Is the Constellation really a terrible experience?

[39august]

Is the Chihuly work still on Connie? We have a large collection in the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. I would like to try Connie after her refresh. 

[hcat]

Hope someone can update..with pics?

 

I vaguely recall there was a piece in Michael's on one ship that was moved or removed...

[cgolf1]

2 hours ago, RichYak said:

On the contrary, paying attention to reviews has served me very well. It's gotten me on the right ships for me, itineraries for me, hotels, restaurants, you name it. Much better than sticking my head in the sand and just assuming I made the right choice.

 

The problem we are currently seeing with reviews, especially for hotels, is that they are all over the top negative, and borderline unbelievable. This is even with some of the mid level name brand hotels. We have stayed at a few despite the reviews and they were fine and what we expected of the respective brands. I wonder if some of the bad reviews are random or put in by disgruntled employees. 

 

That said last weekend we stayed at a small semi upscale hotel for 200 a night in the middle of nowhere WI and hand written welcome note, a note stating what local coffee they put out and where you could get it were really nice touches along with heated tile in the bathroom. I don't ever remember seeing this stuff at a hotel in this price range ever in my time. This hotel did have really good reviews though, and I wish the cruise port hotels we pay 300+ for were half as nice.

[cgolf1]

1 hour ago, 39august said:

Is the Chihuly work still on Connie? We have a large collection in the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. I would like to try Connie after her refresh. 

 

It was there in 2021 up in the top deck entrance area to the bar/entertainment area that looks out the front of the ship. Disney ships used to have them too, so I was the odd one to notice it and know who made it.

[RichYak]

1 hour ago, cgolf1 said:

The problem we are currently seeing with reviews, especially for hotels, is that they are all over the top negative, and borderline unbelievable.

 

1 hour ago, cgolf1 said:

This hotel did have really good reviews though

You don't have to agree or disagree with me, but you can't do both! 😂

[mahdnc]

2 hours ago, 39august said:

Is the Chihuly work still on Connie? We have a large collection in the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. I would like to try Connie after her refresh. 

 

I can't imagine that it has been taken down since we saw it a year ago.  Besides, I am sure that Celebrity threw away the box that it came in....

[cgolf1]

47 minutes ago, RichYak said:

 

You don't have to agree or disagree with me, but you can't do both! 😂

 

I am curious how you filter through the crap for on reviews, chain motels in our instance. It seems that 90% of the chain motel reviews we look at, for WI, all are loaded with bad reviews the last year or so. From our experience they all can't be right lol. Trip advisor seems to be the worst offender, while google reviews haven't been as bad. So I fully agree with you, it is just a bit more sleuthing now to find something good.

 

Reading the reviews did lead us to a gem of a hotel and I was glad we found it. 

 

 

[Jim_Iain]

On 10/30/2023 at 10:26 AM, wrk2cruise said:

 

But wait didn't they try Version 2 in Eden on the Edge when it was launched.   Creepy people wandering around.

Yup.... and another failure

[Jim_Iain]

On 10/30/2023 at 12:34 PM, C 2 C said:

Medussa

We call mine - Orphan Annie. 
 

[SusieAV8R]

8 hours ago, dunedinmaiden said:

We just booked a 9-night on Connie 11-21-24 that stops in New Orleans!

 

8 hours ago, dunedinmaiden said:

We just booked a 9-night on Connie 11-21-24 that stops in New Orleans!

We stop in New Orleans this Christmas /NYE 21 day B2B2B.  We indepently booked a riverboat cruise while in port.  Looking forward to being on Connie!

[SusieAV8R]

4 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

We call mine - Orphan Annie. 
 

Looks like Medusa to me.  But then I am a great fan of the Roman poet, Ovid and of Greek mythology

[Jim_Iain]

1 hour ago, SusieAV8R said:

Looks like Medusa to me.  But then I am a great fan of the Roman poet, Ovid and of Greek mythology

When it arrived I thought ---OMG what did I do.    I love it.     It shipped with each of the globes packed individual Styrofoam boxes and supplied extra's in case of damage.   I did have one break during an earthquake but pulled one of my spares out to replace.

I know Dale Chihuly didn't make it and is nowhere as dramatic as his pieces but the one on Constellation lead me to commissioning it.

[clackey]

On 10/30/2023 at 5:19 PM, jshli said:

Connie is due a refurbishment (refesh) the beginning of April 2024.

Great!  We are booked for April 2025.  We have sailed 21 times on four different lines but she will be our first Celebrity cruise.  

[May B]

On 10/30/2023 at 7:48 PM, LB_NJ said:

We sailed a B2B on the Constellation last January/February and we had a nice time and we are booked for another cruise this coming January.

 

So my comments are based on that last cruise.  I don't know what has happened since.

 

This is a somewhat smaller older ship so it doesn't have all the bells and whistles the newer huge ships have.

 

We like this size ship (we would be even happier with a somewhat smaller ship) however you have to decide for yourself what type of cruise experience you want (big ship vs smaller ship).

 

We are cruising this ship again because we view it as a nice relaxing experience and it gets us out of the cold northeast for a couple of weeks.  We would be just as happy staying in Key Largo or Key West and sitting on the beach however when we do a cost comparison a cruise tends to be less expensive overall.

 

As to the ship:

The meals in the MDR were OK. Nothing terrible, nothing great.  The buffet for breakfast and lunch were fine.  They significantly scaled back the buffet at dinner.  Not a big problem for us since we like the MDR for dinner. 

 

Service all around the ship was excellent.

 

On the first leg of the B2B I was very happy with the entertainment.  Unfortunately, on the second leg there was a breakdown of stage equipment so they couldn't do all the shows they normally do.

 

Personally, I detest the coffee on Celebrity in the MDR and buffet, so I spend the few extra dollars for an espresso-based coffee every day.

 

Just an FYI about the Tampa port, there is a tendency for fog which can delay departures and arrivals.

I think they may have mastered the challenge if morning fog. They hustle a bit and anrrive around perhaps midnight or 2 am, before the fog rolls in.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

Some is on the Conny now and post about a huge disappointment 

 

[mayleeman]

15 hours ago, cgolf1 said:

 

I am curious how you filter through the crap for on reviews, chain motels in our instance. It seems that 90% of the chain motel reviews we look at, for WI, all are loaded with bad reviews the last year or so. From our experience they all can't be right lol. Trip advisor seems to be the worst offender, while google reviews haven't been as bad. So I fully agree with you, it is just a bit more sleuthing now to find something good.

 

Reading the reviews did lead us to a gem of a hotel and I was glad we found it. 

 

 

 

The way I do it is to read the best and the worst, generally disregarding those (good and bad) that have no details or are based (if bad) on obviously unique minor factors such as a spilled drink on a lobby floor.

 

If someone posts a detailed review about their efforts to get something taken care of, either complaining or praising that response, reading how the company handled it is very instructive.

 

Same with product reviews.

 

For all reviews, if a company has the chance to comment on a very detailed description of a problem and how their efforts to get help were ignored, but just gives a canned response saying please call us, they get tossed from consideration.

Edited November 1, 2023 by mayleeman

[RichYak]

18 hours ago, cgolf1 said:

 

I am curious how you filter through the crap for on reviews, chain motels in our instance. It seems that 90% of the chain motel reviews we look at, for WI, all are loaded with bad reviews the last year or so. From our experience they all can't be right lol. Trip advisor seems to be the worst offender, while google reviews haven't been as bad. So I fully agree with you, it is just a bit more sleuthing now to find something good.

 

Reading the reviews did lead us to a gem of a hotel and I was glad we found it. 

 

 

I read details and ignore the generalized comments. But that would be for resort hotels. For things like chain motels, I don't bother reading reviews. For those, I'm typically most concerned with location. All I would need is a bed, pillows and a bathroom. No one is going to write a positive review because the shower worked and the toilet flushed properly, so of course there will only be negative reviews.

[Albinroo]

I just got off now from the Constellation, am now on the train from Civitavecchia.  I had read some reviews that said she was in such bad shape, old and rusty, plus all the threads about food cutbacks in general on Celebrity. 

We still had a good cruise! As far as the general upkeep I think she is still pretty spotless, with crew working and cleaning all hours of the day. The stateroom was fine, yes I could see it nees updating but everything was clean. Much better than the 4 star "modern" hotel we stayed at in Bologna the night before embarking. 

The food was pretty much the same as before I think, although I might not be the best person to ask as I mostly eat vegetarian, and haven't been on Celebrity since 2015. But for me it was like cruise food generally is - some slow service issues in the MDR, some drinks that never arrive and some desserts that look good but taste so-so. I still ate a lot and enjoyed a lot of it! 

The production entertainment was not for me as I only really like the entertainment on a Disney cruise. Again, this seems to be like on most other cruise lines and I'm sure it was fine if you like that kind of thing - rock city night, a magician, and so on. The lounge entertainment, a few violinists and so on were more to my liking.

 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

1 hour ago, Albinroo said:

I just got off now from the Constellation, am now on the train from Civitavecchia.  I had read some reviews that said she was in such bad shape, old and rusty, plus all the threads about food cutbacks in general on Celebrity. 

We still had a good cruise! As far as the general upkeep I think she is still pretty spotless, with crew working and cleaning all hours of the day. The stateroom was fine, yes I could see it nees updating but everything was clean. Much better than the 4 star "modern" hotel we stayed at in Bologna the night before embarking. 

The food was pretty much the same as before I think, although I might not be the best person to ask as I mostly eat vegetarian, and haven't been on Celebrity since 2015. But for me it was like cruise food generally is - some slow service issues in the MDR, some drinks that never arrive and some desserts that look good but taste so-so. I still ate a lot and enjoyed a lot of it! 

The production entertainment was not for me as I only really like the entertainment on a Disney cruise. Again, this seems to be like on most other cruise lines and I'm sure it was fine if you like that kind of thing - rock city night, a magician, and so on. The lounge entertainment, a few violinists and so on were more to my liking.

 

Thanks for the review , we are getting on in a couple of hours for the TA 😁

[May B]

1 hour ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Thanks for the review , we are getting on in a couple of hours for the TA 😁

Have a great cruise! Enjoy the extra hours.

[peanut head]

Our cruise was the 9 night Italy/Montenegro/Croatia that ended on Halloween.  It was great!  The crew was super friendly and attentive, the food was very good and there is always something for everyone, drinks were plentiful and entertainment was all around the ship.  

 

The ship itself is not shiny and new and at times there was a musty odor in the corridors but I felt that added to the "ambience".

 

If you are of a mindset that all must be perfect and shiny and new than this is not the ship for you.  If you can go-with-the-flow then you'll have a great time.

 

Have fun!

[Milhouse]

We cruised on Connie in June and would cruise on her again if the itinerary hit right notes.  We had previously restarted cruising on Solstice last November so that's kind of my baseline I'm using for comparison.

Just from a configuration perspective, we like Solstice class better but it's not a deal breaker.  Eg. More open foyer areas between decks 3-5 on Solstice, the shopping corridor on Connie gets kind of congested, Tuscan Grill is kind of in an awkward space on Connie, I like the buffet islands on Solstice... stuff like that.  

 

We thought a few areas (mainly in our cabin) could have done with a bit more proactive maintenance but again it wasn't something that really tilted the cruise experience for us.

 

Personally, I enjoyed the main production shows while the missus felt they were pretty typical/meh.  (Conversely, I'm generally not a big fan of the feature/guest entertainers.)  However, we thought the activities around the ship were only ok.    

 

Found dinner a bit inconsistent in the MDR but overall ok.  eg. Some of the dishes early in the cruise were somewhat overly salty but they seemed to adjust along the way.  Food overall was only fine (vs being a strong point) but I'd likely chalk that up to the issues around X's food quality that everyone is chatting about nowadays. 

 

Found the staff we regularly interacted with great/friendly as expected which is table stakes for us.  

 

As an aside, the missus is currently on Infinity, taking her folks on their first X cruise (they normally sail HAL).  During our calls, she has describe various issues from food to unprofessional staff that sailing on Infinity is pretty much off our list.  

 

[MISTER 67]

We’ve never sailed on the Connie but sailed on her sister the Infinity 13 months ago and if the Connie is anything like the Infinity you should have no worries, our Infinity cruise was one of the best Celebrity cruises we’ve been on, ship was in great shape for her age, service, food and entertainment were all great.

[ldubs]

Oops - delete

 

 

Edited November 7, 2023 by ldubs

[ldubs]

1 hour ago, MISTER 67 said:

We’ve never sailed on the Connie but sailed on her sister the Infinity 13 months ago and if the Connie is anything like the Infinity you should have no worries, our Infinity cruise was one of the best Celebrity cruises we’ve been on, ship was in great shape for her age, service, food and entertainment were all great.

 

We have been on and thoroughly enjoyed both the Infinity and Constellation.  But that was pre-Covid, so can't speak to changes since the reopen.  I'm happy to hear about your experience with Infinity.