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Summit review with photos & dailies - 2 itineraries (April & November 2012)


gmros

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We went on a Southern Caribbean cruise in April and November 2012 aboard Celebrity Summit. Instead of doing my usual daily trip log, I’ll just combine both cruises and post my reviews here.



 

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I will divide the reviews into several posts, but I will start with little details and tips I have gotten from other cruisers and I learned myself.

 

  • Introduction: Little details and tips
  • Part 1: Flights and Pre-cruise accommodations
  • Part 2: Embarkation/Disembarkation and Cabins (inside, oceanview, regular balcony, concierge, aqua class, Celebrity suite, Royal suite)
  • Part 3: Public areas (including Persian Garden and Fun Factory)
  • Part 4: Food and Entertainment
  • Part 5: San Juan PR, St. Thomas
  • Part 6: Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua
  • Part 7: St. Maarten, St. Croix, St. Kitts
  • Part 8: Dominica, Grenada
  • Part 9: Celebrity Today, Specials, Packages, etc



 

 

CRUISE DETAIL

 

We booked a Category 9 inside (7051) on the Summit Southern Caribbean cruise that went to Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Maarten and St. Thomas.

 

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We booked a Category 2A balcony (7154) on the Summit Southern Caribbean cruise that went to St. Croix, St. Kitts, Dominica, Grenada and St. Thomas.

 

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LITTLE DETAILS / TIPS

 

Overall, I would rate the cruise 4 stars. Here are some little details/tips:

 

  • Look out for their Tuesday specials before booking.
  • They offer free seasickness meds at the Guest Services desk.
  • There are mattress pads available if you prefer. Ask your room steward.
  • When you booked a guarantee, Celebrity is usually open to changing cabins in the same category after being assigned a cabin.
  • Register for a Cruise Critic Connections party and join your roll call at Cruise Critic boards. However, Celebrity scheduled the party on a port day early morning on both our cruises. So if your roll call wants to meet, it's better to plan one yourself.
  • You must order your luggage tags, they don’t automatically mail it to you. However, if you don’t have it, the porters have them at the pier.
  • If you have select dining (no set dining time) and want to make reservations, make your reservations online before your trip or as soon as you board. The slots get booked up very quickly. But don’t worry, you can just walk in. There was no wait when we did walk in.
    1. To make a reservation online, log in to My Celebrity.
    2. Select View Reservation from the Manage Reservation drop-down menu.
    3. Click on Shore & Land Excursion tab.
    4. On the right, click Your Excursions – Awaiting Payment, Purchased.
    5. Under My Cruise Extras, select Celebrity Select Dining from the Add More drop-down menu.

     

    [*]I could barely get signal on my cellphone, even with the ship’s signal in our inside cabin (7051), but didn’t have problems in our balcony cabin (7154).

    [*]If you’re in an inside cabin or a cabin that has the bed facing the door, bring something to cover the peephole on the door. Light from the hallway was hitting my eyes when I was sleeping. I only had a band-aid. The peephole in our balcony cabin did have a cover.

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    [*]Don’t miss the Buffet Brunch at the main dining room (Cosmopolitan Restaurant). It’s usually held only once and on a sea day at 10am. You will find the info under dining hours in Celebrity Today. Don’t eat breakfast if you can on the day the brunch is being held. There was a lot of food at the brunch.

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  • There are only 2 US electric outlets and 2 European electric outlets in our inside cabin (7051) and balcony cabin (7154); they’re all by the desk. No outlets in the bathroom.
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  • The “refrigerator” in the cabin is more like a cooler. And the drawer right above the “refrigerator” gets hot so be careful on what you put in there.
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  • The hairdryer on the Summit has an ON button that you need to press continuously to keep it on. Bring a duct tape or something similar to tape the button down.
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  • Laundry is not cheap. Summit has no self-serve laundry facilities. If you plan to get laundry done onboard, budget for it. I saw one laundry promotion – fill the paper laundry bag without tearing the bag for $20+. Beware the laundry bag is tiny and made of paper. When I used laundry bag, my 2 cocktail dresses and 1 shirt already filled the bag!
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  • Pastries and other munchies at Cafe Al Bacio are complimentary. You don’t have to purchase coffee or drinks to get them.
  • Most of the time, the mid gangway was used. So if you don’t want to walk far when visiting ports, book a cabin midship.
  • When eating at the Oceanview Cafe, make sure to go all the way aft. There are additional selections there as well.
  • Internet was slow. I was getting an average of 0.6 Mbps upload and 0.35 Mbps download.
    Screenshot2012-04-14at113953PM-167x102.png Screen-Shot-2012-11-25-at-9.27.14-PM-167x104.png

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Hi GMROS,

 

I was on the Summit in April and November as well. In April I did the repo cruise from San Juan to Bayonne and I just got off on December 8th after completing a Southern Caribbean cruise. I was also in cabin 7154 and it was a great cabin and location!! Looking forward to reading your review. I will be posting in the coming days as well.

 

Linda

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Hi GMROS,

 

I was on the Summit in April and November as well. In April I did the repo cruise from San Juan to Bayonne and I just got off on December 8th after completing a Southern Caribbean cruise. I was also in cabin 7154 and it was a great cabin and location!! Looking forward to reading your review. I will be posting in the coming days as well.

 

Linda

 

That is funny we were in the same room! How was the repo cruise? I'm planning to book it next year!

 

Booked a B2B on Summit for next fall. Pictures of the ship- inside and outside please:D I love the reviews on CC- thanks for taking the time to share your vacation with us!

 

Definitely will post more pictures!

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Great start! Lots of questions but am sure they will be answered ,or I will ask them later.

 

I agree. Great start.

 

Keith

 

Thanks for the review!

 

Thank you all! I'll try to post the rest as soon as possible.

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FLIGHTS

 

US AIRWAYS



April 14-21, 2012

$331.90 / person coach class

2.5/5

 

There were no complications or delays going to San Juan. The plane on the second leg of the flight (Philadelphia to San Juan) had monitors for every seat. They provided complimentary drinks (soda, juices, water, coffee).

 

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We weren’t very lucky however on our flight back home. Our flight was scheduled for 5:30 PM. Three hours before our flight, we were told that there was a mechanical problem with the plane and they booked us on the 7:30 PM flight. Unfortunately, there was no connecting flight available at Charlotte, NC until the day after. I had a plane to Orlando to catch the day after so I asked for other options. I asked if they could just re-direct me to Orlando instead, they said they couldn’t do that. They were able to put us on an early flight the next day on American Airlines so I could catch my plane to Orlando.

 

US Air provided us with overnight accommodation at Country Inn and Suites that offered free airport transfer, no food vouchers or anything else. The hotel only had one shuttle (van) that can only accommodate 12 people.

 

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We didn’t get on until the 3rd trip. It was so late at night when we arrived at the hotel, we only had 4 hours of sleep until we had to get back to the airport for the connecting flight.

 

We were given emergency seats on our American Airlines flight from Charlotte to New York. We were happy about it until we realized the extra leg room is not necessarily a plus. To create the extra space, they installed shorter seats! and it was even less comfortable.

 

Left – regular coach seat; Right – emergency coach seat



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DELTA AIRLINES

November 22 – December 1, 2012



$256.40 / person coach class

3.5/5

 

We got non-stop flight from JFK to SJU and back. Flights were on time. They offered complimentary snacks and drinks (soda, juice, water, coffee).

 

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There were monitors for every seat that offered complimentary TV, music, games, etc. There were movies and other services available for a fee. TV signal was not very good and a lot of the channels were unavailable. They provided complimentary earphones, but they weren’t very good. Sound coming out of the earphone I got was muffled.

 

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PRE-CRUISE ACCOMMODATION

 

CONRAD CONDADO PLAZA



November 22-24, 2012

$98 + taxes & fees / night

4.5/5

 

I would recommend this hotel for the location and cleanliness.

 

We booked the hotel via Hotwire without knowing the hotel name before booking. It was listed as a 4-star hotel in San Juan with the following amenities: Near Beach, Oceanfront Property, Casino, Fitness Center, Pool(s), Restaurant(s), Business Center, Laundry Facilities (self-service), Golf Nearby, Tennis Nearby, Spa Services, Accessible for the blind and deaf, Free internet, Accessible path of travel, In-room accessibility, Accessible bathroom, Handicapped parking, Roll-in shower.

 

The total cost at Hotwire came up to $115.64 / night. We had to pay a resort fee of $13.43 / night at the hotel upon check-out.

 

I have posted my

complete review here.

 

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EMBARKATION

 

On April 14, 2012, we got to the cruise terminal around 3 PM and embarkation was easy and pretty quick. It was our first time to cruise Celebrity. It took us about 35 minutes from the time we got to the cruise terminal to getting on the ship. That included stopping at the store in the terminal to buy bottled water. They only had a 12-pack for $5.75.

 

On November 24, 2012, we got to the cruise terminal around 12:30 PM and the line to check in was longer. It took us about 50 minutes to get on the ship this time.

 

On both cruises, we went to the Oceanview Cafe (buffet) for lunch. There weren’t a lot of people at the restaurant last April (3 PM), but there were a lot more in November (1:30 PM). However, we still didn’t have a hard time finding a table. Food was okay, loved the fried chicken.

 

 

DISEMBARKATION

 

Last April, disembarkation was a little confusing. We had a tour booked through Celebrity that included airport transfer. We were given a #30 luggage tag and were told to be at Rendezvous lounge at 7:45 AM. We headed to Oceanview Cafe for breakfast as soon as it opened at 6:30 AM. We got to Rendezvous lounge at 7:35 AM, there were still plenty of seats available. At around 7:55 AM, all seats were taken. Those with tours booked must approach the Celebrity crew on stage to get a numbered sticker. They don’t announce this all the time so there were a few passengers without stickers and had to scramble for one when they started calling groups to disembark at 8:10 AM.

 

Last November, we had a tour booked too and were told to meet at the Cosmopolitan Restaurant at 7:30 AM. It was more organized this time. At the door, they give you the stickers and told to take a seat and wait. There were still a lot of seats when we got there at 7:30 AM and when we left at 7:50 AM. Disembarkation this time was the fastest we had. We were on the tour bus by 8 AM!

 

 

CABINS

 

INSIDE CABIN 7051



April 14-21, 2012

$1334.42 / 2 ppl

3.5/5

 

Our inside cabin in April 2012 was very nice, but I found it tiny. I don’t think I will want to fit 3 people in there. The desk was tiny too and I don’t like it that the tray of ice bucket and glasses were on it making the available space even smaller. I can also hear people in the hallway. Thank goodness, passengers were not loud.

 

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All following cabin photos were taken during our cabin crawl.



Thank you to all CC members who opened their cabins to all of us, some even provided hors d’oeuvres.

 

OCEAN VIEW CABIN 3103

 

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CONCIERGE CABIN 8143

 

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CONCIERGE CABIN 6136

 

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I realized I lost one post regarding our balcony cabin so here it is...

 

 

VERANDA CABIN 7154

November 24 – December 1, 2012

$1449.14 / 2 ppl plus $100 onboard credit

 

We had a regular balcony cabin in November 2012 and I found it even tinier than our inside cabin last April. The square footage is most likely, but because of the balcony door, we couldn’t utilize more space.

 

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Bed was comfortable, pillows were flat.

 

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The bathroom tiles were dirty, but everything else was pretty clean.

 

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Balcony was a decent size, chairs were comfortable.

 

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