Summit 14 Day Med Cruise 10/31 - 11/14 Review

[patrickmoran]

My wife and I were on the Summit and had an excellent 2 week cruise from Barcelona to Venice. We then stayed 3 nights in Venice followed by 3 nights in Florence.
We are in our late 50s and have been on 13 cruises, mostly Carnival but also HAL, Princess, and RCI. This was our 1st X cruise. Overall, I find the different cruise lines are pretty similar and offer similar amenitites. We took Celebrity because of the itenary (2 full days in Rome, 1 1/2 days in Istanbul, and Athens plus Nice, Florence, Naples, Mykonos, and Split (Croatia)). Unfortunately, X will no longer be offering this itenary.

Highlights: Scavi tour to see St. Peter's tomb, views from the tops of Leaning Tower of Pisa, St. Peter's Basilica, and Doumo in Florence, Treasury at Topkapi Palace, Michangelo's David, and Summit's Thalassotherapy pool.

Ship Review: Summit is in good condition and everything seem to be working fine. The crew was friendly and helpful. Our cabin steward and his assistants kept the cabin clean. Our dining staff was efficient but not chatty which was fine.
We had cabin #2139, an inside cabin midship. This was an excellent location, quiet, stable, and convenient to the gangway and the entertainment decks. The bed was very comfortable and we had no problem sleeping in on sea days.
Food: Enjoyed the food on the ship. We did not eat in the Normandie. Meals in the MDR were very good. I generally had the lamb, steak or veal. Sometimes the meat was paired with some odd sides but nothing that I couldn't work with. For example, one night shrimp scampi was served with rice. So we ordered the pasta dish and transferred the shrimp (double order) to that plate - delicious. Several of the everyday items were hits at our table (esgargot, french onion soup, and the apple pie). We ate all of our breakfasts and lunches in the Waterfall Cafe. Mainly I had omelettes or waffles for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch. The lines in the back of the Cafe were generally shorter. I did not have any pizza or hamburgers so can't comment on them.
One night (last sea day) they had a chocolate buffet in the Revelations. It looked delicious but I did not partake.
Entertainment: Went to 2 production shows which I enjoyed. They had a magician and a comedian that I saw. Both were good. I did not see the pianist, the vocalist, and the guitarist.
Casino: Dead. I don't know if it was the port-intensive cruise or the crowd but there was no action. I only played blackjack 1 night - won a little.
Embarkation and disembarkation: very easy

More later.

[patrickmoran]

Connections Parties: We had the 1st one at 10 am on the 1st day (day at sea) in Michaels Club. Many people missed it because the invites were placed behid the room numbers which covered nearly the entire envelope. Many people didn't find the invite until it was too late.
We did have a nice turnout including several X staff people. X provided coffee and pastries. We met the 3 other couples that we were sharing a tour out of Naples and several others whom we had chatted with on the Roll Call.
We asked and X hosted a 2nd meeting the morning of the last sea day. That worked well because we could swap tales about our sightseeing experiences. Those on longer cruises may want to consider doing this especially if you have an active Roll Call board like we did.

Ports Reviews

Barcelona: We arrived early the day before the cruise (Friday). We flew AA from Louisville, Ky, to Chicago to O'Hare to JFK to BCN. All of the flights were on time or early and very uneventful (a good thing these days). We quickly cleared immigration/customs, collected the luggage, got some euros from the airport ATM, and headed for the Aerobus. We stayed at Hotel Onix Fira which is at Placa d'Espanya, the 1st Aerobus stop and a couple miles west of Las Ramblas. However, someone was on strike and the bus was not making that stop. We were directed to city bus #46 which went there. Cost less and didn't take much longer than the Aerobus. Rolled our luggage across the plaza and found the hotel. Too early to check in but hotel stored luggage and let us partake of their breakfast. (I had found this hotel thru venere.com and booked it thru booking.com, after checking the reviews on TripAdvisor.com, and got a great rate that included breakfast.) Unfortunately, we did not sleep on the plane over so it we were going out for awhile then come back for a nap.
Metro stop was nearby. Bought a T-10 tix (10 rides which can be shared) and headed to Las Ramblas. Riding the Metro was easy and I had bought a very detailed Barcelona map which showed the routes and all of the stops. We walked for a bit, checked out the market, and then took the Metro to Sagrada Familla. The line looked very long to get in. Walked around the outside and found a sidewalk cafe with shade (Barcelona was unseasonably warm.) and had lunch with a side/front view of the church.
We then returned the hotel to check in and take a nap. When we got up, we took the Metro to Casa Mila. We walked down Passeig de Gracia to Tapas Tapas for dinner. We sat in the back with the other tourists (locals sit in the front room). We had not had tapas before so we liked the menu with lots of pictures. We left full. Back to hotel on metro. We walked over to the Mounjuic fountains for the 7:30 pm light show. Really enjoyed it. Back to the hotel, showered and crashed.

Embarkation Day: Slept in then went downstairs to enjoy the very good breakfast. We gathered our luggage and checked out. The clerk called a taxi for us and soon we were at the port. Gave our luggage to a porter and went inside. We filled out the health form and checked in (no lines). Just as we finished (~11:30 am) people were allowed on the ship. Had lunch, went to the room at 1 pm, then got off ship to check out terminal shops. Picked up 2 bottles of wine and some soda. Back on the ship. The luggage arrived shortly. We unpacked (had plenty of storage space) and explored the ship. Anne booked a spa massage for that evening at a special rate.
We had early seating at a table for 6. Early seating worked well even with all of the ports. I never felt rushed to get to dinner after being in a port. In fact, we arrived back on the ship at 6:45 pm on the evening of our 1st day in Rome and staff was making a point of telling people that 1st seating was still open. We went and had tasty filet mignon.
We had good tablemates: 1 couple from New Zealand and 1 from Arizona.

More later.

[Flyguy35]

Hi Patrick,

Glad to hear that you had a great trip. It is too bad they have dicontinued this itiniery as it was great. I had hoped more people would have posted on the roll call upon thier return.

[Texed]

Patrick,
Thanks for posting.

[patrickmoran]

Other highlights I should have mentioned above: Sistine Chapel & Rapheal rooms in the Vatican museum, Colosseum, Pompeii, St Mark's Bascilica in Venice, and Michelangelo's statutes in the Medici Chapel.

Audioguides: We downloaded all of Rick Steves' audioguides for Italy. They were very informative and made touring the cities and the museums better. Many times I would listen to the particular guide before visiting the particular site. We also had his books for Rome, Florence, Istanbul, and Venice and they helped when he did not have a audioguide available for a particular site but don't compare to the audio. You do have to appreciate, or at least tolerate, his sense of humor.
We also rented audioguides at 3 museums: Vatican Museum, Topkapi Palace (which could be paid with Turkish lire, euros, or dollars at reasonable exchange rates), and Doge's Palace. All were informative, easy to use, and worth the money. All required leaving a form of identification.

Human guides: The only place we had a guide was Pompeii. We had a tour thru AP Tours and they arranged for Teresa (sp?). She was good and kept us moving on a very large site. The highest praise I can give her is that she made want to come back and spend alot more time exploring Pompeii.

X Excursions: We did not do any but our dining companions did. 1 couple did an X excursion in every port. Both couples seemed to be pleased with the tours.

Some additional background on us: This was our 1st Med cruise. It was my first time in all of these countries and 1st time to Europe post-9/11. My wife had been to Italy when she ~12. It was part of our celebration of our 35th wedding anniversary! We had been planning this cruise for over a year though we did not book the Summit until Nov. 2008 when we got wind of this itenary. We were originally booked on Carnival.

[patrickmoran]

1st sea day was pretty quiet. We had our Connections Party and met alot of the people with whom we had been chatting on the Roll Call board. The cruise director and several staff were there for awhile. That night was the 1st formal night so we got all gussied up and went to dinner. 1 of our dining couples did not show (they didn't care to get dressed up). Saw the show and went to bed.

Villefranche: The captain had warned us the previous day that the weather may be bad and worsen during the day in VF. His prediction proved too true. VF is a tendering port and the seas and the winds were too high and predicted to increase. We had to skip the port and put-put our way to Livorno. Later in the morning, the skies cleared and some people were grumbling that we should have waited to see if conditions improved. Ah well, can't please everyone. In my mind, safety is first. It didn't hurt that VF was not a high priority port with me.
We had a quiet day reading, pool, and EATING!

Livorno: Our plan was to take the train to Pisa, do the Leaning Tower thing, take the train to Lucca, have a nice lunch, see some of Lucca, and then return. (We were staying 3 days in Florence after the cruise so we decided not to go to F.) Day started off overcasrt and breezy but then cleared off and we had a gorgeous day.
We got off the ship and shared a taxi with a British couple to train station (10 euros per couple). Bought our tix (round trip to Lucca) at the window and got the 8:26 am train to Pisa. Pisa is a university town so lots of young people with backpacks on the train. We got off with the masses and grabbed a taxi to the Field of Miracles (6.5 euros w/tip). We were there by 9:10am. I had no problem getting a tix to climb the Tower at 9:30 am. Up the 293 steps at 9:30 and had incredible views of the Field of Miracles and Pisa. We toured the Duomo, the Duomo Museum, and the Bapistry. Enjoyed all of them.
We then walked to the nearby train station, Pisa San Rosso. This was a short 10 minute walk down Via Andre Pisano. At the fence, go right and take the path to the station. Lots of students waiting for the Lucca train. Got the 12:30 pm train and maybe 20 minutes later we are at Lucca. We walked across the piazza into the old city surrounded by the medival wall. Eventually we found the restaurant Osteria Via San Giorgio (Rick Steves suggestion) and had a pleasant leisurely lunch. By then we had to head back to the train station to catch the 3:30 pm train. We didn't get to see as much of Lucca as I had planned but .... We changed trains in Pisa. When we got to Livorno 8 of us got a taxi van back to the ship (5 euros per couple). There were lots of taxis at the station. There was a large crowd of people to get the city bus, I guess to take them back to where the ship's shuttle could be caught.

Tomorrow Rome