since this ship isn't doing the 14 day cruise out of Ft Lauderdahl next year we are not following it to it's new 5 day cruise. Instead we are doing the Century thru the canal.

 

 

I agree with everything you said, this was my fourth cruise on Constellation and I am sorry to say my last on this ship and possibly my last cruise!! I have never sailed on a ship so badly affected with Norovirus, I did not get the virus but I still came home 1kg lighter because the food was so tasteless and the service so protracted.

 

I appreciate this was my experience and not everyone will agree, we enjoyed every minute off the ship the islands were fab.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

I did this cruise on the Connie in December. With the exception of our dining room waiter who was less than great, this was the best Celebrity crew we've ever encountered. I didn't notice all the wear and tear this person is talking about, but then I don't go looking for it either. I thought the food was fine. This was my second time doing this cruise on the Connie and I'll be doing it again this year, sadly not on the Connie since they've shifted her to 4 & 5 day cruises out of Miami.

[Ruthk]

Were we on the same cruise??? The staff in the main dining room (second seating) were excellent, the food was very good, and the ship was in great condition. Everyone from the janitors to the captain says hello, and they just couldn't do enough to make your sailing a success. I thought the food was just as good as last year and the year before. I look forward to sailing this same itinerary onboard the Eclipse next January 26th.

 

Ruthk,

St. Catharines, Ontario,

Canada.

[LV2COOK]

While I haven't been on the Constellation yet...we are booked for the transAtlantic in May. I will say we were on the Summit in July and December and the MDR was slow as molasses. In December after the first night we told our waiter that we wanted to eat fast and get moving. It was better. The food was okay. I'm a true foodie so usually not impressed and I wasn't. Unfortunately I think that Celebrity is trying to funnel more customers towards the specialty restaurants. I plan on getting on the Connie and having a wonderful time....I can always find something to eat...and given our first 7 days are at sea where do we have to rush off to?

[jml783107]

We are going on the Constellation in March and get really anxious when we read posts containing negative feedback about the ship and the crew - thank you to those who have restored my faith with the good "stuff". A holiday is always what you make it - my hubby and I ALWAYS have a fab time because we work hard all year for our hols and can't see the point of spoiling a break because of negativity. People have different expectations obviously.

[travelberlin]

Which cruise are you talking about?

[Jem 12]

We are going on the Constellation in March and get really anxious when we read posts containing negative feedback about the ship and the crew - thank you to those who have restored my faith with the good "stuff". A holiday is always what you make it - my hubby and I ALWAYS have a fab time because we work hard all year for our hols and can't see the point of spoiling a break because of negativity. People have different expectations obviously.

 

Hi I didn't intend to make you anxious, but at the same time we did not have a good experience. All the stops and beaches we went to were great.

 

I guess we have just not had the experience of full on Norovirus before, apparently at one stage, we were very near to not being allowed to disembark at the last three Islands.

 

We thought the cruise director was very good (Sue Denning) the Party band Carousel were also very good. The staff were trying to be excellent, but there just was not enough of them to do everything that they had now got to do. bring the salt cellar, bring the bread basket to each passenger and the butter pats, sugar were all given out on a one by one basis.

 

We have done quite a few cruises, perhaps we have just done one to many!!! and it is time for something else for a while.

 

The No Smoking policy anywhere inside the ship was fabulous and the Casino was the busiest I have seen on previous cruises despite the smoking ban, long may that last.

 

Some of the more junior staff that were excellent were Csilla in the Elite lounge (waitress) Sibil in the Elite breakfast. The bathroom attendant in the ladies just outside of the dining room on deck 4, she was Chinese, sorry I didn't catch her name.

 

Have a fab cruise, I know we usually do and hopefully Norovirus will not affect you, we didn't actually get the virus.

[Joe Beach]

was it Capt Frantzis?

see here http://www.beyondships.com/Celebrity-Summit-art-captain.html

[nanofrog]

We are going on the Constellation in March and get really anxious when we read posts containing negative feedback about the ship and the crew - thank you to those who have restored my faith with the good "stuff". A holiday is always what you make it - my hubby and I ALWAYS have a fab time because we work hard all year for our hols and can't see the point of spoiling a break because of negativity. People have different expectations obviously.

 

We were on the Connie the last two weeks in January and thought the food and dining room service was great. The entire staff on the ship couldn't have been nicer or more accommodating. No complaints here.:o

[Jem 12]

We were on the Connie the last two weeks in January and thought the food and dining room service was great. The entire staff on the ship couldn't have been nicer or more accommodating. No complaints here.:o

 

 

You were lucky, wish we had gone two weeks earlier!!!!

[ttax]

We were on the 1/28 Constellation cruise and had a great time and thought the crew did a tremendous job. We knew there was Norovirus on board, and thankfully did not get it, but we did not know how bad it was. Given the severity of the outbreak we give even more credit to the crew for keeping things as normal as possible. According to the CDC (http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/surv/outbreak/2012/feb11celebrity_constellation.htm) 4.77% of the passengers and 1.27% of the crew had the Norovirus. I'm sure the passenger count was higher as we know some passengers quarantined themselves and are not counted.

 

As for the food, we agree it is not a good as when we first cruised with Celebrity about 15 years ago, but it is still good enough for us. I think the slower service was due mostly to the Norovirus. The condition of the ship is still very good, in our opinion, and the entertainment was better than ever.

[woldig120]

We were two of the passengers who had the Norovirus. Our two cabin stewards did much more than they would normally, having to clean the bathroom after both of us had soiled it on two seperate occasions after they had already cleaned it in the evening.

We also saw how the cabins and corridors were sanitised as were other public areas.

But some passengers did not help in preventing the outbreak spreading. I personally saw one man take a cup of coffee into the toilet and use one of the toilets, not a urinal!!

Saw a man walk into the cafe, sneeze on his hands and then go and get food.

Another lady? in the solarium wiped her nose on the inside of her T-shirt several times.

Met Sue Denning again. She is brilliant. The best cruise director we have ever seen.

[scott mencer]

Four of us took the cruise and we thought it was excellent for the most part. We booked the same cruise for next year.:cool:

[m4hami]

We did this cruise last year and food and service was excellent. I'm sorry to say it wasn't the same this year. Service in dining room was horrible (15 minutes to get bread basket, 25 minutes to get second glass of milk). And the food was bland and tasteless. I was very surprised as it was so good last year. We did have a outbreak of some kind of stomach virus and the service got worse. The room was great and clean, the ports were great, the weather was great, but the ship needs a lot of TLC. The railings need varnish, the carpets need replacing. Since this ship isn't doing the 14 day cruise out of Ft Lauderdahl next year we are not following it to it's new 5 day cruise. Instead we are doing the Century thru the canal.

I just returned from the same cruise and agree with the OPs post. My DW & I did the same cruise BTB last winter and we noticed a definite decline in food quality and service. Untrained staff and having a sick may have added to the problem.:(

[RMSeadog]

Four of us took the cruise and we thought it was excellent for the most part. We booked the same cruise for next year.:cool:

 

CS will be doing four and five day cruises next year. EQ will pick up the 14 day itinaraies. ~ Ric

[Lolotte]

We were a group of six on the same cruise and we thought the food was the best ever ( cruise #13 on Celebrity). The staff was wonderful and the norovirus outbreak was annoying but not as bad as out cruise from Istabul in Oct.n the Constellation.

Sue Denning is just the best CD ever, caring and professionnal.

It seems there are more and more norovirus outbreaks are 4 last cruises were affected either by a late departure from the previous itinerary ( Equinox 2010, Connie 2010) and our last 2 cruises on the Connie had it. Why is that ?

The employees were great but tired.

[BND]

I don't normally post here as I've never been on a Celebrity cruise, but I do have to say friends of ours who do not post here were on this cruise. I just came here to look for a thread about this trip to see how other's trip were. They have cruised more than we have (probably at least 15 times and across several lines) and this was their first Celebrity one. They said this was the worst cruise they have ever been on and they will never cruise Celebrity again, and maybe not cruise again. One of them got noro (not the reason they won't cruise), they said the food was the worst they've ever had. They are in their late 50's/early 60's and they felt like they were youngsters (I realize on a 14 day that's more common), but they also said there wasn't much of anything to do after 11 pm. The main reason they will never cruise again is that something also happened to someone they knew onboard that completely turned them off and made them question their personal safety. Don't ask me what it was because they are pursuing some things and I can't go into any details. Let's just say it was very scary and involved one or two crewmembers.

[Glendakayself]

We were on the 1/28/12 Connie also. It was our 7th Celebrity cruise. We found the food quality in the MDR and buffet to be not up to the standard we have found on Celebrity in the past. We did not find the food to be bland but rather found it to have too much seasoning, and too many unneeded sauces seemed to be added to the dishes. The food on the "every-night" menu was inconsistent. I ordered the salmon one night and found it to be wonderful except for the skin which was easily removed. Others ordered the salmon and found it to be raw. I ordered the chicken breast twice. Once, it was so dry that I could not swallow it with no skin on and sauce on the side. The second time, the breast had a skin on it and sauce was over the chicken. I scraped the skin and sauce off, and it was good. Some of the pasta dishes on the main menu were rubbery and very dry. We used to have a soft roll or two in the bread baskets in the evening but no more...even when we asked.

 

We were in select dining, and sometimes the service was slow getting started while we waited for the table to fill, but otherwise they did a great job. We do not drink wine, but some of those who ordered their personal stock to be delivered to the table waited and waited and waited... The hostess at the entrance to select dining had her hands full with many large groups of ten plus wanting to be seated together, and that really clogged up the system. We made reservations after the first two nights for 8:15. However, we found that the "No Reservation" side and the "Reservation" side were given the same treatment with the hostess alternating between the sides rather than seating the reservation-holders first. The "No Reservation" line was often shorter, and we learned that we could be seated more quickly from that line. There seemed to be some confusion with people who had booked and confirmed early seating finding second seating cards in their stateroom upon arrival. I met two groups who had been assigned to eat at 5:45 in select when they complained and told they had to eat and be out by a certain time.

 

To be fair, we only tried the buffet for lunch once. We tried the sandwich area. I asked for a scoop of chicken salad, a scoop of tuna salad, and a scoop of cob salad. It was so salty that I could not eat it. Who salts chicken or tuna salad? Another poster to our roll call said it was curry that offended our taste buds. We never season our food with curry, so this could be the culprit. DH tried the waffles one morning for breakfast. What happened to hot waffles and hot fruit? Cold waffles. YUCK! I ate most every breakfast and lunch in the Aqua Spa Cafe and found the menu and service to be excellant. DH loved the food at the Seaside Grill. We both loved the Bistro on Five except that we were over-stuffed both times that we ate dinner there. Room service was great, but you have to be very specific. If you want salt and pepper or service for two (even when you have placed two orders,) you have to tell them. We found the afternoon snacks to be good at first. The sandwiches started to have strange things in them toward the end of the cruise, but the sweets were always good.

 

The islands were beautiful. The weather was wonderful. The entertainment was great, and the staff could not have worked harder. We loved our "sweet sixteen" balcony which was equipped with two loungers much to our surprise. We were sick with the virus, and the loungers were a wonderful place to rest and recover. Our stateroom attendants went above and beyond to assist us. The medical staff was great. We are just not fans of the current MDR menu and food prep at least on Connie.

 

Sorry for the long and wordy post,

[Glendakayself]

We were disappointed to smell smoke on our balcony every time we were out there. We could not pin point from where it was coming. We would hear a door open and close, smell the smoke for about ten minutes, and then hear the door open and close again. At least they were quick! We also smelled smoke in the hallway from time to time. I know Celebrity cannot control the problem if it is not reported, and I would have reported it if I was sure who was doing the deed.

[dmk]

I would like to know how many of the negative reviews were coloured by the fact that there was Norovirus on the ship?

[Jem 12]

I would like to know how many of the negative reviews were coloured by the fact that there was Norovirus on the ship?

 

 

Absolutely, having to wait for bread salt mustard pepper for several minutes after our already luke warm food was delivered,certainly didn't help.

 

I was not well with a sinus infection, which I am sure didn't help, but it doesn't explain the tough, chewy steaks and lamb shanks!!!

 

We were also delayed by a large table nearby who expected Iced tea every night, when the assistant was run off his feet serving absolutely everything else.

 

Despite the fact that we were there first!

 

All I can say is after sailing on the Silhouette in Sept, this cruise in some ways was very disappointing for us,I just glad that not everyone had the same experience.

 

We are booked to go on Eclipse in Sept, at the present we are tempted to cancel and lose our deposit, but we are going to wait and see how we feel when it is time to pay the balance.

 

Just one last thing to say the Immigration both ways was the best ever in Miami.

[gagirl7143]

We were disappointed to smell smoke on our balcony every time we were out there. We could not pin point from where it was coming. We would hear a door open and close, smell the smoke for about ten minutes, and then hear the door open and close again. At least they were quick! We also smelled smoke in the hallway from time to time. I know Celebrity cannot control the problem if it is not reported, and I would have reported it if I was sure who was doing the deed.

 

That has happened to us and do report it because the housekeeping supervisor comes and is quite good at pinpointing the offending cabins. they notify the room attendants to watch out for telltale signs and really respond .