barbpretz

You are a fabulous source of information - thanks again! How comfortable were you in the water? Some people report that they wore rash guards, neck gaiters, swim pants, gloves, and booties in addition to the provided shortie wetsuit. So far, we have long-sleeved rash guards and neck gaiters. Would you also recommend swim pants, gloves and booties?

Do you recall if they offered any guided stargazing sessions? Did you do any stargazing (with or without guides)?

@twangsterAgain, thanks so much for your detailed, helpful reply. My neck gaiters from Amazon already came today, so I'm feeling more and more prepared. I'll just ask my random questions as I think of them. I did a lot of research before I had decided on Silversea Origin over Celebrity Flora, so I apologize if I have some of my information confused between the two cruise lines. 1) On the first sheet you posted from Silversea, under Recommendations for the Galapagos, they list only 3 items: Appropriate footwear, rain gear, and insect repellent. I don't recall anyone mentioning that they needed raingear. Did you bring/use any? Did they supply ponchos in the cabins? How were the insects? 2) My notes mention that someone said they recommended gloves for a long, difficult hike through a dry river bed. They also mentioned a muddy tree-planting experience. Am I correct in thinking that neither of these were on your itinerary? Thanks!

@twangsterThank you for your reply - it was very helpful. I realize that these things are subjective, but I would value your opinion: How cold did the water feel when snorkeling? Did you wear the shortie wet suit provided? Did you wear anything else for warmth when snorkeling? In your lovely photo (Post 69), what were you wearing on your face? Thanks again!

@twangsterI can't even begin to tell you how much I appreciate your wonderful trip report and the gorgeous photos! We are going on this same itinerary in November and I had been frustrated that I wasn't finding any detailed day-to-day posts about this cruise. I came back from a trip out of town and was delighted to see your wonderful Live report. Thank you! I'm sure that I will have a ton of questions, so I hope that you will bear with me. I'll just start by asking about your first excursion day. I'm trying to gauge what will be feasible for me. I see that you did both the "adventurous" hike and the "easy" hike on that day. Was it primarily the steep steps that made the first hike "adventurous"? Or were there other aspects that made it challenging? Looking back, did you find that they were both fairly equally worthwhile? I notice that you chose not to do kayaking - did you happen to talk to anyone who did the kayaking that first excursion day? If so, how did they think it compared to the hikes? Thanks again - your detailed info, photos, and the Chronicles are helping me to get more and more excited about our upcoming trip!

@Octavias There's no need to get out of bed to get your Diet Coke fix. If you have the beverage package, you could just stop at a bar and get a couple of Diet Cokes to take to your room before you go to bed. I'm never without a Diet Coke (or 2) in my cabin.

Thank you, Charla - I have very much enjoyed this detailed and entertaining review. I'm still very much looking forward to your report on Cozumel and the "Salsa and Salsa" excursion. Having that to look forward to makes me glad that (at least for us readers) this trip isn't quite over yet. After that, I'll just have to go back read any of your previous reviews that I may have missed! Thanks again!

@AliceJDo you remember what time the Silversea Friday evening tour started? I want to make sure to arrange a daytime tour that gets back in time. I'm loving all your details!

@AliceJWe are trying to decide whether to go with Silversea for our flights or book our own. Besides having to get them to change airports, what specifically did you not like about flying through Silversea? I'm hoping to learn from your experience, so details would be appreciated.

@AliceJSome specific questions: 1) Did you have Silversea handle your flights? I've been reading some horror stories about this. Where did you fly from? Did you have any problems? 2) What cabin were you in? Any issues with turbulence/seasickness or noise? 3) Anything that you wished you had brought? Or anything you brought that you didn't need? Thanks again!

@AliceJThanks so much for posting this! What itinerary did you do? What were some of your highlights? What was not so great? The more details the better!

We were also on the Oct. 15th cruise and the ship didn't seem crowded to us at all. We chose to eat in the Amalfi Dining Room because it was reputed to be less crowded and we found that to be the case. We ate early and didn't have any lines at all. For those who miss Traditional Dining, we asked for (and got) the same table and excellent wait staff every night - far away from other people as we requested. We mostly used the stairs, but when we wanted an elevator, the aft elevators were almost always empty. The early show in the theater did fill up, so we just got there early and got the seats we wanted. We were even able to always get seats in the Piazza and found that there was plenty of room for dancing! We enjoyed the Medallion and found it handy for ordering drinks and snacks - although there usually were also plenty of bar staff circulating and taking orders. Some of the popular game shows in Princess Live did get overly crowded and probably should have been held in the theater, but that was just a minor inconvenience for us. For those people who are concerned about the wine selections, we looked at the menus at the various bars where they did list the vineyards and details. We had the Plus package and always found wines we liked - but i admit that we are not all that sophisticated about wine. All in all, we had a wonderful cruise and found the food, entertainment and staff to be excellent. I wouldn't hesitate to do this same cruise again on the Enchanted.

I want to make sure that I understand this correctly: My husband and I each have $125 of non-refundable OBCs from Referral Rewards. We are in the same cabin and using the same credit card. If I get a massage for $250, the full $250 will be taken off our account by the end of the cruise? So we will not have to pay anything for the massage? Am I also correct in understanding that this will not actually show up on our account until the accounts are merged on the final day? Thanks for your help!

@MJSailorsThat explains it! Thanks for clarifying. My daughter suspected that the embarkation lunch was probably just for the "fancy people". We definitely do not fit the category of "fancy people".

Just one more quick thought about breakfast: I love a relaxed, sit-down, served breakfast. On the Summit, there was the exact same menu every morning. The food was excellent, but it got boring. On Princess, they have the same basics every day, but they have 3 unique items to choose from each morning. That gives something different to look forward to each day (especially their corn-flake-encrusted french toast!)

@Charles4515Thanks for letting me know about this. I'm sad that I didn't get to see it even though it was apparently in such bad shape. I selfishly wish they would rebuild it, but it looks like that's not going to happen. I read that it was very cool in its day - you could actually go inside and explore the ship and see how people lived when they were sailing. Oh well . . .

I just wanted to share some of my thoughts on my first Celebrity cruise on the Celebrity Summit, July 10, 2022 from Cape Liberty, New Jersey to Bermuda. I’ve found so many other reviews to be so helpful that I wanted to reciprocate in some small way. Just a bit about myself: My husband and I are in our 60’s and traveled with our 32 year-old daughter. I’ve only been on 5 cruises before this one, the 2 most recent with Princess. I have also cruised on RCCL and NCL, but feel most familiar with Princess since they were the most recent cruises and since I have been researching several cancelled Princess cruises throughout the pandemic. Most of my comparison will be between Princess and Celebrity. My daughter had never cruised before. I’d been dying to cruise again ever since my May, 2020 Princess cruise was cancelled due to the pandemic. We wanted to cruise in the most cautious manner possible, so we picked a 7-day Celebrity cruise from New Jersey to Bermuda so that we could drive from Cleveland and would not have to fly. We wanted something short and simple so that we could see how it felt to cruise given the whole covid situation. I’d done lots of research, so I knew what to expect in preparation. The Bermuda Authorization and pre-cruise covid test through Rapidtestandtrace were straightforward. Our daughter was driving in from DC and we were driving in from Cleveland the day before the cruise. She was meeting us in New Jersey, so we decided to stay the night before the cruise at the Doubletree at Newark Penn Station so that it would be easy for her to go into NYC and visit friends and then meet us across the street from the station. The overnight stay was unremarkable and fine. The drive to Cape Liberty cruise port was straightforward. We parked at the cruise port terminal to keep things simple and it was, in fact, simple. We had an 11:30 am boarding time and we were somewhat early. We had all our forms printed on paper plus our original passports and vax cards, so check-in was easy. We didn’t have to wait very long and seemed to be in the first group that boarded. I didn’t actually note the time that we were on board. Since this was my daughter’s first cruise, I so I was hoping for the “Wow” factor of embarking at a gorgeous atrium (as we had on Princess). It was a bit disappointing that there was nothing particularly exciting or impressive as we boarded. We dropped our carry-on bags at the cabin and headed to lunch. My favorite way to begin a Princess cruise was to have a nice, quiet embarkation lunch at the main dining room. It was also disappointing that there was no dining room lunch at embarkation on the Summit. (BTW, this has me confused because, before our disembarkation, we were told that they needed to prepare the dining room for lunch for the next cruise. I had checked the Celebrity app and it showed that the dining room was not open for lunch on embarkation day – perhaps I missed something?) Anyway, we had lunch in the buffet which was adequate but not inspiring. We were in cabin 7080 which is a Veranda cabin with a balcony that was a bit of a funny shape but larger than most of the other veranda cabins. It was farther forward than we had sailed before, but we didn’t have any trouble with the motion of the ship and, since there were cabins above and below us, there was no issue with noise at all. The pull-out bed for my daughter was a bit short but comfortable – luckily, she is also short, so the size was fine for her. It might not be as comfortable for a taller adult. We got the Premium Beverage package so that we didn’t have to think about what we were ordering (and so that I could have an unlimited supply of Diet Coke). We had the basic wifi which was pretty lousy – we could get online and check email, but we could not play any games or do podcasts or youtube or download anything. We decided (and had heard) that the Premium wifi wasn’t that much better, so we decided to just have a bit of an Internet break. We found the food in the main dining room to be consistently excellent (a notch better than the food on Princess, in my opinion), so we didn’t feel the need to eat at any of the specialty restaurants. We hadn’t booked any excursions in advance since we had planned plenty to do on our own. We planned to spend Wednesday at the Blue Hole and Nature Preserve and then go to Harbor Nights in Hamilton Wednesday evening. We then planned to spend Thursday in St. Georges viewing the Sea Venture Memorial and the Deliverance replica (since I have an ancestor who was on the Sea Venture) and then go snorkeling off the beach at Tobacco Bay. On the last day, since it wasn’t a full day before the ship left, we planned to stay in the Dockyard area and go to the Bermuda National Museum and wander around the shops. We had some unexpected, non-covid-related medical issues. The medical staff was excellent, but we ended up restricted such that we couldn’t snorkel, do anything in the water, do our usual ballroom dancing, or take long walks. It was also very hot and muggy, which drained our energy some. We still enjoyed Bermuda a lot. On Wednesday, as planned, we got a one-day public transit pass and took the ferry to Hamilton and then the bus to the vicinity of the Blue Hole. We ate lunch at the Swizzle Inn (with free wifi!) and enjoyed 2 of the 3 Bermudean dishes we had hoped to try: the fish chowder and wahoo nugget. We enoyed both. We then walked to the Blue Hole and the Nature Preserve. The Blue Hole itself was crowded and noisy, so we much preferred wandering around the Preserve exploring on our own. We found all sorts of grottos, caves, other watering holes and lots of shade – I’d definitely go back there again and explore more. On our way back to the bus stop, we stopped at Bailey’s Ice Cream which was wonderful on a hot day. We took the bus and the ferry back to the ship. We enjoyed another wonderful dinner in the Main Dining room and were tired enough that we decided not to brave the crowds to go to Harbor Nights – maybe on another trip. On Thursday, we decided against going to St. Georges. With the limited ferry schedule, and our inability to snorkel or go in the water, we realized that we could be stuck in the heat of St. Georges for hours waiting for the ferry. It just didn’t seem worth it for the limited amount we could do. So, we instead took the ferry back to Hamilton and did one of our favorite things to do on a trip: We found some local grocery stores and browsed for local gifts to bring back as presents. We ate lunch at Hog Penny (also with free wifi) which we also enjoyed. I never did get to try the Bermuda fish sandwich on raisin bread (which my daughter was reluctant about anyway), but, again, that leaves me options for another visit. On Friday, we went to the Bermuda National Museum at the dockyard. It has lots of excellent information and actual artefacts from the Sea Venture (which satisfied some of my family history interests). We also explored the arts and crafts centers for more gifts. Then we were ready to head back to the ship for lunch and sailaway. In terms of covid, we were fairly comfortable with the way that we handled things. Almost all of the crew were masked (although a few were not wearing their masks properly). Very few of the other passengers wore masks – I’d estimate around 1%. We wore masks most of the time while indoors. We always use the stairs and never take elevators on cruises anyway (because that’s my way of not gaining weight on a cruise). I have some mild breathing issues, so it was harder for me to breathe while masked and walking up many flights of stairs than I had expected, but I managed. We had anytime dining, and I was pleasantly surprised that, when we asked for a table far away from other people, we were given a nice large table far in the back with a lovely view. The surprise was that we were given the same table (with the same excellent servers Nitin and Tulio – thanks guys!) no matter what time we came for dinner. That made the dining experience much more comfortable. We also found places in the theater and the Sky Lounge (for our frequent trivia sessions) that were quite far from other people so we didn’t feel that we had to mask constantly. All in all, I think that Celebrity did an excellent job. The food and service were wonderful throughout the cruise. I missed the International Café on Princess (open 24/7 with both sweet and savory options) but Café Al Bacio was a good substitute with delicious desserts, coffees and hot chocolate. I just wish they had some savory options. With the Premium drink package, the Summit had Diet Cokes in cans which I could keep in the room. I much preferred that to the Princess package where you can usually only get dispensed soda in cups. We didn’t particularly like the comedian or magician shows (but our seats at the back and out of the way made it easy to leave). We enjoyed the other shows. I was pleased to see that there was more diversity among the performers than I’ve seen on other cruise lines. There were 2 small but decent dance floors on the Summit and we were finally able to dance once on the last sea day which we loved. I am delighted to be back to cruising and will likely cruise Celebrity (and possibly this same itinerary) in the future.

@bnurickThanks again for the great, detailed information and photos. I'm going to miss reading about your trip each day - when is your next cruise (so I have something to look forward to - after my own cruise of course)?

@bnurickThank you so much for all your wonderful posts and photos! They have helped me a great deal in planning and also in enhancing my excitement and anticipation of my cruise. I hate to be demanding, but could you possibly post the daily for Friday, Day 6? I don't think I missed it, but, if I did, just point me to where I could find it. I don't want to miss a thing on this virtual cruise! Thanks again - you have made my whole week!

@bnurickHappy Anniversary! Please tell us about your shipwreck snorkel. Did you do a Celebrity Excursion? How long was the boat ride to and from the snorkel area? How long did you have to actually snorkel? Were you able to see much of the shipwrecks from snorkeling? How rough was the boat ride to and from (in other words, how sea-sickness inducing)? We are just now deciding on excursions for our upcoming trip and this is one that we are considering. Thanks again!

Quick question: How cool does it get on deck (or balcony) for sailaway from New Jersey and on the sea days and evenings before we get to (and from) Bermuda? It looks like temperatures for Bermuda in July range from 77 to 85 degrees F, so it seems like primarily short-sleeved weather. What level of warmth would people suggest we bring? Thanks again for all your help!

@bnurickThank you so much for posting the dailies! These (as well as your great commentary and photos) are just what I need to get me through the next 2 weeks before I can be on the ship.

Hello, @bnurick. Thank you so much for doing this live review. Would you (or anyone else onboard) be willing to post the dailies for this cruise? I'm new to Celebrity and doing this cruise in July, so I'd love to see a full list of the activities so that I can better plan my trip. I realize that some activities are on the app, but it doesn't seem comprehensive, so I'm hoping to get a more complete idea of the options. Thanks for this review and your help!