This was our second cruise with Celebrity, and our first on the Constellation, a slightly smaller and older ship than its cousin the Equinox, which we took last summer. There is a lot to like about Celebrity, including courteous and efficient service, spotless public facilities and staterooms, and plenty of eating venues, all of which serve perfectly good food. Like the Equinox, we had to put up with the incessant hawking of extras, including photos, beverage packages, specialty restaurants, Internet packages, shore excursions, merchandise, cheesy art work, "chocolate diamonds," etc. I assume that Celebrity counts on the extras so that it can offer its staterooms at nominal--for the cruise industry--prices.

Unsurprisingly, the Norway cruise had a pretty large contingent of older passengers, which meant that the ship was quieter, but to some extent resembled a floating retirement community, with a plethora of canes, walkers, and wheelchairs. This is not meant as a criticism, simply to make the point that if one is seeking a lively crowd, cruises to the northern climes tends to attract an older demographic, (including us.)

Although we upgraded to Aqua class for our cruise to Norway, our stateroom on the Constellation seemed no larger that the Concierge class stateroom we had on the Equinox, and the decor--despite the Connie's recent renovation--seemed a bit fusty. Our room on Deck 9 was directly below cruise Deck 10 that cantilevers directly above, which means that we heard lots of thumping and footsteps overhead at all hours. Nonetheless, everything in the stateroom was very clean and comfortable, and was kept shipshape by our steward on his twice-daily visits. Read more