LyndaMutley Cruise Review on Celebrity Constellation on Mar 04, 2019

Celebrity Constellation Cruise Review

LyndaMutley

Contributor Level: Purser

Reviews: 4

Helpful Votes: 44

Overall rating:

3 out of 5

Sail date: March 04, 2019

Ship: Celebrity Constellation

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

4/3/19 - 18/3/19 - 14 night Arabian Sea and India Abu Dhabi-Dubai (overnight stay)-Oman-Cochin India-New Mangalore India-Goa India-Mumbai India-Abu Dhabi (overnight stay) We are two ladies travelling together. We loved the itinerary and were looking forward to this cruise. However, we had such a lot of hassle regarding visas and medication approval that I was quite ill before we left and would rather have postponed this trip. Also my friend broke a bone in her ankle, one week before we left, and was put in a “boot”, which she had to wear all the time, apart from when showering. That meant she even had to sleep in it! I approached Celebrity requesting that we postpone our trip until my friend had recovered, but they refused to allow this! No swimming, therefore, for my friend. I have various illnesses and take very strong medication. I was told that I needed to get “Prior Permission” to take this medication into the UAE for my personal use. WARNING: Allow yourself 3 months to obtain this Permission as I had such a lot of trouble and it took me just over 2 months before I finally got the required paperwork from them! If you have a USA or UK passport then you are told the visa will be added to your passport upon your entry to UAE. But the advice also insisted that it could change at any time and we had to keep checking with the Foreign Office. The Indian Visa is relatively easy to apply for but is expensive. When visiting Oman, the ship gave out a small ‘visa’ card (credit card size), and you hand it back into the ship once you get back onboard. I wish all other ports were like that! We were in a Concierge Cabin, 8047. AVOID THIS CABIN! There is a contraption attached to the balcony which is there permanently whilst at sea. It only moves whilst we are in port and it is used to take the workmen around the ship to touch up paint! 8047 is the docking station! It covers half of the balcony! We had never been told that there is partial obstruction on this balcony. We would never have chosen it if we had known that. Also you do not expect any obstruction on the balconies in Concierge class. After repeated requests we were finally moved into cabin 8124. We accepted the move but the air conditioning was below par but we never bothered to complain. The ship itself is tired and worn, but was kept spotlessly clean by the staff. We were told the ship will be refurbished in a couple of months. Not before time! The food was fantastic and we could not find fault at all, although there are not many options for Speciality Restaurants. The main Dining Room (San Marco) organisation leaves a lot to be desired. We were on Freedom Dining. However if we tried going to dinner there after 7 pm we were provided with a pager and told to wait in the bar. One evening people were left in the bar until 22.00-22.15! Too late to eat! Once you had a table and were seated, mostly things went very well. The food, again, could not be faulted. A few times when the wait for a table in San Marco was over an hour, then we chose to go to The Ocean View self-service restaurant. We happily chose this one for breakfast and lunch, but we would like to be waited on in the evening. But neither of us like eating too late at night. We also enjoyed going to the shows in the Theatre after dinner; so to wait hours for a table would rule that out. The visiting stars in the Theatre were superb. The resident performers were well below par. The “trapeze artists” (2 of them) were very good. The singers and dancers were like a chorus line of amateur artists. Not the standard I have experienced from Celebrity in the past. As we stayed in two different cabins, we had two different cabin boys. Both men were terrific and could not do enough for us. They were friendly and hard-working. Rusmin looked after us in 8047, and then Savio looked after us in 8124. Most of the staff on board were extremely friendly and appeared to be happy in their work. Excursions booked with the ship were extremely expensive and definitely not worth the money. Some of the coaches were in a very poor state. One coach we travelled on practically had the door hanging off! I have always enjoyed Celebrity cruises and been on a few of their ships. Constellation is well and truly ready for its promised refurbishment.

3 Comments

Gwbigdog 2 years ago

Thanks for sharing

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iain54 5 years ago

What medications did you require prior authorisation for? What is the process for getting authorisation?

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coolmood4r 5 years ago

thank you for the review and I hope you and your friend are feeling better thank you again for taking the time to write the informal review

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