Update 8/4/2025:
Guests onboard Celebrity Constellation confirmed that power was restored on the vessel after nearly three hours drifting at sea. Toilets and air conditioning were eventually restored as well. The Celebrity cruise ship was able to continue sailing as scheduled without any further adjustments to the itinerary.
Many have commended the ship’s crew and staff members for their handling of the situation, although some were frustrated with the lack of communication from the cruise line.
Original article:
Passengers aboard Celebrity Constellation are reporting a power outage while sailing off the coast of Italy, leaving them without air conditioning, flushing toilets, or working lights.
The outage, which occurred during a sea day, is being compared to the notorious 2013 “Poop Cruise” on Carnival Triumph, as guests describe sweltering heat, broken toilets, and limited food service onboard.
In a post on Reddit’s r/CelebrityCruises, one passenger onboard detailed the current situation:
“No food, dinner is not being served—only the cold food. Bathrooms don’t flush, AC doesn’t work, lights are all out. We’re close to the coast mid-sea day, but we could lose signal soon.”
Another post on Reddit’s r/Cruise thread shared a similar update about the current situation on Celebrity Constellation. The post was titled, “Celebrity Constellation dead in the water off Italy,” and details the following:
Just heard from friends that the Constellation is adrift at sea off Italy with no power, no AC and no toilets or propulsion. Anyone else heard anything about this or has any info so we can pass it on to the people onboard?
In the most recent update, the Reddit poster shared, “Update. Power and lights back on…no water or toilets and no communication to the passengers. No TV or internet and most importantly no dinner! Our friends have a bottle of wine in the room thankfully!”
Celebrity Constellation is currently sailing in the Adriatic Sea between Kotor, Montenegro and Messina, Sicily. According to Vesselfinder.com, Celebrity Constellation’s navigation status is “drifting”, although the vessel is scheduled to arrive in Messina, Sicily, tomorrow, August 3, 2025. Itinerary adjustments have not been announced at this time.
Ongoing issues with Celebrity Cruises’ fleet
Celebrity Constellation is the third cruise ship in Celebrity’s fleet to experience technical issues within the last few weeks.
Just a few weeks ago, Celebrity Constellation’s sister-ship, Celebrity Infinity, experienced a power outage while docked in Kusadasi, Turkey, due to a small fire onboard. Guests were left stranded in Turkey for multiple days, and all remaining ports on the itinerary were cancelled.
One response to the Reddit post expressed concern about Celebrity Cruises’ aging Millennium class ships. “Constellation and Infinity are brand-damaging, embarrassing at this point,” wrote the commenter.
However, Celebrity Beyond, one of the cruise line’s newest vessels, experienced technical issues that resulted in the cancellation of an itinerary due to required maintenance. Celebrity Beyond isn’t even three years old yet, and although the ship has been repaired, it will continue sailing at a reduced speed. This has caused future itineraries to be altered.
At this time, not many other details have been provided by passengers on Celebrity Constellation. If guests onboard are without power, the ship’s internet would also be impacted.
The poster on Reddit mentioned, “We’re close to the coast mid sea day. Let’s see what happens. We still have signal from the coast of Italy, but could lose it soon.”
Other commenters offered practical tips for coping with the situation, such as using cabin ice buckets to cool off and eating cold foods until hot meal service resumes.
Meanwhile, loyal Celebrity cruisers noted that while they’ve sailed without issues in the past, mechanical failures on older ships appear to be becoming more frequent, raising questions about maintenance and fleet upgrades.
Celebrity Constellation current location and itinerary
According to CruiseMapper, Celebrity Constellation is currently positioned off the coast of southern Italy near Crotone, en route to Messina, Sicily, its next scheduled port of call.
The ship is sailing an 11-night Mediterranean itinerary from Ravenna to Civitavecchia (Rome) that began on July 28, 2025, and will conclude on August 8, 2025. Celebrity Constellation has already visited Zadar (Croatia), Dubrovnik (Croatia), Split (Croatia), and Kotor (Montenegro). The itinerary is meant to continue to Messina, Sicily, and then onto Naples (Italy) and Livorno (Italy).
Built in 2002, Celebrity Constellation is part of Celebrity Cruises’ Millennium class, which includes Celebrity Infinity, Millennium, and Summit. These ships are the oldest in Celebrity’s fleet, with Constellation celebrating its 21st year in service this year. The vessel last received a major refurbishment in 2021.
Celebrity Millennium is currently the oldest ship in the cruise line’s fleet.
In past situations involving mechanical failures, Celebrity Cruises has provided compensation, including partial refunds and future cruise credits, though official responses vary based on the length and severity of the disruption. While no official announcement has been made for this outage yet, passengers are hopeful for swift repairs and transparency from the cruise line.
Celebrity Cruises markets itself as a premium cruise line offering upscale dining, attentive service, and modern ships, but ongoing issues aboard its oldest and newest ships risk undermining its reputation.
On board now and we were without power, A/C, water/toilets, propulsion and internet for about 2 hours. Power then came on and within another hour we recovered water and internet. No announcement yet on what happened or if we will be delayed getting to Messina tomorrow morning.
It was a bit eerie as we lost bathrooms and AC during dinner, but feel lucky, having just watched Carnival documentary. Hopefully no more issues.
I can only imagine how eerie that was, especially after the Netflix documentary. Glad everything is fixed and thanks for the update!
I’m on board too. Staff were fantastic and no harm done.
Glad to hear everything is up and running now – and no changes to your itinerary!