Celebrity Constellation Review
Celebrity Contellation 14 Night Southern Caribbean Cruise
Rating by category
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This was our fourth cruise in total, all with Celebrity. We've both previously been only on Solstice Class ships (Solstice twice and Equinox once). We had high expectations for this ship -- especially since it was marketed as being "solsticized." In this review, I promise I will try my best to be honest and just give the plain facts of my experience.
Embarkation
We arrived at the port at approximately 1:30pm and we noticed there was a sign that said the ship had delayed boarding. We got a call from friends that we were sailing with at around 12:30pm to let us know they were already on board the ship. After about having waiting in line approximately 45 minutes to go through security, we were on board the Constellation. At the time of boarding, Celebrity staff were handing out letters regarding Norovirus on the ship, and how it would affect the ship's operations.
Cabin Review
Deluxe Ocean View with Balcony 2B
We were in stateroom #9173, which is on the 9th deck, roughly in the middle of the ship, but a bit towards the back. We chose this room specifically because we enjoying being only one floor down from the pool and buffet (it's easy to walk up and down the stairs), but also we noticed the angle of the ship's construction afforded us an extra few square feet of space on our balcony. The extra space on the balcony was quite nice to have, however, I imagine most balconies afford enough space for two people to sit comfortably anyway.
Inside the room, we had a queen bed, with two night tables. Each night table has a lamp hard-wired into the table with an on/off switch. There was also a full closet, lots of drawers, desk, a fridge, couch (really only big enough for one person) and a small glass coffee table.
In the washroom, there was a full shower, but unlike the solstice class ships, there was a shower curtain instead of a sliding door. The space in the shower was ample, but the rest of the bathroom was rather small. Only one person at a time could make use of the bathroom, however, not a big deal. Most of the storage in the bathroom was under the sink, not like a medicine cabinet next to the sink, as found on the Solstice Class ships. One huge drawback I found in the washroom as compared to the Solstice Class ships is the fact the ventilation in the washroom was nonexistent. Once you would turn on the hot water in either the shower or the sink, the whole bathroom would steam up in seconds, and it would turn into a sauna. The only way to get rid of the steam was to open the bathroom door -- but that would inevitably heat up the rest of the stateroom. I remember in the Solstice and Equinox, there was an amazing suction vent in the shower that would suck up the steam as you were in there, so the mirrors wouldn't fog. I found the steam issue to be a bit of an inconvenience.
One of the biggest issues I found with the stateroom was noise from the floor above us. Our stateroom was located directly underneath the buffet restaurant, and you would hear noise at all hours of the night from what I assume was the staff preparing foods. Often things would fall on the floor, or you would hear the sounds of carts rolling. It wasn't a huge issue, but would make me re-think getting a stateroom under a restaurant again.