Maybe Time to Cancel?

[thomasale]

I am currently booked on Constellation 11 day Ultimate Caribbean incl stops in Aruba, Panama and Costa Rica in November for our 30th anniversary. We have booked Concierge Class. I am concerned about all the POD problems. I have looked at Volendam 10 day Cat BB on 10/14/2006 stops in Aruba, Curacao, Dominica, St. Thomas and am interested in lieu of Celebrity.

 

I have never cruised HAL. I have cruised Celebrity many times, RCCL and Carnival. We have loved Celebrity from our first time aboard. I would appreciate comments from those that have experienced both...both the pros and cons.

 

This is a big event for us. Confused right now.

[Moeve]

Don't panic for nothing as the Constellation seems to be the M Class ship that has been least affected by those problems.

[Andy]

I am currently booked on Constellation 11 day Ultimate Caribbean incl stops in Aruba, Panama and Costa Rica in November for our 30th anniversary. We have booked Concierge Class. I am concerned about all the POD problems. I have looked at Volendam 10 day Cat BB on 10/14/2006 stops in Aruba, Curacao, Dominica, St. Thomas and am interested in lieu of Celebrity.

 

I have never cruised HAL. I have cruised Celebrity many times, RCCL and Carnival. We have loved Celebrity from our first time aboard. I would appreciate comments from those that have experienced both...both the pros and cons.

 

This is a big event for us. Confused right now.

 

Hi Tom !

 

I would not be overly concerned. Of the 4 M-Class ships, Constellation has the best track record regarding the Pod problems, that the other M-Class ships have experienced.

 

I have 2 Constellation sailings booked, and I have not thought at all about cancelling.

 

Congrats on your upcoming 30th anniversary !

[greeneg]

Constellation has had no pod failures to my knowledge; we were on her B2B this past January, and found the ship to be very comfortable, very well maintained and well served by her Crew.

 

I think you should have a great time.

[PugTug1]

I am currently booked on Constellation 11 day Ultimate Caribbean incl stops in Aruba, Panama and Costa Rica in November for our 30th anniversary. We have booked Concierge Class. I am concerned about all the POD problems. I have looked at Volendam 10 day Cat BB on 10/14/2006 stops in Aruba, Curacao, Dominica, St. Thomas and am interested in lieu of Celebrity.

 

I have never cruised HAL. I have cruised Celebrity many times, RCCL and Carnival. We have loved Celebrity from our first time aboard. I would appreciate comments from those that have experienced both...both the pros and cons.

 

This is a big event for us. Confused right now.

 

Tom...we too are booked in November...departing on the 27th. We've cruised the Millennium class many many times and are most comfortable with the Constellation. You will be ok.

[naked]

Well over 95% of M-class cruises are uneffected by the pod issues.

[tarheelmjfan]

We just booked a 14 day, Panama Canal cruise on Summit last week. :D I'm not the least bit concerned. Then again, we wouldn't worry about booking during hurricane season either. We may not be the best people to seek advice from. :p The odds of this happening to your sailing, aren't good. Unless you really just want to give HAL a try, I'd stay with what I had booked & have a great 30th. Congrats!!! :)

[usha]

If I were you, I'd keep the Constellation booking. As others have said, that ship has the best track record as far as pod perfomance, and it's just such a great ship with delicious food, incredible service and it's gonna be your 30 anniversary! HAL is really nice, but I don't think it's as nice as Celebrity. I'd stay put:cool: .

[mafig]

Just so it's not unanimous, I would cancel. You say it's an important cruise for you....you also know there's a problem with Celebrity's M-class ships. Although everyone says the Connie is OK, no one knows why she's different. Maybe it's just not her time yet.

 

Just my opinion.

[Keith1010]

I have only taken on HAL cruise vs. several on Celebrity and several on other cruise lines such as Crystal and Princess. If it was me, I would not cancel my Celebrity cruise. While HAL has a nice following, we don't plan to sail on HAL again.

 

Keith

[Silvio]

Hi Tom

 

I've cruised five times with M-Class ships

 

Sept 2002 Alaska

Sept 2002 Hawaii

April 2004 Millennium

Sept 2004 Millennium

Aug 2005 Constellation

 

all five cruises were without any problems. So look forward to your cruise.

 

Silvio

[Susan-M]

I wondered the same thing last year when we booked Millennium for a 12 day Med cruise ....I think I gave it about 3 minutes of consideration and decided to take our chances .... and boy am I glad we didn't cancel ! :)

[thomasale]

Tom...we too are booked in November...departing on the 27th. We've cruised the Millennium class many many times and are most comfortable with the Constellation. You will be ok.

 

Thank you for all of your inputs and I do believe I will stay with what I have. It will be our first CC cruise and first with a balcony. :) BTW PugTug1 have you signed into the Roll Call for this cruise? Check it out and add your name.

[Susan-M]

Good choice Tom! We also had a CC balcony (deck 8) and it was wonderful!

[thomasale]

I've got cabin 9043 with a bigger than average balcony...really looking forward to this one and my wife has agreed that if we're onboard it will be great and if something else happens we'll just deal with it.

[FinelyCruising]

Good for you. We are booked for Constallation in the spring, have been bounced from Summit moons ago but were good on Millenium. We're going again no matter what, even if this ship is sitting on chocks.

[fllady]

Tom, Glad to see you are staying with us. :D Now stop worrying and get to the big job of picking out something really great for Sandy's anniversary gift. ;) Ellis and I had 30 years anniversary last October, and looking forward to #31, Constellation is our late anniversary gift to each other.

PugTug1, hope to see you on our roll call soon!:)

[thomasale]

fllady we are in Port St. Lucie about 5 miles from you...I am in Palm City alot and my office used to be right there. We are looking forward to this trip. Small world. :)

[jmh928]

I'm new to these boards. Could you tell me what Pod stands for?

[Stacky]

We recently did the transatlantic on the Constellation - a month ago to be exact. Even though we had high winds and high waves - it was a very comfortable cruise. We had the corner aft cabin and thoroughly enjoyed our eight days at sea. We'll be on the Constellation again in October for the fall foliage cruise through New England and Canada. Enjoy yourselves and appreciate that anniversary - not many people can brag about 30 years - we're going on 46! ENJOY!

[rjg41]

It really stands for nothing but it essentially describes a shape. The pods are the steerable engine pods which have the propellers on them, used on almost if not all modern ships. They are a pod.

 

Older ships have long shaft extending from the engine room on which the propeller is mounted at the end and a rudder to steer. Modern ships use a large electric motor contained in a pod mounted below the ships hull. Most ships contain at least two such pods. The pods can be turned around 360 degrees and therefore modern ships have no rudder. The electricity used to run the electric motors is generated on M class ships by gas turbines which are essentially jet engines. Most other ships are using standard diesel piston engines to generate the electricity.

[KSTAZMAN]

The pods (azipod) is a combined steering and propulsion system. If you look at the dock when the ship leaves you can see them pushing the ship away from it. I believe most ships have 2 or 3 sets. I googled the word and got lots of info.

 

John

 

Looks like almost a tie with the info.

[jmh928]

Thanks. We lost a port on our Panama Canal/South America cruise on the Infinity two years ago because of that problem. The ship had to slow down and we couldn't stop at Manta Ecuador.

[aloanldy]

We've been on Constellation twice, She's a great ship. Don't worry.

 

HAL has nice ships and cruises, and you will have a great time, however you have all a FANTASTIC time on Constellation.

 

 

Charlie