We sailed on the Constellation on February 18th to the southern and western caribbean. This was our 15th cruise, the 4th on Celebrity, and the 11th to the caribbean. We chose this cruise for the itinerary that included 5 sea days. Since we live just outside of Atlanta, we drive to the port and extend our vacation by a few days. We overnight in Ft. Pierce at the Comfort Suites which is pretty good and drive is about 2 hours to the port in the morning. There is a new parking lot right across from terminal 18 that has its own shuttle that makes it real convenient.
Embarkation was very quick and well organized as it always is in Ft. Lauderdale. We drove onto the pier at 11:10am, had been in our stateroom, and were having lunch by 12:20pm.
There is not much "wow factor" when you board the Connie. The colors are bright and cheerful and the ship is extremely well maintained, one of the best that we have been on. Our cabin was smaller than other balcony cabins on other ships. It was tight when we were getting ready for dinner. We did not book a "concierge class" cabin. Celebrity is billed as a premium class cruise line and one would expect concierge class service on a premium line in all of their cabins without extra cost. Celebrity seems to be regressing back to the Titanic-era ships. They should rethink this one. The passenger make-up appears to be very mature, older than me and I am 68 years old. Lots of wheelchairs, walkers, oxygen tanks and electric scooters. Celebrity should do a better job of regulating the scooters so that the users do not try to get into crowded elevators and force passengers to plaster themselves against the sides. One guy who was always running into people, forced his way onto a crowded elevator and ran over my wifes foot.