This was our 5th cruise but our first with Celebrity. The period of the cruise was over Christmas and New Year and having been on 2 similar cruises before which were very good, my husband and I were looking forward to a similar experience on Constellation. We flew British Airways to Miami. Having cheated all sorts of obstacles (BA threatened strikes and bad weather in the UK) we arrived in Miami only 10 minutes late. We were transferred to the Wyndham Miami Airport hotel for the night and would be transferred to the ship the next morning. The hotel was adequate and the transfers were fine. We were in a Concierge Class cabin and were therefore entitled to various extra goods and services including priority check in and boarding. Not on this occasion. We were at least an hour in the check in queue whilst all other queues moved a lot quicker. There were plenty of complaints from us and our fellow queuers!! Then, when we got to the check in desk the clerk made a song and dance about the fact that my husband has a USA visa (and why did I not also have one - as if it was any of his business) and that he had never seen anyone with a British passport with a "white entry form" whereas mine was the visa waiver green one. I was hugely unimpressed. Eventually we were allowed to proceed. We went straight to our cabin which was ready, had a quick look round, noted that there was no fruit to which we were entitled and then went for some lunch in the Seaview Cafe.
After lunch one of our cases had arrived at our cabin door and the other 2 cases followed in short order. Our cabin steward came to introduce himself and the fruit arrived. We opened our complimentary bottle of sparkling wine and sipped this on the balcony overlooking the marina in Miami. Then we had a look around the ship. The atrium was nicely decorated with Christmas trees and sparkling stars and we felt ready to enjoy a nice Christmas and New Year cruise.
The ship was supposed to sail at 17.00 but there was an announcement that the captain had decided to wait for an hour to see if people who had been delayed on flights could make the ship before it sailed. There had been bad weather in the eastern USA as well as Europe and flights were being cancelled wholesale. In the event, over 100 people did not make it and had to join the ship 3 or 4 days later in Curacao or Aruba.