REVIEW: Canada & New England on Celebrity Summit, 05-OCT-2014

Shady Pines Goes To Sea: Cruising Canada & New England on Celebrity Summit, October 5, 2014

Like all my cruise reviews, I need to preface with what have become my boilerplate caveats about my writing style and sense of humor. Inflection and humor are sometimes lost in written prose, but let this serve as clarification that unless I specify, any perceived insults or name-calling is intended to be good-natured and in good fun. I bear absolutely no ill will toward our fellow cruisers, no matter their demographic. In other words, when I tease about our more senior cruisemates, rest assured that I, too, hope to become one someday.

“Here We Go Again For The Fourth Time”

After 2013’s Caribbean cruise on Eclipse, it became apparent we’re going to be on a one-per-year schedule, as long as circumstances allow. I hadn’t really started thinking about 2014’s cruise when my wife called me at work one Saturday afternoon in July and informed me that she’d decided we were going to do the Canada & New England itinerary she’s been coveting for a couple of years. So I stopped by the travel agent and picked up books for several lines.

We consider ourselves Celebrity loyalists, pledged to choose them again and again until we’re no longer satisfied. But I must confess, we came very close (as in placed a soft reservation) to booking with Holland America. Not that we were dissatisfied in any way with our beloved Celebrity, but because we didn’t think my wife could get enough time off for a 14-night itinerary, which is all Celebrity offers to the region. But we did the math and found we could do 14-nights with the dates offered and went ahead with the X.

Since we waited so long, most of the desirable rooms were gone and – in fact – all of the aft rooms we wanted showed as booked. We settled on a starboard Concierge near the aft end on Deck 7.

Having felt like our excursions were sub-par in the Caribbean, I looked for private tours, but found most of them booked months ago and settled on rolling the dice with X-sponsored tours out of desperation. After buying a 3-dinner package (more on that later), picking Select Dining, booking our excursions and paying off the fare, all that was left was the waiting.

I joined the Cruise Critic roll call for this sailing and found it the most-active of any other I’d joined, with several hundred posts by the time I joined. We were unable to join the X Connections group for our Caribbean cruise due to their ubiquitous website shenanigans, but I was finally able to sign up for this one.

Late in August, I was perusing the available cabins, hoping something juicy came up after the final payment date, when I noticed they’d released the Family Veranda rooms. These are the large rooms with the gianormous verandas on the aft corners and are reserved for parties of up to five. We talked it over, weighed our pros and cons and decided it was worth giving up the extra Captain’s Club points and Concierge perks for the location we wanted and the larger accommodation. I threw a figurative dart and picked 8181 on Deck 8/port. Not only was it stepping down a class, but we had to pay an extra $1700 for the privilege. No matter. We were determined to have that aft-facing room and the corner spot was too much to pass up. Or so we thought. More on that later.

Day 1 | Embarkation Day | 05-OCT-2014 | Cape Liberty, NJ

WX: (in NJ) Clear & windy, 60F

Also in port: none

Our cab arrived right on time at 4:00am (ugh) and the trip to IAH was uneventful. Check-in was smooth, as we’d weighed our suitcases to avoid unexpected extra expenses like we had last year. Also unlike last year, we arrived with time to spare, so we were already having a better time of it. Within 20 minutes, we boarded the 737-900 and settled in, with my wife on the aisle and me stuck in the middle, between her and a stocky gentleman who guarded his armrest real estate like a pit bull. I loathe the middle seat, but not as much as dealing with an uncomfortable wife, so I bit the bullet for her sake and my own. I was also disappointed that the Armrest Bandit was one of those people who fly with the shade pulled down – a huge pet peeve of mine. Anyway, with those on board who needed to be, the Captain announced we’d push early if that was OK with everyone. The flight was unremarkable, though I find United’s unremarkable pretty satisfactory. The AVOD system would be great, if it wasn’t part of the nickel-and-diming strategy. Fortunately, I was able to look between the seats and watch someone else’s TV who had it on the NFL game going on in London.

We arrived a little early, made our way to the baggage claim to retrieve our suitcases and stood around with a few other people we determined were also on our cruise, trying to find the cruise transfer people. In Fort Lauderdale, you couldn’t throw a cat without hitting a representative from any cruise line. But none were to be found readily at EWR and it took some hunting for me to find them. Turns out they weren’t prepared for us to arrive early (we weren’t that early) and were hustling to get set up. Cape Liberty isn’t exactly a bustling cruise port, so maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on them. Still, even an empty kiosk could serve as a gathering point. After about a 30 minute wait, we stuffed into a shuttle van and 20 minutes after that, we were off-loading at the pier. We were instructed to leave our bags for the longshoremen to schlep them all of 10 feet from the van to the carts. I have no doubt this was some kind of union BS. What was a mystery to me was when one seemed insulted when we didn’t offer a tip. “What, you don’t want to give us a gratuity?” one asked. I was reminded of the Gypsy kid at the Termini in Rome who held out his hand after doing nothing more than pointing at the shelf where I was about to stuff my suitcase. So no, I didn’t want to give him a few bucks for merely standing there.

Cape Liberty’s current cruise port operation is, frankly, a dump. Run-down and boarded-up buildings abound and the check-in building was dark, dank and dreary. Despite this, the process went fairly quickly and without any hiccups. On-board, we plopped down in Oceanview Café (hereafter referred to simply as “OVC” or “the buffet”) until the announcement was made that staterooms were ready.

We’d never stayed in a Family Veranda room before and were both pleased and surprised by what we found. Firstly, cabin #8181 is situated on the aft corner on the port side and accessing the room is done via a hallway with a Sea Pass-activated lock at both ends. It seemed strange, but I think it actually offered a noise buffer between the main corridor and the room, itself. The inner-most door could prop open, which we did, unless we were going to sleep. The room was fairly quiet, except for the paper-thin walls that allowed us to hear our next door neighbors coughing, hacking and flushing. There was no noise from engines or the bar two decks above. The room was divided by a frosted glass wall with a sliding door. It was intended to close off the main part of the cabin from the sitting area with the fold-out beds when parents saddled with booger-eaters have the room. We left it open. Along one wall were five tall cabinets: two double cabinets, which we split between us and a half cabinet with drawers and the room safe. Across from the cabinets was the bathroom. It was Spartan, compared to what we had in Concierge and not even in the same discussion as the ones we had in the Suites. But that was to be expected and we knew what we were getting into. The shower was my main gripe. It was plenty deep, but so narrow my elbows hit the wall and the curtain when I turned around. The rest of it was pretty standard and unremarkable, though the tile floor had a noticeable squishing noise after the shower was used. Across from the bathroom was the TV with the pay bar under it. I had to hang a sock over the bar door, as it rattled incessantly during the night. Moving on past the TV, there was a long vanity with drawers underneath and a single chair. A wall of mirrors with the lone outlet was above. Flanking the bed was a pair of nightstands with lamps and a switch for the overhead lights. Beyond the partition was another TV with more storage below. Two fold-out couches were on either side of the room with a small coffee table in the middle. The sliding door to the veranda was the only window, but it offered plenty of natural light. On the sliding door, itself, we found the crusty residue from some kind of tape in a “X” pattern. I could not think of any logical reason for it, but it was really stuck on there. Not a big deal, but something you’d think would have been addressed by the attendants. The veranda….ah, that sweet veranda! This is what sold us on the room. Not only do the FV verandas go on forever, they’re situated on the aft corners, jutting out from the ship several feet past the other aft-facing cabins and about a foot off the side. The result is an approximate 270-degree view offered by no other room, save for the Penthouse Suites. Furniture on the veranda includes a large table with six chairs, two additional lawn chairs and two lounges. The veranda from the identical room above provides a deep cover, under which the table is situated with a light above. There’s a bullhorn under there, too, and I’d read a comment on Cruise Critic from a woman who said she was left with hearing damage when an announcement was made. However, none of the announcements we heard came over that speaker during our cruise.

The sky was crystal clear and it was difficult to find a single cloud to mar the spectacular view. When I picked our room, I had to decide between ours and the same room on the starboard side. Looking at photos online, I noted most photos showed ships at Cape Liberty were docked facing east, so I went with the port-side room. Glad I did, too. The Manhattan skyline was totally unobstructed. We had a clear view from Jersey City all the way around to Brooklyn. I’ve never been to NYC (technically, I guess I still haven’t), so this was kind of a big thing for me. The Statue of Liberty was prominently stationed in the mid-ground and the yet-to-be-opened Freedom Tower stood triumphantly among its neighbors that would tower above most other buildings in any other town. I tried to envision the WTC towers and what it must have looked like from here on 9/11. The new tower is certainly a fitting memorial, in my opinion.

After unpacking, we wandered around the ship a bit to get our bearings before we made our way down to the Rendez-vous (that’s how they spell it) Lounge for the muster drill. After the drill, we headed back to the room for sail-away and I was treated to seeing Norwegian’s brand-new Breakaway sailing out of Manhattan with the skyline in the background. I read that Celebrity was going to start showing more American football and was happy to see them carry the Texans game. I hovered around the sliding door to hear the game while I clicked away with my camera. On the way out of port, we had great views of Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

Since we booked our cruise so late, we could only choose Select Dining (no assigned time). We’d thought about trying it, anyway, as we found we weren’t always hungry at 6:00pm on previous cruises. We wandered down a little before 6:00 and found the usual first-evening queue of everyone on the ship, plus a few I think may have been brought on from other ships just to stand in line. Despite the horde, we were accommodated by the dueling maître d’s (one for walk-ups and one for those who called ahead) and were seated in a 2-top. Our waiter was Cesar from Peru and Jean Vincent from Mauritius. These guys were great and became our favorite waitstaff from any of our previous cruises. Jean Vincent took a few nights to warm up, but once he did, he was top notch. Cesar was brimming with energy and – despite being swamped nearly all the time – never rushed us or seemed too busy for a brief chat. Kristi had Shrimp Louis, a Ceasar, sirloin and chocolate cheesecake, which has been her go-to MDR meal when nothing else looks good. I had escargot, wild mushroom soup, jerked chicken and a cherry chocolate trifle.

Since we’re on the subject, I’ll take this opportunity to offer my thoughts and opinion on Select Dining. As I mentioned, we wanted to try it so we didn’t feel like we had to eat every night at 6:00 if we wanted to eat in the MDR. Rosemary, from South Africa, was always bubbly and cheerful and with the exception of one night, was able to seat us at a 2-top with Cesar and Jean Vincent. However, there was almost always a wait at peak times (6:00-8:00), which meant you carried a pager and sat in the wine bar to twiddle your thumbs. I can do that at home at Chili’s, so we decided we won’t be booking that service again.

The evening show was the standard first-night fare, sampling a little of each upcoming show. After the show and browsing the shops, we headed back to the room, where Sunday Night Football showed the Patriots and Bengals game. We grabbed a quick hot chocolate at OVC before retiring for the night.

Day 2 | 06-OCT-2014 | Sea Day

WX: Mostly sunny & windy, 55F

My wife allowed me to sleep in til about 9:00 before waking me up for breakfast. Breakfast in OVC on a sea day can be frustrating, with table hogs taking up valuable real estate when they’re not eating. But the staff was usually quick to clear vacated tables and were remarkably friendly, for the most part. The bar servers were often difficult to find and I usually found it much faster to fetch our morning Cokes, myself. The breakfast fare and selection was better than I remembered from other cruises. I noted the added sneeze guards and abundance of servers, but there was still plenty of self-serve stuff. The sneeze guards were awkward and while I understand their purpose, I think they’re poorly-executed. The lower section served to bust my knuckles and force me to contort my body to reach the back. My wife loved the omelet station, which offered Egg Beaters (her favorite) and we both visited the waffle station every morning. I cast caution to the wind and heaped my plate with waffles, strawberries in syrupy goo, whipped cream, crisp bacon, sausage and hash browns every day. I believe this to be a contributing factor to my pants shrinking a bit during the cruise.

If you read my Eclipse review, you may remember I had a hard time signing up for the official meet & greet and ended up hovering nearby without actually being a part of it. This time, I was able to sign up and received my invitation to the mid-morning event. We didn’t stay very long after the Captain and Cruise Director spoke, as it seemed most of the time was going to be devoted to a gift-exchange, which we weren’t participating in. Besides that, the Heart of the Operation galley tour was scheduled during the function and we really wanted to see that.

The galley tour started with the Food & Beverage Director (I can’t remember his name, but he was Australian, bespectacled and relatively young; pretty sure he was on either Eclipse or Equinox with us recently) giving an overview and introducing us to the Executive Chef, Abdul Nasser. The talk started with a sales pitch for a pay-to-play event called “Indulgence.” I didn’t pay too much attention, but it sounded like a performance party where the guests mingled among the performers in the wine bar. Whatever it was, I doubt it was very successful on this sailing. The overall demographic was not the sort I’d expect to attend such a function, much less pay for it. But they had a guy dressed as a lion in a tuxedo, accompanied by a gorgeous blonde stand in front of us while they made the pitch. Also of interest to me was one of our fellow guests, who was alternating between a 20+ year-old video camera and a film SLR that dated back to – at the latest – the early 80’s. I got the impression she was not doing so out of an artistic protest against modern technology, but more like she was having a slide show for her 30 cats back home. The galley tour is always the same, but is nevertheless entertaining and offers some opportunities to photograph areas otherwise verboten to passengers.

After lunch, we wandered up to the sun deck on 12 to read. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t even mention it, but I noticed we had a handful of LBB’s (Little Brown Birds; a nod to the naturalist on Millennium in Alaska) around the ship, which struck me as odd, considering how far out we were. We were steaming north somewhere off Cape Cod (not that we could see it) and while the weather was fair, it was blustery and in the 50’s. We retreated to the pool to get out of the wind, though the relief was only marginal. As you can imagine, pool use was sparse and even sitting outside in climate-appropriate clothing bordered on uncomfortable. Celebrity’s ever-present, thumping nightclub soundtrack was there, but at a moderate volume. What I did notice was a glitch in the music server that played every song at least twice before moving on to the next selection. One song played no less than four times in a row. It got stuck in my head and I ended up downloading it into my playlist for songs I can’t explain having. Well played, Celebrity.

Dinner was scheduled for 6:30 at Qsine on this, the first of three formal nights. After booking the excursions, we bought the 3-dinner package for the specialty restaurants, anticipating two at Qsine and one at Normandie. What we did not know (it’s a secret, you see, and isn’t published on the site when you make the purchase) is that you can only do Qsine once unless you buy another individual dinner. I’ll get to our Normandie experience later. Qsine is one of those restaurants that was so successful on the Solstice-class, they rolled it out to the rest of the fleet and had to find space on the Millennium-class. On Summit, they tucked it away on Deck 11, just off the midship elevators. Despite being an afterthought, the space seemed perfect for the application and was decorated in the typical, avant garde style as those on the S-class. Having deliberately left our “formal” clothes at home, we scheduled all of our specialty dinners on formal nights. On Eclipse, we didn’t know what to expect and gorged ourselves into a food coma before we even made it to dessert. This time, we had a plan to pace ourselves and it worked out. She had the Lava Crab (split between us), the soup & soufflé, and the fish & chips. In addition to half the Lava Crab, I had the lobster escargot (worth the cruise fare, by itself) and “Chinese Mix,” which was very tasty to this Chinese food aficionado. We split a chocolate tombstone dessert and left comfortably full.

That evening, we caught the big show, “iHollywood.” It was supposed to sample film music from the early days through today’s offerings. I used the opportunity to work on my low-light photography, shooting from the balcony. The performance was fine, but not anything extraordinary and I thought the overall theater talent on Summit followed suit: entertaining, but nothing special. The vocalists were certainly not of the same caliber as those we’d seen on Eclipse last year.

Day 3 | 07-OCT-2014 | Saint John, New Brunswick

WX: Clear, 65F

Also in port: Norwegian Gem | Port Load: 4334

I’d been to Saint John before, but it was 25 or 30 years ago and I really didn’t appreciate it. In fact, I recall very little about our visit back then, so this was like being there for the first time. After breakfast, we made our way down to the theater, where we were directed to meet for the excursion. I hoped it was going to be similar to our Equinox experience and not the Eclipse debacle from last year. I was happy to see they were distributing stickers in the way Equinox handled it instead of just unceremoniously dumping us on the pier. In theory, this was a great idea, but in execution, it lacked a little. The table with the stickers was at the bottom, near the stage. The plan was to have everyone file down the aisle, receive their sticker, cross in front of the stage and go back up the other aisle to sit and wait. Unfortunately, they didn’t seem to plan on a good portion of the guests having mobility issues. Others fared just fine, but there was still a clog of people who couldn’t or wouldn’t sit in the regular seats and chose to gum up the works at the exits. In any case, it was still more organized than in the Caribbean, where we were left to fend for ourselves on the pier.

During my research, I decided I wanted to find a tour to Saint Martin – a little village up the coast, along the Fundy Trail – to see the sea caves and covered bridge. But our late booking meant all the private tours had been booked for months and we were left with the ship excursions. I chose a photography tour, which I figured stood a decent chance of hitting several of the popular locations. I’ve been shooting for long enough that I know what I’m doing and was less interested in the “photo tips” and more on getting to the prime locations for those postcard shots I was after. We met our guide just outside the cruise facility and boarded what amounted to an airport shuttle bus with about a dozen other people.

Our first stop was the Reversing Rapids on the Saint John River, but found it was slack tide and it was less than impressive. So we moved on and visited Saints Rest Beach at Irving Nature Park. We didn’t spend a ton of time here, but we spent enough for some shots, gathering some sand and picking through the stones on the beach. We moved on to LePreau Falls and were the only people there. I’d bought a variable neutral density filter specifically for this trip (makes the camera leave the shutter open longer; makes waterfalls look like wispy veils) and this ended up being the only time I took it out of its case. Oh well. From there, we drove to Dipper Harbour – a sleepy little fishing village – for some shots of lobster boats and whatnot. I guess this is where the photography guide surprised me with some ideas about composition. She pointed out some things I’d never have considered otherwise and they turned out to be pretty good shots. I did chuckle at a pair of kayakers paddling by when one of them commented it was going to be a long trip to Florida. On the way back to town, we stopped again at the Reversing Rapids and found them in full rapidity. I don’t know if she was as impressed as she let on, but our guide seemed pretty geeked about how extreme the rapids were on this day, compared to usual. I didn’t expect much, but ended up finding the rapids fairly impressive. The guide explained that the phenomenon is created by the tidal bore entering or leaving the mouth of the Saint John River, right where a plunging rocky ledge lies under the water.

The tour bus dropped us off back at the cruise terminal with a couple of hours to spare, so we set off to see what we could. Saint John is a very walkable town with plenty of shopping and restaurants within an easy walk of the pier. We wandered toward the old city market (at the suggestion of the tour guide) and found ourselves in the middle of a national police organization event outside the Saint John Police Museum. There were cops from all over eastern Canada milling around with cars and motorcycles on display.

At the city market, my wife got tired of my “hangry” tantrum and I picked a promising-looking food stand that had lobster rolls on the menu board. After having one at a joint back in Houston, I was anxious to gorge myself on lobster rolls in the motherland. What I got was a glob of lobster in mayo on a slice of sandwich bread. Really? Ugh. I was expecting lobster in butter on an actual roll. All it did was fill the hole in my stomach and return my attitude to something my wife could manage. The market, itself, was pretty cool and worth a visit for anyone making a stop here. The array of locally-made crafts and food is dizzying. The market is covered and built on a slope and if you stand at the north end, you can see across all the entire building for an interesting photo. Just avoid the lobster rolls!

We headed back to the ship for burgers and adult beverages by the pool. Departure time was at 3pm and Kristi went to the gym while I watched the sail-away from the veranda.

We headed down to the MDR for dinner around 6:30 and had a 20-minute wait in the wine bar while we waited for our pager to go off. Kristi had her standard: shrimp cocktail, ceasar, NY strip and chocolate cheesecake. I had escargot, French onion soup, salmon and crème brulee.

We headed back to the room to turn in early and found chocolate-covered Oreos on the bed. This was the only evening snack of the entire sailing. I guess the evening chocolates fell under the cost-cutting ax. We also had yet to see a towel animal, which is trivial, but my wife really likes them and looks forward to each evening’s offering. She mentioned it to Sydney, the attendant, who said there wasn’t much extra time with all the cabins he had, but he would try. We still had yet to officially meet our assistant attendant, who - we eventually deduced by process of elimination - was Elmer, from Honduras.

Day 4 | 08-OCT-2014 | Sea Day

WX: Overcast & windy, 60F

With nothing on the morning’s activities requiring us to be up early, we slept in a little and had a late breakfast in OVC, followed by a leisurely walk around the ship to get the waffles and that bacon off my hips. During our walkabout, we wandered too close to the Future Cruises office and were sucked into the gravitational pull of the flyers. We pulled one of each and sat down around the corner to browse.

We narrowed down the candidates to a handful of contenders and headed upstairs to the iLounge to research. Our list narrowed to a New Zealand cruise over Thanksgiving, a South Pacific sailing with 3-day cruisetour in Sydney (also over Thanksgiving) and the Italy & Dalmatian Coast itinerary over Labor Day. South Pacific was the first to get crossed off, as my wife didn’t have as much interest in the islands. Next to get the boot was New Zealand, due to the ridiculous airfare. The Future Cruises staff was very patient with our indecision and we eventually made a reservation in an aft Concierge Class on the Constellation.

Having spent much of the day with next year’s cruise, it was time for some adult beverages, so we went to the pool bar for Donovan to get us liquored up. We caught the early show in the theater, which was a quartet of vocalists called “These Guys.” There had been some hype about them in the daily newsletter and I eavesdropped on another table’s conversation with one of the guys in OVC. The people at the table must have been groupies, based on their discussion. But I learned all about their backgrounds and how they’d competed on one of the recent talent shows on some major network. I thought they might actually be good. I was wrong. They were decent vocalists, but the way they interacted with each other and the audience seemed forced and uncomfortable. I’m not sure how to accurately describe what turned me off, but they just didn’t jive with their banter.

We left the show early and headed down to the MDR for dinner with Cesar and Jean Vincent. Kristi had the shrimp, Ceasar salad, rigatoni and chocolate cheesecake. I had the escargot, Ceasar, braised lamb in phyllo and strawberry shortcake.

After dinner, it was back to the room to turn in early. Sydney told us we were actually one of the later couples, explaining he had some guests in bed before 7:00. I’d been joking about early bedtimes for the more senior guests on board and my wife didn’t believe me. Now she knows…

Day 5 | 09-OCT-2014 | Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

WX: Broken overcast, clearing to partly cloudy, 60F

Also in port: none

Summit wasn’t due to dock until late in the morning, so we slept in til about 9am. I stepped out onto the veranda and was treated to bright, morning sunlight on some magnificent countryside. For anyone taking this cruise, I can’t recommend enough being outside while your ship sails into Charlottetown. The port is in a protected inlet and the ship sails along the interior coast for a couple of miles. Being on the port side, we had a fantastic view of the rocky, red-colored coastline, colorful foliage and a very picturesque lighthouse. I probably took about a hundred shots during the approach to town alone.

Charlottetown was another stop where I tried to book a private tour, only to find them all booked. So I booked another photography tour through Celebrity. This one was on a full-size motor coach and had about 40 other passengers. The guide was another local photographer and gave us plenty of the touristy information about the island as we drove.

Our first stop was in the tiny village of New Glasgow, where we stopped at a small farm. The place had plenty of colorful foliage and some nice views of the small river valley and a lake. Another tour stopped at the restaurant on the property and I heard feedback from some who were there that the lobster lunch was horrible. And I’d almost booked that one, too.

The next stop was at Cavendish Park on the north coast of the island. Having seen photos of the area, we were happy to have the opportunity to see this particular beach. Much of the island is composed of rusty, red-colored sandstone, which we wanted for our collection. The scenery did not disappoint and the experience was made even better by the lack of any other tours cluttering up my shots.

We next visited the fishing village of North Rustico, where we stopped at the wharf and learned about lobster fishing. I wandered around for some tourist-free shots while the main peloton of the group gathered around the guide. North Rustico is a great location for those postcard shots of sleepy fishing villages, with plenty of old traps and such just sitting around.

The tour dropped us off back at the pier and I pressed the guide for recommendations on where I could find a good lobster roll. He suggested a place right on the pier, but we planned to walk around town a bit and didn’t want to sit down for lunch. So we struck out on our own and stumbled across a place called Dave’s about a block off the pier in the tourist center. Jackpot! They offered a delicious roll with large chunks of fresh lobster in melted butter and a toasted roll. Worth every penny. With my craving satisfied (for the day, at least) and my surly attitude thwarted, we walked around town a bit. Charlottetown is another walkable town with plenty of stuff to visit within easy distance from the pier. We made our way toward a pair of church steeples that dominated their part of the skyline and amazingly, we found a church underneath them. St Dunstan’s Basilica is a Gothic-style cathedral that amazes with soaring ceilings, a stained glass rose window and massive pipe organ. From there, we found a shopping district and poked around the galleries and stores.

Back on the ship, we chose to eat early and found no wait at the MDR. Kristi had a crab cake, Ceasar, stuffed chicken breast and chocolate cheesecake. I went with escargot, Ceasar, Cajun drum fish and a fantastic apple tart.

The evening show was a husband and wife act called “Band Artistique.” They came on at either Charlottetown or Saint John with their two toddlers, whom I saw in the buffet several times. They were French Canadian and very talented. She had what must be a classically-trained operatic voice and he was said to have performed with Cirque du Soliel. Their performance was a few short acts where they changed costumes and acted out scenes that were mostly comedic and musical, but could become visually stunning, too. For instance, they did a levitation illusion where she was hovering without supports, and while the lights turned blue, he used an electric leaf blower to blow confetti into the air around her. Their act ended with a very funny musical act, wherein they each placed different-toned bells on extremities (including heads, chests and his crotch) and played Pachelbel’s Canon in D. Camera Sherpa and I agreed it was our favorite performance of the trip.

Our evening ended in the room, watching my Houston Texans embarrass themselves on national television.

Day 6 | 10-OCT-2014 | Sea Day

WX: Overcast & windy, 50F

We took the opportunity to sleep in again and awoke to heavy seas. I stepped out on the veranda and quickly stepped back in, with the discovery it was also cool and blustery. Despite the rough seas, the pitching and rolling was somewhat under control, though we did stagger down the hall like a couple of drunkards.

The Captain made an announcement that we’d pushed through a cold front during the night, which explained the rough seas and temperature. He also told us we were skirting along the coast of Quebec so the crew on the bridge could follow signs and make sure we were headed in the right direction. He was such a character…

After breakfast, we stopped by one of the lounges for a lecture on what to see and do in Quebec City. We didn’t learn much we didn’t already know and it became more of an excursion sales pitch than anything informational, so we bailed.

Much of the remainder of the day was spent either napping or reading. Many of the on-board activities were geared toward the elder end of the age range (I heard the bingo tournament was almost full-contact). That evening was the second formal night, for which we booked The Normandie restaurant. Even with the “smart casual” dress code in the specialties, I still felt mildly underdressed in cargo pants and a polo shirt. But I quickly decided I didn’t really care, especially when other parties showed up in similar attire. Camera Sherpa had a goat cheese soufflé and Dover sole, while I had scallops Wellington and the tableside lobster Dijon. We split a dessert of multiple shot glasses containing different crèmes and mousses. Then it was back to the room to plan our first day in Quebec City.

Day 7 | 11-OCT-2014 | Quebec City

WX: Overcast, clearing to partly cloudy, 55F

Also in port: none

We awoke a little early for some reason and looked out to see we were just pulling up to the pier. Summit had been scheduled to berth down the river about a mile, requiring a shuttle or healthy walk to town. We learned that HAL Veendam would not be making her port call with us, so we got her prime parking spot right in the Vieux Port. I learned after we got home that one of Veendam’s azipods petered-out and much of their itinerary was cancelled. Others’ misfortune isn’t something to be celebrated, as it could just as easily have been Summit. But I certainly didn’t mind the fallout.

When I did my morning recon on the veranda, the first thing I noticed was it was colder than a well digger’s butt in the Klondike. The second thing I noticed was the Chateau Frontenac, perched atop the bluff and dominating the visible skyline. The hotel is surely Quebec City’s Eiffel Tower. Their Sphinx. Their Acropolis. The one iconic structure with which they’re associated. And it is a stunning edifice.

This was the first of two days in Quebec City and we didn’t have anything planned, as far as excursions, and we struck out on our own to explore. We first headed up to the top of Cap Diamant to La Citadelle, which is still an active military post and home to the French-speaking 22nd Regiment. As it is still active, one has to have a tour guide. Our guide led us through the important parts, including the ramparts, powder rooms and the Governor’s residence. The views of the surrounding area from the Citadelle are unrivaled. The trip to the upper part of old Quebec does require either a short, CAN$2.50 ride in a funicular or a death march up approximately one billion steps. Apparently, my wife didn’t bring a coupon, so I was forced at fingerpoint to take the damned stairs. To whom do I report Geneva

Convention violations?

Anyway, we strolled around town and made our way back to the ship (taking the funicular down) for lunch and struck out into town again. We walked down the waterfront and around to the farmers’ market, then back through the narrow, old streets. Among the shops and studios, we found another hot glass shop and ended up buying a few pieces as souvenirs.

That evening, I planned to take the ferry across to Levis to get some long-exposure shots of the ship and city. The ferry runs two boats every 30 minutes, or so, during the day, but switches to a one-boat operation at night, operating on the hour. The roundtrip fare was about CAN$7.00, if I recall correctly. On the other side, I found a spot along the waterfront, north of the ferry terminal that was both very dark and unobstructed. My wife was paranoid that we’d be mugged or arrested for trespassing (we weren’t in danger of either). After a series of botched shots, ruined by the wind, I had a few I was satisfied with and we headed back.

Too late for dinner in the MDR, we grazed in the buffet before turning in for the night.

Day 8 | 12-OCT-2014 | Quebec City

WX: Mostly sunny & windy, 55F

Also in port: Seabourn Quest, Legend OTS | Port Load: 4476

Before getting into our second day, I want to note that we were joined by Seabourn Quest at the adjacent berth, while Legend OTS was parked around the bend at the waterfront. I didn’t really notice that much difference in the crowd, though we spent most of the day on a tour.

After getting our stickers in the theater, we boarded a motor coach for the day’s tour. Most of the trip was on the bus, slowing down at the scenic spots so folks could take pictures through the windows. We did stop just outside the Citadelle at a spot overlooking the river and the Plains of Abraham. I wouldn’t even mention this stop, except one lady left her brand new camera in the bathroom and it disappeared before she returned. Of course, it had all of her photos up to that point on the card and she was pretty upset. Not that thievery is excuseable (heck, we don’t even know if it was stolen; some honest citizen might have picked it up to turn into the police), but I have a hard time having pity. There’s no real reason why one needs to set a pocket camera down in public. It’s pocket-sized for a reason and comes with a lanyard to affix to your wrist if you don’t feel like pocketing it. But I digress…

The only thing I really wanted to see on this tour was Montmorency Falls. It’s a short trip north of town to the falls, of which the locals are very proud. And they should be. Montmorency Falls is very impressive. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t a huge fall into a natural gorge. I’d call this place a “must-see” if you’re into such things.

Our departure time was early (3:00, I think), so we stayed on the ship when our tour was over. After lunch in the buffet, we went down to what we thought would be a lecture about how the ship handles garbage. We arrived in the lounge early and found it was still set up for Xbox. I generously allowed my wife to destroy me at bowling before the garbage thing started. It ended up being a short trivia game, which we won.

When the lines were cast and we sailed away, I parked on the veranda. For the next couple of hours, we were treated to some of the most spectacular scenery we’ve ever seen. We sailed north on the St Lawrence, along the east side of the Ile de Orleans. The landscape was mile after mile of rolling hills, covered by orange, red, yellow and green foliage, with sporadic little villages along the shore. And to see it in the Golden Hour light (photographers’ term for the time just after sunrise and just before sunset, when the light is just perfect) was magnificent. We moved to the pool bar for Donovan’s concoctions, but I continued shooting out the sliding windows until we lost the light and it was time for dinner.

Dinner was in the MDR with Cesar and Jean Vincent. She had the pear Anjou with gorgonzola, Ceasar, stuffed chicken and chocolate cheesecake. I tried the escargot, beef consommé, Australian sea bass and bananas Foster.

Day 9 | 13-OCT-2014 | Saguenay, Quebec

WX: Clear & cold, then cool & windy, 55F

Also in port: Silver Whisper | Port Load: 2332

We awoke to a crystal-clear and cold morning at anchor. I was confused a little, because I thought we’d be actually at the town of Saguenay. What I discovered was we were, in fact, at La Baie, which is just around the corner. Technically, the Saguenay area is considered one metropolitan area, comprised of several formerly-separate towns, including Saguenay and La Baie. Nevertheless, we had what turned out to be a day-long excursion and we never made it past the port before we were whisked away on a coach. This was a tendered port, but I noted we were the only ship there at that hour and there was a perfectly empty cruise pier. While we were out touring, Silver Whisper arrived, having booked the berth before Celebrity.

I can’t say enough about the greeting we received. Even at 7:00am on Canada’s Thanksgiving Day, the pier was packed with costumed characters, passing out flags (Saguenay has their own flag), plates of cobbler and making sure every passenger received at least one personal welcome. I think most of them were from a big production show (which I’d want to see if we ever find ourselves up there again), but no matter – it was a great welcome, a great start to the day and felt very genuine.

This was yet another stop where I wanted a third-party tour to cruise the Saguenay fjord. But we were too late for them and even the Celebrity tour was booked. I picked one that sounded like the best of what was left without really knowing what was involved. Fortunately, our tour included a cruise, but we’d have a motor coach through the countryside first. The bus stopped at a couple of scenic overlooks, high atop the south side of the fjord. With clear skies, the view went on forever and the foliage was outstanding. Our next stop was a covered bridge, which sounded nice. It wasn’t that great. The community turned it into an art gallery, which I thought junked it up. It didn’t help there were a few other buses there, meaning it was wall-to-wall tourists.

Finally, the bus dropped us off at a little village where we swapped passengers with a little covered boat for the remainder of the tour. The boat had two decks: a lower deck that was covered with what looked like a greenhouse top and had a majority of the available seats. The feeble and easily-uncomfortable sought refuge from the cold and wind down there. It also had a small snack stand that served chips, candy and a variety of drinks. The more-hearty passengers braved the weather on the upper deck, behind the wheelhouse. The upper deck was uncovered, but offered the best views, untainted by glass. That may not seem like a big deal to some, but to photographers, shooting through glass is second only to shooting with your lens cap on. It degrades your shots. Anyway, I was glad to have my LL Bean hooded parka, as it kept the wind out and made the upper deck tolerable. I think it was about 2.5 hours back to the pier, which I considered the outer limit of what I thought was a good tour time. The drawback was that we had no time to poke around the town. The tour boat dropped us right next to the tender dock and the crew was already picking up their gear for departure. Silver Whisper was docked, but had no effect on us, as we were headed back to the Summit anyway.

We had enough time for lunch at the buffet before we camped on the veranda for the sail-away. Again, our departure time was a little early (4pm, I think), but that offered us the opportunity to watch the scenery from the veranda. Of course, it was the same scenery we’d just seen on the tour, but from higher up and in that great late-afternoon light.

Having had a late lunch, we decided to catch the early show in the theater. The performer was an impressionist comedian, Joey Van. Many of his impressions were lost on those of us under 90, but I guess you cater to your audience if you’re a comic and he was right on the money. I’m not saying he was bad or not funny. It’s just that we had yet to enter the bell curve of the target audience.

After the show, we grazed in the buffet before heading back to the room to watch football.

Day 10 | 14-OCT-2014 | Sea Day

WX: Overcast, turning partly cloudy, 60F

We slept in a little, after three early mornings and made it to a Heart of the Operation tour of the theater. We enjoyed our tour on Equinox, but that tour was for the Suites & Elites and this was for the Great Unwashed. The result was a mediocre tour that felt more like a chore for the talent. The four entertainers that showed up looked like they’d just rolled out of bed, with one so sleepy, her nametag was upside-down. I can’t even recall anything else about the tour of interest, except the cat lady with the ancient video camera was back. My impression of her as the Cat Lady was only strengthened by the plethora of cat hair stuck to her sweater.

For a couple of days, the CD went on and on about the breast cancer fundraiser to take place on this day. We dropped our donation and got a t-shirt and stuck around to see the Captain get his beard shaved. The fact he got his beard shaved – which looked more like a week-old absence of a razor more than it did an official beard – wasn’t all that impressive, but the show they put on was. The spa folks set up a barber’s chair on the landing of the main stairs in the Grand Foyer. The interaction between the Captain, CD, HD and the poor girl picked to perform the shaving in rough seas was great.

The remainder of the day was dedicated to reading and napping and general lounging.

Dinner was in the MDR with the usual suspects. Kristi had lobster ravioli, the dinner-size chicken Ceasar and chocolate cake (they were out of cheesecake). I had escargot, the French onion soup (odd, because I despise onions, but love their soup), beef brochette and chocolate lava cake.

I didn’t have anything written down for the evening activities, so we must have holed-up in the room for the remainder. Maybe we’re not so young, after all. Or maybe old is contagious.

Day 11 | 15-OCT-2014 | Halifax, Nova Scotia

WX: Partly cloudy, 75F

Also in port: Regatta | Port load: 2634

We awoke just as Summit was approaching the pier in Halifax. The temperature was very mild, compared to our last few days and I was enjoying the weather when my ears picked up the dulcet tones of a piper and a drummer somewhere up ahead. The wrap-around veranda allowed me to look up the port side and on the pier were a couple of kilted gents – one with a drum and the other with pipes. That set the mood for the day and it was a pretty good mood.

Our tour guide for the day, Glenn, was attired in a kilt, as well. He was a retired school principal and admitted local history geek and had a great sense of humor. Our first stop was the seaside village of Peggy’s Cove, which was mentioned more than once as a “don’t miss.” Seaside villages do not get much more quaint or scenic than Peggy’s Cove. The village sits atop a rolling granite outcrop, about which the locals are very proud. On one particular part sits a standard white lighthouse with red top. Since we were one of the first buses to arrive, I took advantage of the dearth of photo FOD (“FOD” being aviation lingo for “Foreign Object Debris” and my lingo for tourists who clutter up my shots) to shoot the postcard shots I was after. My wife remained in the relatively safe area, watching over me and scolding me for getting too close to the edge like a mother hen. She was sure I’d fall to my death in the icy sea. But I foiled her plans to cash in on my life insurance and managed to return safely. I should point out that I take after my father, in that I will sacrifice life and limb to get a shot. Not to stray too far off topic, but he once grabbed a thorny vine to keep from falling over a waterfall in Hawaii. Nevertheless, my back had been tender for a few weeks from a fall down the stairs and I wasn’t going to ruin the rest of our cruise over a picture. Soon enough, we were back on the bus and headed back to Halifax.

Back in Halifax, we were dropped off at the waterfront and led like ducklings to Murphy’s On The Pier for a lobster roll. If you’ve made it this far, you already know my love for the roll, so I was already giddy like a little kid on Christmas morning. But shortly after our arrival, my hopes were dashed when the waitress delivered my plate. The lobster roll listed on the itinerary was actually a wrap (tortilla, instead of bread), stuffed with a shredded substance I presume was lobster and mixed with mayo and onions. I took a single bite to verify it was disgusting and left the rest. Utterly disappointed, I finished my iced tea and we left the group to wander the pier.

We met up with the group again at the instructed time outside the Atlantic Maritime Museum, which was also on the waterfront. This was a great stop and worthy of the time it takes to wander through the exhibits. The Titanic exhibit takes up much of the second floor with the remainder dedicated to some fantastically-detailed, large ship models built in-house by volunteers. I also spent more time than I’m willing to admit talking to the blue macaw on the first floor.

Back on the bus, it was a short trip up the hill to the Halifax Citadel. Unlike Quebec City, this Citadel is purely a historical site and the uniformed men are all re-enactors. They’re dressed in the kilts, red jackets and feathery hats of the 78th Highland Regiment assigned to the post most recently. They stand guard at the gate, do a black powder rifle demonstration and fire off a cannon for the tourists. The view over the city is also top notch.

Our last stop was a public garden on the way back to the pier. Personally, I could have done without this stop. Maybe I was tired. Maybe I was just delirious from the lack of a suitable lobster roll. Or maybe it was because the caretakers had already started packing up many of the flowers for the winter.

Back at the ship, I grabbed a snack to fend off my inner diva and avoid a visit to the ship’s divorce attorney and watched the sail-away from the veranda.

We skipped the MDR for dinner and grazed in the buffet. Afterward, we caught the evening show, which was a stand-up comic from Atlantic City, Dan Wilson. We thought he was hysterically funny with his shtick about getting old and fat. He nailed his audience, for sure.

After the show, we stuck around for the late show in the theater, “Liar’s Club.” This was billed as an adult-themed (not a problem with this crowd), risqué game, where the Captain, HD and CD offer two made-up definitions and one real one for uncommon words that sound dirty. I can’t remember all of them (“pismire” and “hawshole” were two of them), but their definitions and chemistry with each other were hysterical. Best show of the entire trip.

Day 12 | 16-OCT-2014 | Portland, ME

WX: Overcast with fog & scattered light rain, 64F

Also in port: none

Our arrival to Portland was scheduled a bit later than most ports (10am, if I recall correctly) and we slept in. We awoke to thick overcast and fog with a light mist rain as we sailed into Portland’s harbor. Personally, I wasn’t too disappointed, because we’d had very good luck with weather to this point and the gloom actually looked “right.”

We were notified in the excursion muster that the coastal cruise part of our tour was cancelled, due to very rough seas off Kennebunkport, but we’d have a portion of our money would be refunded. After a 30-minute delay, our motor coach departed. Our guide was a life-long local, who I found a little on the annoying side. She knew her stuff, but seemed to go on and on about things that just weren’t that interesting. Maybe it was just me.

A 30-minute drive down I-95 brought us to the Kennebunks. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I can certainly understand why people choose to live here (at least between spring and fall!). The foliage was stunning; yellows and oranges exploding everywhere. We rolled through the town of Kennebunkport on our way to the coast and winded along the coastal road, past vacation houses and the Bush compound. We learned the Bush entourage left the previous Sunday, with George in frail condition. The guide got a little misty and said she didn’t expect him to be in any shape to return. It was also noted that one of the houses around the bend belonged to Dr. Neil Clark Warren, of eharmony.com fame.

The bus returned to Kennebunkport’s shopping district and dropped us off for a couple hours of free time. We walked around town, poking our heads into shops and galleries. I pouted and stomped my feet like a toddler until my wife finally gave in and stopped for a lobster roll. I picked a small stand called The Clam Shack, which was on the main drag through town and was actually part of a neighboring sit-down restaurant. After verifying with the girl in the window to avoid another mystery mayo & onion wrap, I ordered and paid for my roll (about $20 for the roll + a Coke). What I got was bliss on a bun. Finger-sized chunks of lobster, dripping with drawn butter on a toasted burger bun and served with a wedge of lemon. It was heaven! I decided my life’s goal was now to build a vacation house in Kennebunkport just for that roll.

The coach took us back to the pier and dropped us off just as the skies started to darken. Not that it was late, but I’d been watching rain move up the coast on my phone all afternoon and it was almost upon us. We made it through the screening area, which was at the port entrance and staffed by port employees, rather than X staff on the ship. The walk down to the gangway was uncovered and I began to feel the occasional drop of rain as we made our way. By the time we reached our room, the bottom dropped out of the clouds and it was raining like a cow peein’ on a flat rock. On the way to the MDR for dinner, we saw several folks who obviously came on after us and looked like drowned rats. I can’t imagine those with mobility issues were too pleased about that.

As mentioned, we had dinner in the MDR. There was a buzz around the ship about this being lobster night. The ship brought on fresh lobster during the day and I got that giddy feeling in my gut again. Kristi started with the tomato bisque, Ceasar, lobster and chocolate cheesecake. I had escargot, scallop Rockefeller, lobster and a chocolate torte. The lobster was served already split, making it much easier for those of us who tend to throw lobster parts all over the room trying to get into them. Kristi was just happy it wasn’t staring at her. Anyway, the ship departed while we ate and I could see the rain was still coming down in buckets outside.

Day 13 | 17-OCT-2014 | Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park, ME

WX: Overcast & scattered light rain, becoming mostly cloudy, 60F

Also in port: none

We awoke as Summit was approaching Bar Harbor and found the weather gloomy and gray. The sky was low overcast and misty, but the rain seemed to have ceased. The Captain dropped anchor about a quarter-mile offshore with our room on the stern facing east. I’d tried to do some online recon of the area before we left home, but didn’t come up with much that helped my orientation. I misread the meet time on our ticket as meeting in the theater at 9:30, but apparently it was to meet on the pier at that time. Fortunately, we weren’t the only people from our group who made that mistake and it turned out to be several of us. Our tender arrived right at 9:30 and it was just in time to watch our motor coach pull away. Not sure how that was within protocol, but the tour coordinator was quick to stick us on the remaining bus, which happened to be doing our same tour and had plenty of room.

Acadia NP is pretty much all around Bar Harbor, so the drive to the park was short. Our first stop was Cadillac Mountain and we found the cloud deck well below the summit. Visibility at the summit lookout was about 50 feet and it was windy with a driving drizzle. My wife and I were two of four out of the 48 on the bus who dared to get off and the other couple was quick to surrender, heading back to the shelter of the bus. At first, I was disappointed, because I’d seen so many photos on Flickr of the spectacular views from the summit. But I’ve been making a conscious effort over the past few years to play the hand I’m dealt, adapt to the conditions and shoot what’s available. The result is not worrying about things over which I have no control, such as weather and crowds. So I embraced the fog and used it for some nice moody shots I wound up being happy with.

By now, it was approaching 11:00 and we were expected at a restaurant just outside the park entrance for our lobster lunch. The place was right off the water and seemed to be geared toward large groups of tour buses. Bar Harbor Lobster Bakes was a one-room dining hall with long rows of communal tables. The servers brought tea and water, as well as salads and a bowl of steamed Prince Edward Island mussels. Many of my neighbors didn’t care for mollusks, so I wound up with several others’ portions, too. For the main course, each table got up to file through the small side room with the steamers to fill their plates with a whole lobster with more mussels, corn and potatoes. Kristi couldn’t handle her lunch looking up at her, so I ended up eating hers. Bunch of amateurs! Once we were sated and I was button-popping full of delicious lobster, we wandered across the highway to the beach to gather some sand.

I’m compelled to mention one lady on the bus, who sounded like she was coughing up a lung and did so for the entire duration of the tour. On one hand, I can understand not wanting to miss the tour, especially if you’re ambulatory. But on the other, I know I’d feel like a pariah among a bus full of cruisers already leery about a shipwide breakout of Canadian Hemorrhagic Sinus Fungus or the dreaded New England Burrowing Colon Worm.

Our guide filled us in about the history of the area, which was mostly French in the early days of European settlement. We learned about the Acadians and their ties to the Cajuns of southern Louisiana, as well as the fraudulent namesake of Cadillac Mountain. There was a 30-minute stop at Seuer de Mont Spring, which was awash in dramatic foliage. From there, it was down to the coastline to see Thunder Hole. The “hole” is a notch in the granite rock that is angled just so, resulting in a loud “thump” when the waves hit it just right. The real attraction there was the view of the ragged coastline. The last stop was the Jordan Pond visitor center, where we had time to browse a big gift shop and take in the view of the lake. We picked up some t-shirts before hopping back on the bus for the trip back to town.

We were dropped off at the pier and had about half an hour to wander the town. One would really need a couple of hours to hit even the highlights and I wish we’d had more time for that. By then the clouds were breaking up nicely and our ship looked fantastic in the early afternoon light. I managed a few well-lit shots of Summit before we had to join the queue for the tender, as it was getting late. We ended up on the next-to-last tender. Again, someone realized about halfway out to the ship that he’d left his camera in a restaurant and the crew was trying to facilitate a quick check by the remaining boat crew. I don’t know if he ever got his camera back. I continue to be baffled by such things.

Rather than enjoying the sail-away from the veranda, we – well, it was actually not my choice, as much as it was my wife’s – headed up to the Oceanview Bar for drinks and a snack. I didn’t want to fill up too much, as this was the third and final formal night and our last specialty dinner. As I mentioned earlier, we had one dinner in Qsine and two in The Normandie, so this was the second in the latter. We both tried different dishes from the first trip. I really like the lobster Dijon, but I’d been lightly chastising the Camera Sherpa about stepping outside her comfort zone and trying something that didn’t necessarily sound familiar. We started with a salmon mousse with caviar, which we didn’t order but was more of a hors d’oeuvre. I thought it tasted like room-temperature cat barf on a cracker, personally. Kristi had goat cheese soufflé and the lobster Dijon while I had the scallops Wellington and the phenomenal veal tenderloin. We both forewent the desserts and chose to try the assorted cheese tray. I can’t say it was as satisfying as a true dessert would be, but it was different and certainly outside our comfort zone.

This being the next-to-last night of the cruise, I used the remainder of the evening to wander around the ship and take long-exposure photos. I like to shoot up the ships we’re on, as they’re our home for the duration of the cruise and deserve some attention. I was amused to see Revelations was empty, save for the four-piece band and a lone bartender. I thought about how this place would be packed on just about any other itinerary. Except for a pair of gym rat-types (who might have been crew, for all I know), the ship’s gym was also deserted.

Day 14 | 18-OCT-2014 | Sea Day

WX: Partly cloudy with heavy seas, 75F

After – you guessed it – sleeping in, we headed to the theater for the Captain’s talk about navigation. As we’d come to expect, he laced his talk with plenty of humor and did not disappoint. The remainder of the day was dedicated to squeezing in as much relaxation as we could before the end. We’ve determined 14 days is about as long as we can go before we’re ready to be back in the rhythm of home and with our dogs. So between naps and reading, we browsed the shops for last day sales and watched a little football.

Our final meal was in the MDR with Cesar and Jean Vincent. Kristi had the big chicken Ceasar and chocolate cheesecake, while I had escargot, a very runny and clam-free New England clam chowder, chicken Kiev and an éclair. I palmed each of the guys a cash tip, as I did with Rosemary, the maître d.

We spent the remainder of the evening stuffing our belongings back into our suitcases. When I put the bags outside the door before bed, I gave Sydney and Elmer their cash tips for their work.

Day 15 | Debarkation Day | 19-OCT-2014 | Cape Liberty, NJ

WX: Partly cloudy, 50F

Alas, this was not a day to sleep in if we wanted any kind of breakfast, so we were up at 6:45. It turned out not to be such a rush, as it was rather windy outside and the Captain made the executive decision to hold off on docking. The end result was about a 30 minute delay in getting the debarkation started.

The debarkation process…ugh. What an unorganized mess that was. While X recognized those with mobility issues needed a place to wait that didn’t involve stairs and had easy access to the elevators, they seemed to have failed to factor in the number of Imperial Walkers (Star Wars joke). And it was a lot. Way more than the Martini Bar could hold, which meant they spilled out into adjoining areas and into the walkways. Of course, once they plopped down, there was no moving them, so those without any mobility issues were left to wind through the piles of bags and feet along the aisles. Another bottleneck was the gangway. We’d experienced this problem on a couple of the stops, where each person in a wheelchair or scooter had to be hand-carried over the lip. This bollixed up the whole operation, especially when one of those really heavy scooters had to be hoisted. I’m not suggesting anything dramatic to solve the problem; no catapults or forcing them off a gangplank at cutlasspoint. But you’d think (I did, at least) that some kind of solution would have been found long ago to get those folks off the ship in a more efficient way.

If you’ve ever wanted to know what can make people who are ordinarily intelligent folks into Grade A nimrods, you only have to look as far as the port shuttle buses. While I understand people think their connections are tight, or whatever, there will always be another shuttle bus along if the one in front of you is full. There’s absolutely no reason to go for a Guinness World Record in stuffing a bus. There’s no need to jam your butt in just because it looks like there might be enough real estate to accommodate it. But that logic is right out the window at the port. I couldn’t see outside because of all the butts, but if you’ve seen pictures of those buses in India where people pile on the roof and hang off the sides, I think that’s what we must have looked like. I’d rather have walked the hundred yards, but that was said to be verboten, so we ended up taking the circus clown bus with the rest of the cattle.

The motor coach to EWR was uneventful and one might even call it expedient. As easy as they make it, I don’t think we’ll ever cruise without the airport transfers again. The check-in was even incident-free, but that’s where the shenanigans started. We went down to the security area for our gate and were confronted by a security troll telling everyone to go to the next one over. *sigh* OK. We schlepped down to the next checkpoint, which I don’t recall was either closed or redirecting passengers on to the next one. Our gate was a relatively low number and we were sent to the far end, where the gate numbers were in the mid-100’s. I led a group down the concourse and got to another security troll who tried to send us back to the first one. I’d been calm and collected up to this point, but I hadn’t had anything to eat in a few hours and Etta James was warming her cranky pipes. I told her we’d been herded down to this checkpoint by the troll’s colleagues and I wasn’t in any mood to go back. She protested, but another troll told her to let us through and she relented.

Just like the flight home from our cruise last year, Camera Sherpa’s bags full of sand got TSA’s lacy underthings in a ruffle and we went through the tedium of getting them scanned for explosives. Once they were satisfied, we were through security and on to lunch in the terminal food court. I was already missing the ship’s buffet at this point, as the pizza I scarfed down stayed with me for the rest of the day.

We sat at the gate and chatted with two other couples we recognized from the ship, comparing notes and observations, talking about plans for future cruises and sharing tips we’d learned along the way. Soon enough, it was time to board.

Once again, the Princess couldn’t sit in a middle seat and the guy in the window seat left his shade closed. So I was left to SkyMall and a mediocre novel I picked up in Kennebunkport to get me through the flight.

Arriving in Houston, we hiked damn near to Dallas to the baggage claim, hailed a cab for the ride home and were met by The Mongrel Horde, who showered us with an assortment of dog-related moisture and sniffs. After two weeks, it was good to be home. I spent my free time over the following weeks sorting and editing over 2100 photos and a couple hours of video.

Conclusion

We’d call this a successful trip. Despite the demographic discrepancy, we were comfortable with the older crowd. We found Celebrity on top of their game, as we’ve come to expect. We would have no regrets about recommending the trip to others who would be interested in this particular itinerary. Our lessons learned on previous cruises paid off, from the skipping of formal nights to transfers. And we can’t wait to get back on a X boat in 2015.

RATINGS

Celebrity Summit: A. For a 13 year-old ship, sure she shows her age, but the crew has done a great job keeping her up, I think. My wife was a bit harder to please, but we’d been in suites on S-class ships the previous two sailings and it’s hard to compare. Personally, I think a ship is just getting broken in at ten years and as long as the crew is maintaining her like they are, she’s good-to-go.

Cabin Staff: A. Assistant attendant Elmer never did really introduce himself, but he was almost always around and would help us out with whatever we asked. Head attendant Sydney was ever-present and personable. I guess if he had as many cabins as he claimed, having to ask for an insignificant thing like towel animals is OK. Or maybe we were just pampered into expecting it on previous sailings when we shouldn’t.

Condition of Cabin #8181: B-. This was our first cabin that wasn’t a Concierge or Suite, so maybe I expected too much. The tape residue on the veranda door looked like it would have been an easy fix. The bathroom is in dire need of a refit. I can’t imagine the squishing from under the tile floor after a shower can be anything but a moldy mush.

Hotel Staff: A. I can’t recall having a single issue of any significance with anyone. Issues we reported were handled and we never felt like a burden.

MDR Food: A. There were a couple of dishes I found sub-par. The clam chowder was really a weak effort and stands out in my mind. Nightly variety was satisfactory and I was always able to find something. The fresh lobster was a great surprise.

MDR Staff: A+. Despite my distaste for Select Dining, maître d Rosemary, waiter Ceasar and assistant waiter Jean Vincent were fantastic. Any delays we had in getting our food were due to the Select concept getting the pace out of whack.

Oceanview Food and Facility: A. We found the selection and variety satisfactory. We really enjoyed the waffle and omelet stations at breakfast. Who could complain about never-ending bacon? The pasta station was a consistently good choice. I’d only detract for the knuckle-destroying crossbars.

Oceanview Service: A. A few times it was faster to fetch our own Cokes, but it was a minor inconvenience. Tables were cleared in a timely manner. I can only recall a couple of times that took us more than a couple of minutes to find a cleared table, even at peak times. The omelet and waffle bar staff stood out, in my mind. They were always perky and friendly. Not to say others weren’t, but most of my time was spent with those stations.

Specialty Restaurants: A+. The staff at Qsine and The Normandie were great. I could not ask for more. They all seemed genuinely interested in making sure we were taken care of. The food was all top notch, with the veal tenderloin and scallops standing out in my mind.

Theater Entertainment: B. The theatrical performers were fine, but not outstanding. The production shows we saw were also nice, but nothing to knock our socks off. Guest performers ranged from outstanding (Band Artistique) to “make it stop” (These Guys). The Liar’s Club was magnificent.

On-board Activities: B. Those we found interesting (galley tour, et al) were fine. Many seemed geared toward the older crowd, which was the overwhelming majority, so no fault there. And the weather wasn’t quite where it needed to be for any real outdoor activities. Maybe some more advanced photography lectures or Photoshop classes would appeal to me. If there was a scrapbooking class, my wife didn’t see it.

Excursions: A-. Again, perhaps it was the sheer number of the infirm and easily-uncomfortable, but I think the motor coach tours where you hardly have many opportunities to get off and wander could have been better. I also acknowledge we booked relatively late, meaning we had to take what was left. But overall, I think we enjoyed the tours and didn’t think we were left out of much. Maybe the lobster wrap was this year’s “volcano.” (see my Caribbean review)

Itinerary: A. I don’t know where I’d suggest an improvement in the stops. We really liked the overnight in Quebec City and Saguenay was a pleasant surprise. This was a sailing that was heavy on the at-sea days, but we knew that going in. I took away points for the abysmal facilities at Cape Liberty. Surely, there has to be a better choice nearby.

All in all, we had a really good time and think this was a solid choice for us. It was not for the late-night party crowd, nor was it for young children. I think both of the above would be bored. For a middle-aged, laid-back couple looking to relax and take in some great scenery, this was perfect. If anyone made it this far (without skipping ahead), you’re to be commended and I hope you found it informative and a smidge entertaining.

Until next time…

We will be taking this cruise in Sept 2015. Thank you for a wonderful review, I plan on using it to plan our excursions.

 

Day 5 | 09-OCT-2014 | Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

WX: Broken overcast, clearing to partly cloudy, 60F

Also in port: none

Until next time…

Please forgive me I skipped all of your other parts and came right to this part. I will now go back and read the rest. That light house you are referring to while sailing into Charlottetown Harbour is what we call Rocky Point and is the location of the first European settlement on the then named Isle St. Jean. When cruise ships are in on the weekends we regularly drive over there to watch the cruise ships leave. A perfect vantage point for photos and video. The captains will normally acknowledge us with a blow of the ships horn. Love hearing cruise visitors comments on our island. Sailing into Charlottetown is on the top of our to due cruise list.

Unfortunately I did not get down to get any pictures of Summit the day you were in but , I will cheat a bit here and share a picture from Summit's previous visit before yours. Thanks for sharing your comments.

Regards,

Kevin Reid

Please forgive me I skipped all of your other parts and came right to this part. I will now go back and read the rest. That light house you are referring to while sailing into Charlottetown Harbour is what we call Rocky Point and is the location of the first European settlement on the then named Isle St. Jean. When cruise ships are in on the weekends we regularly drive over there to watch the cruise ships leave. A perfect vantage point for photos and video. The captains will normally acknowledge us with a blow of the ships horn. Love hearing cruise visitors comments on our island. Sailing into Charlottetown is on the top of our to due cruise list.

 

Unfortunately I did not get down to get any pictures of Summit the day you were in but , I will cheat a bit here and share a picture from Summit's previous visit before yours. Thanks for sharing your comments.

 

 

Regards,

Kevin Reid

I had the Summit covered. ;)

PEI040 by AV8PIX Hickory Shampoo, on Flickr

You can follow the link for all my photos, if you wish.

I had the Summit covered. ;)

 

PEI040 by AV8PIX Hickory Shampoo, on Flickr

 

You can follow the link for all my photos, if you wish.

LOVE IT!

Regards,

Kevin Reid

Thank you for the review.

Thank you very much for this wonderful review. I like your sense of humor! :)

Took some notes about the lobster rolls. ;)

Silly question from someone from the Montreal area but would you go two weeks earlier for warmer weather? Did you enjoy some relaxing time on your balcony or was it too cold? We would like to book that cruise sooner or later.

Josée

Thanks for the review and the tips on where and where not to have lobster rolls. Love good ones! I booked this cruise for 2016 while on the Connie last week and am looking forward to it.

And I agree, the Liar's Club is not to be missed. We laughed ourselves silly.

Thank you very much for this wonderful review. I like your sense of humor! :)

 

Took some notes about the lobster rolls. ;)

 

Silly question from someone from the Montreal area but would you go two weeks earlier for warmer weather? Did you enjoy some relaxing time on your balcony or was it too cold? We would like to book that cruise sooner or later.

 

Josée

Despite living in Houston, I really despise hot weather, so I found the cool climate refreshing. I can't say I was ever uncomfortably cold, because we packed for the climate. Heck, most of the time it was warm enough for short sleeves. During my research, I read that mid-October is the average peak for fall foliage color, so that's why we picked this specific sailing.

We spent quite a bit of time outside on the veranda. With a windbreaker, I spent up to 3 hours outside.

Thanks for the review and the tips on where and where not to have lobster rolls. Love good ones! I booked this cruise for 2016 while on the Connie last week and am looking forward to it.

 

And I agree, the Liar's Club is not to be missed. We laughed ourselves silly.

 

I think you'll have a great time!

Despite living in Houston, I really despise hot weather, so I found the cool climate refreshing. I can't say I was ever uncomfortably cold, because we packed for the climate. Heck, most of the time it was warm enough for short sleeves. During my research, I read that mid-October is the average peak for fall foliage color, so that's why we picked this specific sailing.

 

We spent quite a bit of time outside on the veranda. With a windbreaker, I spent up to 3 hours !

Thanks for your reply, understand what you mean, we have lived in Louisiana for five years and I was looking for some cool air too when we were visiting with our families up here!

Josée

Thank you for writing your review. Very informative. Will you be sharing some of your photos....would love to see them.

We are doing this itinerary next October and we're really looking forward to it. It sounds as though I need to get working on private excursions if I want to avoid having things booked up.

Thank you for writing your review. Very informative. Will you be sharing some of your photos....would love to see them.

We are doing this itinerary next October and we're really looking forward to it. It sounds as though I need to get working on private excursions if I want to avoid having things booked up.

There's a link in my signature to the photos. Hope this helps your planning! :)

I am so glad you shared your cruise experience. We will be boarding this ship in October 2015 and your review really makes me eager to go. It will be our first cruise aboard Celebrity and we have heard many great things about this cruise line. We're going in the Aqua class cabins and have an aft balcony which appears to be a good selection from your review for viewing the beautiful scenery while underway. I'll have to take a look at your photos.

I am so glad you shared your cruise experience. We will be boarding this ship in October 2015 and your review really makes me eager to go. It will be our first cruise aboard Celebrity and we have heard many great things about this cruise line. We're going in the Aqua class cabins and have an aft balcony which appears to be a good selection from your review for viewing the beautiful scenery while underway. I'll have to take a look at your photos.

Glad you enjoyed it. Let me know if I can answer any other questions you might have.

Thanks so much for this wonderful review. I actually read the entire thing! We are booked on this cruise for Oct 2015. We will definitely look into private transfers to/ from EWR.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Thanks so much for this wonderful review. I actually read the entire thing! We are booked on this cruise for Oct 2015. We will definitely look into private transfers to/ from EWR.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

To clarify, we bought the Celebrity transfer and it was great. Just that little delay in locating the agents in the claim.