Celebrity Constellation – Two Days, Too Short

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!

Grand Foyer

San Marco Main Dining Room

Dale Chihuly Sculpture

Our cabin this trip (6023) had a balcony. We'd only had a balcony cabin once before and that was the year I was sick and had gotten insomnia from the antibiotics. I hadn't enjoyed the balcony at all that cruise - in fact I was terrified the whole time that I would jump off of it in a moment of sleep-deprived insanity. But when we booked the Constellation, the cruise line was offering a special price on balcony cabins for Florida residents for just a few dollars more than the ocean view cabins. We couldn't pass it up! It was great to be able to watch the sail away from the cabin while getting ready for dinner, to step out and see the sunrise, or to open the door and hear the waves. The only disadvantage to the balcony was that sound carried. Our next-door neighbors were a group of young girls who woke us up at 2 o'clock the first night, shouting and laughing out on their balcony. Thank goodness, we had brought our white noise machine and that solved that problem.

The cabin had nice amenities – robes in the closet, umbrella, a complimentary beach bag and chocolates on the pillow at night. It seems that cruise lines have cut so many of the "little things" that used to make cruising special. That's how they've been able to keep prices the same as they were when we started cruising 20 years ago. But I'm glad that some ships still welcome you with champagne and put chocolates on the pillow.

We watched the Constellation set sail from Miami from the Sunset Bar at the back of the ship. It was quite a sight, the parade of mega-ships heading out to sea. The new Celebrity ship, Reflection, passed us in the channel. Since Mama and Daddy will be cruising on Reflection in April, I took a few pictures for them. The skies were still gloomy and the Sunset Bar felt crowded so we went back down to our cabin. Just before the sun went down, the clouds broke and we had a glorious view of Miami fading into the distance.

Celebrity Reflection

Then it was off to dinner! We had dinner both nights in the San Marco main dining room. We had signed up for Select Seating, which is like Royal Caribbean's My Time Dining (you went to the restaurant whenever you were ready to eat instead of being assigned to a set dining time). The first night we ate at a table for two. I was excited to see escargot on the menu since they didn’t have it on our last cruise. Ron and I ate three plates! I also ordered mushroom soup and helped Ron eat his Ahi tuna salad. My pork chop main course was a bit blah but dessert more than made up for it - a plate of profiteroles with praline ice cream and chocolate sauce. Yum! The second night, we didn’t get to the dining room until later and all the tables for two were taken. We shared a 6-top with very nice tablemates, a couple from the Pompano Beach area and a mother and daughter from Clearwater. Neighbors! Another delicious meal - I had escargot (again), spinach salad and shrimp scampi.

I thought the food on Constellation was very good. They had a pasta station at the buffet at lunchtime and sushi in the evenings. Every cruise, I seem to find one food that I can't get enough of. One cruise it was the fresh watermelon. Another time it was the hotdogs at the grill (which is weird since I don't normally like hot dogs). This cruise it was the ice cream! The buffet had a station with 7 or 8 different flavors of hand-dipped ice cream and all kinds of toppings. I ate bowls of it. My favorite was the cinnamon ice cream with chocolate sprinkles, but the After Eight (mint chocolate chip) was a close second.

As far as entertainment, we didn't go to any of the shows and just made our own fun. We spent some time in the casino, playing Black Jack. Ron won. I lost but brought home another $1 chip for my collection. We also enjoyed the martini bar, watching the bartenders pour 6 or 7 martinis at one time. The drinks were great, especially my banana split martini which had rum, fresh strawberries, banana schnapps and a drizzle of chocolate. Mmmmm. My only complaint about the cruise was that there never seemed to be enough bartenders anywhere. Maybe there are more drinkers on 2-day cruises and they weren't prepared.

On Sunday, we woke up to a beautiful sunrise over Nassau. We had pre-booked day passes at the RIU Palace Paradise Island, an all-inclusive hotel on Cabbage Beach, so after a big buffet breakfast we headed off the ship. It took a while to get to RIU because we were held hostage by a taxi driver who wouldn't leave until he had filled up his van. We heard "2 more minutes" at least 5 times. (I think that's what they call "Island Time".) But finally we made it to the RIU. The weather was perfect so we stretched out on some lounge chairs and soaked up the sun. We also took a long walk up and down Cabbage Beach. The waves were huge and we saw quite a few people get tumbled in the surf.

After lunch, we decided to walk down to the Cloisters, the remains of a 14th century French monastery now located on the property of the One and Only Ocean Club (where parts of the James Bond movie 'Casino Royale' were filmed). The stones were brought to the US from France in the 1920's by William Randolph Hearst, then moved again to the Bahamas in 1962. Unfortunately, no one had taken note of how to reassemble the structure so the present layout probably isn't quite like the original. It was still a beautiful and peaceful place to visit. While I wandered the gardens with my camera, Ron enjoyed the view of the sailboats and mansions across Nassau Harbor.

Nassau Harbor

Lego Ship?

Cabbage Beach

The Cloisters

Around 4 o'clock, it was time to pack up the beach bag and head back to the ship. It was a perfect day and a great cruise, but over too soon. When the ship pulled out of Nassau, we waved from our balcony. We’ll be back!