20260111 Celebrity Constellation Western Caribbean Day 1 - Home to Tampa to Sailing

Celebrity Constellation Western Caribbean Day 1 – Driving to Tampa for a short week at sea

If you regularly follow our travels, you know that we tend to take long trips. 30 days, 90 days, 163 days - we go for the big ones. But, sometimes, a short trip is in order, and this is one of those. Today, we embarked on the Celebrity Constellation. The Constellation is one of Celebrity's older ships. Built in 2002, it holds only 2,170 passengers and 999 crew. Certainly larger than the 600 to 900-passenger ships that we've sailed on lately, but tiny when compared to the newest ships approaching 7,000 passengers. Smaller ships have to operate from Tampa because the larger ones can't fit under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.

It's funny. When we cruise on the smaller ships, many passengers tell us that there is no way they would cruise on those big ships. Of course, they've never done it, so they have no idea what they're talking about, but hey, to each their own. For us, every class of ship we've sailed on, from Royal Caribbean's 6,500-passenger Oasis-class to Celebrity's former 48-passenger Galapagos ship, each one has its pluses and minuses. The same holds true for cruise lines. We've sailed on Carnival, Princess, Disney, Seabourn, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Regent Seven Seas, Oceania, Viking Ocean, Viking River, and Viking Expedition. We have upcoming trips on American Cruise Lines, Viking Ocean, Silversea, and Seabourn. Like the various ship sizes, each cruise line has its own pluses and minuses. We can find good in all of them. Most of the cruise lines have shiny new ships. Constellation was last refurbished in 2024, adding new tech and features, making it a more modern ship than its 20+ year heritage.

Packing for a week is generally a simple task for us. We could probably get away with just a carry-on bag. Shorts, dress slacks, a few shirts, and we're good to go. But...Celebrity is one of those cruises that still has formal nights. Their dress code states that this is strictly optional and the usual smart casual evening attire, like slacks and a polo or button-down shirt, is perfectly acceptable. We decided to forgo the fancy duds this cruise and make it a casual week.  What that means is additional packing space won't be needed for a suit, dress shirts, and dress shoes. Since we are planning to snorkel, that means more space for snorkel gear, as we prefer ours to the cheap stuff the tour operators use.

Here is the itinerary for the next week. We have previously visited all three ports.

1. Sunday - drive to Tampa and sail
2. Monday - sea day
3. Tuesday - Cozumel, Mexico - taking a day trip to the Mayan pyramids at Chichén Itzá, the sixth of the seven wonders of the modern world that we will visit, and the main purpose for this trip
4. Wednesday - Belize City, Belize - we will be snorkeling the barrier reef 
5. Thursday - Costa Maya. Mexico - we have no definite plan for this day - just explore around the port
6. Friday - sea day
7. Saturday - sea day
8. Sunday - return to Tampa and drive home

We left the house around 10:30 am and picked up our friends, Tom & Donna, who are cruising with us. We made the 90-minute drive to Port Tampa, parking in the ramp right across from the cruise terminal. It is very convenient, albeit a little pricey at $145 for the week. We unloaded our bags, said goodbye to the truck, and walked the block to the luggage drop-off.

Once our luggage was checked, we went through the check-in process. Left the house at 10:30, onboard at 12:45. Not bad.

Since our rooms weren't ready, we headed to the buffet for lunch. This is where we experienced our first lack of customer service. We ordered a drink from the bar waiter. He asked for our room keys so he could see that we had a drink package. We told him that they asked us to stay away from the rooms until 1:30, but we are in 9061, so he could verify it. He said that without a room key, he couldn't do anything, and that we could go get our keys. I explained that they expressly asked folks to stay clear of rooms, but he said that was wrong.

So...I went to the room, retrieved our keys, and returned to the restaurant. He rather snugly said, "See, I was right.", and proceeded to get our drinks.

This underscores the difference between a mainstream cruise line like Celebrity and a top-tier line like Viking, Seabourn, and others. Customer service. On top-tier lines, you're never told, "no". They find a way to do things. And, they never would follow it up by rubbing it in your face. So, sadly, strike #1 for Celebrity. What's even funnier is that later in the evening, we stopped at a bar for a nightcap, and rather than look at our key cards, they just asked for our room number. Ahh, customer service.

Lunch itself was fine. The food was good, not great, but the number of people milling about in the buffet was annoying. It was difficult to find a table to sit at and eat. Getting to the food was a challenge as well as people were bouncing about everywhere. I'm hopeful that this was a first-day issue, but we'll see tomorrow at breakfast.

After lunch, we went to the room and checked it out. We couldn't unpack as our bags had not been delivered yet. Here's a look at 9061, an Aqua Class balcony room.

Entering through the small entryway

A decent closet with plenty of hangers - the left door opens as well

An extra closet with five drawers, a safe, and a couple of loaner umbrellas

The modest bathroom

The shower is small but functional - better than we experienced on Princess or NCL

The smallish room, roughly 200 square feet

The desk - some storage is available in the cabinets - a nice touch is the loaner binoculars on the top shelf - a not so nice touch is the complete lack of power options - zero USB ports and only two 110V plugs in the room, plus two 220V plugs

A look back at the room and the tiny TV and barely functional fridge - it wasn't cold, plus everything in it costs extra

The small balcony with the massive overhang - no chance of getting a sunburn out here

We wandered around after that, checking out the shops and other venues.

We made our way to the Reflections Lounge for the first general knowledge trivia of the cruise. We failed miserably. Here are our misses.

• What are the holes in Swiss cheese called?
• We didn't know they were called eyes
• In what country were bagels invented?
• We guessed the U.S., but bagels are originally from Poland
• What technique did Van Gogh use when he painted Sunflowers?
• We had no idea it was Impasto
• What are the three longest rivers in Asia?
• We knew the Yangtze and Yellow, but missed the Mekong
• What is the only Beatles song on a studio album without lyrics
• We had no idea it was Flying - we played it in the room and never heard it before
• What animals are on the Mexican flag?
• We knew there was a snake, but forgot about the eagle

Preparing to sail

Unusual art on the pool deck

After that, we went to the room where our bags were waiting for us. We got unpacked and met Michael, our friendly cabin steward. We sailed right on time at 4:00, sailing through Tampa Bay.

Two other ships sailed out behind us - the Carnival Miracle, that we have sailed on three times before, and the Norwegian Dawn

5:00 arrived, and it was time to meet our friends at the Martini Bar. We enjoyed some pre-dinner cocktails before heading to Blu, the restaurant reserved for guests in Aqua Class cabins. Shortly after our appetizers arrived, we sailed under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and departed Tampa Bay.

The low height of this bridge prevents larger ships from making port in Tampa

After dinner, we met our friends in the theater for comedy from Tony Esposito. He was disarming because he didn't seem like he would be funny, but we were all laughing throughout his entire show.

We stopped by the shops for the requisite first night giveaways - of course, we came away empty-handed. We headed to the room and called it a night.

So, to sum up today, getting to the ship was great. Getting onto the ship was smooth and issue-free. The size of the ship is nice - not too big, not too small. It is decorated nicely, ape with fish notwithstanding, but the rooms show their age with none of the tech niceties of newer ships. Lunch was a little worrisome - we'll see how tomorrow goes. Dinner was fine, and tonight's show was entertaining.

Tomorrow, we will be at sea as we make our way toward Cozumel on Tuesday. We'll be checking out the activities and making a day of it at sea.