Long time cruiser that has always wanted and looked forward to doing a transatlantic (TA) but with kids at home and in school the spring/fall sailings never worked for us. Fast forward to 2022.. both kids away at college so good opportunity to finally get to go on that first TA. However, with two kids in college we needed to find a deal to fit our budget. Even at a year out we found several deals on TA’s on various lines. There was one on Royal Caribbean that really piqued our interest. However, upon further investigation I finally realized that the timing didn’t work for us, DS was going to graduate from college first weekend in May 2023. Well, that narrowed the choices a whole lot. We came upon the Celebrity Constellation April 17-May 2, 2023, Tampa to Barcelona and it fit all our criteria. I had been on the Constellation twice before and love the M class ships. When booking anything a year out…. things happen. I lost DH suddenly on Memorial Day 2022. I was still determined to go on this cruise and was able to change the booking (my SIL was able to join me). Having a great travel agent, we ended up with lots of OBC.

I booked my air very early through flights by celebrity and was very happy. Being in Atlanta, Delta was my best choice since they were the only airline flying non-stop from Barcelona to Atlanta. Flights by Celebrity added my FF# to my booking and I was able to pick my seats at the time of booking. At one point over the 10 months Delta changed the flight (and type of plane) and I lost my seat but since I was notified of the change, I was able to go back in and get the same seat. I know a lot of people have had complaints about flights by celebrity, but I had a great experience.

Due to being on a budget, I booked an inside room, but the room included the all-inclusive package. Since we had lots of OBC and didn’t need it for tips or drinks we booked shore excursions through the ship (I usually book independent excursions). The ship stopped at Bermuda, Madeira, Cadiz, and Malaga. Both of us have been to Bermuda before so didn’t take a shore excursion there. Lot of time to plan with booking a year out. Thanks to our amazing roll call group for helping out a TA newbie. Read more