Some comments about the Constellation.
First of all, I don't know why this ship is referred to as the Flagship.
She's not. Dining room food is poor right now, there's a new crew, and
the ship itself is not as luxurious as the Millennium, though still
furnished with high-quality materials and providing spaces of a premium
ship. For instance, comparing Millennium to Constellation, look at the
light fixtures in the Millie's Martini Bar and Restaurant and compare
them to the Constellation. The Millie's gleam with crystal chandeliers
and the Connie's is just etched glass. There's nothing about crew, ship,
enhancements, entertainment, or anything that warrants this being a flagship.
Michel Roux was onboard. It's quite scary when the master chef is
onboard and the food was of the abysmal quality in the dining room that
this cruise provided. Buffet food, curiously, was the opposite. For the
most part it was tasty and well prepared.
The Millennium class ships, in my opinion, are a HUGE step down from the
wonderful Century class ships. Here are a few shortcomings I noticed
about the class of ship.
Foyer: stairway is from the 1st to 2nd level, Cova is on the 3rd level
of the foyer and to get to it from the 2nd level one must exit the foyer
and go up nearby stairs.
Rendezvous Lounge and Champagne/Martini Bars: both rooms are
thoroughfares. Both rooms have nooks at ends that are not utilized and
don't really feel intimately separated from the rest of the lounges. If
one is in the Champagne or Martini Bars, looks down into the dance floor
on the Rendezvous and wants to dance they have to leave the
Champagne/Martini Bar and then go down a nearby set of stairs. Since
these rooms are so connected now why not have a stairway that connects
the two of them?
No nightclub: this is a HUGE shortcoming of the ship that I just don't
see mentioned enough. All of the older class ships had a Rendezvous
Lounge usually featuring a duo, sitting in front of the restaurant. The
nightclub was completely separate , with its own look and feel and dance
floor and OPTION of a different music and style of dancing or activity
if one wasn't interested in the Rendezvous Lounge. THERE IS NONE ON THIS
SHIP. This was a big part of my Celebrity cruises and I think the
product and this alone is a HUGE problem I have with this class of ship.
The so called Promenade deck is wide but does not wraparound forward or
aft. The non skid surface, despite being cleaned regularly, looks soiled
and unattractive and not belonging on this class of ship. Go back to
teak, Celebrity.
Cinema area: Seems wasteful, lots of underutilized meeting rooms.
Thellasotherapy pool: another huge step down. The thellasotherapy pool
on the Century class felt special, not crowded, peaceful and relaxing.
The thellasotherapy pool on this class is just an enclosed pool, and
when the doors open the sounds of the band (which hardly ever played on
this cruise) comes through. Now it is is crowded, noisy, and has a
mass-market sense to it. Very poor excuse of a thellasotherapy pool and
very bad idea to place it where it is and to make it the size it is.
Conservatory: who needs it? Just an obvious attempt at revenue
enhancement that nobody was using on our cruise at least. It is near the
noisy lido and the noisy pool yet it is advertised as being a quiet,
aromatic, oasis. An absolute waste.
Michael's Club: too large, underutilized.
Shops: way too many of them. While they have an upscale appearance when
the ship is sailing and they are open they are full of typical cruise
junk. Unappealing juxtapositioning of cruise junk with the upscale shop look.
I didn't care for the observation lounge. One big room with too many
seats. On the Century class ships there are many nice areas that are
divided, one feels at least some intimacy in this room.
This big ship needs more lounges. It doesn't have many. It feels like a
55,000 ton ship with 36000 tons of revenue enhancements. It feels far
more mass-market and commercial than the Century class or even the
Horizon class. Notes, the "listening library". Saw 3 people in it the
whole cruise.
Music and Activities:
This is the first cruise I've been on where I made no video of activities.
Too much recorded music and recorded music was very repetitious. Sitting
in the Cova lounge for an hour I heard recorded piano music, the same
seven songs played over and over, day after day after day. Musicians
played for 45 minutes at a time, all at the same time in 4 areas, the
Rendezvous, Cova, the pool, and Reflections, the observation lounge. All
stopped the same time. The lounges were woefully lacking for too long a
period of time before early and late seating. From 6 pm to 7:45 pm
Rendezvous was dead, no music, hardly anyone in the place where on the
Galaxy and Century at this time people were dancing in this area to live
music on previous cruises.
Also, I like jazz. I heard none on this ship. Plenty on Veendam,
Leeward, Galaxy, Century and Explorer. Hardly any on here. Part of the
"evocative" aspect of Celebrity, actually a huge part of it, is the
period rooms with the jazz, standards, opportunities to enjoy folks
dance, the romantic sense of it. The duo in the Rendezvous played the
same music over and over, and most of it did not get people up to dance.
Actually, they didn't play. Most of it was through a laptop. Pathetic.
Missing:
a cappella group
roving musicians in dining room
Ballroom dance instruction (or any other type of dance instruction)
the Social hostess meeting and greeting (she seemed to do so only for
friends of the Captain
The harpist played only in Cova and in no other lounge.
Also, one day there was an announcement, the usual bingo, art auctions,
blah blah. Garbage, this isn't Celebrity and not acceptable.
Dailies are full of pages of advertising.
There are a few positives. Ocean Liners service classy and relaxed and
impeccably time. Menu varied. Wine carefully chosen to complement
courses. Excellent music. Wonderful ambiance. Food was magnificent,
tasty, delicate, all of the accolades we here of the food of Chef Roux
were present in this cuisine.
Personable, generous, entertaining Captain--Ionnis Papanikolaou. Special
Master. He invited my wife and I and a friend onboard to join him for
dinner one night and took us onto the bridge twice.
Most of the staff were polite, professional, warmly greeting passengers.
Granville Baily.
Ship very clean.
End of positives.
Dining food and service. Can't comment on other's service. Unfortunately
our waiter and assistant were awful. Missing silverware, lost
silverware, mixing up menus, not taking the ladies orders first and
serving them first, not inquiring about our meals, just a few of the
problems. Maitre d was nonexistent except for one day. Food was sloppily
presented, meats were mostly overcooked, sauces were not delicate and
complex but tasted like bottled sauces. It was just slack, totally
unlike the cruises I took on Celebrity in 1999, which both had excellent
service. Service at the Captain's table was impeccable, but it should be
for the whole dining room.
Millie class needs big changes, an obvious poor mixing of RCI style of
layout forced into making a Celebrity class of ship. This isn't a proper
Celebrity ship, I don't care how expensively furnished and attractive it
may be. It was pretty but lacked *that* evocative, 30s, 40s, 50s, period
sense I enjoy on previous generation Celebrity ships.
