Background My husband and I are in our late 50's-early 60's, both professionals from South NJ. Most recently we have been on eight Princess cruises and one Holland American Line cruise (Noordham). We have also traveled on two river cruises in Germany and France, which were wonderful but very different cruise experiences. Several years ago we cruised on Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Renaissance and Carnival. Of all these thus far, our favorite is Renaissance- small size, no smoking and different itineraries. This was our first Celebrity cruise in a long time, the Constellation's Baltic Sea itinerary, August 16-30, 2008.

Precruise Celebrity arranged our flights. We flew British Air from Philadelphia. Although delayed several hours because of thunderstorms, we enjoyed a smooth flight and arrived at Heathrow on Friday morning approximately 2 � hours delayed. Our transfer found us, or I found him, and we were swiftly off in a private car to our hotel. We stayed at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington. The hotel was beautiful and in a great area but we were too early for check-in. We walked around and finally checked in at 2 PM and were able to take a short nap. We ate dinner that night at a near-by recommended restaurant, Maggie Jones. It was quite attractive but very, very expensive and the meal very disappointing. We were exhausted also. The next morning we enjoyed a complimentary continental breakfast at the hotel.

Embarkation We boarded a bus at the hotel about 9:30 AM and were on our way to Harwich. We arrived there about 11:45 AM and we were in our cabin within 15 minutes thanks to Concierge Class service. We were greeted with champagne, a nice touch, and went directly to our cabin to deposit our hand luggage. Read more