Celebrity Constellation Review
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The cruise started and finished in Venice. We had stayed a couple of nights beforehand in the city so made our own way to the cruise terminal - not for the faint hearted. We walked with our bags from our hotel near the Rialto Bridge to Piazzale Roma and caught the ‘people mover’ to the cruise terminal at €1.50 each. We then had quite a long walk to the berth where Constellation was docked. Fortunately it was neither raining, nor too hot, which could have caused us problems. We only noticed the free shuttle bus when we were on board!
Our check in was relatively quick- we are elite plus members, but the agent booking us in was poor and we even had to remind her that we had to complete a health questionnaire! She also did not give us either a map of the ship nor a sheet of what was happening for early boarders. We were slightly surprised that elite plus did not get priority boarding and we had to wait about twenty minutes for our number to be called. Security was quick and we had half a glass of warm sparkling wine in our hands by 12:30. At around 1.00 an announcement was made that staterooms on some decks were available but we had to wait a further half hour before our deck was called. Even then, when we got to the deck, the corridor bulkhead doors were still closed - and it was not until almost 1.45 that we could get to our rooms. Our departure from Venice was delayed slightly by a demo on the canal against cruise ships visiting Venice (there were 5 ships leaving Venice that evening), however we were kept well informed.
It is a couple of years since we had been on the millennium class of ship. We know it’s been "solsticised" but the décor is very dark (particularly in the MDR) and the ship is looking past its prime - we really missed the lawn club and sunset bar. And the buffet layout is not a patch on the bigger ships – it’s very spread out, badly organised and not well signposted.
Cabin Review
Port Reviews
Zadar
We took the ship's shuttle bus into town at €12 each. We had found a local walking tour on the internet and this was a good option at €14 each. Zadar was the most attractive town we visited and very easy to walk around – the sea organ particularly was worth a visit.
Dubrovnik
Again we berthed away from the town so had to pay €12 each for the shuttle to the old town. Having been there several times before we found the crowds and heat too much, so we returned to the ship quite quickly after a brief walk around.
Kotor
We were surprised that the ship made no announcements about the attractive views on the fjord like sail-in to Kotor early in the morning but set our alarm for 6.30 and enjoyed sitting on our balcony. No docking facilities at Kotor so we were tendered into the town - a very efficient system and only a short wait both to get to Kotor and return.
Naples
The ship docks in the centre of the city and we did our own tour to Herculaneum using the local train. It was very easy and very reasonably priced. At Herculaneum we joined an English speaking tour guide (with 8 others) at €10 each, a bargain. We then trained back and walked back to the ship from the station down the rather scruffy main street.
Venice
We spent a couple of days before the cruise in Venice. We did a "free" walking tour one morning (found via trip advisor) which was excellent and then just walked and walked enjoying the fantastic atmosphere of this unique city.