Summit 8/27/17 Sailing – Live Blog, Photo Blog, Cat Blog, Dog Blog?

Captain alex? What happened to Captain Kate?

Captain alex? What happened to Captain Kate?

She's on vacation watching the Perseid Meteor Shower, travelling to Oregon to see the total Solar Eclipse and hiking in the mountains of Nevada. She returns to Summit mid-October unless there is a change in Captain rotations due to the passing of Captain Bouzakis. Not sure how that will effect their assignments.

David Kane,

Thanks for your review. I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

I sailed in 6146 in July and thought the room was in great shape (although the closet is a bit on the small side......but since I was sailing solo everything worked out okay).

I'll be boarding this Sunday (when you disembark) and will be "next door" in 6148. Your post is making me look forward to getting back on the ship.

A quick questions if you don't mind: Is Judas still the butler assigned to 6146./6148? I see where the cabin steward changed since July.

Thanks so much.

Janice

Hi Janice - I'm boarding Sunday too - cabin 6125, traveling solo.

Interesting developments in the Atlantic right now with Hurricane Irma!

Next week will be an adventure!

David - do you see noticeable upgrades to the suites? I was on last year

(missed Kate then too!) and thought they could use refreshing ... this was before dry dock.

Thanks for your ongoing review - fun read!

Brian

I'll be boarding this Sunday (when you disembark) and will be "next door" in 6148. Your post is making me look forward to getting back on the ship.

Janice

Hi David

Your dad sent me this link. Lynn and I are so enjoying it that I even went back and read your previous one on the Reflection. Great work!

Your cousin Carol

Veranzanno

If I may make a correction.

The name of the bridge is Verrazzano, which is the name of a 16th century explorer.

However,signage for the bridge uses the spelling - Verrazano.

Apparently,it would cost thousands of dollars to correct the spelling on the signs, so the name stays with one z,not two.

Whenever we drive over the bridge or sail under it,we appreciate the bridge's design and either its' place at the beginning or end of a vacation adventure for us.

Thinking of a vacation adventure.....

I hope that OP David will continue to post about this cruise.

Hopefully,he and his wife are having an enjoyable vacation which is causing him to delay his reporting.

If I may make a correction.

The name of the bridge is Verrazzano, which is the name of a 16th century explorer.

However,signage for the bridge uses the spelling - Verrazano.

Apparently,it would cost thousands of dollars to correct the spelling on the signs, so the name stays with one z,not two.

 

.

That is a very common mistake for how misspelled names become the official name.

There are many last names on the Stanley Cup and they don't correct them because of the cost. Once done it is cast in silver.

There was a local musical group by the name of the "Amboy Dukes". One of the band member's last name is Brake. It was misspelled on their album as Drake and never changed. One of their members at the time was a unknown by the name of Ted Nugent.

My question is if it costs so much money to correct a name where does the money come from when a new mayor or governor takes over for their name to get replaced on everything; buses, police cars, garbage trucks, highway signs, and etc. We all know the answer and is it really necessary for their names to be there?

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌞

That is a very common mistake for how misspelled names become the official name.

 

There are many last names on the Stanley Cup and they don't correct them because of the cost. Once done it is cast in silver.

 

There was a local musical group by the name of the "Amboy Dukes". One of the band member's last name is Brake. It was misspelled on their album as Drake and never changed. One of their members at the time was a unknown by the name of Ted Nugent.

 

 

My question is if it costs so much money to correct a name where does the money come from when a new mayor or governor takes over for their name to get replaced on everything; buses, police cars, garbage trucks, highway signs, and etc. We all know the answer and is it really necessary for their names to be there?

 

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌞

I agree totally michd !!!!

Day 1 - Embarkation (1 of...a lot)

 

 

... By 10:51am we were in Michael's Club where we had the pleasure of meeting both the new Host, Anatasia, and, perhaps, the hardest working bartender on the Ship - Norbert, who we have taken to following around to the various bars on the ship and getting a drink from him at each of them - he seriously that good.

 

Next Up: A Tour around the refurbished areas, an odd concert choice, a first look at the room and meeting all the guests.

I have to agree, we were on last week and Norbert is definitely the hardest working bartender in Michael's and all other bars he worked at. He is also very pleasant to be around and our favorite!! Anastasia was also fantastic.

What happened to David ??

Did Kane mutiny ??!!

We're home from our cruise. Our laundry is done. Our suitcases are away. We have completed our survey from Celebrity. We enjoyed your Pirates of the Caribbean outfits! BTW, a blog after the cruise has been completed is called a review.

(Terri and Steve - ha. ha. very funny - this is going to take...forever)

Embarkation - Day 1 3/3 -

After sail-away, it was time to dress for dinner. As I mentioned before, we chose to make every night ‘formal night.’ Because of this, it takes us about an hour (or more!) to prepare (depending on how unruly my moustache/beard is being each particular evening) and we tend to eat early (5:45) meaning we block out from 4pm until 7pm (or longer) for dinner. It should be noted that the service in Luminae seems to be slow on purpose, each meal an experience with several courses of wine and a pause for satisfaction and reflection given between those – this is not a bad thing, mind you, just something to be aware of. If you attend the 5:45 seating and want to make the 7:00pm show the staff can easily increase the pace of the service to make that happen.

Here is the Trunk, snugged up into the corner –

For this cruise, we printed off an ‘official’ Celebrity Art Collection picture of our cat and clipped it to the wall of the cabin with magnets as a little joke with our stateroom attendant and butler –

A previous response had mentioned the closet size in 6146 and, indeed, it is short! How odd, right? XZ is 5’8” (except when she stands next to me, in which case she is either 5’5” or I’m 6’0” – your choice, as long as I am taller) and you can see some of her gowns trailing a bit on to the floor –

And here we go!

Luminae was, once again, a tremendous experience. Charles, the Matierie’d, has replaced Gozde (whom we had sailed with twice before – our most memorable moment coming when we saw her for 2nd cruise and she looked at XZ and said “You, I remember” and then glanced over at me and said “…you, I do not.” which pretty much sums up our relationship at times) and the staff seemed to rotate around a bit more, with Oleksander on bread/water service, O’Neil or Kasuwa attending to waiting, and Maggie as the Sommelier.

During dinner we were offered a series of smaller events for later in the week and we gladly booked both a bourbon tasting and a wine pairing experience for a rather reasonable ~$20 or thereabouts. I know there are some complaints about nickel and diming but these small upcharge events are just the thing that we enjoy, so having Maggie offer them was rather nice.

I managed to grab a quick capture of the events, which are held in Cellar Masters (yes! We DO finally make it to Cellar Masters!) and their costs:

After dinner, we retired to Michael’s Club where we spent several enjoyable hours conversing with Norbert (the aforementioned Bartender), and a number of the other guests. I don’t know if this trip was different because it sailed out of Bayonne instead of Florida and, thusly, had a different clientele, but Michael’s club was well patronized – on previous trips XZ and I had been generally alone in there, especially in the evenings. While I am sure there are other venues on the ship that offer similar experiences, we feel that Michaels offers a great environment to get to meet many of the other passengers and hear some interesting stories.

About 9:30pm XZ headed off to bed and I headed to the casino to play a little of our favorite slow-playing game, $1 Roulette, and here, out of literally nowhere, I had one of those chance encounters with the staff that keep us booking with Celebrity, again and again. While ordering a drink from the Bar I met Anush. He was pouring drinks at blazing speed and yet still found the time to make a small joke or two or offer a knowing smile when a stumbling guest crashed into, and almost flipped over, a railing while failing spectacularly to get out of their chair. I knew right away I had met someone from a very different place and culture who, nonetheless, shared my sense of humor for both the outrageous and the hilarious. This happened the first cruise we went on, with the Cruise Director, Alejandro, and, since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to run in to someone I connect with; and this time it was Anush. Also, he’s a kick a$$ bartender. Roulette was keen as well, and while one never discusses, or often exaggerates, gambling wins or loses I will confess I was down $4 by the end of the evening.

Around the end of the evening two things happened. Firstly, the Captain had announced the Summit would be returning briefly to New York for a Medical Emergency (actually, I think this happened a bit earlier in the night – my notes are vague) and, secondly, there was an interactive ‘Wonderland’ show up in Revelations.

Of the first, all I will say it that it’s never good to hear the Captain interrupt the evening’s activities with news because it likely isn’t to be good (except when, oddly, it is – more on that later) but it is reassuring to have Captain Alex at the helm as he handled what was surely a stressful situation with curt professionalism and empathy.

On the second, and last for this first day, I have a hastily scrawled note (in 'someone' else's handwriting) that says “I woke my wife up for no reason.” She had retired an hour earlier and by the time I left Anush at the Casino Bar, returned to the room, got her up, got her dressed, and made it up to Revelations we were able to enjoy, you know, the last 39 seconds of the show. Whoops.

Tomorrow: We high-tail it to Bermuda, attend a Roll Call, a Cabin Crawl, a Bourbon Tasting, meet a legend of the Summit and enjoy a wind-swept, late night movie.

David-- It's been almost a month -- please come back! Your blogs are a personal favorite of mine, so hopefully you'll resume one of these days...