Sheeba67

perfect, just what we needed. We will definitely get tacos and some mariscos, and probably hit Pappas and Beer (I was there 33 years ago). Bet things have changed. 

Does anyone out there have a good chill walking itinerary for Ensenada? We have two girls 18 & 20 and want a great taco stop and probably the required stop at Papas & Beer or Hussongs.

we have been on three Carnival Cruise and three Celebrity Cruises. Both have their pros and cons. If you are over 60, and can't handle kids Carnival is definitely not for you. If you are cruising with kids under 18, Carnival is great as they have a ton of games, trivia, comedy shows (both PG and R versions), and other things for family activities. We felt the food in the MDR on both lines was comparable, with Celebrity taking a slight advantage. Celebrity needs a Comedy Club or another venue for after dinner aside from the mediocre theater shows.

been on the Summit three times in the last 4 years. Only had one not so good meal in the MDR. If everyone thinks the buffet is gross, why continue going back night after night. A cruise is what you make it. If you think the food sucks on Celebrity, you may want to pay 5 to 10 times more and upgrade to one of the specialty lines, or just stop cruising.

For us Tuscan Grill was really good. The fillet was to die for. As others said, I probably wouldn't pay full price for it, but it is well worth spending some OBC for. We weren't sa impressed with Qsine, but again it was still worth OBC. Just don't start off too fast as some of the better dishes are served at the end when you are stuffed. We did both of these on our cruise in November.

not sure about the house band, but we spent most of our nights in the Sunset bar (10th aft), and enjoyed the acoustic sets from Michael Reddick? and the duet (young male, great guitarist, and female, vocalist) They both cover a lot of different types of music and are welcome to requests.

we were on in November and Mama Keisha kept the party rolling, singing and dancing up a storm, especially when they copied a reggae song. Really fun at the back of the ship.

If you are just looking to go to a beach, hop a cab to the Boatyard.

Beach and the bar are both nice. Admission included a ride back to the ship.

We found the boatyard to be pretty expensive. I think a bucket of beers was like $30. We had a private taxi tour and had him stop at a locals only rum shack and got 5 beers for $4 and got to have beers with the old retired locals drinking Johnny Walker Black at 10:00am. It was an awesome experience and only an hour out of our day. You can chose whatever beach you want.

For what it is worth, we ate at the Tuscan Grill on our Summit cruise last month and it was the best meal of the cruise. We used on board credit, so really didn't cost us anything, but service was great and the food was really good. The filet was much better than any other cut of meat we could get in the MDR. Remember, you can usually get a 30% discount if you ask and are persistent.

We chose Cinnamon Bay over Trunk bay a couple of years ago, and was a little disappointed. The water was a little murkey, but it was probably the same at Trunk bay due to the sea conditions. Still a great do it yourself excursion with a beautiful beach. Catch a painkiller at the beach bar by the Ferry at Cruz Bay.

We miss the comedy shows, multiple trivia opportunities, and the Red Frog Pub on Carnival. But you can't beat a Southern Caribbean with Celebrity and all the perks. Celebrity does have a more mature crowd, but a cruise is what you make it.

We are also from Salt lake and were on a few weeks earlier with a different itinerary. We did things a little different as we spent most of the time at the bars around the ship and chose not to go to any entertainment aside from the acoustic music in the Sunset Bar. Special shout out to Mama Keisha and crew at the Sunset bar. We had good food most of the time, although we were glad we didn't have to spend much time in the buffet as the selection was usually lacking and saw most of the same items the whole trip. We had a great meal in the Tuscan Grill and an ok meal at Qsine. We found the breakfast options at the buffet good, but the same every day and got tired of it late in the week. We had an Ocean View room on Deck 2 which was conveniently located near the Aft elevators and like you, the room was fine with everything in good working condition. The worst part about the cruise was the flight over and back from San Juan. It sucks to get to and from Salt Lake City.

No one has mentioned it, but if they can both get the drink package and like to drink, they will do just fine on the Summit. It is a little subdued, but if they like hanging out with you and easily meet others, they will have a good time. A cruise is what you make it.

Getting off the ship this morning seemed pretty smooth. Only one issue with one of our bags being in a different zone number completely! Thankfully I did a quick scan and found it easily myself! From walking out of the promenade to getting on the bus to the airport was 40 minutes! Record for us I believe!

 

To those who are getting on board today, enjoy your cruise! I'll be completing this in the next few days with our thoughts, observations and more photos!

 

 

Lynn & Ken

Looking forward to hearing your overall thoughts on this cruise and if it met all of your expectations. We have cruised Celebrity and Carnival and are interested to try Royal.

First off, let me say that I am a huge reggae fan and loved the band selection. But it was the execution in 2016 that was horrible. In the previous years, they used a 2,000 passenger capacity ship on a different cruise line (Norwegian). It got so popular that they did it twice in 2015. But you then have to pay the musicians twice so I suspect some profit gouging was the motivation to change to the 4,000+ passenger Independence of the Seas. I am not going to review that ship, it has been done zillions of times so I will just comment that the ship is now middle-aged and could use some rehab.

 

But you don't take the Jamrock cruise for the ship amenities. You take it for the music, of course. But that is my chief complaint: the Independence of the Seas has no venue, not one, that can adequately accommodate 4,000 people. They tried with the main pool deck but even there, you cannot cram 4,000 people. Having said that, they do use the Independence of the Seas successfully for other music cruises such as the Legends of Rock cruise. But in that case, they would split the venues such that you could either see band A at the main stage or band B in the Alhambra theater. That way 4,000 people are spread about so that everybody gets a place to see a show. But Damien Marley (or whoever called the shots) didn't go that route. Instead, they planned each and every concert (but for some minor DJs) for the main stage.

 

That is problematic in that November is still the rainy season in Jamaica. So guess what: it poured rain 3 out of the 5 nights. Horrible. But Marley had no adequate back-up plan. Indeed, nothing was announced the first rain-out night. So I asked a guard: what's up, where will the music be? The fellow misinforms me that it will be in the Promenade. Now if you have seen the Promenade, it is conceivable that you could possibly cram 4,000 people into it. So we waited in the Champagne bar (great bar BTW) for the festivities to begin. But after about 9PM, we got suspicious and started looking. By pure chance, we come upon the Alhambra, which is where the concerts had been re-scheduled. Now realize that the seating capacity in the Alhambra is around 1300. Then illegally pack another 800 or so into the aisles. What a fire disaster waiting to happen, particularly as there was lot of smoking go on. I was surprised that Royal Caribbean would allow such overcrowding of a venue given the obvious fire hazards. But even packed beyond packed, that left 1/2 the boat SOL. Those poor souls had to just grin and bear it: no music for you!

 

In any case, we attempt to get into the theater. My sister-in-law is charming so the crowd stepped asidet and let her and my wife in. But then everybody joined shoulders again and blocked me. So I was allowed in only by indicating I was with the two women who just got in. By a miracle, there was still room for 3 at the extreme front left corner of the back aisle, I got to watch the back of Tarrus Riley's head for my $5,000. But we missed the other acts I wanted to see.

 

The same garbage continued for the next two days of torrential rain. Just one-half of the cruise ship got to see what they wanted. What an unmitigated disaster -- listen, I get it, the "Island way" of management is different from the US way. But you charged me US prices, not Island prices. So at least deliver on what was promised by doing what the other music cruises do and splitting the venues so that everybody gets to see a show.

 

Even if they hadn't had the rain problem, the upper balcony around the main stage was dominated by a group of loafers who arranged loungers all around the balcony. So where hundreds could have seen the show, just the layabouts who parked their loungers got to see (they would stand in front of their loungers and thus dominate about 8 feet of space each). Reminded me of the folks who don't pick up after their dogs, that sort of lack of consideration for others. Yet the cruise did nothing to police the situation, total hands off. If they had kicked the layabouts off the loungers, so many paying customers would be able to enjoy the shows they paid for. But they didn't. The same situation would occur in the Alhambra: a single person would claim 6 or 7 seats for their buddies. But what made it worse in the Alhambra is that, inevitably, only 2/3 of their friends would show up, the others being too partied out I suppose. But that left so many seats empty, despite the lack of space for everybody else. And again, zero was done to mitigate this BS.

 

So carefully consider what I am telling you before forking out thousands like I did. To sum up the lack of management, Damien tells a story during his final show (which was tough to follow because the pool deck had a hurricane-like wind blowing the whole time, note that the outdoor pool deck was never designed to be concert venue). So Damien indicates that Bruno Mars was backstage with him at a gig and was talking to him about some problems he had. And Damien's advice was to go out and get the best marijuana money could buy, that it would solve all his problems. It is that kind of thinking that lead to this disorganized, chaotic, and disappointing experience. Now don't get me wrong, his story was indeed amusing to me but it also points to a certain Jamaican laissez-faire that simply doesn't align when you are charging me $4900 for a balcony room for three. For that kind of money, you need more than weed to solve problems. You need professional management, which was nowhere to be found on the Jamrock cruise. Instead, you just got the top dog blazing the best stuff he could find while half the cruise missed out on what they paid for.

sorry to hear that you didn't get to see some of the bands you wanted. I really wanted to go on this cruise to see some of the bands, mainly to see the likes of Toots and Steele Pulse. I would be pissed if we missed them. Hopefully they will take some of this feed back to heart and clean up their act for future cruises. This is a great concept, but may not be practical as you suggest. The other problem I see is the lack of reviews. It is actually hard to find reviews like yours. Thanks for posting.

We just got off the Summit a few weeks ago and requested the egg crate foam pad and that made a huge difference from cruises past. The room steward was a little resistant to provide it for the whole bed, but then took care of us. We find the beds a little too firm for our liking. The coffee at Cafe Al Bacio is much better than the buffet, and we would just stop there on our way up every morning.

If I found another cruise line that was less expensive than CCL I would book it in a heart beat. We're booking the Pride in February 2018 because it's hundreds less than anything else (and only $100 more than it was when we cruised on her in 2012). Could have taken NCL out of NYC for $1100 more I suppose but being on a newer ship doesn't attract us and having "free" stuff that we wouldn't buy in the first place isn't a selling point for us (but even if we did buy drink packages we could buy a better package on CCL and still end up saving money).

 

But like I said, if we find a cruise line is less expensive then we'd book it in a heart beat.

I will probably get hammered here, but you might look into a Southern Carribean on Celebrity with one of the popular TA's. They just had the Thanksgiving sale w/ several Fall dates for $599 for an Ocean View, with the classic drink package, gratuities, and a $300 OBC for the room. Can't beat that anywhere in our opinion. I like the activities on Carnival, but I like drinking for free on Celebrity.

Thanks for the quick reply - it is just funny to us that if you have Cheers they cut you off, but if you don't have Cheers they wont cut you off unless you are making a scene.

 

We are drinkers and since we are on vacation, we like to enjoy ourselves throughout the whole day, some days we may do more than 15 some we may not. Just trying to figure out if Cheers is worth it to us?

If you are anywhere near 15, the program is definitely worth it. I never made it to 15 but got within a few most days and we thought it was well worth it.

On the Summit last month, they screwed up and didn't get our bags to our room before our early dining time so we wore shorts in the MDR with no issues. Balance of the cruise was business casual for us. We felt right at home with slacks and a nice shirt on Chic nights, although there were a lot of suits and more tux's than I expected. Most everyone was suitably dressed.

Make sure you know exactly which catamaran you are going with. We did the snorkel trip to sugar beach by the Pitons and the catamaran ended up being a power boat that was more like a small ferry than a catamaran. Snorkleing is just ok. If it is under $50, it will most likely be the power boat with 50-70 people and not my first choice. The Cosol tour is great for first timers to St Lucia, but the van ride back is way too long. I would suggest the land tour to the Pitons and then a boat ride back. I don't think you can do that through Celebrity.

We are new to Celebrity and will be traveling to Antarctica in Jan 18. I have been able to find a wine list for the Classic package but I have no idea how much wine the package includes. Is it a number of bottles? Glasses? Sorry if this has been covered before but I have not been able to find. Thanks

As much as you care to drink, as long as the price per glass is within your package limit.

I won a travel voucher at work and was thinking of using it on a cruise for next fall. I was considering this cruise as the price seems really good and it's an itinerary I would love to do. We would get a balcony. However I don't know anything about this ship or Celebrity in general (I have only been on 2 cruises and have another planned for next year on Princess). Does it have an adult area or pool? If so, is there a charge? Has anyone done this itinerary from San Juan in the fall? The dates are October 28-Nov. 1. I have some concerns about cruising the Caribbean in the fall and would love to hear from others that have done it as well as what you like about Celebrity. TIA.

We just got back on the 12th, and have done this cruise three times in the last four years. Cruise ship vibe is mellow with a mostly older crowd, but the cruise is what you make it. We always spend time at the Sunset bar listening to acoustic music in the evenings and look for the free drawings in the casino (wife won $300 casino credit this cruise). MDR food is always good in our opinion, but the Ocean View Buffet has limited options. Rained only a couple of times on and off at a couple of ports, but otherwise the weather was great. We had the calmest water on this cruise that we have ever experienced. With the usual free perks and low cruise fare, we can't afford not to cruise on the Summit in the fall. Go for it.

I was going to ask the same question, boarding Summit on 11/19.

 

Also was wondering what time is the most/least crowded?

 

We are arriving in San Juan on 11/18 and doing a food tour the morning of the 19th. I think we'll be done and heading to the ship around 1:30 but we could hang around San Juan a bit longer if that will put us in the midst of the big crowds.

My experience the last couple of times boarding thew Summit was it was never really crowded. With the late departure time it spreads out the crowds. I plan to board this Saturday around 12:30pm. Wish me luck.

Correct - I was on the Summit last week and I was surprised how busy the place was. Obviously Celebrity made the correct decision. I will never eat there but to each it's own. $30-$40 pp minimum just for food? No thanks. My two cruises this year on the Summit and the Constellation had awesome food.

I am on the Summit next week. Do you remember any of your stand out meals? What is not to miss?

they need to figure out how to make real hash browns, then it might be worth worrying about.