mahdnc

We first met at Cellar Masters to take care of the introductions, a group photo, a toast, and a little starter.

Here was the gang. We had couples from Wisconsin, Illinois (us), Washington, Georgia, and Texas. The couple from Georgia said they booked the Chef's Table after they boarded!

I have read on Cruise Critic that the Chef's Table experience is heavily dependent on the group of passengers that you are with for good or bad. I would agree. Fortunately we had a good group of 10 for our dinner. Here was the dinner menu:

We signed up for the Chef's Table for the very first time ever. I did it through our Cruise Planner for a total of $307. Through a very confusing sequence of events (details which I will leave out), I found out that our dinner was scheduled for the first night of the cruise. There was one other dinner scheduled and that was set for Day 4 of the cruise (Cartagena). It still had openings, but we ended up keeping our original time as strange as that felt.

When we got on board, the first order of business was to get our specialty restaurant reservations squared away. One thing that I observed was that there was no waiting line at Tuscan Grill (Deck 3) while there was a fairly long line at the specialty reservation desk at Guest Relations (also on Deck 3).

At 10:47 am, we arrived at Terminal G and we said goodbye to the couple from Oregon. We were directed to walk to Column 11 and make a right. There was no check of passengers for boarding times it was first come, first served. At 10:54 am we entered the check in area and the whole process was very quick and simple as usual. At 10:59 am, we step foot onto Summit! Easy-peasy. At 11:04 am we arrived at our cabin. We are in 8166 which is one of the 12 Ultra Deluxe Veranda cabins (aka Family Veranda) at the back of the ship.

The couple we met flew in from their home in Oregon. It doesn’t sound like them.

Aloha! We are having a terrific time!! Thank you.

We have to go to dinner. We always have chosen main seating (aka early seating). For this cruise, early seating starts at 5:30 pm. That's the earliest that I can remember over our 18 cruises with Celebrity. I will do more catch up posts later tonight.

I was wondering the same thing. Last month, I took a look at the Port of Miami schedule and I think it was Beyond that would continue to sail from Miami this year. Maybe this is the last year?

When my wife and I were leaving the hotel, we met a nice couple on our ride down the elevator. They obviously looked like cruisers. So I asked them what ship they were going on. They said "Summit--ummm maybe". This couple from Oregon explained that one of them had lost their passport on the way to Miami. They used their passports to board their plane but found it missing after they checked into the Marriott hotel. My heart sank for them and I felt sick as I was imagining one of my worst fears coming to life. They asked if they could ride with us to the pier and offered to pay. Of course I said yes to the ride but no to the money. I wished them good luck when we got to the cruise port. I told my wife that based on some similar horror stories that I have read on Cruise Critic, I didn't think they were going to be permitted to board. Too bad. 10:38 am A view of Summit as our Uber XL drove across the MacArthur Causeway.

The last two times we cruise out of Miami (2015, 2016), we took a taxi to the pier. This time I tried something different, I went ahead and pre-booked an Uber XL for my wife and me. I booked for 10:30 am pickup at the hotel. Our check in time was 11:00 at the pier. I am not sure if it would have been cheaper than getting a taxi (large enough for us and our luggage), but I liked the certainty of knowing that I had it arranged before I went to bed the night before. My wife and I have not learned the art of travelling light. Our ride promptly arrived at 10:30 am. 10:31 am Bags are packed and we are ready to go.

Here are a few more photos that I took from our 28th floor room before we checked out yesterday: In the above photo, Icon of the Seas (docked) is partially visible all the way to the left in the photo. Valiant Lady is docked next to us on the right in the above photo. Refueling barge is parked alongside Summit.

Here is the Celebrity Today for Day 1: link

Yes, I am still alive. It was a very busy day yesterday and I was so exhausted and I pretty much crawled into bed after dinner and slept for 12 hours--too tired or busy to post anything! I am back "on the job" and will resume with some catch up posts!

Sorry. We did a lot of running around today after getting onboard.

Thanks. Our Solstice transpacific has its double day on Apr 18 next year. I thought your itinerary would have the same double day on Apr 18

It's a six cruise ship day today!

It's another Miami sunrise, Starin' slowly 'cross the sky....

Apr 18th occurred twice for your sailing, correct?

The night time view from our room. Cruise port is on the top left. No ships now, but they'll be there when we wake up! Good night.

After dinner, we walked around South Beach.

We had dinner at Osteria Positano. It was pretty good. Marcia had the mushroom risotto. I ordered the cacio e pepe which was prepared table side.