SUMMIT Review---4/11/2005

[CruiseForever]

Overall: Wonderful, it was better than expected.

 

Embarkcation: Ten minutes after entering the terminal, we boarded the ship, despite the two women from deck 3 that cut the Penthouse/Suite line. We were offered a drink and shown immediately to the penthouse. At 12:15 after dropping our heavy wine laded carrry-ons, we were exploring the ship. The only negitive is that the porters at the FLL terminal demanded a tip, despite signs indicating that they were salaried employees and no tipping was required.

 

Ship: The Summit is every bit as good as the Contellation. She is beautiful, with large spacious public rooms and never a feeling of being crowded even at the pool on sea days. We always found a spot. There were no incidents of out of control children, or misbeaving teenagers. It pays to cruise around school vacations.

 

Penthouse: It was gorgous. The was nothing that was overlooked.

 

Staff: Extremely nice, not a problem with any staff member anywhere. I did see people turned away from the dining room for improper attire...BRAVO to Celebrity. If you don't like the dress code, stay with Carnival etc. The captain was very gracoius, but X dropped the ball and glamour when they eliminated the position of social hostess. Dining room staff was great, our waiter Joval was the best we had ever had, and we tipped him according. His assistant never topped smiling. Wine steward was equally as good. Our butler, Ricky Tinampay was the BEST we had ever had. He did everything that was required without having to be asked. he was kind, gracoius, helpful, attentive and went beyond the call of duty, when my wife needed him after falling on a improperly arranged gangway. The medical staff on board was very nice and couldn't offer enough help in view of their initial X faillings. Jack Howell the cruise director was very nice, and might be the only CD that we ever remember. Not having meet all his staff, we can single out Rebecca, as being energetic and lively.

 

Wine Auction: This is the biggest "joke" on board. Why would anyione buy wines that you never heard of and couldn't taste. Investment? What a stupid idea, Celebrity. Art auction is almost as bad, this proves that there is a sucker born every minute.

 

Food:Twice as good as RCCL and much better than princess. The main dining room was surprising very good except one evening when we couldn't find a thing. 1st course was always different and good, there was always shrimp cocktail available. Soups were a variety and consome was usually very good.

SAlads were different and ceasar was always available with a side plate of anchovies. Main entries were moist fish, chicken and steaks. Other items were qually good.I.e. rack of lamb. The buffet always had something on it that was very good. Make your own tacos, chicken ceasar salad. Sandwich and salad beffet was wonderful, so was the sushi and pasta bars. Create your own pasta was MMMMMMMMMMM. Even the hamburgers and pizza by the pool was better than any fast food place. The ice cream station was great. The Normandie restaurant was wonderful, despite it "NOT" being as good as the Contellation. Missing was steak diane and encrusted sea bream. Also the filet of sole was terrible as sole goes. The room is wondferful, but lacks the Polish string quartet of the Constellation.

 

Entertainment: It was good, but not great. The Michaels club painist could be more lively, especially if it returned as it's original cigar lounge. The singing duo were ok, the guitartist very good. The shows were wonderful and the singers and dancers very professional. Bruce Aehrens, the concert pianst was superb. Miised some shows that were held at 7:00 pm for second seating, as being too early. It would be nice to have bigger name entertainment, but would probably be cost prohibitive. Missed the entire lecture series. Karyoke was a panic, but there lacked other audience participartory game show things from other cruise lines. Bingo yes, but no horse racing...

 

Casino: It's set for the house. 8 decks are 2 too many for blackjack and too many spots and not enough tables allow the "little old lady from Pasadena to screw up the cards with her $5 bet. Slots are a no win.

 

Shops: There are no bargins on board.

 

Ports:

 

Keywest...very intersting for those who have never been there. Clean, fun, not enough time, especially when tendering. Visit Sloppy Joe's.

 

Cozumel: Nice beaches and parks, swam with the dolphins. Town is not the typical mexican cheap port with junk all over.

 

Costa Rica.....Puerto Linon.....very little in town. Went on the famous Oscar Brown tour. It's 4/5 hour tour became 8 hours after stopping by for Oscar's 3:00 pm lunch kick-back and coffee buy. It could have been cut short without lunch and coffee and made bearable. Very poor country, would never return to east coast anyway.

 

Panama......Colon is a dump/hole. Seeing the lock was worth the trip. The 40 dollar taxi ride was betterthan the $308 ferry tour and quicker too.

 

Aruba...Great.....going back for a week in a month.

 

Grand Caymen.....destroyed by hurricane, expensive island:US prices 25% over CI price. Sting Ray city dive was great otherwise would never go back or visit again.

 

Sailing......STability was wonderful. Easy to sleep.

 

Activities....More than one person can do.

 

Martini/champagne bars......VERY good, slightly expensive, but most cocktails and beer were below normal bar prices.

 

SPA... It was better than most xcept for a few attendents with attitudes. This is always expected with a on board service not run by Celebrity that commisions its employees to sell product. Service costs were higher than normal US spas of better reputation and products. Thallsotheaphy pool was not as good as C class ships.

 

Debarkation....Luggage out by midnight, 8:30 meeting in Normandie restaurant, left ship on time. Not a problem. Porters are HORRIBLE in FLL. We had 5 suitcases for 3 of us, he took us ut the front door to a private van that would leave withiout more pax, we had to remove our luggage and take it to a cab. The cab was actually $5 dollars cheaper than he was going to charge for taking us to the airport. Only problem was the taxi driver on a $14 dollar fare wasn't happen with a $4 dollar tip and demanded more.....BEWARE of the FLORIDA TAXI/PORTER ripoff.

 

I'm sure that there should be more, but it's late and my fingers are tired.

 

Ron

[A&G]

Thanks for the review.....we are on Summit in September. Looks like we may be in for a great time.

 

Alan

[nsshel]

Thanks for the review. We are on the Summit in Sept. and are looking forward to it. Our first time on her.

[castoff50]

We were also on the 4/11 cruise and had a great time. Because of early seating we didn't get to spend time with roll-call group but enjoyed meeting folks at the cc party and on the Oscar tour. Early seating and no elevators was part of our "weight maintainance program" and surprisingly it worked! We were completely spoiled in a celebrity suite and by Xavier (the bulter). We also had great table mates and looked forward to seeing them each night. Our server were the best team. Yusuf and Ali were professional, personable and always added humor to the evening. The ship is beautiful and never felt crowded. If there were "chair hogs", they didn't keep us from finding a pool lounger. We always stayed busy, in fact to many choices. We are "early to bed and early to rise" so I can't comment on night life but the theater shows were very good. Celebrity didn't let down and we are contemplating our next Celebrity cruise. Laura and Steve

[CruiseForever]

We had Xaiver as a butler on a previous cruise and he was very nice. In fact , he said heelo to us every day on the the Summit, but we wouldn't trade Ricky for the world.

 

Ron

[MartinsCruise]

We were very satified with the Summit. The food was good, although they must have gotten a great deal on the chicken, and were running out of uses for it. Waiter and asst Waiter were great.

 

Entertainment was good. Karaoke got a little bit wild ( Summer Nights) Times in the Martini Bar were great. No problems getting pool loungers or a cold Corona.

 

Excursions : Cozumel - beach on our own, Panama - lock tour by ferry boat good - no other reason to see Panama. Costa Rica - Native Way provided a great tour of the waterway and some fantastic "Zip Line" fun. ( thanks Jo and Dana for the idea) Aruba - scuba diving was great - food excellent Grand Cayman - scuba etc then off to Rum Point for a great lunch on the beach.

(tour guide used his c-phone to order ahead) Final excursion in Ft Lauderdale - great tour of the homes of the rich and famous - Lee Majors, Farah Fawcett and a bunch of dot com success stories.

 

We were off the ship and through customs by 9:00 am Friday.

 

Worst part of the trip were the airport delays. 2 1/4 hours in Ft Lauderdale and 2 hours in Atlanta - Next time better flight planning, maybe I'll fly myself!!!!

 

Best part of the trip - meeting the CC group - You know who you are.

 

Regards,