Celebrity Constellation – 9 Night Cruise Eastern Caribbean (13-22 Dec 2014) out of Port Everglades (Ft Lauderdale, FL); Celebrity Suite 9096 (Deck 9) which came with concierge’s service. The check-in service was first class – the boarding classes (suites vs. rooms) are separated/divided so you feel from the start a difference that you’re paying for. Once checked in, your documents are passed over to one of many cabin Butlers which provide care and attention to the 50 various suites aboard; they in turn will escort you directly to Michael’s Club (Concierge’s Lounge), which is specifically only for suites and Captain Club members (part of their rewards member’s package). Once there the Concierge – ours was Bogdan, who was absolutely fantastic; a ball of energy focused on making our stay very memorable. The lounge is staffed with some great people; three that come to mind are: Ivana, Sotoko and Consuelo. For the club members you are provided a tour and information about the club and its usage; I’ll leave the run down up to them on your visit; however, these were top notch customer service professionals – always a smile and always there to feel at ease. Now for the boat – it’s an older ship (2002) from the Millennium Class, and our last Celebrity cruise was in a Penthouse suite aboard the “Solstice”, which is their Solstice class ship; so we’re now comparing apples to oranges due to the difference of classes, suites and years (8 years apart). So it’s easy to say that the Constellation staterooms are pretty worn as we were in the lowest of the suites vice the nicer Penthouse on the newer Solstice.

The food: It was exceptional!!! Nuf’ said!!! Now we loved what we refer to as the “trough”; if you watched a few hundred graze during your meal time – you’ll truly understand tagging this as its name. I don’t blame the ship or its staff on this daily regression in the “human food chain”; I blame the rude and inconsiderate passengers which have no sense of common courtesy – they drive onto the blinding heaping mounds of meat – potatoes – breads while only concern in their life is them. They’ll cut in line – they’ll stop in mid-stride, they’ll be looking one way while walking another…the food is plentiful and well cooked, most will say it’s under seasoned and it should be so be ready for that. Hidden secrets the Ocean View’s grill area every night Jonathan would grill to order select cuts of meat from lamb, chicken, steak, pork, etc…these were thin cuts but if you want more go back! Jonathan was identified as one of their best employees working the trough.

Now the table cleaners were entertainment…it was fun to watch how many times they could look busy without being busy; this would be blamed on the management staff, with the passenger turnover during each meal – this group has no problem to keep tables clean and free of dishes. The only major complaint in this area was the ice and juice machines, which were constantly out of order or not working properly; and it always seemed to be the passenger’s responsibility to ensure these were working and not the staff each meal period. Only went to the Tuscan Grill for specialty dining; and we went there twice as it was that good. Great service and great staff, nuf said. We chose early dining but really only went there once and it was very nice…again staff was very good. Read more