We (wife and I, and another couple – call us “late 50’s”) chose this cruise as we wanted to experience a European cruise after doing several Caribbean cruises. This was our 3rd cruise on Celebrity. The Venice-Rome, and Dalmatian Coast was highly appealing to us as we have read so much about these areas. Port stops were Rijeka, Split, and Dubrovnik (Croatia); Kotor, Montenegro; Valleta, Malta; Catania, Sicily; Naples, Italy; and ending in Rome (Civitevecchia).

We flew into Venice a day in advance and stayed at the Hotel Olimpia, which is very convenient to the cruise port. It could not have been better for us. Although it was raining on embarkation day, we found it very easy to get to the Marittima Cruise Port via the people mover. Embarkation was as easy and fast as we have ever experienced. We were on board in no more than about 20 minutes, start to finish.

The staff welcomed us as they always have, with a glass of sparkling wine. Having been on the Infinity 2 years prior, the ship was immediately familiar. Overall, the Connie is in very good shape – very clean, well maintained. We get that she is older and will be spiffed up shortly, however there was NOTHING we could find that detracted from our cruise experience! Our room was in fine condition, and we did not experience “threadbare” conditions as I have seen in some reviews. Read more