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LIVE! Review from Celebrity Summit - January 6, 2018


mit429
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Hey everyone, I’ve long been a lurker on here and commenting on plenty of other reviews, but I decided that I’d give it a go with posting a review.

 

I’ll try to keep up with it as best I can, but I apologize in advance if I fall behind at times!

 

I’m cruising with a group of friends, we’ve all cruises several times before, though this is all of their first times on the Summit (I’ve been on once before). We had originally booked a sailing on the Reflection this same week, but became interested in this Summit sailing in mid-August as it was out of San Juan (warmer!) and the itinerary was better and a few islands we’ve never done.

 

As an added bonus, three of us are in a Celebrity Suite (first time in a suite above Sky!), which will give me exactly the 84 points I need to achieve Elite status - YAY! Our two other friends are staying in a Sky Suite, so we are all looking forward to taking advantage of the ‘sweet’ benefits!

 

My name is Tim, and I’ll be traveling with Chad, Cole, Mike, and Jeff.

 

I usually take a ton of pictures, so I’ll try to post here as frequently as possible! I really don’t enjoy pictures of food, but I know that’s part of a good review, so I’ll try to post those too, or deputize it to someone else - haha!

 

I’ve attached a copy of the itinerary, I’m quite excited to see Barbados and St. Lucia!

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Well, first review-creation lesson learned, if you switch out of the CruiseCritic app, your typing is not saved when you come back.

 

Maybe I’ll type these in Notes first, or see if TapaTalk saves the typing.

 

 

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Anyway, I realize I’m a little tardy to the party with this review, so I’ll try to capture some of what’s been going on pre-cruise.

 

The plan was originally for myself and Chad to fly in Friday morning, me from NYC, Chad from PHX. Cole was to join us on Friday evening, from DC, and Mike & Jeff were to fly in Saturday AM from DC.

 

As you might be aware, NYC had a little bit of Winter weather on Thursday, which severely changed my plans on getting to San Juan! On Thursday afternoon, my direct flight from JFK the next morning cancelled, so I started scrambling. I had yet to pack (I know, I know...), so I immediately started packing while trying to figure out alternatives to get out of NYC.

 

For a while, I was going to take a train down to Philly and take a flight either direct from there, or PHL-ATL that night and then ATL-SJU on Friday morning.

 

I eventually discovered there were two Delta flights leaving LGA that evening, one to ATL and one to DTW. By some miracle, I was able to pack and get myself to LGA and make it to Atlanta that night. We were only the second plane to leave LGA since 8am, and we took off around 1030pm.

 

I got to Atlanta, had booked myself a room at the Courtyard Marriott South, which was a fine experience for an overnight stay. I got to my room around 1am and my departure was scheduled for 940am the next morning.

 

I didn’t get much sleep, but I made that flight at 940am! And onto San Juan I went!

 

Here’s a preview of me watching my favorite pre-cruise movie in-flight

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You really can’t go on a cruise without watching Titanic beforehand, though I know some of you will disagree!

 

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By the way, I love the free movies on Delta, and the fact that you can now text/iMessage for free in flight - great feature for keeping up with friends and family.

 

 

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I'm currently the only one sitting in Michaels Club and Anastasia is awesome! Service has been fantastic so far. Looking forward to the next week in Luminae and our Sky Suite

 

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Thanks for doing this live posting. I'm sailing on January 20th and look forward to seeing Anastasia again. She's great. If you get a chance, can you let me know who the Maitre'd in Luminae is. Also, if Maggie is still the sommelier in Luminae can you find out if she's going to be on the ship on January 20th. Have a great cruise.

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We're also on the Summit in two weeks on Jan. 20th cruise....did you see any of the hurricane damage on your trip from San Juan airport to Pan Am. pier??? Wondering how the pier is functioning after that storm damage. Have a great cruise and look forward to your reports!

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We're also on the Summit in two weeks on Jan. 20th cruise....did you see any of the hurricane damage on your trip from San Juan airport to Pan Am. pier??? Wondering how the pier is functioning after that storm damage. Have a great cruise and look forward to your reports!

bigreckster - I was also on the Summit October 22nd repo cruise which arrived into San Juan on October 28th! At that time, the pier was functioning, however, there was no AC in the terminal at the pier. They have since gotten the AC working. Also, we had to disembark on Deck 2 as the gangway from the ship to the pier was not functioning. I also saw damage while riding in the cab from the port to the airport. No traffic lights in San Juan were working at all and many businesses were in darkness. I would imagine this may have improved slightly since October 28th but I'm sure the damage will be quite evident to all.

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We're on Silhouette in March with a stop in OSJ and considering Summit in 2019 with a pre-cruise stay there. But we've read some reviews that indicate she is really starting to show her age. We did see something about her going in for refurbishment in early 2019. If you get the chance could you please see if you can confirm that with one of the officers? Gracias.

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Chad, Cole, and myself stayed at the AC Marriott San Juan Condado, which was beautiful. I didn’t get many pics of the hotel, I’m sorry, but I do have a few that I’ll post below.

 

We took a taxi from the airport, which was $21 plus tip, and settled into our King Executive Suite, which is a one bedroom suite with a fold-out sofa in another room. It had a nice balcony and overall was a great hotel - very chic.

 

It has a bar/lounge off the lobby and a bar/lounge/restaurant up by the pool. We changed and went up to the pool and had two Piña Coladas poolside. They were both delicious and the staff was extremely helpful. We eventually decided to order some food - we got a chicken quesadilla and a chorizo flatbread pizza. The quesadilla was delicious, though the accompanying guacamole was not the best; the flatbread was also quite tasty.

 

We then took a bit of a nap, did some walking around, and headed out for dinner. We got two rum punches at the lobby bar before dinner, which were included with our room.

 

We had planned to eat at a restaurant about 10 minutes away, Santella, but they were unable to accommodate us. We ended up looking on Foursquare and found an Argentinian restaurant, Cocina Abierta. We both expected an Argentinian steakhouse, but we’re pleasantly surprised to find a wide ranging menu, similar to tapas, but larger portions. We had several dishes, I can’t remember all of them, but the Onion Soup was amazing.

 

We then walked around for a bit longer, lounged in our room, and got ready for the cruise the next day! We were really impressed with how easy/chic the pull-out sofa was, I made a GIF of that coming out - pretty cool.

 

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And here are a few pictures of the pool

 

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Thanks for doing this live posting. I'm sailing on January 20th and look forward to seeing Anastasia again. She's great. If you get a chance, can you let me know who the Maitre'd in Luminae is. Also, if Maggie is still the sommelier in Luminae can you find out if she's going to be on the ship on January 20th. Have a great cruise.

 

Maggie will be leaving the day you board. She's been on 8 months so she's overdue to go home. The Maitre'd is Denis. He is amazing!

 

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I’m so happy Maggie is getting to go home but I’m sorry that I am going to miss seeing her. She was in Luminae on my last 3 cruises and she is wonderful.....always had my Dewars 12 waiting for me!!

 

 

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Thanks for doing this live posting. I'm sailing on January 20th and look forward to seeing Anastasia again. She's great. If you get a chance, can you let me know who the Maitre'd in Luminae is. Also, if Maggie is still the sommelier in Luminae can you find out if she's going to be on the ship on January 20th. Have a great cruise.

 

According to the onshore concierge, the Michael's Club concierge will be Jamie on the January 20th sailing.

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Maggie is awesome, Dennis always had my table waiting.

The reason I'm commenting, I wanted to suggest a bar that is very under advertised, It's called Infusion, it's very similar to the World Class bar on S ships, real craft cocktails. It's hidden on deck 5 and is part of the Gelateria across from Cafe Bacio. Open 5:30-10:30, there was one bartender in December Filippe.

Enjoy your cruise and if you see Captain Kate wish her a happy birthday.

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