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Celebrity Constellation Review

Constellation

Review for on Celebrity Constellation
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sgautier
First Time Cruiser • Age 20s

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Sail Date: Jan 1970

My wife and I have previously sailed on Celebrity's Century and our expectations for the Constellation were set by our near-perfect experience on that beautiful ship. In the weeks leading up to our cruise on Constellation's 3rd sailing, I kept a close eye on the [Cruise Critic message] boards to get as much new information as I could. A week before our cruise, a maiden voyager posted a few pictures of the ship's interior, and my expectations dropped a little. However, from my first step aboard her, I recognized that the pictures had not done her justice, the Constellation is a finely appointed, gorgeous ship which wouldn't disappoint even the most discriminating traveler. My wife and I felt that the service fell below the excellent level of attentiveness and friendliness on the Century (a 90 on the Constellation, a 97 on the Century); and that the food in the main dining room, at times, was not up to what we had experienced on the Century (a 92 on the Constellation, a 95 on the Century). Although, I have to add, the onboard entertainment had improved ten-fold from our experiences three years ago on Century, much to the credit, I am certain, of a gentleman named Armond. In particular, two of the production shows were "over the top." I could go on about the wonderful people and ports, but I would like to just make this review about the ship.

Crew and Staff For the most part, the staff and crew are wonderfully polite, hospitable and helpful. After being spoiled by the Century staff, I did feel that the staff on the Constellation, while attentive to guests needs, lacked the drive to "go the extra mile." If you ask for something on the Constellation you will get it, and sometimes much grander than what you requested (a birthday cake for a friend's surprise party was above and beyond any birthday cake I've ever had, with confectioners baskets of chocolates inset), most times with a smile. However, often enough to notice, service was delivered without a smile and without the enthusiasm, which can leave a guest feeling as though it is asking too much or burdening the crew. I don't know how that type of enthusiasm is imparted to a whole ship-load of staff, but perhaps Celebrity could rotate everyone through the Century at least once. There were some outstanding examples on the Constellation, but a few slackers is all that it takes to knock it off perfection.

Discotheque and NightclubThere was a modest amount of interest in the Disco, and my wife and I eventually gave up on trying to get it going. I don't know if it was because the captain and his crew were always up there requesting sappy crappy 70's Greek disco spin-offs, but that seemed to be the biggest dance-killer once we managed to get people out on the floor. The disco itself is huge and beautiful with a big round bar, which (and you wouldn't know this unless someone told you) is where the DJ is seated, unseen behind white-opaque windows. Now, in all fairness, once you discover that there is a DJ (for 2 nights we thought it was just pre-recorded tracks of the same old crap, see above), he will play almost anything you request. Once he started playing some Shaggy, Pink and UB40 (not to mention some Stones, Van Halen, Guns and Roses and other classics) we really had the disco crowd up and on their feet, but he continually rushed through the "good stuff" and cleared out the floor with dance-beat rip-off 70's crap, once cutting together 10 awesome American rock songs into a 4 minute un-danceable conglomeration and then switching back to crap, which just made our party of 15 leave the disco (leaving only the first-mate and his friends to smoke cigarettes and watch nobody dance). So, all in all, we were pretty disappointed with the music selection and the DJ, but there is potential, just make sure you let the DJ know (repeatedly) what type of music you want to hear (unless its rip-off disco beat 70's crap in Greek, he'll play plenty of that on his own). Also, he either doesn't have a smoke machine, or doesn't know how to use it, turn on the smoke man, turn on the smoke! The location of the dance floor is also "unfortunate", at the front of the room, rather than in the middle, not raised and it takes all attention away from a really gorgeous (and expensive) bar. I doubt Celebrity will change the lay-out, but they should.

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