7 january SUMMIT experience fell far below expectations!

[llmoyer123]

after seeing a posting by trvlcarib about this sailing on the summit and seeing the negative responses he's getting, i'm going to post too. i have volumes i could write about this cruise, i'm not setting myself up to get flamed or to get drawn into a he said/she said by this group.

 

therefore, i'm going to post these comments on the sailing and walk away from these boards and the altogether substandard experience we had on the summit.

 

in a nutshell, this was our 11th cruise and our first (and most assuredly, last) on celebrity. it was substandard in every way from the rude celebrity personnel/staff, to the food (which was VERY ORDINARY IN EVERY ASPECT and a big disappointment in every way) to the overwhelmingly elderly demographics of the ship to the and very rude (!) passengers.

 

the bands were awful. did i mention the food was mundane at best and often inedible? i saw the waitress in the cova cafe tell a patron to "put the damned chair back and i'm not telling you again" and that wasn't the only rude comment i heard from staff.

 

on the other hand, our waiter, assistant waiter, and stateroom attendant were excellent...the only high points of the cruise.

 

the fiascos at the ports (long lines to shuttle and ridiculously long times spent waiting), though the other cruise lines had MORE passengers they were shuttling and no lines whatsoever, cannot even be adequately detailed. an absolute nightmare. by the second port, most people were opting to stay onboard the ship! the list of negatives goes on and on.

 

disembarkation? a nightmare.

 

the food??? did i mention "ordinary and mundane" and not conveniently located and not available at convenient times? the most ordinary substandard food we've experienced on a cruise to date. think cafeteria food...and not even GOOD cafeteria food. and that's in the dining room!

 

celebrity is not selling you an upscale good experience in comparison to the other cruiselines and i'm including the oft-maligned carnival in that mix. three of our cruises were on carnival and the food, entertainment, staff, and courtesy far surpassed celebrity.

 

i know fully well how this post will be received, and i wasn't going to bother posting my thoughts/feelings until i saw that trvlcarib had the nerve (and integrity) to open the door. therefore, i'm adding my comments but i don't plan to check back to see the responses/flames.

 

after months of researching this cruise and hearing glowing reviews of the summit and her crew and the food, we were sorely disappointed. this cruise fell WELL below any of our other cruise experiences.

[JNLROSE]

I'm not going to slam or flame you but just want to say I am sorry you had such a bad cruise, we were on Summit last year & absolutely loved everything about it! We were just on Mercury & that cruise fell short of our expectations, but nowhere near your comments. Sorry for your experience! :(

[Boston lab girl]

I too was on the january 7 sailing of the summit and had a wonderful time. It was my 7th cruise and I didn't experience any of the problems you seemed to have. The ride was a bit rough but other than that I thought it was great. The food was wonderful. The prime rib the last night was the best I had had in a long time. The other people at our table some of whom had cruised over 15 times also thought the food was the best they had had. The tidbits at night especially the 60' night were quite unique. I never found celebrity personal rude however I did find some of the people on the cruise to be very rude especially to the help. I really loved the prodigy band and even tried to purchase their CD. The pool party was great as was the 60's sock hop. The lunch buffet was the only place I thought could be improved but I always found something good to eat even if it was just the wonderful hamburgers and fries. We did experience a small problem at the beginning but the celebrity personal were prompt in fixing it. I couldn't have found people who were more willing to go out of their way to help. Sorry you had such a lousy time. Maybe the rough waters just put you in a bad mood. as for disembarking we didn't have any trouble and nobody else that we have talked to seemed to have a problem either. I thought they were very organized.

[SandyR5]

Thanks for your post. We're sailing Summit on 2/28. I hope your comments get sent to the CEO and things improve for us. I have been looking forward to this cruise for a long time. It's our first Celebrity trip after Princess and RCCL. I understand it's your opinion and you should feel free to voice it.

[Ma Bell]

Sandy,

 

I don't know what happened, but we've been on Summit three times and have always had a great experience. It's amazing how people can be on the same ship at the same time and have two totally different experiences. I wouldn't be too concerned.

[JNLROSE]

Hi Joan! ;) Sandy, I'll bet you will have a wonderful time, she will be fresh out of drydock & probably with a new crew! We had one of the best if not THE best cruises on Summit last Feb! :D

[trvlcarib]

llmoyer123,

Sorry to see you had some of the same issues. I believe the people who depend on tips from you were very good. Both our Cabin Steward and Waiter were excellent. The dining room food was same good quality. I was told by the dining room staff one morning if you want faster breakfeast go to the buffet. All because my wife's meal came out after mine. I believe it was just hit and miss.

[SandyR5]

Thanks Rosie, MaBell and others who had great experiences. I'm only thinking positive and know we're going to have a fantastic time.

[JNLROSE]

Sandy, you've already got the right attitude! You'll love it! :D

[Andy]

Hi Everyone !

 

I am very sorry that Boston did not have a good time on her sailing. I can certainly understand her disappointment.

 

I have also been on Summit several times, and she is my favorite ship in the Celebrity fleet. I have never had a bad cruise on her.

 

For those of you who are concerned, please try not to worry too much. I am sailing on her again on the 4/1 sailing, and I wouldnt change/cancel my booking for anything !

[Bisous3]

We are sailing on 3/21 and it'll be our 7th cruise with X. Hope someone from X reads these comments, especially the one about putiting back the chair. Unbelievable.

Suzanne

[rocktheboat]

Where does it say the they didn t have a good time. The OP is just pointing things out he didn t care for and things he thought celebrity should improve on.

You can still have a good time despite the bad food or service , ect.

[trvlcarib]

"the bands were awful"

 

I thought the guy who sung with the guitar at the waterfall each night was pretty good. Sorry I can't remember his name. It was a bit dissapointing when the band Prodigy was playing at sail aways. They were playing more R&B than Caribbean music. I watch the Century pull out of St Marteen and I could hear their band playing music. They were playing alot of island music. It sounded great. Prodigy only played 1-2 caribbean songs per set. I thought they were good at night in the disco however.

[Ma Bell]

Thanks to Prodigy. A whole cruise of Carribean music. I can't think of anything worse. A few songs here and there to get the flavor of the cruise is just right.

[WeBeCruisin']

We have our tenth cruise booked for July and have sailed on NCL, RCCL, SeaDream and Celebrity and of all those trips, we liked the Summit and Constellation the best. As for the band Prodigy, I would rank it as the best we've seen, with Onyx on the Connie as the second-best. The biggest problem we've ever encountered on any cruise has been caused by rude passengers and hyper-critical passengers who get off on getting attention by complaining about every single thing they can conjure up.

[waylook]

We were actually quite happy with Prodigy. We would all go out of our way to be at the pool when they were playing. I agree about the guitar guy, Richard Towers. He was great to listen to. We would go over to the aft bar for his session at the end of the day. The only music couldn't take was the Mozart Duo. Pretty horrendous IMHO.

 

 

 

"the bands were awful"

 

I thought the guy who sung with the guitar at the waterfall each night was pretty good. Sorry I can't remember his name. It was a bit dissapointing when the band Prodigy was playing at sail aways. They were playing more R&B than Caribbean music. I watch the Century pull out of St Marteen and I could hear their band playing music. They were playing alot of island music. It sounded great. Prodigy only played 1-2 caribbean songs per set. I thought they were good at night in the disco however.

[BB5953]

I am starting to worry. We are sailing out 4/1 out of Ft. Lauderdale. Today I have read 2 separate posts telling of poor service, food and entertainment and one post saying they will never go out of Ft. Lauderdale due to the "snow birds". I can only hope that most of these are due to the fact Summit is getting ready to go into dry-dock... here is to hopping.

[Spf12]

I responded to another thread on this subject"just got off Summit Itis need of repair".

I just got off 1/7/2005 Summit and did not experience anything but great service,excellent food and good entertainment.Our cabin steward, Maria, was the best that we have had in 17th Celebrity cruises.Our head waitress Andrea could not do enough to satisfy us.

The ship was immaculate except fo a few 1inch square tiles in the center part of the pool and easily repaired in drydock.The public rooms are clean and wellkept.Prodigy was terrific,so was the guitar player.The commedians were so-so and Ican't comment on the Celebrity singers and dancers.

We travelled with 3 other couples and all shared in my opinion.

[Italian Nancy]

It still amazes me that people have totally different experiences on the same cruise.. We had a terrible cruise last Feb with Costa and I would NEVER sail with them again, people wrote that were on the same cruise and RAVED about it.. go figure..

 

Guess that is what makes us "humans"

 

Our cruise on Summit (Nov 5-15 2004) was amazing, outstanding, unbelievably good.. even with really bad seas the last 2 1/2 days. I would book in a heartbeat on the Summit.

[AFT_LOVER]

Both Connie & Infinity, they send instructions with letters to bring with you. You are told to take the glass elevators midship, when we have elevators a short walk in the back. Then you have the whole ship in line running front of ship to back of ship 3 lengths.

 

So we waited on Connie, but Infinity we went back to our room for 1.5 hours then went down to a very short line & quick walk thru of Customs.

 

Why they do not call per floor, or something organized. Then Select CC members are told to meet in the Cinema for continental breakfast & priority disembarkation. Once we got there to no food or drink & 1.5 hour wait to get off. NOT PRIORITY! On Infinity we left at 9AM to the cinema to ask what color was called. It was us already, so we left.

 

HATE HEADACHES!

[lolo1211]

I was on this same cruise and have nothing bad to report. As a New Yorker I am sensitive to how fellow New Yorkers are sometimes absolutely obnoxious and it embarrasses me and there were a few nasty people on board, but I found the staff to be so gracious and attentive! As I have stated before, a cruise is so totally subjective-if you go with the intention of having a good time, you will. If you go looking for problems, you will find them. Yes, the weather was not great on this particular cruise, but we allowed the ship to rock us to sleep every night. I think the choices of food are there-my feeling is that if I don't have to cook it and then clean up, it's a good day. Lighten up folks: if you are lucky enough to be on a cruise in January, then you are lucky enough!

[starsjohn]

Waylook, I agree with you as to the Mozart Duo.

 

I have been on the Summit some 12+ times and have 4 more trips this year. We have had very positive experiences with most staff, excellent food especially in the Normandy, nice veranda rooms, and good to excellent entertainment.

 

The staff bends over backwards to help my 87 year old mom. We cannot use Princess cruise ships for this very reason due to a lack of helpful staff.

 

I vote to have the deck band keep the Caribbean music. After all, it sets the mood of the vacation.

 

Some minor glitches that pop up are usually resultant of the behaviour of certain pax, and cannot be anticipated.

 

John

[patnjohn]

We were on Summit in Oct/Nov. We loved every minute of our cruise. We have been on 8 cruises & this was our first on X. We found all personnel to go above & beyond to be gracious to us. IMHO llmoyer123 posted this to start a debate. Notice he/she is gone & has not posted since. I believe that person is sitting at his/her computer & laughing at the Hoopla they started. X is the best!

[cruiser013]

I am a Celebrity employee and will be joining the Summit on 2/28 for 6 months. You will have an excellent time on the Summit, because I will do my best to ensure you do.

 

Also, anyone with questions about shiplife or the usual first time cruiser questions, feel free to ask me.

[Texed]

Cruiser013,

 

It is very nice of you to offer your assistance. :)