This was our first trip on Constellation since its Solstice upgrade. The improvements are very obvious and have made a very good traditional cruise ship much better.
Our trip to Istanbul was via Heathrow terminal 5 on British Airways. Excellent service before and during the flight was marred by the absolute chaos that is Ataturk airport. Previous visits to Turkey resulted in handing passport complete with new 10 note to immigration and hey presto you've arrived. This time everyone queued at immigration only to be told that visas were issued at another queue and then you had to return to the immigration queue. Once cleared, collect luggage, wait for the coach and then to the ship berthed alongside the quay in Istanbul.
Embarkation was fairly quick and once on board the usual key-cards with obligatory photograph was swiftly completed. Luggage was promptly delivered to the cabin within 30 minutes. Table reservations were checked and then off to view the changes to the ship.
8172 Quiet cabin; excellent balcony. Good storage, adequate bathroom. Marvelous views