Celebrity Constellation

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91,000 tons
Passengers: 1,950
999 crew
964 feet in length
105 feet wide
11 passenger decks
Cruising speed: 24 knots
Built in St. Nazaire, France
Registry: Bahamas
Entered Service: May 12, 2002

Best For People Who Want:
Large cabins with good amenities; suites with butlers; private balconies; sophisticated touches like a piano lounge, martini/caviar bar, full service florist; the most extensive spa facilities at sea; cabins for disabled people.

Should Be Avoided By People Who Prefer:
A very lively environment with non-stop nightlife; high-energy atmosphere; singles and many children; open, single-seating dining; a small-ship cruise experience.

Onboard Experience:
Celebrity Cruises' Constellation is a 91,000-ton Millennium-class (Millennium, Infinity, Summit) ship. A cruise aboard Constellation is a more sophisticated experience than you'll find on other mid-priced vessels. This ship offers an elegant alternative dining venue, the Ocean Liners restaurant with memorabilia from famous liners of the past, a martini/caviar bar, champagne bar, a piano bar, a computer classroom and a floral conservatory among their standard facilities. The design incorporates top quality brass, marble, fabrics and silk floral art by Emilio Robba throughout. The alternative dining experience is extremely elegant in the Ocean Liners Restaurant where waiters in long tails present food with a flourish. Overall, the ambience is warm and relaxing with distinctive touches that indicate one is aboard a very special ship. The spa is beautiful and offers original treatments (but at a high price). Celebrity doesn't stand out in the entertainment area; its floor shows are average in quality.

Decor:
Celebrity's designers have created a very elegant, classy ship. Stepping into the lobby is a show-stealer: Seeing the white onyx stairway backlit with yellow neon is like stepping into Oz. Lined with three-story-high mahogany pillars, this stairway is surrounded by long white flowing curtains.

What I love most are the dramatic architectural details found in few other ships -- a warm lightness achieved by acres of glass and beech wood accents surrounding mahogany paneling. Art adorns most walls; it will please some, not all, but never leave you indifferent. The exterior glass elevators provide dramatic sea views; a 15-store shopping emporium features designers like Donna Karan, H. Stern and other high-fashion notables; and the alternative dining rooms are the most elegant I've encountered yet. Throughout Constellation, the silk floral displays of Emilio Robba are strikingly beautiful.

Public Rooms:
By day, I sipped cappuccino in the Cova Cafe Milano, and at night, most of the action seemed to be in the Rendez-Vous Lounge, where passengers danced to a live band and hung out at the enormous bar. In the champagne lounges, there are separate bars for champagne and caviar, while Michael's Club is an elegant piano bar. The forward observation lounge on deck 11 is drop-dead gorgeous, high above the ship, with nightly disco. The three-deck Celebrity Theater seats 901 for Broadway-style floor shows. Fortunes Casino has all the games of chance one could expect, and shoppers will find upscale merchandise in the large retail area. The library, Words, is a wonderful spot for lounging with a best seller or rent an iPod loaded with your favorite music. There is also a cyber cafe? with 18 computers offering Internet service, the "High Seas Computing" room for computer classes and an area for the "Acupuncture at Sea" program. Constellation and her sister ships are the first to offer a floral conservatory at sea. The tranquil botanical area also serves as a full service florist and boutique.

Cuisine:
Celebrity's cuisine is the highest in the mid-price range, with cuisine prepared from scratch and created by renowned chef, Michel Roux, who catered Prince Charles and Diana's wedding reception. Our experience onboard Constellation confirmed this. Dining room food was consistently good. The alternative Ocean Liners restaurant excels in table-side preparation and flambe.

Service:
Our experience showed a high degree of professionalism in the dining room and lido cafe where attentive waiters made dining a pleasure. Service in the Normandie alternative restaurant was a unique experience with waiters synchronizing the presentation of dishes and serving with flair. It is a style reminiscent of the first class dining rooms of the great liners.

Restaurants:
The Ocean Liners alternative restaurant is among the most stunning we've ever encountered. It has memorabilia from the famous transatlantic liner. The three-hour dinner ($25 per person) is pure theater, a flourish of waiters in white tie cooking entrees table-side and a great deal of flambe. It is the service that is outstanding here. The food quality was on par with that of the dining room, although there are signature dishes not found elsewhere onboard, including Rack of Lamb en Croute and Steak Diane. The impressive list of international wines range in price from $18 to $450 a bottle.

The very elegant two-level main dining room is located in the stern. Central to this restaurant is the two-deck-high glass windows that provide warm, natural light during daytime and a panoramic close-up view of the ocean. Tables are widely spaced, and sound levels in the room permit easy conversation. The lido café, deck 10, are the setting for casual dining from 6:30am to half past midnight including lunch and breakfast buffets, pizza, afternoon tea and late night snacks. Floor to ceiling windows and glass floor areas provide excellent views. With four buffet lines, there is very little waiting. The rear section of the café is called the Grill. It is the place for casual dinner, served a la carte. Reservations are required and dinner is served between 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. As well, poolside, hot dogs, hamburgers and pizza are available during the day. 24 hour room service is also available.

Entertainment:
Entertainment is not Celebrity Cruises' forté, and I found production shows uninspiring and predictable. Special effects were outstanding, but the choreography and song selections were routine and the singing not on par with shows experienced on other lines. The lounge performers tended to be a lot better.

An alliance with Cirque du Soleil brought some unique entertainment aboard Constellation in December 2004 which was not well received by passengers. The program was revamped in October, 2005 and in response to passenger comments, now features a 30-minute Cirque-style production show in the main theater with three acrobatic acts. The 'taste of Cirque du Soleil' show is presented twice weekly. The Bar at the Edge of the Earth, designed for the original Cirque program, is once again being used as an observation lounge which converts to a disco at night.

Cabins:
Constellation has some of the largest cabins afloat, with wonderful amenities. Standard amenities include TV with closed-circuit movies, CNN and pay-per-view first run movies; radio, direct dial phone, bathrobes, mini-refrigerator; and large bathrooms with shower, vanity and hair dryer. Passengers can opt to dine in-cabin at night, ordering from the dinner menu, and massages can also be scheduled in staterooms. Standard inside and outside staterooms are 172 sq. ft., with good storage space. The cabins with private balcony are lovely and measure 184 sq. ft. There are 26 wheelchair-accessible staterooms, including several suites.

"Concierge Class" staterooms are 191 square feet with a 41-square-foot veranda and offer a number of upgraded services including welcome aboard champagne, fresh flowers, fruit, afternoon canapes, a leather key holder, personalized stationery, oversized tote bag, upgraded mattresses and bedding. Priority services include priority luggage delivery, dining time and seating preferences, shoe shine service, VIP invitations to exclusive shipboard events, priority shore excursion bookings, early embarkation and debarkation privileges, and a one-touch button on the phone to reach a Concierge Class desk representative directly.

Butler service comes with a suite, and Constellation has wonderful choices. I adore the Sky Suite (254 to 362 sq. ft) with walk-in closets, whirlpool tubs and the large balcony. Even larger are Celebrity Suites (498 sq. ft.), Royal Suites (562 sq. ft.), and the two enormous (1,690 sq. ft.) Penthouse Suites, with wrap-around balconies.

Constellation offers Internet access in every stateroom for those who bring a laptop with a modem connection. The service is available at a daily, weekly or per minute rate.

Fitness/Spa:
At 25,000 square feet, this is one of the most spacious spas afloat. While treatments in the AquaSpas are pricey ($109 for a 50-minute massage), they are usually booked solid. A 20 percent discount is offered if you book the service on sailing day, and other specials come up throughout the cruise, particularly for treatments while the ship is in port. Operated by Steiners, the spas offer exotic "Sensory Heaven" treatments, such as the float massage, haiku ritual facial and an "aroma stone massage" -- not very exclusive, since I found the same thing on a Carnival ship - . The feature I like the most is the "thelassotherapy pool" adjacent to the Spa in a stunning glass-enclosed area lined with teak chairs and foliage. The Persian Garden is an aroma therapy oasis which can be booked for quiet moments and meditation for a charge.

Fitness buffs will love the facilities aboard Constellation, located in a glass-enclosed room. There are 14 treadmills, 12 exercise bikes, six stair-steppers, two rowers and all the pulling and pushing equipment found in every well-equipped gym. Aerobics classes are scheduled throughout the day and personal training, a body composition test, an Alpha massage capsule and destress and detox packages are available.

Attire:
Plan on two formal evenings and two informal per week, three formal for a 10-day cruise. Aboard Constellation, many men opt for a dark suit or tux while women don dressy pantsuits, or short or long dresses. During the daytime, dress is casual with the "uniform" in the Caribbean being shorts, sneakers, T-shirt/polo shirt and baseball hat.

Tipping:
Celebrity suggests a per person per day gratuity of $3.50 for the waiter, butler (Suites only) and stateroom attendant; $4.00 for stateroom attendant in Concierge Class; $2.00 for the Assistant Waiter; .75 for the Assistant Maitre d'and the Assistant Chief Housekeeper. For children under 12 years of age who are the third or fourth person in the stateroom, half the amount is recommended. Tips can be added to the passenger's shipboard account upon request.

A 15 percent gratuity is automatically added to all beverage tabs. Gratuities for room service, spa, casino and other staff are at your discretion.

Copyright © 2008 , Anne Campbell. All rights reserved.