Sunday, April 12, 2026

Days at Sea on the Celebrity Constellation

 We spent two full days at sea and it was gloriously relaxing!


Both days, we slept in. We ordered breakfast in the room and ate it on the balcony. We finally made it to the pool by eh... maybe 11. We were pretty convinced that the ship wasn't full because we were still able to get seats both days - not at the pool, but at least on the upper deck above the pool.


These two birds followed us for the longest time. How do they fly for so long? It seems exhausting!


On days at sea, there are a lot of events going on. They had an "officers vs. passengers" pool volleyball tournament going on.


They also have a lot of live music, like this reggae band on the pool deck!


I mean, I literally took very few photos all day because we just relaxed and lounged around. For dinner, we went to Le Petit Chef, which is a restaurant that has a little video story about a tiny little chef projected onto your table! I enjoyed the magical menu - it was awesome!


The magical cooking book at Le Petit Chef!


First, your book opens and they discuss the magical soup (which you will receive later from the waiter - it was a delicious creamy potato leek soup!)  But it turns out there might be some fairy dust and goblin tears in it...


These little fairies worked very hard on my meal!


No kidding, I actually thought Le Petit Chef kind of looked like a miniature version of Grant.


The citrus poached cod loin was also fantastic!


The main course was Beef Wellington and it was VERY good!


I think maybe the best part of the meal was dessert. On paper, this wasn't something that really appealed to us. It was a "pumpkin green tea ganache with orange-Yuzu sauce."  But it was fantastic! Mom and I both agreed it was better than the other dessert!


After dinner at Le Petit Chef, we headed to... you guessed it... the Martini Bar! We didn't stay long!


On our last full day at sea, I went up to the pool deck to get my last bit of vitamin D.


I also enjoyed some desserts with my lunch. I didn't have dessert every day but sometimes you need to treat yo'self!


After lunch, it was balcony relaxation time, and probably nap time.


I couldn't get enough of the blue water below. Why is the ocean so pretty?


Finally, it was time to go to our last dinner on the ship!  The elevators on the Constellation face out, so you always had a good view when you went up or down.


One more meal at Blu! We ate here 6 out of 7 of the nights - with the only other night being dinner at Le Petit Chef.


And one more awesome glass of cabernet (with my Coke Zero, of course!)  Why didn't I ask what brand of cabernet this was?


The hue was blu(e) with our last-night meals. I had a delicious steak!


And of course, we had to have one last drink (or two) at the Martini Bar before our cruise ended. I scratched our initials in the ice 💖


Someone who was there before us had made this circle, so my mom decided that it was an ice skating rink and pretended her fingers were ice skating on the bar! I'm sure Natalie would approve!


Then it was time for the show, and the cruise director Kelly Rose came down and actually did the pouring UP on the bar!


And of course, we had another SUPER fun (maybe too much fun!) evening with our besties, Ellie and Carlos!


We were having SO much fun that Boom Boom joined us on the other side of the bar!


Three generations (lol) of cruisers having so much fun at the Martini Bar. Man, this was a great cruise! We met so many great people, had so much fun on the ship, and I even got to two new Mexican cities that I had never been to before, PLUS one new country!


But all good things must end (but WHY?) 

We got off the ship fairly early on Sunday and there was no line to get off the ship, which was a nice surprise. The Constellation was on it's way overseas after this, heading to Rome. Now it was back to reality!

Until next time, Celebrity Constellation!

Thursday, April 9, 2026

Trip to Costa Maya, Mexico

 Costa Maya, Mexico was never on my travel list for 2026 but here we are!


And look at that pretty blue water! And the random sailboat that is aground on the beach on the right side of the picture!


My mom has been here a million times and there really isn't much to do here if you aren't into or aren't doing adventure sports/visiting Mayan ruins, so I just got off the ship by myself for a little bit today.


Oh, there were FOUR ships parked here at Costa Maya! So ridiculous. We had the Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas, the Carnival Miracle, the Norwegian Viva and of course, our Celebrity Constellation.


Which is why I didn't stay long in Costa Maya, but I did want to say that I had been there before.


Welcome to Costa Maya!


The Mexican flag flying over one of the bars reminded me that, oh yes! I'm in Mexico!


You can take your picture (for a fee of course) with some of the people in traditional native costumes.


These guys also go up here and swing around upside down - what a show! NO THANK YOU!


I would definitely fall and crack my noggin.


This fish was so cute but... what? Is that a bobber and a fishing hook???


This "port" is pretty much just a big strip mall with some bars and restaurants. They also have saltwater pools (and swim up bars, who doesn't love those?)


They even have some cute flamingos walking around!


Save water, drink tequila. Ok, no thanks... but maybe I'll have a beer!


This bar let you have a drink while you kept your toes in the sand, and an eye on your cruise ship.


Why yes, I will have a morning Tecate Light. Thank you very much.


Me and my Tecate hanging out in Costa Maya, Mexico.


Toes in the sand. Ok, ok... shoes in the sand!


I walked around, did a little shopping (you know... for my shot glass!) and snapped a pic with these good folks.


And that was about it, so I headed back to the ship! It was a nice couple of hours on land!


Heading back to ol' Connie for a little lunch and to find my mom.


She was at the pool, so I stopped for pizza and a drink. Which is literally what I did for lunch EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.  Some guy stopped me and chatted for like 15 minutes because I was wearing my Mizzou Mom t-shirt!


I found my mom and we spent a little time out by the pool before we eventually headed back to the room. I cannot get over how pretty this water is! I'm so happy that we spent so much time out on the balcony because on the last cruise we were on (Royal Caribbean), we were so busy that we didn't really have time to enjoy it. This was much more relaxing!


VERY relaxing.


We really wanted to know the story of this sailboat is! Did it land here in a hurricane?


Finally, it was time to leave our final port.  Adios, Costa Maya!


And of course, we went to Blu for dinner. It really was Blu in there!


I had another glass of this really fantastic cabernet!  Thankfully they had this auto shades that blocked some of that bright sunset for me. It kind of gave me a little PTSD though because we have auto shades at work, and they always startle me when they start moving (they're very loud!)


We had another yummy dinner at Blu! I really liked the portion sizes - mostly because you also got an appetizer, bread, and a dessert with this. You never really left with that "oh I ate way too much" feeling.


Mom and I decided on this particular evening to hit up the casino with our $20. We walked through the Rendezvous Lounge to get there, where they had some live music playing.


Ok, here I go!


Mom had a little bit better luck than I did! We both spent our whole $20 - because really, that is the point. I really liked this casino because it was smoke-free! That made the whole 10 minutes I spent in there much more enjoyable. I am NOT a high roller!


But I do love a good drink at the Martini Bar, and I could always count on Andrew to make me a really good Maker's and Coke Zero. Bonus points (MAJOR bonus points) to Celebrity for having a) Coca Cola products and b) actual Coke Zero at the bars.


The sunset was beautiful on this evening!


There is absolutely nothing like a beautiful sunset over the water. 

Up next, a couple of days at sea!  Until next time, Costa Maya!