Celebrity Constellation in Costa Maya at sunrise

On most cruises I don’t buy more than a drink or two (including specialty tea or non-dairy hot chocolate), often none at all. Lately more and more of the cruise lines have gone to all-inclusive fares, which means they jack the price way up and then include a drink package and other things like internet and pre-paid gratuities. Some also include things like shore excursions or specialty dining.

Cafe al Bacio coffee bar

Sometimes all-inclusive is just an option, but when it’s the only option we generally try to avoid those cruises because paying all that extra for the included alcohol package just means we are subsidizing other people’s drinking. My opinion on the gratuities is that they should always be included as part of the fare – partly because unsuspecting newbies aren’t then surprised by that on their bill and selfish people can’t have that money removed from the hard-working crew who very much need and deserve it, and partly because it’s just easier to have it paid in advance. Unfortunately it is usually a separate charge added daily to people’s onboard accounts unless they actively choose to pay it in advance. With internet I’d rather buy a package separately because cruise ship internet is always notoriously slow and the more people who use it the slower it is so if it’s included people use it who otherwise wouldn’t and it gets extremely slow – to the point of not even opening sign-in pages to some websites or email, let alone the website or email itself.

Cellar Masters

Though we usually avoid those all-inclusive fares, on the Celebrity Constellation we found one sailing on a really good sale that had the all-inclusive at about the same price or possibly even less than what normal fare without it would be, so we did book that one. After the first couple days the internet was practically useless. Since we did have the drink package we probably had more drinks on this cruise than on all the other cruises we’ve taken combined for at least the last 10 years, but even at that it wouldn’t add up to anywhere near enough to have covered the cost of buying the package separately. There were days I didn’t use it at all. Most days we didn’t have more than a couple drinks, of which one was likely to be a specialty coffee for John or tea for me, or maybe just bottled water. He did usually have a glass of wine with dinner, so he used it more than I did.

Crush, with the Martini Bar in the background

The Constellation has 7 main bars – the Martini Bar and Crush, Rendezvous Lounge, Celler Masters, Sunset Bar, Mast Bar, Pool Deck Bar, and Café el Bacio which is a coffee bar and gelateria that can serve spiked coffee, tea, and hot chocolate drinks as well as non-alcoholic ones. They have non-dairy and lactose free milks available on request. It also has bars in the casino and Reflections Lounge. The casino bar is open when the casino is, and the one in Reflections Lounge is open when the lounge is in use for activities expected to draw enough people to make it worthwhile for them to open the bar.

Martini Bar

The Martini Bar is the featured bar of the ship. It serves martinis on an ice-topped bar that is nearly always surrounded in people. The entertainment crew sometimes set up golf putting events there. Crush is a specialty vodka bar next to the martini bar, but we never saw anyone there, not even a bartender. We never actually went to those bars though, just passed through occasionally so it ‘s possible it was open sometimes when we weren’t in that area.

duet performing at Rendezvous Lounge

Rendezvous Lounge is a large central bar that often had a music duet playing. This one drew quite a crowd in the evenings. We went there one night when the microphone at the theater show was so loud the music hurt our ears. The music at the bar was much quieter and pleasant to listen to. There’s a small dance floor by the tiny stage and some of the passengers were quite good dancers and put on a pretty good show– better than the ship’s actual entertainment that night.

Cellar Masters wine bar

Cellar Masters is a fancy wine bar. We walked through it occasionally, but never actually went there. I don’t like wine and John just has a glass with dinner. They did have wine tastings there, but that is not included in the drink package. The casino bar is of course there for the same reason casinos always have bars – people gamble more when they are drinking.

Sunset Bar

Sunset Bar is at the back of the ship just outside of the buffet. There are tables on the deck around it where people can eat their food from the buffet or have a cocktail from the bar while they watch the wake and see where the ship has been.

Mast Bar

We did have a drink at the Mast Bar one day. We just had ordinary stuff. I had a piña colada and can’t remember what John had. Some other people came along and ordered up a fancy version of a mudslide with chocolate sauce all over the glass and things. It had a ton of ingredients in the blender. It looked all fancy and delicious, but wasn’t something I’d actually order as it has kahlua, which is coffee flavored and I don’t like anything that tastes of coffee, plus it had whipping cream which would cause complaints from my lactose intolerant stomach. The bartender there was really friendly. While we sat there sipping our drinks John had a good conversation with him all about the bartender’s opinions of different types of alcohol John asked him about. He was quite knowledgeable. The Mast Bar looks a lot like a smaller version of the pool deck bar and sits one deck up almost directly above it.

pool bar

The Pool Deck Bar was the one we used the most since it sat just outside of the solarium, which did not have a bar of its own. The solarium was our favorite hangout even though its pool was more cool than warm and the hot tubs more warm than hot. It had a row of extra comfy deck chairs facing floor to ceiling windows where people could read or watch the sea go by. We mostly got mango or pineapple mango daiquiris, or sometimes a piña colada.

Cafe al Bacio coffee bar

Café el Bacio is mainly a coffee bar, but they also have fancy teas, hot chocolate, and the option to have the drinks spiked. Some of the alcohol is included in a basic drinks package, others like a shot of Baileys or Amaretto cost $1 extra. If you order it they say you can upgrade to the premium package and not have to pay that dollar, but the upgrade is $10 per person per day so you would have to drink a whole lot of those or some other expensive drinks to make that upgrade worthwhile. We definitely came out ahead just paying that dollar a couple times. There’s also gelato on the other side of the room from the coffee bar, which costs extra other than if you’ve sailed on Celebrity before you get one free scoop.

Caribbean Sunset in the Reflections Lounge

When we went up to the Reflections lounge to try out their Deal or No Deal game, which has replaced bingo, a bartender came around with a tray of drinks he called Caribbean Sunset so we gave that a try and it was good. The menu for that bar has a different drink for each sign of the zodiac, but we didn’t try those.

Overall the ship had plenty of bars and enough variety of drinks that everyone should have been able to find something they liked.

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