journeycollector

22 hours ago, greggrass said:

My husband Jeff and I are on the Summit on January 17th for a 12 night cruise with 10 ports. I just read through your blog. Thanks for writing! I look forward to the lamb 😊

Thanks! Have a wonderful cruise! 

1 hour ago, NorthCarolinaBelle said:

What a great review! Thanks so much!

Thank you!

Wonderful pictures...thank you for taking the time to share!

On 12/28/2018 at 5:28 PM, trivia addict said:

Glad you enjoyed the Summit. She is my favorite ship. Hope you spent some time at the Sunset Bar!

We will be on her again on Jan. 17, and then again, after her refurb, in May.

LOVE the Sunset Bar...one of our fave places!

On 12/29/2018 at 2:15 PM, I_r_a said:

Thanks for sharing

 

Ira

Thanks!

On 12/29/2018 at 7:38 PM, clskinsfan said:

Great review! We are on Summit in January 2020 for a Southern itinerary. Looking forward to having a great time as well.

Thanks...hope you have a great trip!

3 hours ago, JRG said:

Dear OP,  we too were on this cruise with you and we have alot of the same pictures.   If I'm not mistaken, the temperature was 84 degrees or so everyday with little to no humidity, really perfect weather.  Unbelievable that we were the only ship in port until the 5th day when we finally saw a Princess ship.    That made for less crowds and traffic everywhere.  It was a great cruise for us as we did the Suite thing for the first time and enjoyed the meals in Luminae and Quisine.

 

Its the second year in a row we've done Summit in December.   It just seems like a great value to us at that time of the year.

 

 

The weather was PERFECT, wasn't it?! 🙂 Glad you enjoyed your cruise too! 

19 hours ago, PhoenixCruiser said:

Really enjoyed your review!  We are on the Summit for the first time next year.

Thank you! 🙂

20 hours ago, downsmead said:

I like the 'new' layout of the dailies. I haven't seen this layout before, separated into the different types of activities. Is this new / fleet wide? Or does it just show I haven't been on a Celebrity ship since April 🙀.

Not sure if the dailies format is new. Maybe one of the more frequent cruisers can chime in? They were definitely easy to read and well organized!...even if activities were a tad lacking. 

21 hours ago, chad1969 said:

Thank You!! I am also on the 12 night 10 islands Jan 5 -17th 2019 so this IS VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!! How were the live Celebrity bands that play sail away's & such? Were you offered many discounts on specialty dining or beverage packages while on board? Truly appreciate the time that you took. Thank you!!!

Thanks! We enjoyed the bands. Neither of us are what you call live music experts, but what we listened to/saw was definitely enjoyable for us. Since this cruise left from San Juan, there was definitely more Latin music than the Celebrity cruise we took last year out of Miami, but I love Latin music--but that was a plus for me. We enjoyed the live music in the Rendezvous Lounge before dinner in the MDR each evening. As for discounts, we already had the classic beverage package when we booked, they tried to upsell us the the premium package, but we're not "top shelf" or big drinkers. We were approached about 10% off (or was it 20%) on specialty dining for the 1st night, but didn't take the bait this time. I will say, we were stopped repeatedly each day for upsells or discounts. We already had everything planned out, so we found it kind of annoying. Just my dos centavos! 🙂

2 hours ago, stmizell said:

Looking forward to more installments.  We are on the Summit January 5-17.  Talk about port intensive,  we are hitting 10 ports in 12 days.  Phew!!

WOW...10 in 12 days? Now that is island hopping. Enjoy! 🙂

2 hours ago, danalea1980 said:

I will be on this same cruise in April. Any advice on the ports? I am little apprehensive about getting off in Dominica due to the storm last year. Wondering you thoughts and ideas  of what to do? We are traveling with 3 kids so not sure if we can do the waterfalls. Also what would you recommend in St Croix? Is there a nice beach near the pier? Any tips would be great. Really just looking for some nice beaches to relax and swim in. Kinda tough to sightsee with the kids.

Thanks in advance!

 

Depends on what you like to do! We decided to break up the 5 islands into: 2 beach days, 2 island tours, and 1 "adventure/active" tour. 

I think we loved Dominica because we had booked an excursion (rainforest/waterfalls), otherwise I don't think just walking around the port with kids would be too fun. Dominica is getting back on its feet. How old are the kids? Some of the more "fun" things like river tubing require kids to be at least anywhere from 6-8 (it depends on the tour company). Maybe check out the Dominica shore excursions page for ideas? https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/shore-excursions/port/54/  

For St. Croix: yep, there is a beach to the left of the pier at Frederiksted! You can rent chairs and umbrellas there. Or you can take a taxi from Frederiksted down to one of the hotels that offer beach passes to cruise ship passengers like Sand Castle: https://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionProductDetail-g147401-d14141174-Sand_Castle_on_The_Beach_Day_Pass_in_St_Croix-St_Croix_U_S_Virgin_Islands.html 

Enjoy your cruise!

4 hours ago, PatEv said:

Excellent review.  We were on the same cruise and thoroughly enjoyed it.  In hindsight, we would have done less excursions and included a beach day or two, the sea day was quite a relief towards the end.  Our highlight was St Maarten - we did a full island tour with a third party and it was excellent. Close runner up was a catamaran trip out of Barbados for the day.

 

We opted for the El Yunque/airport tour on the last day.  It was good but we were dropped at the airport at about 12.00 and our flight was 18.00 😞    Second leg ogf our flight was also delayed by about 4 hours as well - we got home about 19.00 on the Sunday!

 

We had researched our next cruise prior to boarding and managed to get the same deal with £200 on board credit thrown in....so we booked.  Dubai - Singapore in a year's time it is 🙂

 

Thanks once again for reigniting a few memories of this great trip.

Wow..Dubai - Singapore sounds amazing! Glad you enjoyed this cruise too! I was curious about doing the El Yunque tour but our flight was too early. 

Outstanding review and AMAZING pics...thanks so much for letting us travel vicariously!

13 hours ago, casacaudill said:

Thanks for such a great, detailed review. We're on the 4-night sailing out of San Juan in February. This is our first big boat cruise so we wanted to go with a short trip in case we hate it. Given what you've written, I think we'll be just fine. (And we're definitely looking forward to exploring PR for a few days too!)

I think you will love it...be ready to get hooked, hah! 🙂

On 12/25/2018 at 8:43 PM, PROCRUISE said:

Joe - thanks for your fun to read review. Just cruised on the Summit, for the first time, last 9/23 - 10/7 on the NE/Canada itinerary. When you and B have more time available (14 days) this is one cruise you'll want to take for sure.

Thanks again for your review.

I have added a New England cruise to my bucket list! 🙂

On 12/25/2018 at 5:32 PM, Elizabeth K. said:

Thanks for your wonderful review. My sister-in-law and I were on the same cruise and are also Wisconsinites.  It was such fun to see some of the same photos in your review that we also attempted to capture like the Santa with his elf in San Juan and the umbrella canopy.  We also found the itinerary rather busy and kept asking one another, "which island are we at again?" on any given day. But like you and many others, we liked starting from San Juan for the better odds of great weather  and for getting to some of  less travelled islands so no complaints.

 

Loved being the only ship in port at all but 1 island. Ate in the main dining room about half the nights (very good), as well as Sushi on 5 twice (decent food and quite relaxing atmosphere), Tuscan Grill (best calamari ever but the rest, not sure what the fuss is all about). The most fun experience was Qsine.  We were fortunate to have a lot of shipboard credits 🙂  We also really enjoyed listening to the singer guitarist Chris Hawks who played throughout the ship all week.  Happy holidays and thanks again for the review!

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the cruise too...I definitely agree with the "which island are we on again?"...but no complaints from me. It was just great to escape December in Wisconsin for a week. 🙂 Nice to hear about your dining experiences too! 

On 12/24/2018 at 9:09 AM, kimberlydrzymala said:

Thank you for taking the time to write this and provide such beautiful photos it felt like we were with you on your vacation! Really enjoyed your review!

Thanks so much! 🙂

On 12/23/2018 at 9:54 PM, Host Jazzbeau said:

We did the Eclipse 14-night itinerary a couple of years ago [no longer offered, sadly] and were surprised that a number of the active members of the roll call did that cruise every year – their feeling was that once you have been to a Caribbean island you've seen it, so all the sightseeing stress is gone:  you can make a 'sea day' anytime you want just by staying on the ship [and with almost everyone else gone, it becomes your 'private yacht'].  So you might consider doing Summit again next year and adjusting the ratio of sea days to suit! 

Very true...hadn't thought of it that way! 

On 12/23/2018 at 9:06 PM, tazziehall said:

Great review! I really enjoyed it, and love all the beautiful photos you took! I booked Summit for my anniversary cruise January 2020 (so far away!), and reading your posts validated my decision on this cruise ship. I chose Celebrity for the same reasons as you. My trip only has one shared port from your itinerary- Barbados- and I think we might go to Harbour Lights! Do they have kayak rentals there?

You seem like an easy going traveler who appreciates the enjoyment of a vacation and doesn't sweat the small stuff. My husband and I are the same. My time on Summit will be after her makeover. This will be my first cruise and I am a bit saddened I will not have seen her "before". I am sure I will hear from seasoned cruisers the good and the bad comparing her former look and offerings. We shall see. I'm just excited and grateful to cruise!

I am glad you enjoyed your trip. Thank you again for taking the time to share your moments. Happy holidays!

 

 

You will have a WONDERFUL cruise! I'm not sure about kayak rentals at Harbour Lights. The do have things like jet skis and turtle tours though. Check out their website: https://www.harbourlightsbarbados.com 

Now it's time for me to return to living vicariously through other cruisers' reviews, hah! 🙂

Concluding thoughts on Celebrity Summit

Finished my Christmas shopping! This may be the last time we do a pre-Christmas cruise because all of the sudden a big chunk of December is gone. Probably will move to January cruising instead! 

OK, here are my concluding thoughts: As we were swimming at the beach in Barbados we heard a mix of people from Celebrity Summit and the Crown Princess (also in dock that day) complaining about their respective cruises. For the Celebrity folks, I just had to think: ARE WE EVEN ON THE SAME CRUISE? Because we were having a great time! Were there things I would change and stuff to improve on? Of course..and I'll detail that below. 

But for one blissful week, someone else cooked for us, someone else made our bed and cleaned our room, and we had ample sunshine and warm temps. 

Embarkation: Painless. The port strike that was happening earlier in the morning was resolved by noontime. From the moment we stepped out of our taxi at the Pan American Pier to the moment we were in our stateroom, only 15 minutes had elapsed. And we have no special "perks" or "status." Just luck I guess. Our room was ready when we got on board. 

Stateroom: Balcony cabin, deck 7, room 7020. Spacious, comfortable bed and pillows, couch, good storage. Quiet--never heard any noise from above or next to us on either side. Balcony space was nice...we spent a lot of time out there. A slight smell coming from the shower drain and a couple of the shower tiles were cracked. We also knew that the ship was scheduled for dry dock soon. Great location, easy access to elevators. I thought being more forward in the ship we might feel more motion, but all was calm.  

Service: Great service from Ryan, our cabin steward. He works like a magician, that guy! Also enjoyed our wait staff in the MDR from Tammy and Kelvin. Took time to explain menus and suggest items. Had to make 3 trips to Guest Relations because we kept de-magnetizing our seapasses. Service was quick and friendly. They also happily exchanged some larger bills for smaller bills for us. 

Food: This is highly subjective, so take it with a grain of salt (hey, that's a food pun!). I wouldn't say I would rave about the food here (last year on Celebrity Equinox we had a 3-night specialty dining package--so it's unfair to compare). This year, we ate all dinners in the MDR. I had two things I would rank as "excellent" -- the braised beef ragout with gnocchi as a starter (I could have eaten plates and plates of it as a main) and the slow braised lamb wrapped in phyllo. There were a couple misses: the seafood in the Mediterranean seafood orzo was chewy (a la rubber bands) and B wasn't too fond of the sirloin steak. I also had the teeniest tiniest chocolate lava cake I've ever had. Having said that, it was easy to accommodate B's gluten allergy. Breakfast was good in OVC, but lunch found me circling a couple times to pick something out and I'm not picky. Pizza in OVC could be good...or not. Sometimes nice and crispy, other times greasy and limp. But like I said, I didn't have to cook for a whole week! 

Facilities: This was the smallest ship we've been on and found it naturally easy to navigate. It did not feel crowded at all! Easily found open tables in the OVC. It was easy to get on and off in each port. There was some evidence of the need for the dry docking. Carpet frayed here and there. You could tell our balcony probably needed scraped of the many coats of paint and be redone. There generally wasn't a problem getting a chair in the pool area if you wanted some sun...or even some shade too. Because this itinerary was so port intensive, we didn't have time to enjoy as my areas as we have done on previous cruises. 

Onboard Activities: Again, since this cruise was so port intensive we were not expecting a lot. And in return, Celebrity did not provide a lot. The singers and dancers are always good, but we the plot-less shows can get kind of repetitive. Neither of the comedians were funny to us, but we like edgier humor and that doesn't really match us with Celebrity's demographic. The magician/comedian (how about pick one!) was awful. On the plus side: We really enjoyed the live music. Since the cruise left from San Juan, there was more Latin music...another plus for me. 

Disembarkation: Super simple. Walked off when our group number was called. Luggage was already waiting. Line moved fairly quick for Customs and Immigration and then again to get a taxi. 

----------

Ports…

St. Croix: Sundays in St. Croix are SLEEPY. So be advised to plan an excursion as a lot of shops are closed. We enjoyed our island tour though. 

St. Maarten: We did a beach day here. No complaints. Kim Sha Beach at Simpson Bay is a nice area. Very relaxing!

Dominica: Beautiful green and verdant island. Really loved our rainforest/waterfall excursion. Some of the scenery reminded me of Hawaii. 

Grenada: Similar to Dominica in being green and pretty. Loved our river tubing adventure. Would not hesitate to do that again. 

Barbados: We did another beach day here. Harbour Lights at Carlisle Bay has a fantastic stretch of sand with crystal clear water. 

----------

So what did we learn?

Well, on last year's cruise we had 3 ports and 3 sea days. This year's cruise we had 5 ports and 1 sea day. I think we're like Goldilocks trying to find what's right for us! We LOVED all of the islands we visited, but maybe next time we will look for 4 ports and 2 sea days? At times, we felt like we were in constant motion and needed just a bit more time to relax. 

A few of the islands were not the "typical" Caribbean stops (unless you're a frequent cruiser) that come to mind on a lot of itineraries like St. Thomas, Nassau, Cozumel, Jamaica, etc. I enjoyed that though. Dominica and Grenada were beautiful. I liked the mix of islands. I also liked leaving from San Juan and heading south to guaranteed WARM weather (we're coming from Wisconsin, after all!). 

A couple fellow passengers on the ship inquired why we chose Celebrity--maybe insinuating we were too young (well, thanks but I just turned 40!). We like Celebrity because it's peaceful and elegant...even classy. But then again, it's not stuffy either. It just works for us. 

That said, that doesn't mean we're Celebrity loyalists either. Price and itinerary are major components for us when booking. If I see a Celebrity sailing that works for us and matches our interests, we'll be there! 

Thanks for reading...hope you have a nice holiday season! 

3 hours ago, Silkroad said:

Great review & lovely pics, Joe! As always, thanks for taking us along with you (and B) on your holidays. 

 

Merry Christmas!

 

 

Thank you...happy holidays to you too!!!

4 hours ago, MightyMike said:

Would you be able to repost one page from your dailies on day 1? It looks like one page was missed and another posted twice.

I'll admit to being a serial recycler--not a bad thing I guess. I have already tossed them. Here's a link to my Flickr album that has them. They may be out of order: https://www.flickr.com/photos/38117207@N03/albums/72157703293141571/with/45648851304/ (see page 2 of album--towards the bottom).

On 12/21/2018 at 11:53 PM, tazziehall said:

 

I would have to plan my cruise around that day. 😄 Though I would get nothing done at work with such sweet pups around!

We bring them into the library twice a year...it helps de-stress the students right before Final Exams!

Super easy! A 10-15 minute walk depending on your stride and gawking! 🙂 Here's a link to a map: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/18.463741,-66.1121128/18.4644116,-66.1182693/@18.4645044,-66.1176863,18z/data=!4m2!4m1!3e2 

Saturday, December 15 - Return to San Juan and Disembarkation 

The day you don't want to come...time to leave the ship. 😞

First, we were treated to a beautiful view:

We had breakfast in the OVC. The was the only day I would call it "crowded." Had to make one pass through to find an open table...not a big deal at all.  

Then we returned to pack up our carry on (or carry off I guess you would say). We were assigned group 25 (out of 27 I think) and were instructed to show up at the Celebrity Theater at 9:05am for a 9:20 disembarkation. We had to vacate our room by 8:00am, so we parked it in the solarium and used wifi and cell phone data to catch up on things. 

At 9:05 we started to head to the Celebrity Theater when we heard our group number called and told we could exit the ship. So we just followed the signs for the gangway and exited the ship. When we got to the luggage area, our bags were ready. Customs and Immigration was pretty quick. We waited in line for not more that 10 minutes. Outside, in the taxi line, it was another 10 minutes or less to get a taxi. The trip to the airport was quick and we bid adios to Puerto Rico. 

I'll do some concluding thoughts on the cruise...but for now, I have to get Xmas shopping done!

Friday, December 14 - the dailies...

3 hours ago, CoconutOne said:

The daily for Barbados is awfully sparse on activities. I don't think I kept it from my sailing, but I don't recall it every being that empty.

 

3 weeks later, and I'm still finding sand from Carlisle!I agree that the sand and water are beautiful, but boy, the sand is sticky! I also didn't like how boats came right to shore. I saw a couple close encounters between boats and swimming. If I end up back in Barbados, I'll probably book and excursion. The people there are very pushy, IMO.

We're still finding sand too! Another souvenir from Barbados I guess! 🙂