Setting Sail And Ship Overview

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, it's Zee Michelson, and I am here with the lovely Diana, who just not recently got off a fabulous, fabulous cruise. You were on what ship?

SPEAKER_01 0:10

The constellation, Celebrity Constellation. So how was the ship? The ship was really nice. It's an older ship, one of celebrity's older ships, but you know, went out of Tampa and living in Orlando, it really just was a really nice, you know, drive over there, drive back. So yeah, that was easy. Yeah, but the ship was it was really nice. I mean, they keep their ships up so well. Again, it was the celebrity constellation. Celebrity constellation, yeah, yeah. And how long was the cruise for? It was seven nights, eight days. And again, we went out of Tampa and we did the Western Caribbean. So we went to Cosmell, we went to Costa Rica, and we went to Roatan.

Itinerary And Wave Season Planning

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Well, now we're talking it's just slightly over the new year. Yeah. Wave season is pretty much upon us. So it's time to stop planning cruises. It is, it is.

Aqua Class Perks And Deck Details

SPEAKER_01 1:04

And this was over Thanksgiving. So every year I do a cruise with my dad for Thanksgiving. So yeah, it's really nice. So we always book around January, February. Because that way it gives us time to go ahead and pay for it. And we always get the best selection because we like our cabins close together. Right. So we did the Aqua class this week night, which was really, really nice. So what did you get in the Aqua class? Um outside of, of course, we had our balcony, was very nice, but we had access to the private restaurant blue. Oh, nice. Yeah, which is only available to aqua class guests. Of course, then you also get some of the spa amenities. Like they have the Parisian garden. And inside the Parisian garden, they have those chairs, uh sauna chairs that you sit in and the trial chairs that you sit in. They had a eucalyptus sauna, which I tried out. Really nice. You got discounts on spa amenities. Of course, you they upgrade you with your shampoos and everything, you're all upgraded to spa amenities. It's a aquac. It's aquaclass. Yeah. Both you and your father had separate rooms with a joining. No, no, no. We didn't do adjoining. Okay. Because the ones that we picked weren't neck, you know, were adjoining, but they weren't right next to each other. So it was my husband and myself, and then my dad and his wife. Oh, very nice. Very nice. And we both had balcony. We did. We had balcony. I love a good bath. And you have to have a balcony. But what I found very interesting because all of the aqua class on this particular ship was all on one level. And they did have some suites as well, but it was the highest level. You remember what deck you were on? We were on deck nine. Deck nine. So it was the high, kind of the highest level for a balcony. So when you stepped out on your balcony, it was all covered. It was kind of a covered area. So it wasn't wide open. So if you stepped outside, you didn't have to worry about the sun beaming on you or anything like that. So for those who like to sun make on their balconies, you wouldn't get much of that.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

Not on the aqua classes. I never liked to sunbathe on my balcony.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

But for people who do. I believe that. I believe that. But I do love a good balcony. Yeah. I love to go out on my balcony at night, believe it or not. Yeah. Same here. And you just look out at the stars in the in the water.

Sea Day Rituals And Theater Shows

SPEAKER_01 3:21

It's very common. Oh, it's beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. I mean, in the first thing in the morning, because we had a three C days. So, you know, we get out there, we have our coffee. I went down and got uh specialty coffee every day, you know, because you know, yeah, I like my specialty coffee, my lattes. So I got my specialty coffee, and then we just came back and sat on the balcony and just enjoyed the mornings every morning. Some mornings, you know, they were docking, so we were able to watch them dock. And but uh we did that every single morning, just went and got our specialty coffee. What kind of things were on the ship? Did they have shows on the ship? They did. So they only had so the constellation, again, it's an old Yak ship for celebrity. So their shows weren't magnificent, you know, like you're a Royal Caribbean, you weren't doing the magician who was on there. His name was Joel Myers, and man, well, he was really good. He had two shows. So we did go see him. They had a comedian. Now, these are all the shows in the theater. So they were all in the theater. So when you get on some ships, they have the comedy is in one little area, and they have uh, you know, magician in another area. No, everything was done in the main theater. So they had certain shows, you know, for the main theater only. They did have a it was called a cabaret, a musical cabaret, but it was three three singers, basically. And they sang all of these Broadway hits.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

So it was a nice relaxing evening. Oh, yeah, absolutely. So those were very nice. Yeah. I'm gonna have to ask you about the food.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

Well no, I did not have a bad meal. I really did not have a bad meal. Now I'm not a big breakfast eater, as I mentioned. I kind of just get my coffee and glisted on the balcony. Right. So I'm not a big breakfast eater, so I couldn't really talk too much about breakfast. But the dinners, we went to blue almost every night. And even if the as an aqua class member being uh singing in blue, you also have access to the menu in the main dining room. Oh so you don't have to you don't have to go to the main dining room to experience the food in the main dining room because the menus are different. Right. So then you have your blue, which are all a little more healthier options in blue, and then they have the main dining room menu as well. So um, for example, I had a lobster tail one night. Um my dad had, I don't eat the steak, but my dad had steak and lobster. The lobster tail was a huge lobster tail. Nice. You didn't have it with there wasn't additional upcharge for it or anything like that. And like some places you go. Right. I had, I'm a big soup person. I love different soups. I had a squash soup that they made. Oh yum. Um it was just it all just different different types of food.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

Uh what else did I add? Now a lot of people think that once they're in like the aquaciliths, if they can't go and utilize any of the other amenities on the ship, but that's not true. Oh, we can do whatever they want. Oh, yeah, absolutely. This just gives you access to something more.

Dining In Blu And Menu Highlights

SPEAKER_01 6:23

A little extra. A little extra, exactly. And having that private dining room, these primary single. It's only that one entire floor, you know, the ninth, the ninth floor that has access to that, you know, particular dining room. So that was kind of nice. They do serve breakfast there as well. And then the buffet. Oh my goodness, every night the buffet was something different. I mean, we did we take a walk through there and it was always different foods. Um, the desserts, oh my gosh, they had a chocolate fountain one night. They had uh, of course, for Thanksgiving, they had pumpkin pie and pecan pie, and you know, they had turkey, of course, you know, for Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

No, because it was close to Thanksgiving where the ship's decorated for the holiday.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

So it was really funny because we got on the ship on a Sunday. Okay. And two days into the ship, I get up the next morning and the entire ship's decorated for Christmas. I'm like, it was like all of a sudden you wake up with Christmas. So yes, they decorated the entire ship for Christmas, which was really, really nice. They had all their Christmas trees up, but it happened just like that overnight. It's like everybody's asleep, and then all of a sudden, you know, it's like Santa.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

Yeah, of Christmas. Christmas time, yeah. Well, that's nice. Yeah, it was it's a fun thing. Now you said it was a seven-day cruise. Seven nights. Seven nights. Eight days. Eight days. And you went to where?

SPEAKER_01 7:38

We went to Cozumel, Mexico, which I'd been to. Right. Um, so when we got off the ship, we really didn't do too much, just kind of walked around. Went downtown. Right. Had this little one of my favorite little restaurants that I go to the downtown area. In Casumel. In Cozumel. Well, you can give them a cheap shameless plug. What would you do? Well, I'd like to, but I can't remember the name of it because I can't say it. Because it's Mexican. But it's right in the downtown area. And uh I go there all the time and I always just get a couple of tacos and you know, a couple of cervezas. Right. You know, we just just sat and enjoyed. And I like to watch people, so it was fun, you know, sat there and enjoy it. Yeah. And then so that was one day. So it was one day. Yeah. Then we went to a Rowatan. Oh, you went to Rowatan. Rowatan Honduras. Yeah. We didn't do much in Rowaton either. We just kind of it was a tender. You know, we had a tender in us.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Okay. People don't know what a tender is. Basically, it's a smaller boat that brings you to the dock area. So it's the boat is too large to dock. Correct. So you tender over.

Holiday Decor And Port Flow

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Yeah. And in Rotan, they don't have a lot of docks in Rotan. I think they only have like two docks. So it's more of a first come first serve kind of thing. So we had to tender. So we just kind of walked around the main area there. As soon as you get off in Ruotan, it's very it's to me, it's very just very touristy. Right. They have this little it's like a sky. Like a zipline? No, it was a zipline. It's where you sit in it. Like a sky, what is it called? Uh goodness. Like a gandola. But it's, you know, it goes through the and it took you over the the forest, the rainforest, and we did that and turned around and came back. And so it was just a very relaxed.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

A little excured in distribute one.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Yeah, no, nothing. And that was in Rowatan. Yeah, that was in Ruotan. Then the last day, and those were back to back. So each day, so you were in Mexico, then you were in Rotan. Then we went to Costamaya. Now Costamaya is actually the port name. Right. And Costamaya is owned by Royal Caribbean. Right. So Royal Caribbean is only Royal Caribbean ships that actually docked there. Right. So of course, celebrity is owned by Royal Caribbean.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Celebrity of Vem Royal Caribbean.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

Yeah, so it was really nice because there were still four ships there, but they were all Royal Caribbean ships. And Costamaya itself is so much shopping. You don't, you really, really do not have to go venture off very far. Right. There's so much shopping. There's a pool right there. Of course, they have places where you can have beverages. So this is not like one of their private islands. No, it's not a private island at all because it's part of Mexico. Right. So if you venture out, which we did, and we actually did a uh shore excursion that I got from a shore excursion group, who I absolutely love. I love booking through them. And we did a Mayan experience. Oh. So we went to the some of the Mayan ruins. It was Chochaban. Okay. Um, Mayan ruins. Right. And we walked through the ruins and we we got a tour of that. And then they took us to an old Mayan village. Ooh. Yeah. And the there were actually Mayan women. You got to make tortillas there. You made your own tortilla. They served you an old-fashioned Mayan lunch with hibiscus tea. Right. We made fresh hibiscus tea, right? Right there. I mean, from they showed us where the hibiscus came from. I mean, everything was right there in their little village. So that was an amazing short version. Yeah. Yeah. It was really, really a lot of fun to um experience that. And that was in Costumaya.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Costumaya. Ah. Yeah. In naturally you do an excursion, which is really good. Yeah. So that makes it fun. I always advise people to do excursions with proper excursion companies this way in Olive and Delhi.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

Yeah. And I uh completely agree with you. You know, speaking, you know, we both have been in business a long time, you know. But if you don't book them on the cruise line yourself, um make sure that you go with the reputable company. And short excursion group, uh, I am plugging them. I don't know for no reason other than I actually have booked a lot of my short excursions with. And what was the name of the Symphony? Short Excursion Group. Oh, Shore Excursion Group is the name of the Symphony. Yeah, Shore Excursion Group. Very nice, very nice. Yeah, and it's amazing, amazing company, very small groups. We only had, I think there are maybe eight of us in this group, so they're always a small group. Right. Which is really nice because you're not traveling with 40, 50, you know, people from the cruise line. And the prices are reasonable as well.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

Yes. Right.

Cozumel Strolls And People Watching

SPEAKER_01 12:11

And they had the lunch and everything else. Yeah, we got the lunch. We we got we went to the ruins. Our guide was amazing. She was uh English speaking guide, you know, from Mexico, and she was really, really amazing. And so yeah, it was a it was really, really a good excursion. That's the only excursion we did because I've been to the uh, you know, all these locations before.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

So you've been there before. So you wanted something new and exciting, which is nice, and it's good that they spoke English. And I've been to Mexico several times, and most of most of the reputable companies will have people that speak both languages, which is really good. Because I talk to a lot of people and say, Well, I don't speak any Spanish. Well, you you don't have to know it. No, you know, it's nice to know a few words, yeah. Yeah, so that's good. So that was that was one of your excursions. Yes. And that was in Costamaya again.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

That was in Costamaya, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

So now where did you go?

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Well, after that, that was it, you know. And then we had a day at sea, and then we headed back. So um on the ship, shopping, of course. Right. You know, I loved it. What did you buy? Love to shop, love shop, love to shop. They had, of course, you know, the cruise lines that you've ever sailed before, they have all of these different events that they're due. Right. No, and all, but I'm not into some of the the pool events and all of that. So we'd say bingo, of course. Sending went anything. Oh, yarns. What else do we do? Oh, casino. They do have a casino as well on the constellation. It's a smaller casino, it's not really, really large.

Roatán Tendering And Sky Ride

SPEAKER_00 13:39

Of course. But the ship is not that big, it's not one of those 9,000 passenger ships. Right. They have a nice, it's about 24, 4,500 passengers, I believe. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, and so it's a nice size ship. Right. So you're not overly crowded. Now it is celebrity. I know that celebrity caters mainly to the adult market, but there's probably children on board. There were. And I know that they have their clubs, their kids. Yep, they do. We're sweating the parents can get a little break from the kids. Yeah. And you didn't have any kids with you. Nope.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

No, nope, no kids. I was the kid. I was the kid. I was my dad's kid.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

You know.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Yeah. So they definitely do have things for the kids. And and I know they have like the teenage thing, because we saw all the teenagers, you know, out and about, you know, yeah. Loving life.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

And right, you know. Their parents were somewhere else or making do their own thing.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Exactly. Yeah. So that was that was fun. Now, did you try any of their specialty restaurants? You know, I didn't. We didn't. I didn't. Because we had access to blue. Right. Now, they don't have a lot of specialty restaurants. I think they only had three. So they only have a couple. Yeah, they had the Japanese, uh, which is sushi and it's a kind of a steakhouse. Then they also had steakhouse itself, steak and seafood house. Right. Itself. Again, we didn't partake in any of the dining uh specialty dining at all. So then they have the chef's table where the chef actually cooks right there for you. Yeah. So that but we didn't do that either. We didn't do that either. And then they had whiskey tasting. Oh, whiskey tasting. Yeah, you could do whiskey tastings. They had a scotch tasting, a whiskey tasting on board. So if you're whiskey or scotch drinker, right? They had of course. Yeah, they had wine, wine tastings, different wine tastings as well. Those are all like excursions. And these are these are extra.

Costa Maya Shopping And Mayan Experience

SPEAKER_00 15:27

These little little tidbits, as I call them. They are. But if you're into things like you know wanting to taste the scotch and things like that, you know, when I went over to Ireland and Scotland, I was tasting, I was tasting scotch. Yeah. Yeah. And it's part of the excursion.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

Oh, yeah. Yeah. They also have, which I believe my dad wanted to do. I don't think he did it, but they also have a behind the scenes tour that you can do. And as like of the kitchen and things like that. Very cool. And as a captain's club member, because I am a captain's club member, you know, then we've been on the ship a long time. We've been on a couple of cruises. Um, as a captain's club, we were invited to a special event just for the Captain's Club. And they let us on the helipad, like on the very front of the ship. That called the bow of the ship, the front. Yeah, the front of the ship. So where is there's a big helipad right there. Right. And so they opened that up and they had us out there for about 15, 20 minutes. They had a uh a horn off with another ship where they were, you know, yeah, trying to meet against each other's horns, you know, their their home, you know. So and nobody tried to do the Titanic. They wouldn't allow that. That was actually but blocked off a little bit, but but that would have been nice to see. Sure. So that was kind of an interesting.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

You know, so as a captain's club member, you get you know different parts of the two and you know, and in order to be a captain's club member, you have to be on so many stalyprims, become and it's it's a way that people get a little extra when they're staling and they're foozing around.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

After your very first one, after your very first one, you're Captain's Captain Family. So that's all you gotta do is one you're good to go. One and keep going. Yeah, and keep going. Now I do enjoy celebrity. But you've got your Royal Caribbean, you've got all of their large ships and their big ships. I mean they have smaller ships too. Right. And I I love Royal Caribbean, but celebrity is nice because again, it does it does cater to a little bit higher end. Right. You know, you have you don't have as many kids. Yes, there are, you know, it's things for the kids, absolutely. But and this was this was great because it was Thanksgiving cruise. Um, and a lot of families travel during that time.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

So you said you were you were sailing out of Tampa.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

And we sailed out of Tampa, which was very convenient, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

Yeah, very convenient. Yeah, because I know this there are smaller ships that are out of Tampa because Tampa has that big bridge.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

Yeah, big ships can't go that way. Yeah, yeah, and that's so cool to go under. And every time we leave it, you know, it's always dark because we get there, you know, sick because it's not it's not real close. I mean, you're it takes about a bit of hour before you reach the bridge once you leave the port, yeah. So and it's always beautiful to go under leaving and all lit up, yeah. And this time it was lit up with uh Christmas green, um green and uh red, you know. So it was yeah, Christmas time, so it was all lit up. So that was it was beautiful. It was beautiful. Tampa's a great port to go out of. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

And it's convenient. It's convenient, it's easy. Yeah. And they do have a lot of ships that go out of Tampa, but people don't realize that the ships do go out of Tampa.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

Yeah, and they have some great parking over there too. You know, we did a we did a parking which was almost directly across the street from the the port. So that's nice too. Kind of inexpensive, 10 bucks.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

Oh, wow, that's not bad at all. Not bad. So, and that was part of the port.

Small-Group Excursions And Tips

SPEAKER_01 18:42

Uh, it was a separate, yeah, separate. I think it's called parking cruise. Yeah, parking parking cruise. I always recommend flying parking cruise. Uh-huh. I always recommend, you know, not parking at the pier and because they can take you right to the pier. Yeah. I mean the shuttles. You know, I can tell you the shuttle service back depending on when you leave, I mean early enough, or you if you leave a little later, but when you leave at the same time everybody else does, you might have to wait a little while. Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

Then you're waiting a little while. Now, did you have any evenings where you guys really, as I call it, put on the door where you guys dressed up or Oh yeah, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:19

They had two evenings where you could dress up. Yeah, they had their elegant night. Elegant. Yeah, their elegant night, you know, where you take your photos and everything like that. But um, I'm noticing more and more, and I've been cruising for years now. Well, years. I'm talking, you know, since I was five. You know, so about 20 years now. So I'm noticing that m more less and less people actually take advantage of elegant night. Right. You know. So we dress up because we wanted to get some family pictures. So I think it's more about the family pictures and it is actually about, you know, the elegant night and uh you know, we don't we don't s we didn't sit at the captain's table or anything like that. You know, we just had we just went to

SPEAKER_00 20:05

So it sounded like you had a very relaxing cruise. Yeah, it was. It was. And most people don't realize that they can they can do both. They can do a relaxing cruise and just enjoy the sea and some of the excursions. Or they can keep running if they want. Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

Yeah, you know, my my dad is 80 years old, so he's in bed pretty early. You know. Right. Well, he was in bed probably about nine o'clock. And of course, my husband and I are are not that early. Right. So we stay up until 10 30. 10. Once they went to bed, you know, uh, we we went ahead and just ventured off and you know, it was just very relaxing. We went and had a glass of wine. Oh, they have the martini bar where they actually have the ice on the bar. Oh wow. So that was a lot of fun. You could sit there and you they make your your martinis, any kind of martinis you want. Right. You just leave them sitting there on the ice and you know.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

And again, it was the celebrity constantly. So that's one one of many of the celebrity cruise service ships that they have. Yeah. It is a nice ship. And even though you kept referring to it as an older ship, they always do the upgrades on their ship.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

Oh, absolutely. And that's what I mean. The ship was in immaculate condition. Even even the the cabin was very, very nice. They're clean. They're not, you know, the balconies were always uh our our steward was amazing. Oh no. Um always, you know, greeted us and said hello, the service was outstanding, the food was great. Right. And I've been on a lot of ships, and I I've never ever had a bad experience with celebrity.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

That's good. So I like to hear that. Never had a bad experience on celebrity. Not yet. And it's and it's time. It's time. Now is the time to stop looking your celebrity cruises for sure. Yeah. Well, Diana, it has been a pleasure sitting here talking to you about cruises. I'm gonna have to get on one myself soon again. Yeah. Because it's been a while since we need to go together. Oh, yeah, that'll be fun. We might be able to do a podcast live. Well, thank you again. And again, thank you for listening today. I am Z Michelson. And remember, when you're traveling, reach for those stars. And if you can only get to the moon, at least you made the trip. Thanks for listening.