More than any Christmas present under the tree, I love taking a weekend getaway with my hubby. So our gift to each other this year was a 2-day cruise on the Celebrity Constellation. It was cloudy and gloomy when we got to Miami around noon on Saturday. Traffic was at a standstill, and as we drove over the bridge to the cruise terminals we could see why – there were seven ships in port! Because the Constellation wasn't on its normal schedule, we were docked at a temporary terminal, which was basically a big, dark tent. Fortunately, it didn’t take long to go through security and check-in, and we were soon on the ship with the whole afternoon to explore.
The Constellation was built in 2002 but for an "older ship", I thought it was beautiful. Well, the outside did look a bit blocky. I heard someone describe it as looking like it was made out of Legos. But the inside was elegantly modern. The hub of the ship was the 3-story atrium with a backlit marble staircase, a specialty coffee shop and a very popular martini bar. One of my favorite parts of the ship was the gorgeous Chihuly glass sculpture that hung outside the Reflections Lounge. With only two days, we didn't even see the whole ship before the cruise was over!