Photo Review: Celebrity Summit 2/7/15 Southern Caribbean (with 2 days in San Juan)

drarill · February 22, 2015

Heather; great review. I wanted to tell you that I was at a professional conference the day you returned from your cruise. The view from the Convention Center is the PanAm Pier and I could see the Summit and the Jewel. As you can imagine I looked at the Summit and was really envious of all the people boarding that day. ;)

I'm also sharing with you some info about the Mega Yacht on some of you pictures in San Juan....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2143432/Russian-billionaires-bond-villain-300m-yacht-comes-mini-version-itself.html

itzmered · February 23, 2015

Heather; great review. I wanted to tell you that I was at a professional conference the day you returned from your cruise. The view from the Convention Center is the PanAm Pier and I could see the Summit and the Jewel. As you can imagine I looked at the Summit and was really envious of all the people boarding that day. ;)
I'm also sharing with you some info about the Mega Yacht on some of you pictures in San Juan....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2143432/Russian-billionaires-bond-villain-300m-yacht-comes-mini-version-itself.html

This Yacht was there the 1st week of January also and we took pics of it. Thanks for posting the article.

HeatherC430 · February 24, 2015

This was our 3rd time in Antigua. On the first visit we did a catamaran/snorkel excursion. On our last trip, we did the ATV Adventure through the cruise ship, and then afterwards took a taxi to Dickinson Bay Beach (which was right next to the Sandals resort). Since our prior day in St. Lucia was a busy combination tour day (as well as the next day in St. Maarten), we decided it would be nice to have more a relaxing low key day at the beach. Now I realize many cruisers probably do an option similar to this on many of their days in port, but this was literally the first time (in my 14 cruises) we’ve just gone to one beach/resort for the day without trying to cram as much activity in while in port as possible. I gotta tell you, it was wonderful too. I think I’m going to have to do something similar to this on each cruise going forward. It was really relaxing, which I suppose is what vacation is all about.

Anyways, onto the details of the excursion. I found the tour company Voyages Antigua recommended online and decided to try their “Time Out at Hawksbill” excursion. The tour was $59 per person, which you prepaid online. Upon paying with your credit card, you were given tour vouchers to be taken with you on the day of the tour.

We booked directly online: http://www.voyagesantigua.com/en/activity/32878/time-out-at-hawksbill

The tour description and highlights on their website was as follows: The beautiful resort has four secluded beaches to offer its guests, including, for budding naturists, the only ‘clothing optional’ beach in the whole of Antigua.

HIGHLIGHTS: Roundtrip Transfer from Cruise Port, Full buffet lunch, A choice of Caribbean cocktails, Unlimited Local beers, soft drinks, house spirits and house wines, Sunfish sailing, pedaloes and snorkeling, Access to four beaches.

-Tour departs cruise terminal/hotel at 10:15 am

- Arrives at Hawksbill Beach Resort at 11:00 am

- Departs Hawksbill Beach at 3:30 pm

- Arrives at cruise terminal/hotel at 4:00 pm

The tour was exactly as indicated on Voyages Antigua website. Upon arriving at the meeting point given, George was 15 minutes early and already waiting for us! Bonus points! As we were heading towards him, he asked if we were Heather & William. Since we were the only two who signed us for our tour, went left immediately (which was music to my ears!).

He drove us to the Resort and checked us in at the resort. He went over everything that was included and gave a time he would come back to pick us up. Upon the conclusion of the tour he was right on time as well.

The resort itself was a perfect day at the beach. Was it a state of the art resort with all the amenities? Not really. It’s a beautiful stretch of beach though, and there were hardly any resort patrons on the actual beach so we felt as though we had it all to ourselves, as you’ll see by my pictures. And if you're a sea-shell hunter like myself, you'll love the shells that you can find at this beach. Along those same lines, if you do go to this beach due to the number of shells, it was good that I had my aqua socks on (my husband didn’t and had a hard time walking over the shells in the shallow water without hurting his feet). I don’t care how dorky my aqua socks are…sometimes they come in handy! And to be fair, they’re about as cool as aqua socks come (they’re Crocs brand, and look like ballet flats).

The food offerings at the resort for lunch was decent. We only had the fresh fried fiswhich was really good. After we had finished eating, one of the waitresses approached me asking if I’d like some ice cream – clearly! I chose the rum raisin variety and it was really good.

While the resort claims to be all inclusive of nature, the drinks leave a little to be desired. The local beer is on tap which was served in small plastic cups if you were taking it to the beach. The amount of liquid in the cup barely lasted your walk to your lounge chair. Same went for their cocktails. I asked for some coconut rum with fruit juice and they looked at me like they had never had the request before. I didn’t even care which fruit juice, just surprise me. Same thing though, all served in small plastic glasses. We only ended up having a drink when we arrived, and another one or two after we ate our lunch. It wasn’t worth the walk from where we setup our stuff to the outside bar to get the small cup full of drink. There were plenty of lawn chairs though, and many areas where you could find some shade if you wanted.

As you’ll see in some of my pictures, there were goats that roam around the property eating grass. Some of the small ones were super cute, so I couldn’t help but take pictures of them. I assume they’re the resorts lawn-care service.

I wouldn't hesitate to book another tour through Voyages Antigua in the future. Our driver George was great! I can't say enough good things about him or the tour company. And if you’re looking for a nice relaxing beach for the day, I’d recommend this excursion. It’s also worth noting that you can purchase a day pass to the resort as well and get your own taxi each way, but I preferred to have it all done through a tour company to ensure they’d take you both ways.

Onto the pictures…

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