Returned yesterday... Summit So. Caribbean, any questions?

[Slumdog Millionaire]

Jill,

Thank you so much for your through answer, and the suggestion to call Celebrity is great, it would have never crossed my mind. :o

We are going with the Summit on April 17th due to departure date (DH has very specific time off and we can't waste days), itinerary and price, and although I would love to see some families with kids on boards, I'm not up for a cruise full of kids running around... since our son is not even 2, he's most happy with us and will not be doing much 'socializing' on his own. :) So I think we can manage even with little families on board.

Some of us are looking forward to seeing kids on the cruise, even though ours are staying home! :)

[medeacat]

Some of us are looking forward to seeing kids on the cruise, even though ours are staying home! :)

 

And some of us chose Celebrity because we hoped those traveling with children would me more attracted to the high energy/activities-intense lines like Royal Caribbean and Princess... :)

[bigedwin]

We returned yesterday from the Summit's Southern Caribbean itinerary (San Juan, St Thomas, St Croix, St Kitts, Antigua, St Lucia).

 

Happy to give back to the cruise critic website by offering to answer any questions while the experience is fresh in our minds and those "Celebrity Today" daily cruise newsletters are at hand with specific daily schedules.

 

Anything on your mind?

 

 

Hello!

Now that you ask.......

We are wondering if other than the 2 FORMAL nights are the rest of the week nights "Smart Casual"?

Do you think on formal night would a TUX will be out of place or will be good?

And This Question is from My Mother "Any BINGO?"

 

Thanks

 

Ed

[Shore Cruiser]

Anything on your mind?

 

Thank you for providing such great information regarding sailing on the Summit. My DH and I will be sailing on her in May from Bayonne NJ to Bermuda. As a self-employed Independent Consultant, I will be unfortunately working part-time on this trip. Can you tell me anything about the Internet Access onboard? Was it reliable? How about wireless? is it available anywhere other than the Internet Cafe? Were any discounted packages offered during the cruise? Thanks for any info you can provide.

[JLind]

Hi Ed:

Yes, there were 2 formal nights (Sunday & Thursday) and the rest were smart casual. My husband was very spiffy in his tux and there were definitely both suits and tuxedos - I didn't really make a big point of noticing what the % was, but I'd guess it was about 1/2 and 1/2. If you have a tux, I say you should go ahead and wear it, but if you didn't own one, you are fine to bring your favorite dark suit.

Ed's mom: Yes there is bingo! I just looked back over those daily newsletters and see that it was around 4pm on days 3, 4, 5 and 7. So make sure you scan the "Celebrity Today" when your cabin steward leaves it on your bed each evening with the schedule for the following day...

 

Maryland Cruiser:

I'm sorry to say that internet access was not the best. We bought a package just moments after we boarded the ship. When we got into our stateroom there was a sheet of coupons for Captains Club people, and we could have done a smidge better if we'd used one of the coupons, but not much better. We bought 100 minutes and used only about 15. My husband is an IT guy and he says: minimal discounts, slow access, not really available outside of a couple of hot spots (Cova Cafe, Internet room...).

Honestly we didn't realize that there was not access in the staterooms until we were on board. Our last two cruises, there was wireless in the staterooms so this caught us by surprise.

 

Cruisnuts:

The big buffets were:

fruit buffet, 11:30pm-12:30am, Poolside, Deck 10, St. Kitts

desert extravaganza, 11:30pm-12:30am, Revelations, Deck 11, St. Lucia

celebrity brunch at sea, 10:30am-1pm, Cosmopolitan, Deck 4, Day at Sea

 

The Riedel Wine tasting was on the last day, the day at sea. That day there were several "wine events". The Riedel Glass Workshop was at 1pm (make sure you have a plan for getting those glasses home- they would not ship them- no one mentioned vouchers, we had been given this as a gift from someone at home and ended up canceling because we had no room for getting the glasses home- they were inflexible about giving us an onboard credit for the price, and gave us no other option), there is also a World Wine Tour at 2:30pm on this sea day.

 

(icare2000, I haven't forgotten you- will get to your questions tomorrow- big day here, you know re-entering the real world is tough after that cruise...!)

[icare2000]

Thanks for remembering me, JLind. I look forward to your response:)

[cruisnuts]

Thanks Jill! That information is VERY helpful! :D

[JLind]

Hi there,

 

This is my first cruise and first time posting on Cruise Critic. I was pleasantly surprised to see that you had just come back from the same cruise that I will be going on, and that you were so willing to offer advice. It's very kind of you.

 

JILL REPLY: I've gotta say that it's been a really busy few days here since our return- but I am so grateful to the people on these boards (you'll see Lois answering questions with insight and humor on a consistent basis- wish I could meet her). And when I've had my questions answered I've said "I love this site" out loud. So I feel it's important to 'pay it forward' and that's why, in spite of the avalanche of stuff to deal with here, I'm taking the time to do answer questions for a week or so!

 

You mentioned "packing insight" and "dining insight"... any advice?

JILL REPLY: Ok, off the top of my head... packing hindsight... here are a few of those little things:

We are glad that after we got onto the ship at noon, we hopped off for a few minutes to pop into the duty free store right there as you board.

- We bought a 6pack of water and 2 bottles of wine. I would not have bothered to carry that stuff any further than from that spot, and only once we were free of anything else in our hands. But very nice to have the water to grab for excursion days and we enjoyed the wine- my husband would have a glass while i was getting ready for dinner, or we'd have some on our veranda with sushi during sail aways.

-Glad I brought sun-dresses to throw on over a bathing suit for port days, more comfortable for me and I think nicer looking than shorts or capris.

-Glad we brought 2 boxes of granola type bars to throw in the beach bag on port excursion days. If you're hungry in the little excursion boat, van, or on the beach it was great to grab a water bottle and granola bar from the bag.

-Zip lock bags for wet bathing suits, or bagging things in the beach bag (camera, sunscreen, trail mix or fruit from the ship) on excursions.

-Beach bag big enough for ship towels on excursion days along with the stuff mentioned above- the ship gave us that "Celebrity" bag, but that was not so big, and we wished our bag from home was a little bigger.

-Continuous spray sunblock (we brought #50 and #70 and still got tan) glad we had that, and wished we'd brought more b/c it's expensive on the islands/ship.

-Aloe moisturizer and also after-burn stuff. Our neighbors on the ship (met them over the railing- it was funny, like a sitcom) asked if we could lend them after-burn stuff, as the ship was apparently out of that. Almost everyone had some spots of those crazy burned odd shaped blotches where they'd missed with the sunscreen- glad I did decide to carry those fairly heavy bottles of stuff in zip lock bags, in our checked luggage. :)

-Glad we had tubes of specific Face Block which we took along on outings and re-applied.

-Glad we had long sleeves and pants for airconditioned ship.

-Wished I'd brought "practical" shoes for boat excursions. Ended up hitting a Sketchers outlet in Puerto Rico to quickly buy rubber soled, comfy sandal/shoes and lived in them.

 

How cool does it get on the ship? Will I need long sleeves? Long pants? A jacket?

JILL REPLY:-During the day on the islands it's hot, hot, hot! But at night on the ship it is like a big air conditioned restaurant, and I was happy for a couple of long sleeved throw-ons, and long pants (not capris) for dining. It is actually very windy and even a bit chilly if you want to walk outside at night- you know that romantic notion you have in your mind that you'll walk outside in the moonlight. A light jacket is a good idea for those moments. (I learned this from previous cruises...)

 

Best way of getting from airport to ship and cost?

JILL REPLY: Taxi, it is a pre-set fixed by the government rate. There are loads of these white taxi vans lined up at the airport. It is $20 from the airport to the Pan American pier where Celebrity docks, and it is an additional $1 per bag. Plus tip.

 

Can you give me a rough idea of the cost for pop and alcoholic drinks (e.g., cost of a pina colada?) on the cruise so that I can decide if the beverage packages are worthwhile?

JILL REPLY: We did not drink much soda or pina type stuff. Husband is a wine drinker mostly, and had a couple of mojitos, I was watching the calories and only had a couple of sail away drinks. Sorry but there are others who would be better answering this one for you. I know for sure that a beverage package would not have been worth it for us.

 

 

When did you book your excursions? Is it true that if you want to book excursions in advance, then you have to do it no less than 4 days before the start of the cruise? Do you recommend sticking with the excursions offered through the cruise, or exploring tours offered through private operators?

JILL REPLY: -Yikes, I should have known better, but went online to book a couple of ship excursions a few days prior to sailing and got the "no longer available to book online" message. But it was fine. We booked Buck Island snorkling for St. Croix through the ship and golf on St Kitts through the ship. We did that as soon as we boarded and there was nothing we wanted that was closed out.

I like to go with private operators when possible, but sometimes it's safer to go through the ship. For example, we rented a car along with another newly acquainted cc couple in St Thomas and our plan was to hop a ferry to St John. If we had booked that with the ship, it would have been a sure-fire plan. But on our own, we didn't expect that when we got to the ferry it was full- and, did we want to wait another hour for the next one... in a parking lot... and then have to worry about getting a ferry back... maybe have to get to the return ferry an hour early to be sure of getting on it... So. I'd take a look at the Ports of Call boards on this site. I'd even look at role calls for other weeks on your ship with the same ports and see what others are talking about. But if you're asking me, this is what I think would be good:

St. Thomas/St. John= either ship tour to Turtle Cove (heard great things) or ship snorkel tour to St. John

St Croix= either Buck Island ship snorkel tour (we did it and loved it) or on your own taxi to Carambola Beach resort (heard great things, similar to the Marriott on St Kitts in that they were very welcoming of the ship people and was fine to use the facilities at the resort, and a pretty beach)

St Kitts= taxi on your own to Marriott St Kitts. ten minute ride from ship and though we were on the golf course, people we recommended this to loved it, were welcome to use chairs, cabana, had massage on beach. Don't know if more crowded times would have required a cruise guest to purchase a day pass or a room day pass ($65 per room), but at this time, cruise guests seemed to be welcome.

Antigua= there is a private tour with a "starfish" snorkel stop and this was enthusiastically reviewed by those who did it. You can find info on the Port of Call board.

St. Lucia= we did a private tour to a resort with snorkeling off the beach. Don't have info because we tagged along with others who had made the arrangements and invited us to join them. Of all the islands, I did hear several people say that the poverty here was striking- however we hopped off the ship onto a boat to a low-key resort, stayed on that beautiful beach, had lunch, snorkeled. It was a great day.

 

My husband and I absolutely love to snorkel, and so we are planning all our excursions around snorkeling.

 

Can you recommend the best snorkeling in St. Thomas/St. John?

JILL REPLY: see above! (probably a ship tour to St John due to the nature of getting to St John and the onus being on the ship to get you there and back on time if you do their tour)

 

Which tour did you take to Buck Island? You mentioned being glad about taking the later tour. What are the advantages over the morning tour?

JILL REPLY: -We learned that the early tour went out at 8:30am and the later left at 11:30am and we wanted one day to be leisurely in the morning and not rushed.

We booked through the ship after learning that the private tour operator Big Beards Adventure Tours 340.773.4482 was not sure they'd have enough people to run the full day tour, and the 1/2 day tour was a comparable price to the ship but we'd have to work out our own transfers and it wasn't worth it. You could conceivably put a group together on your Role Call for your specific ship if you feel up for that.

 

You recommended spending the day at the Mariott on St. Kitts and enjoying the "full services" of the resort. What services at the Mariott did you enjoy?

JILL REPLY: see above...

 

Thanks in advance for answering my questions! :)

 

Hope it helps with your planning...

happy cruising! :)

[JLind]

Andrew:

you had asked if everything went smoothly with luggage valet service and I neglected to mention one thing. Celebrity will charge your account with the $20 per person Luggage Valet Service fee, and they will also charge your account for your airline's baggage fee.

 

Thanks to these message boards, I had the "heads-up" that they might make a mistake on these charges. We flew first class on USAir, and so we should not have had any airline fee, yet Celebrity charged us $60 per person for the USAir fee. In an effort to head off this mistake, when we filled out the Luggage Valet Service request form on the ship, we put an * noting that we were flying 1st class and should not be charged an airline baggage fee. Then again, on the last day of the cruise, we stopped at guest services to remind them that we should not incur an airline baggage fee. On the morning of disembarkation, we had a final statement with the $60 per person charge. We were not surprised. Before disembarking, we waited in line, had to provide a copy of our 1st class boarding passes (which Celebrity had printed as a part of this service... yet they still didn't "connect the dots"), and then the amount was credited.

 

I suggest that if you use this service, which we did like, that you check your statement before disembarking to be sure that your airline baggage fees are correct.

 

We had a great cruise, but had such a multitude of this type of "misunderstanding" and felt that it cost us frustration on a steady basis through the week, which undermined the relaxation and fun. We are committed to being calm, good-natured and reasonable people. But we are wondering what is going on with Celebrity service- we never had any issue on any previous cruise with Celebrity, Princess or Cunard. We hope that they can pull the service back up a notch. I include this in order to serve fellow cruisers with a heightened awareness to double check and have plenty of documentation for any expected pre-arranged amenities. This is not a rant... :)

 

happy cruising...!

[mom2jax]

Do you know what the cab fare to the Marriott? I heard it was 10 min but with no meters in the cab.

 

Thanx!

[JLind]

Which Marriott?

We stayed at the Caribe Hilton and rented a car.

We returned the car to the airport and took a taxi from the airport to the Pan American pier.

It is true- there are no meters in the cabs, but the fixed rates are set by the government.

If you are wondering about the Marriott Stelaris in Condado- it's true that it would only be about a 10 minute ride.

The airport is further away from the ship than Condado and it was a $20 fare to the pier.

An educated guess on a taxi from Marriott in Condado to the pier would be $16, plus it's an additional $1 per bag.

You could actually call the hotel and ask- they should be able to find out for you what the fixed rate from their hotel to the pier would be...

 

:)

[mom2jax]

Sorry Jill - I meant the Marriott at St. Kitts.

[icare2000]

Hi Jill,

 

Thanks so much for answering my questions so thoroughly. You've been very helpful. It's wonderful of you to take time out of your busy schedule to help others with their cruise questions.

 

Thanks a million!

 

Tina

[JLind]

Hi there mom2jax...

 

Well I emailed my new X friends, our neighbors on the ship last week, with your question about the taxi fare from the ship to Marriott St. Kits.

 

They responded immediately and said that it was "about $20". So there you have it. About a 10 minute ride... no meter... $20 or so.

 

Note to Tina:

you are welcome! I doubt anyone else will read all of those long winded answers I wrote for you, and I'm glad you did :)

 

Now I'm off to work- and to think one week ago today we were on that beautiful beach in St. Lucia.....

 

-Jill

[16shells]

Thank you for these detailed posts. They have been very helpful in planning our upcoming summit trip!

[Ships R Great]

I realize this will probably change before we sail in April but do you remember who the captain, cruise director, cc hostess or any of the great staff were onboard? :)

 

I am interested in these answers also.

[bellebaby]

5. A word of caution… I put this into the post reluctantly. I am hoping that we get a call from Celebrity main offices and even that acknowledgement would go a long way toward healing our frustrations… If you have any prearranged amenities (ship board credits, bon voyage flowers, amenities pre-arranged) have everything in writing. If you have anything promised by your Travel Agent or pre-booked online having it in writing will save you from having to scramble to prove this to Guest Relations once you are on the ship. Having every expected ammenity confirmation in writing could possibly spare some frustration. One would hope to do the "work" before you leave home and just enjoy cruising once you are onboard, right? There were several people onboard who were dismayed about this same thing- it was a common conversation topic.

 

 

This is a very common issue... not just on the Summit or Celebrity, but on various cruiselines. In fact, we have decided to quit sending Bon Voyage wishes to others as it turns out to be an irritation for the recipient instead of a pleasant surprise. I believe many gifts are paid for but never provided to the passenger.

 

Thanks for your review...

 

B

[JLind]

Hi again-

 

You wanted to know the names of the captain, cruise director and cc hostess...

but just for 'fun' I'll throw in a few others too.

 

I've pulled out the insert in that first newsletter "Celebrity Today" from embarkation day, and they have a page called IN THE SPOTLIGHT with the names of the top dogs, or big fish, as the case may be (haha).

 

Master: Captain Athanaasios G Peppas

Hotel Director: Bernhard Stacher

Cruise Director: Damian de Lorenzis

Food & Beverage Manager: Marcin Winiewski

Guest Relations Manager: Janet David

 

I don't know the name of the cc hostess- the cruise critic official gathering was scheduled for the first morning, when we were in the port of St Thomas and we were off the ship. We had heard through these boards that this might be the case, and our Role Call arranged to meet informally at the Cova Cafe at 5pm on embarkation day. It was a nice little gathering, and we saw those folks here and there throughout the cruise. I don't know of anyone who went to the official gathering... and wish I could have met more of the people from our role call. But from what I understand, it is difficult for X to schedule this type of thing for a better time on cruises with so many ports.

 

Belle:

I appreciate your comment very much-

[TheresaK]

Hi,

 

We are booked for a Southern Caribbean cruise on the Summit next March, 2011, although a slightly different itinerary than yours. Does the Summit dock at the Pan American Pier?

[dalitos]

JLind, one more question if you don't mind, which I asked in another post but no one answered, maybe you know: which docks does Celebrity (Summit) use in St. Thomas, St. Maarten, and Tortola? I also would like to know the dock in Bermuda, but I don't think this was part of your itinerary.

Thank you in advance.

[Lois R]

Hi,

 

We are booked for a Southern Caribbean cruise on the Summit next March, 2011, although a slightly different itinerary than yours. Does the Summit dock at the Pan American Pier?

 

Hi:) yes, she docks at the Pan American Pier.

[AAAAmerican]

Hi,

 

Welcome home!

 

My question on the old Summit is:

 

On embarkation day did/do they have a served lunch in the MDR ( Main Dining Room/Hall ) ?

 

 

As we always appreciate a served dining time versus a self-serve as well all know the self-serve is another Noro-Virus method of spreading also.

 

 

When on B2B ( Back To Back ) and/or any Cruises a served Lunch is so much nicer IMHO , eh....;)

 

 

 

 

[JLind]

JLind, one more question if you don't mind, which I asked in another post but no one answered, maybe you know: which docks does Celebrity (Summit) use in St. Thomas, St. Maarten, and Tortola? I also would like to know the dock in Bermuda, but I don't think this was part of your itinerary.

Thank you in advance.

Dalitos:Sorry, but i don't remember where we were docked in St. Thomas... and those others were not in our itinerary. (we were st thomas, st croix, st kitts, antigua and st lucia)

 

My question on the old Summit is:

 

On embarkation day did/do they have a served lunch in the MDR ( Main Dining Room/Hall ) ?

 

As we always appreciate a served dining time versus a self-serve as well all know the self-serve is another Noro-Virus method of spreading also.

 

AAA: On embarkation day I do not think the MDR serves lunch- we went up to Deck 10 and tried a few things from the AquaSpa Cafe, and then a few things from the Waterfall Cafe. We did stop by the MDR to inquire about the Select Dining details, and if I recall correctly, although the Hostess was there to answer our questions, they were not serving lunch on that day at that time (12:30pm).

[AAAAmerican]

JLi,

 

Thanks Maam.

 

I wonder why Celebrity doesn't do that now?

 

They used to do it. Other Cuisine Quality Cruise Lines do have a served Lunch aboard the ships on Embarkation Day.

 

When we do B2B (Back To Back Cruises) on the same Ship it is so nice not having to go to the *&*())_+) Line up above and play Passenger Bumpers as well too...eh..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AAA: On embarkation day I do not think the MDR serves lunch- we went up to Deck 10 and tried a few things from the AquaSpa Cafe, and then a few things from the Waterfall Cafe. We did stop by the MDR to inquire about the Select Dining details, and if I recall correctly, although the Hostess was there to answer our questions, they were not serving lunch on that day at that time (12:30pm).

[apelleti]

We are thinking of cruising on Summit in April (bermuda, out of NY). Do you know if balconies are connecting ? Can we buy a wine package?

Thanks