We can only travel easily during July due to our fifteen year old son's school and athletic schedule. The Caribbean holds no allure for us during the heat of the summer, we've done Alaska, and the Pacific is so far from the East Coast of the US, therefore Europe is our preferred destination. This itinerary/ship seemed to be the best value that Celebrity had to offer for July in Europe, so after several other preliminary bookings on the Edge for this year, we settled on it in December 2018. We did 3 days in Barcelona prior to the cruise by booking a Celebrity City Stay Package. Hotel was nice and in a great location but the per person price was a little outrageous for a triple occupancy room. My son slept on a sofa bed that was left out the entire stay, leaving us little to no room to walk in the room. If I had been given the option of paying a single supplement, I would have, but alas Celebrity ignored my repeated inquiries prior to the cruise. I also am quite put out that having been notified we would NOT be visiting Sagrada Familia on our included city tour, I booked/pre-paid to visit on our own free time, then the tour guide took us there the final evening (as was stated in the original itinerary). Needless to say, I will NOT book a Celebrity City Stay package again (and indeed there were only 9 of us on this sailing who did) but will make our own arrangements.

Boarding the ship was great--we were in a Royal Suite again (we have done the same on the Summit twice before) and the Constellation was so much like the Summit it was like coming home. I am actually glad that the Constellation had not been "revolutionized" yet. Everything on the ship was well-maintained. I don't need everything to be brand-spanking new and trendy to feel comfortable. The crew was STELLAR, as always. We love Luminae (our son only does dinner there--he prefers the buffet if he eats breakfast at all) and we were so happy to see familiar faces from our previous Summit cruises (Siraz, the sommelier and Armando who had been in Blu for our Southern Caribbean cruise). Being able to mix and match from the main dining room menu was also a big plus. Even though we had specialty dining included, we only ate in Tuscan Grill one night (meh...especially with Italian ports on the itinerary) and Sushi on Five for At Sea day lunch (yum). We have done Qsine before and it's not our favorite. We did miss Murano (was Ocean Liners on Constellation). I did get gelato at Cafe Al Bacio 3 or 4 afternoons, though. Got a pedicure on embarkation day (much needed but overpriced and the upsell pitch is unavoidable) and my son used the Gym equipment, hung with other teens at the pool but otherwise we did not frequent the spa/pool deck at all (except some late lunches at the Grill after excursions). Since we did an excursion every day in port and had only one sea day, did not get to maximize use of the ship's facilities. We were so tired most nights, we went back to the room after dinner (usually seated at 6:30 pm) and were lucky to be awake past 10 pm!

Our son, of course, is a night owl and rarely came back to the room before 2 am. There were many teens on the cruise and he was well entertained--we even left him behind on the ship for 2 out of the 3 Dalmatian Coast ports since he was tired of shore excursions (said it was like being on a school field trip--too much history). I heard no reports of bad behavior from other cruisers and the ship's safety officer assured me they allow "teens to be teens" under watchful eyes. Our room steward and butler were accommodating and allowed him to sleep in the bedroom all morning while they attended to the rest of the suite. My husband and I only made it to one show in the theater (the last 30 minutes of the "Rock" show). We heard several of the shows were quite good. Our son went to the "Magic of Soul" hoping it was a magician or comedian (which we missed having on this sailing as well) and said he enjoyed the show anyway. We did go to the Rendezvous Lounge--the performers there were good (we could often hear them in Luminae, competing with the piped in music, which was distracting at meal time--wish they had closed the doors or turned off the piped in music) but not compelling listening. As always, there was those 1 or 2 couples who were putting their dance lessons to good use. We stayed for one of the Trivia games (Are you smarter than a Ship's Officer) which was entertaining enough to keep us awake. They seemed to be having a rash of illness among the performers during our sailing--several did not perform when expected. Read more