Travel and Embarkation Days - Nov 5-6, 2022 - Celebrity Constellation - Penthouse Experience - Western Caribbean Cruise

 The days before a vacation seem to go by so slowly and then you get the flu, scramble to pack after recovering, blink, and realize that day has arrived.  Well, maybe the flu isn't usually part of a pre-vacation timeline....  

Our morning started early with a 3:45 a.m. alarm.  We were packed and pulling out of the parking garage at 4:30 a.m. only to struggle to get CarPlay to work.  We had been hoping to take our new (to us) car but knew it had seemed a little glitchy with the GPS since picking it up.  After a few restarts and a trip around the block, we retrieved the keys to our other car and transferred luggage and were finally on our way by about 5:00 a.m. (Central Time).

Traffic was quite quiet making for a nice early morning drive and beautiful sunrise. 

Last night, we started seeing signs that our Belize port may be dropped due to damage from Hurricane Lisa that hit a few days earlier.  On the drive down, we received the official e-mail with the substitution of Costa Maya, Mexico plus a little extra time in Cozumel because the two ports are so close together.

With two gas stops and a quick lunch, we found ourselves pulling into our hotel the TownePlace Suites near the Tampa airport a little after 3:00 p.m. (Eastern Time).

We booked a 2 bedroom suite as Paul's Mom was traveling with us.  Here are a few photos:

Here are the views from our windows - we can see the planes landing although the building is well insulated so you really don't hear much.

We picked up Paul's Mom from the airport a little after 4:30 p.m. and then returned to the hotel where we relaxed and ordered delivery asian food from Pei Wei for dinner, it was amazing.  Tomorrow is cruise day!  And it is the change to standard time so we will put our clocks back an hour (which will feel like our home time zone before the return to standard time).  This cruise is going to allow us not to feel the effects of the time change until we return home at the end.

I spent some time this evening sorting through the dinner menus which are starting to look a little more final and trying to figure out how we need to tweak our dinner reservations with a change in port.  Now that we are docking in Costa Maya, I will want to watch sail away.

The next morning, cruise day finally arrived.  After breakfast at the hotel, we were in the car by 10:30 a.m. on our way to the port!

There was quite a line of cars at the port when we arrived and a law enforcement officer directing traffic.  

We soon made our way to the drop off point, handed our luggage to a porter and our car to the valet before heading to the line.   We easily found the suite line and all I had to mention to the very efficient and kind lady at the front was that we were the penthouse and she was escorting us past a zig zag of people and even having people lined up at security move their things back so we could send our carry ons through the scanner.  It appeared that they were not letting any non-suites go through security likely because there was very little waiting room past security.  We were directed to an empty counter with staff ready to check us in and a table of drinks and snacks set up for our benefit.

After checking in, they brought us to a small open area at the bottom of the escalators that would take us to the gangway.  Most chairs were taken and many people were standing but they quickly found us chairs so we could rest while we waited.  It wasn't long before they directed us to the gangway at about 11:30 a.m.  Once in the gangway, we had a short wait and then they moved us into the atrium to wait a few more minutes until they had the all clear that the Coast Guard had finished their inspection.  We were then among the first to scan our boarding passes and enter the ship.

Concierge Kaya immediately greeted us and escorted us to our rooms to drop off our carry ons and then to Luminae for lunch.  

Even though we were about 10 minutes early for lunch, she called someone and a waiter came out to immediately seat us.

I was a little disappointed they had switched the lunch menus so I didn't get to start my trip with Prawn Ceviche, one of my favorites but that disappointment didn't last long.  Milo, the sommelier quickly introduced himself (and we reminded him we had met a year ago), and found us some good champagne.

Our muster station was the Rendezvous Lounge, right outside of Luminae so we stopped there after a tasty lunch, watched the safety video on our phones, and then had our cards scanned by the crew designated at our station.  Our next stop was the concierge.  We sat down with Kaya and adjusted our dinner plans for Tuscan Grill so that we could watch sail away from Costa Maya (a replacement port for Belize due to hurricane damage).  She also helped us get booked on a shore excursion to the Chacchoben Mayan Ruins.  The app wouldn't let me book the excursion because they had not officially cancelled the Belize excursion that was at roughly the same time.

By then, Kaya expected our room would be ready and so we headed to fully investigate the suite of a lifetime.  And oh what a suite this is!  Here is a short video of just my first impressions.   A full room tour will also follow.

There is a butler's pantry with a stocked fridge and two bottles of liquor of our choice.

The living room is large enough that it holds a baby grand piano, full living room set, and a dining room table that seats eight.  In addition to the butler's pantry, there is also a guest bathroom with shower, multiple closets, and the master bedroom with a huge bathroom.  It's actually a bit of a maze to find your way around and the deck is large enough and wraps around such that you can lose someone on it.

Here is a full room tour that also includes the adjoining Sky Suite that Paul's Mom had.

About 2:30 p.m., our butler briefly stopped in to introduce himself.  He was clearly in a hurry and didn't spend much time with us which turned out to be a theme of the cruise.  He was really good about bringing us specialty coffees and pastries in the morning but pretty inconsistent on the rest and a lot of requests just got ignored or required repeated follow up.  It was disappointing especially after reading others' stories online of the good experiences they have had with butlers in upper suites on Celebrity but that disappointment could not overcome the amazement we had with the room itself.

After exploring the room, we finally found ourselves relaxing on our huge deck. 

Laughing Gull

Testing the lifeboats

Laughing Gull

Ready for sail away

At one point before we sailed away, Paul went up on deck to see if he could figure out where the valet parked our car.  The location services in the Lincoln app gave him a general idea where it was but he wasn't able to definitively figure out where it was parked.  He did get a nice photo of the X though.

We watched sail away from our deck and then about 6:00 p.m. our butler brought us Sushi from Sushi on 5 for dinner which was very good.

A little after 8:00 p.m., we approached the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.

We finished the evening relaxing on our deck and in our suite.

At Sea - Nov 7, 2022 - Celebrity Constellation - Penthouse Experience - Western Caribbean Cruise

Today was our first at sea day.  I was up early for sunrise.  A latte and croissants were waiting for me in the butler's pantry at about 6:30 a.m. which I carried out onto our deck to enjoy as the sun rose over the horizon.

We decided to have both breakfast and lunch in Luminae this day.  Rex was again our waiter and would be each time we dined in Luminae.  The staff got to know our preferences quickly and did an excellent job taking care of my dairy allergy.  He had me look at the menu for lunch and dinner to see what interested me but I don't think he actually put a pre-order in.  The Luminae kitchen seemed to be able to handle well any modifications.

I decided to take advantage of the sun both before and after lunch on the deck and work on my tan.

When you and your husband can't agree on sun or shade

Catching sun on the side deck when the aft deck gets too shady

On our way back from lunch we found our first duck sitting in a ship sculpture near the atrium.

The bartenders made hearts out of the straw wrapper.  The cokes and sprites seemed to be from the Middle East or a country with a similar language.  The canned water was from Italy.

Tonight was formal night.

I wanted Paul and his Mom to have a chance to try Le Petit Chef because it was supposed to be a really neat experience where your food comes to life but the menu is very restrictive and not great for those with dietary restrictions plus I didn't want to miss a night at Luminae.  Being in the penthouse, we also had all the specialty dining we wanted included in our fare.  So the two of them went to Le Petit Chef and I went to Luminae.   

Being a solo diner, I had extra attention from the staff and then I had a chance to wander some lounges to listen to music and try a few drinks.  I understand the Le Petit Chef was a bit drawn out and maybe not quite as amazing as it sounded.

I had a great view and a nice glass of wine.

A night walk on the promenade

A martini from the Martini Bar

Looking out at the atrium

The Le Petit Chef menu for the night - they have at least 3 different menus they rotate.

Clips of the animation from the first course - Marinated Tomato Salad.

We then all met up in Cellar Masters to listen to The Strings Duo, a cello player and a viola player who were very good.  Paul grabbed some gelato from the Gelateria (another included perk of the penthouse).

This might be a good place to add my favorite perk of the penthouse - the internet.  Standard suites get a 1 device plan and when we book an inside or balcony room, we purchase a plan that only covers 1 device each (occasionally we even share a 1 device plan).  The penthouse included a 4 device premium internet plan.  This meant I didn't ever have to log out of one device to log into another.  I routinely use an iPhone, iPad, and my MacBook on a cruise so that is often a lot of logging in and logging out.  I'm sure we won't be willing to pay for more than a 1 device plan on my next cruise but now that I know how good it could be I will really miss this.

I did run into one hiccup with this internet plan though.  When I logged into my first device, I must have mis-remembered the passcode I set so I couldn't get into my MacBook when I needed to.  No one was in the iLounge to help when I walked down there during open hours so I continued to Michael's Club (the suite lounge).  The concierge was on break so I approached the bartender knowing he would be more than willing to try to help but that he probably wouldn't have the training needed for this particular task.  He immediately spotted an iLounge employee in the hall and brought him in who easily re-set my passcode and made sure I could log on to both devices.

After listening to some music, we made our way back to the room to retire for the night.  Most nights I spent a few minutes on the deck listening to the sound of the ocean before heading to bed and I'm sure this night was no exception.