Cruising the Mediterranean in early Fall is a great way to avoid crowds at the port cities while still enjoying nice weather that ranged between 70 and 80 degrees during the day. The Constellation is an older ship with about 2,000 guests, which makes It easy to get around without encountering long lines. We had an oceanview cabin on deck 3 near the Grand Foyer, which was a very convenient location. Our stateroom attendant was a friendly and exceptionally hard worker that kept the cabin spotless and would go out of his way to open our cabin door when we passed him in the hallway. Some of the bar staff and main dining room waiters were less friendly and not so eager to please the guests. We had to continually ask for food items that were not served as ordered. Occasionally, the food wasn't very warm or was overcooked. Even though I handed our main waiter and sommelier extra tip money one evening, it didn't seem to improve the table service; however, the sommelier was more accommodating in keeping our wine glasses full. A major concern with the main dining room service is that it took so long (2+ hours) to eat that we were always late for the nightly entertainment. Many other people said the same thing causing them to eat at the Oceanview Buffet to save time. On some nights, the food in the buffet was much better than that served in the main dining room.

The itinerary included several great ports that were very enjoyable to tour around - Alicante Spain, Seville Spain, Livorno Italy and Ajaccio Corsica. These ports offered many nice shore excursions, some of which I booked independent of the ship. These private tours in 8 passenger vans are far more pleasant than the large bus tours that the ship offers. And, they can be arranged for considerably less cost than the ship. Our highlight tour of the cruise was an all day trip to Cinque Terre that I organized using the Cruise Critic discussion boards to add fellow passengers to our group. This area of Italy consists of 5 quaint villages comparable to the small cities along the Amalfi coast. The other port stops included Gibraltar UK, Sete France and Provence France. We had already visited Gibraltar & Provence on previous cruises, so we spent those days on board. We did get off at Sete to complete a walking tour of the city; however, there wasn't much to see and the sidewalks were littered in trash and animal droppings. Watch your step.

This was our 14th cruise on Celebrity ships over the past 6 years. There has been a noticeable decline in the overall cruise experience with Celebrity. The company has found ways to charge for more things on board that were once free; they have reduced the quality & selection of the food in the main dining room; they have removed some of the liquors, beers and wine from the Classic drink package and put them on the premium package; and, they have reduced the variety of entertainment throughout the day.