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Celebrity Cruise Line

GTS Constellation

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Reviewed by: Patrick Wetter
# previous cruises: 10+
Date of Trip: May 12, 2002
Itinerary: Europe

The GTS Constellation is the brand new flagship of Celebrity Cruises. With 91000 grt it has a length of 294 m and a beam of 32,20 m (Panamax size). A completely new design makes this ship looking fantastic from her exteriors. It appears to be smaller than it really is unless you stay right in front of the ship. It's a spectacular ship throughout.

The ship features many different lounges. The Celebrity theater is one of the largest afloat (3 decks high). You will find the dining-room on two levels, the Maritini-Bar, the Rendez-Vous-Bar, the Reflections night-club, the mast-Bar, the Marina Bar, the Aqua Spa pool-center fully covered by a glass-dome, the fitness and health Spa, a kids-club, the wonderful Ocean Liners Restaurant, the Seaside grill and buffet, the most beautiful Michael's Club, a well proportioned casino a huge shopping gallery, an atrium over 3 floors only (perfectly thought out) and an enormous medical center.

On the decks you will find two swimming-pools, two whirlpools, a jogging track, and a sport deck.On the Millennium class ships they did not feature a dance lounge but, believe me, it is not even needed.

About the building quality: It is definitely not Meyer-Werft-standard !!! On the first view the ship looks excellent but if you look closer you can see that the quality of building and the material is not the best (doors doesn't really close, some parts were painted in a rush, some metal-pieces didn't fit together due to a bad cutting, the deck-floors were made of a plastic material which breaks if you step too hard on it...) I guess that in 5 years the ship will look worse than the Century-class ships.

The security officer onboard has told us that Chantiers has put the oldest available life-boat-technic on this ship. Meyer already several years ago used a much better system. He said as well that he does not understand why there are still ships being build at Chantiers de l'Atlantique. Celebrity will definitely have their next ship being constructed at the Meyer Werft again.

The food was excellent, just as always on Celebrity Cruises. Even though it was the maiden cruise, the service worked out very good from the first moment. Only the menus in foreign languages were not found right away but were provided afterwards at time. Service was very friendly and professional. You have the choice between the main dining-room, a casual ding or lunch in the Seaside-buffet, the Seaside grill including a pizzeria.

As well there is the wonderful Ocean Liners speciality restaurant where food is prepared at the table (on this cruise by Michel Roux himself !)and you can also eat in the fine wine-cellar. It costs an additional 25 US $ and needs to reserved in advance. Some original panels of the French Line's Ile de Provence are fitted in this restaurant.

At the buffet you never felt any crowding. there was enough space and enough food for everybody. Also the midnight buffets and the fruit buffet at the pool was excellent.

Cabins compared to Zenith or Century-class ships were a bit smaller but equipped with the same features (interactive TV, Minibar, safe, bathroom with shower and hairdryers. There has been an armchair which took away too much space and should have been replaced by a normal chair. A little table was not useful either.

Wheelchair-cabins are much larger (the double of a standard cabin) and feature huge bathrooms. The Penthouse-suites have lots of space featuring living-room, a dress-room, two bedrooms, a huge bathroom, a guest-bathrooms, lots of storage space, a huge balcony with jacuzzi and bar and a jacuzzi inside too. Only the decor could have been more tasteful (some things do not really match together). But well done !

The shows were rather poor compared to what Celebrity used to have onboard their ships before. Only one broadway-style show was provided at the beginning. The other shows did only consist of single artists who did a good job. But with the technics they have, they could provide much more sophisticated shows and spectacles.

A duo used to play in the Rendez-Vous Lounge which was very good. The Celebrity-experienced Onyx Band did an excellent job ! They used to play on deck and in the Reflections Lounge in the early evening until the disco started.

The cruise-director Ray Carr, actually a guy who seems to know his work, did only speak English. No game, no presentation or show was made in any other language than English. Compared to the many foreign people from Spain, Switzerland and Germany, he should have translated his announcements in other languages as well.

Only announcements via loud-speakers were made in three different languages but the system didn't really work and it was nearly not to understand what they announced. Due to this the life-boat drill was a little catastrophe. On our station nobody ever understood what has been said...Here they have to work hard to solve problems.

We started in Barcelona and went to Monaco, Ajaccio, Civitavecchia, Naples, La Valletta and back to Barcelona. A fantastic itinerary which you can do without booking any of the over-priced excursions. For kids there has been a professional team onboard which took care of them during the day at the kids corner.

We used to spend much time at the Aqua Spa which is probably the most beautiful room on the ship, totally enclosed by glass. As well the reflections lounge provided very good music by Onyx and the disco later on was good too.

A spectacular pool-party took place the fifth day at sea in the evening. I would say it was even better than on the AIDA-ships.

Actually we didn't get any real contact since we had a table for 4 people only. Fellow passengers were from the US, Japan, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Russia and from some other countries as well. Like I used to say, the ship is too large to provide a familiar atmosphere. But anyway you never felt crowded in any place at any time. With 1900 passengers only the ship provides a space-ratio of 46,6 which is extremely high. All together it was a very good cruise and I recommend the ship to everybody !