My wife and I (ages 45 and 42, respectively) cruised on Constellation January 17-24, 2004. I am a sales engineer and my wife is a first grade teacher. I have enjoyed reading Cruise Critic reviews as we attempted to choose a cruise. That enjoyment seems to increase after selecting a cruise, as we begin to plan activities on the upcoming trip. We have cruised 11 times, though this was our first Celebrity trip. I have never written a review before and hope this isn't too disappointing to the reading audience.
Our TA had often suggested we try Celebrity, but we had always resisted due to complete satisfaction with Carnival, RCCL, and Princess and the mistaken belief that Celebrity was too expensive. This fall, however, we were amazed by the pricing offered by Celebrity for the San Juan departure of Constellation, and booked an outside cabin without balcony. A weak effort by Carnival's Jubilee o our early 2003 cruise might have also played a role, as we actually were somewhat let down by that ship's condition and by its cruise director.
Our trip began with a same-day flight from Houston via Atlanta to San Juan. We have three children, so leaving early or staying over is difficult for us. We purchased trip insurance for 5% of our trip's cost, from an independent insurer and slept better as a result, during severe thunderstorms, the night before our departure. Our flights came off on time and we actually enjoyed the movie from Atlanta to San Juan (Denzel Washington as a small town police chief).