We took a Celebrity cruise because friends told us Celebrity is one of the best big cruise lines. We’d previously cruised on Carnival, Princess and Norwegian, and we wanted something more upscale. We selected a 10-day cruise to Italy, Montenegro and Croatia because it stopped at many places we wanted to visit and/or see again.
Our ship, the Celebrity Constellation, was one of the cruise line’s smaller ships, but it had enough restaurants, shows, and activities to make us happy. We stayed in a balcony room, where Pete liked having coffee and reading the NY Post each morning while watching the views of the Meditteranean and Adriatic seas.
The Cruise Director (Sue) was a former London West End performer, and she kept us comfortable and entertained. She also performed on the last night, and wow’d us with her fantastic voice!
The shows were the best we’d ever seen on a cruise and included dancers, singers, unique musicians, a magician, acrobats and more. There were tons of activities, and we liked the evening shows, singers, blackjack tables, and silent disco the best.
The buffet was good (but much smaller than those on other boats), and the main dining room offered delicious food and excellent table service. We also tried two specialty restaurants: Italian and French.
Peter’s birthday was on the last night of the cruise, and the staff went out of their way to celebrate his big day.
While we didn’t get a lot of time at each port and we missed Portfino/Santa Margherita because of the weather, we did enjoy our stops in Florence/Pisa, Sicily, Taranto, Montenegro and Croatia. However, the shore excursions were very expensive and overrated. We took one excursion in Croatia, and we decided to explore the other ports on our own.
Would we travel on Celebrity again? It depends. If we want upscale, we’d choose a different cruise line. This Celebrity cruise wasn’t any more upscale than other big cruise lines we’ve taken. If we take Celebrity again, we’d prefer a larger ship, we wouldn’t request Concierge service again (not worth the money), and we would definitely get a suite!
But overall, we had a very good time, and it was great way to relax before starting the rail portion of our Grand European Adventure.