Summit Review Mar 2nd 2013

A little late but life takes over and I am just now getting to this..

A disclaimer to start.

Experiences may vary. I am not going to cheerlead or defend X. This is my experience and mine alone. Yours may differ. I hope I can be of help to someone planning their next trip, and an open to discussing my experience, but I am not in any way an expert. All errors contained within are mine and mine alone.

Our trip started the day before by flying in to San Juan. Long day but worth it for what was to come. We spent the night at the Caribe Hilton. I am not going to discuss that experience here, if you are interested though you can find my review on Trip Advisor under the same username.

Woke up early to wander around the hotel grounds and have a good meal and by 11:30 or so we were off to the boat.

First View from the cab on the way to port:

Check in: Showed up and there were only a few people ahead of us to drop off their bags. Super quick, even though I had to get new luggage tags (more later...), and then we were inside to check in. Check in was a breeze, plenty of staff and no wait at all. We received our sea pass, hit the duty free for some water and wine, and were escorted on board. On board within 15 min of showing up including shopping was nothing to complain about at all.

We originally booked OV 2105. The week prior my DW confided in me that she regretted not booking a balcony room. As a surprise to her I turned around and talked with my TA about a different room. By the time we sorted things out the entire inventory of standard balcony rooms were gone, and all that was available was a CC guarantee. For approx. $300 pp I took it, it was a surprise for her after all. On arrival to the port, the new tags we were given had room 1135 on them. It took me a while to process this, but I was slowly forming in my mind that I didn’t recall any CC rooms on Deck 11. Even after check in and receiving a blue sea pass card it still didn’t clue in. As a new cruiser I didn’t know that Aqua rooms were given blue cards, I thought everyone’s was blue! Guess we discovered the benefits of the guarantee booking… we were just upgraded to Aqua. Awesome!

Room: As stated 1135. Bernard, the room attendant, was amazing and went out of his way to help. The room change never caught up to the rest of the computer system and it took 3 trips to guest services to get it resolved. Each time he was there to help me get into the room if the card didn’t work again. As I suffer from food allergies he was super with changing out the canapés for a cheese plate for me. The room itself was great. I don’t have anything to compare it with, but we found it perfect for us. I was concerned about movement that far aft but it was not a huge issue for us at all. We did get the late night music off of the sunset bar, but we did not mind that either. It was nice to wrap up the day on the balcony with a glass of wine listening to the steel drums!

Bed: super comfortable.

Pillows: no issue here. Comfortable and extras available in the closet.

Couch: didn’t use it for anything other than a place to put our bags.

Patio: Couldn’t imagine how must smaller the regular ones would be, as ours was just enough for two chairs and a small table. Not much room to move. Loved that we decided to have one though for how much I was on it during the week.

Bathroom: Shower with glass doors was appreciated. The upgraded shower with body spray was nice but using the whole system really affected the water pressure. The floor tiles in the shower showed wear with some being cracked but nothing to ruin my day. Rest of bathroom was nice, decent enough size and nice amount of storage on the shelves and under sink.

Storage: Closet had a large amount of space. I couldn’t imagine bringing enough clothes for 2 people to fill it for a southern cruise, but once it’s in the colder climates, it would fill up quick. There were 6 pull out drawers as well under the safe in one closet that were quite small and didn’t hold much.

Tip: If you have this room, look in the cabinet under the TV for left over water. If we didn’t use the 2 free bottles each day for whatever reason, that’s where we left ours.

Dining: Overall no complaints. There was no shortage of food choices available for us.

Blu: This place was amazing!

I only had one issue the whole week. Was showed up late (still before 9), and the kitchen had already started tear down and somehow missed my order. Once they caught it, they tried to rush the food out, and I received some VERY undercooked meat. Not enough to break my heart because every other meal there was fantastic and that just left more room for desert. Every night they had some really good food options available and even some standby’s in case you didn’t want to try something different.

Breakfast: The hours of Blu did not really accommodate people who had to get off the boat first thing for an excursion. That worked for us because that made it much quieter. Breakfast here was quick, plentiful, and tasty. Table side muesli was a huge hit with my wife.

Service: Can not say enough about everyone working in here from Marcil at the front, every server, May the sommelier, and everyone else. Our personal favourites were Sydney and his assistant Anita! Anita has such an amazing personality and is so friendly! I hope she sticks around long enough for us to cross paths with her again!

MDR: Only ate here for one supper. Decent enough but is seemed like the staff were way too busy and lacked that attentive feel I was expecting. I know it wasn’t Blu and didn’t expect it to be, but it just seemed like an off night. Also dined here for the massive Buffet lunch on the one sea day.. Very good. Huge spread, large turn out, and food was very good with lots of variety.

Maybe this is why they always seem so happy!!

Pool Grill: Burgers here were awesome. Very well done for a pool side grill. Nothing but happiness eating from here for us.

Oceanview: I think the layout of the OV has been played out to death on CC so I won’t get into that. Food was decent but nothing spectacular. Only ate here a few times due to our port schedule and activities and it filled the role, but nothing exciting.

Specialty: Planned on hitting up one or both of QSine and Normandy, but once we found out about Blu, we decided to keep our money. The day before our sailing, they raised the prices to $45 pp. As nice as these places are, I didn’t see us spending that much money on one of those restaurants and at the end of the cruise we felt like we did not miss anything. Took the opportunity to do the galley tour on the sea day and finished off at Normandy. Beautiful atmosphere here.

Ship:

As stated elsewhere, the ship looks great only a bit over a year out from its renovation. Yes, there is some areas run down after 15 months of constant use and abuse, but nothing I found to take away from the overall appeal to this ship.

Before I carry on though – Beware the Person Eating Elevators!! What do I mean from this.. One night heading down to dinner we heard a god awful racket coming from the area of the elevators. Long story short a young girl was holding her hand on the door as it opened, and before she could react it tried to eat her little hand. She was stuck up to her palm in the elevator. (Yes she was supervised, but the adult was temporarily distracted by the girls’ even younger sister. I hold this person in no way responsible and I was there to see everything that happened so no one else should to!) When I came around the corner to see this, I used all the “Parent Strength” I could muster, pulled the door off her hand and opened it against to force of the motor to free her little hand. Bernard appeared out of nowhere with some ice for her hand in no time and it was off to the medical center. End of the story was that there was no long term injury and a tummy full of ice cream. Another testimony to the service of the ship however, is that the parents had to leave their diner before even being served to tend to their daughter in the medical center. The staff of the MDR sent their food up to their room automatically so that everyone could get their meal!

Pool:

Because my wife is an early riser, I too am an early riser. We were always up early enough to watch the boat pull into port, eat a meal, then get a decent seat around the pool.

We always tended to our chairs, and mostly kept within the 30 min guidelines. I will admit however that there were a couple of times we did go over the 30 min limit for whatever reasons. Yes, that made me a hog, and I admit my guilt, but at the same time, there was never a shortage of chairs available and we never surpassed the 1 hour mark away from our chairs. On that note however, I did note many, many others reserving chairs and being going almost the whole day to only spend a few minutes in the chair and the pool staff were almost non-existent in enforcing the rules.

The biggest attraction I saw the whole week had to be the Pool Volleyball Staff vs. passengers.

Knowing that I did not have a beverage package, the pool side servers did a good job keeping us hydrated. The service seemed generally slow, but nothing that I would complain about.

You're off to a great start with your review. I hope you continue with it soon. We are leaving on the Summit on April 13th. I'm very interested in hearing about your experience.

Ann

Solarium: Nice quiet area. Occasionally saw a couple of kids around and in the T-pool but they were not bothering anyone and it wasn’t worth it to say anything. The bigger annoyance was the couple with glasses of champagne in the pool having their own little pre-adult activity session. I’m glad they were enjoying themselves, but we didn’t need to see as much as they were showing.

Persian Gardens: Didn’t find out about the access to this until half way into our cruise. Beautiful area that was nice and quiet but could be improved if it had views of the outside world like in the bigger ships. Still very pleasant.

Spa: Didn’t use.

Gym: Every time I looked in I saw only ship staff (performers) using the facilities.

Bars: Nothing remarkable to note. Visited Crush before dinner one night and it was nice but busy and a bit loud for my liking. Still very entertaining.

Spent time in Michael’s Club for trivia night as well. Nice atmosphere and I enjoyed the variety of beers.

Cellar Masters was welcoming and cozy without making me feel crowded. Hung out here a few times waiting for our table at Blu. Not a long wait at all and we showed up at peak time, so that’s our own fault.

Sunset Bar: Awesome place to sit and watch the day go by. Great view of the islands you just visited getting smaller as you sail away. From the Deck 11 AQ rooms, this is super close and convenient.

Entertainment: To each their own. The hypnotist tried hard, and was enjoyed by some and not by others. I liked the comedian, but am biased as I had seen his routine before and like his full shows. The stage shows were generally well done and a nice way to start the evening.

Ports: This is a review of the boat itself. One day when I get the time, I will submit reviews to the individual port pages here on CC. We stopped in St Croix, St Thomas, St Kitts, Dominica, and Grenada.

We met some wonderful people on this cruise, and I hope to one day cruise with you again! Patrick and Cheryl it was truly a pleasure to spend our time with you both. We wish you all the best!

I am sure I am forgetting things and for that I blame only myself. If it comes to me, I’ll fix this up… eventually…

Caronrick

Thanks for the review! I'm looking forward to your take on the ports. We're doing the same itinerary in December.

Great review and congrats on the upgrade.

We will be sailing the first week of March in 2014 so basically the same time a year later. I am curious about the passenger mix on your sailing. What was the average age? Were there lots of kids? Lots of seniors? Were there mostly Puerto Ricans?

Thanks

Thanks. Looking forward to summitt this summer.

2 questions.

1. Pool used at night? What time did they close

2. Sunset bar, is that for just cc or aq?

Thanks. Looking forward to summitt this summer.

 

2 questions.

 

1. Pool used at night? What time did they close

2. Sunset bar, is that for just cc or aq?

1. Used briefly but not for long. Closed by staff by 9.

2. Not at all. Anyone can use. Many people grab food from the buffet and eat outside here. It's just super convienient for the deck 11 AQ rooms at the aft to get here via the stairs on each side.

Thanks for the review - you mentioned you have some food allergies. What are they?(if you don't mind sharing) & how were you accomodated?

Caronrick,

You missed my question.

Could you tell me about the passenger mix?

Thanks;)

Thanks for review and great photos. Glad you guys enjoyed your cruise. Summit to Bermuda in June. Pray the wife doesn't get sea sick.....again!

I am curious about the duty free shop in the San Juan pier. I asked on the San Juan boards and they said you could only buy liquor/wine there but I see you mentioned buying water. Could you also buy soda? I would like to pick up my alloted 2 bottles of wine there and some water/soda. Just wondering if you could elaborate.

You're off to a great start with your review. I hope you continue with it soon. We are leaving on the Summit on April 13th. I'm very interested in hearing about your experience.

Ann

Thanks!

Enjoy your trip! We would go back in a second!

Thanks for the review! I'm looking forward to your take on the ports. We're doing the same itinerary in December.

Thanks!

I really need to find the time to get to the port review before it gets too late and my memory really fades!!

We are looking at bringing our son on the Breeze the next time out! I'll make sure to read your review!!

Caronrick,

 

You missed my question.

 

Could you tell me about the passenger mix?

Thanks;)

Hi!

I didn't miss your question! I swear!

I was working with limited time to post. I think the mix on Howard ended up being much younger than normal for X. There were some kids but not a lot that I noticed. Some of the older crowd. Mostly in the 30-50 age block. A few university students - they had a good time for sure but I didn't find they were overboard in any way. Only noticed a handful of Puerto Rican based couples/families. Overall a good mix of all groups with the majority as I listed above.

Thanks for the review - you mentioned you have some food allergies. What are they?(if you don't mind sharing) & how were you accomodated?

Thanks!

Seafood and shellfish.

I was able to coordinate the day before the menu available if I code to but to me that was too much hassle and although severe if I consume, there is no huge issue if my table mates choose to eat it so I didn't bother. Even then, as it was explained during the kitchen tour, the ship uses a separate kitchen area to accommodate special requirements be it allergy or other special consideration. I felt pretty comfortable for the most part but had one close call when a soup had shrimp in it that wasnt advertised and I was not told about it. I ended up choosing something else, but is was a big surprise to my wife to find it there.

I am curious about the duty free shop in the San Juan pier. I asked on the San Juan boards and they said you could only buy liquor/wine there but I see you mentioned buying water. Could you also buy soda? I would like to pick up my alloted 2 bottles of wine there and some water/soda. Just wondering if you could elaborate.

Sure! Once you enter the terminal for check in the desks are on your left for check in and just down and on your right is the duty free shop. There is soda/pop for Canadians, water, wine (very limited selection) and other duty free items available as well. We bought water wine and soda for our week on board and Bernard was awesome in making room in the mini bar available for us to keep things cool. I've read that people have sent these things up as another piece of luggage at check in but since we already did that step we just carried it all on. No one checked to see if we were over our 2 bottles or what was in the bottles so proceed at your own risk if you choose to deviate from the rules. We went direct to our room before they were available and dropped the bags and beverages off anyway and no one had any issue with that. :)

Beautiful photos! Loved your review. Lots of great information.

You spent time at the Aft Bar, do you happen to remember who the bartenders/servers were in this area?

Do these faces look familiar at all?

Beautiful photos! Loved your review. Lots of great information.

 

You spent time at the Aft Bar, do you happen to remember who the bartenders/servers were in this area?

 

Do these faces look familiar at all?

I want to say that they all look familiar but I am pretty horrible remembering people and their faces unless something pretty impressive occurs. My time at Sunset bar was nice, but there wasn't anything exeptional about the service for us, so they didn't stand out either way.

Great review - loved it! Thanks for taking the time to write it. And what a great surprise for your wife!

Lovely review and hanks for the pictures

Thanks for your review. Great pictures!