A Bermuda Cruise in Review: Summit (with pics!)

[tortoni]

Congrats on your graduation!

 

Love your review and appreciate the pics.

 

We are considering the Summit to Bermuda with our 3 kids including my son who recently graduated. Curious what activities there are for those in the 16-21 range?

 

Do you have any recommendations on where to book on the ship in terms of rooms?

 

Looking forward to the rest of your report.

[g8rfan94]

Great pics. Thanks for taking out the time to take them and post them. Can't wait to read the review.

 

We'll be on there in less than 2 weeks. Cannot wait. Your pics just have us that much more excited :)

[ChampionCruiser]

Enjoyed all your pictures. Try and talk your family into a Baltic cruise while you are in Norway (unless have already gone on one). We were on the Constellation a couple of years ago and it was a trip of a lifetime. Be prepared, the prices in Norway make London look cheap!

 

I still haven't ventured out of the Caribbean and now Bermuda, so any European cruise would be terrific. And yes, I've been warned about the cost of living in Norway. That will take some getting used to!

[ChampionCruiser]

Great review! We are considering this cruise next month. BTW, where did you do your undergraduate work? My son is currently going to SUNY Maritime for marine engineering and he is wrapping up his 45 day sea term on the training ship across the Atlantic. If he is up to it, we will be booking the Summitt to Bermuda for a pleasure cruise....a break from the regiment of his working cruise.

 

I graduated from the University of New Orleans. My program was academic only, so I didn't have a practical or sea term. A pleasure cruise would be welcome to me after 45 days of a working one, though!

[ChampionCruiser]

Love your photos and looking forward to reading about your experiences on the ship. hope you have soon food photos to o clued.

I am happy to hear Bistro on 5 wasn't crowded.....more room for us:)

 

I'm sorry to disappoint, but I don't have any food pics :o. Even when I brought my camera to the dining room, I never remembered to take any...

[ChampionCruiser]

Congrats on your graduation!

 

Love your review and appreciate the pics.

 

We are considering the Summit to Bermuda with our 3 kids including my son who recently graduated. Curious what activities there are for those in the 16-21 range?

 

Do you have any recommendations on where to book on the ship in terms of rooms?

 

Looking forward to the rest of your report.

 

My sister and I stayed together throughout the cruise and didn't notice many activities specifically for the 18-21 age. There were definitely late night events that were 18+ only that were full of passengers around that age, though (dance parties, etc.).

 

If you are looking for a balcony stateroom, I DEFINITELY recommend one of the "sweet sixteens" on deck 6. We were in 6035 and I'll post pictures later today. The balconies on these cabins are at least twice as big as a regular balcony at the same price.

[JandD Mom]

Hi, Congratulations on your graduations. You are very eloquent!

 

I have a question for you since we will be on the Summint in a couple of weeks:

 

Except for the cushioned chairs by the pool, did you notice a lot of "chair hogging" going on? ie, lots of empty chairs covered by towels, magazines, shoes, or other items if you got up on pool deck later in the morning?

 

I haven't heard a lot of complaints, but I just thought I'd check with you to get your thoughts.

 

Thanks! I am looking forward to additional installments!:D

[ChampionCruiser]

Hi, Congratulations on your graduations. You are very eloquent!

 

I have a question for you since we will be on the Summint in a couple of weeks:

 

Except for the cushioned chairs by the pool, did you notice a lot of "chair hogging" going on? ie, lots of empty chairs covered by towels, magazines, shoes, or other items if you got up on pool deck later in the morning?

 

I haven't heard a lot of complaints, but I just thought I'd check with you to get your thoughts.

 

Thanks! I am looking forward to additional installments!:D

 

Yes and no. On the three sea days, there was definitely a good amount of "hogging" with the loungers around the pool but not anywhere else.

 

The policy onboard is that unattended items can only be left on a chair for 30 minutes and the "pool butlers" really seemed to follow that. We saw them pick up towels from loungers on many occasions.

[Vegas Lobster]

Congratulations on your graduation :) ! Thank you for all of the awesome pics! (you mentioned no food pics.....I did the same thing last time we cruised! took the camera and completely forgot, lol) Looking forward to more.... N

[daydreamer16]

Thanks for all the pictures----leaving this Sunday!

[vickykay]

Daydreamer -us too. Join our cc group up the Mast Bar for sail away. we will be wearing mardigras types of beads.

 

vicky

[cocobakerchica]

Love your photos and looking forward to reading about your experiences on the ship. hope you have soon food photos to o clued.

I am happy to hear Bistro on 5 wasn't crowded.....more room for us:)

 

I second that!! I'm so looking forward to Bistro on 5!

[Lois R]

Another congratulations on your graduation:) I will be sailing her

for the 5th time in November:D Love that ship!

[daydreamer16]

Daydreamer -us too. Join our cc group up the Mast Bar for sail away. we will be wearing mardigras types of beads.

 

vicky

 

 

Thanks for the invite---normally we would attend but traveling with our adult children & grandchild and we plan to do sail-away in our cabin!:D

[FoxyTerrier]

Cosmopolitan Restaurant

 

The main dining room is gorgeous. We chose the early seating traditional dining since we always enjoy getting to know our waiters. We almost dined in Qsine one night but decided against it. We couldn’t justify paying extra when we were more than impressed with the food and service here.

 

Congrats on your graduation and future studies - sounds very interesting.

 

We will be cruising in 3 weeks and will have a comp'd night at one of the specialty restaurants.

 

Which night would be best to go? Basically in your opinion is there one night the regular dining room menu was not as good as the other nights.

 

Also which specialy restaurant is the one not to miss if you are only going one night.

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

[ChampionCruiser]

Well, here goes. This will be the first of MANY installments. I'll do my best to finish asap for you lucky ones cruising this Sunday!

 

Day 1: Bayonne, NJ

 

Sunday, June 10th had finally arrived! Even though it had only been a whopping 15 days since my last cruise, nothing can compare to embarkation morning. I had flown up the day before and met my family in Newark. We stayed at the Wyndham Garden hotel near the airport and I don’t have any complaints (or praises).

 

We woke up (of course) early and ate breakfast at the hotel before packing the car. We were on the road by 10:15. My sister and I were onboard by 11 on the last cruise and we were hoping the same would be true this time. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case.

 

We made it to Cape Liberty around 10:30 and I snapped one last picture with my phone before heading to the terminal. It definitely wasn't the prettiest port I've sailed from and reminded me of the Baltimore and Charleston ports. The Summit cheered me up, though!

 

 

We breezed through security and check in and were waiting to board by 11:00, along with many others. We thought check in went too smoothly and we were right. An announcement was made that there was a coast guard inspection onboard and embarkation would be delayed until 12:30 :(. That wasn’t exactly what we were hoping for, especially since we were assigned to group 16. Thankfully, the wait wasn’t quite so terrible because boarding began a little before noon and we were on the ship soon after.

 

Once aboard, we made the mistake of exploring the ship before eating lunch. Yes, I took some nice pictures and learned my way around, but heading up to the Oceanview Café an hour later was a nightmare. The casual buffets on any ship are crowded enough on a normal day, but it was literally impossible to find a table for the four of us. We ended up with a table for two and took turns standing up. I’ll know better next time. I’m still learning after ten cruises!

 

Cabins weren’t ready yet, so we continued with our self-guided tour after lunch. After a dull looking morning, the weather had thankfully cleared up. It’s a good distance away, but it was clear enough to see the Statue of Liberty across the water.

 

 

Cape Liberty is an industrial port and is functional rather than aesthetic. It gets the job done, though.

 

[ChampionCruiser]

Congrats on your graduation and future studies - sounds very interesting.

 

We will be cruising in 3 weeks and will have a comp'd night at one of the specialty restaurants.

 

Which night would be best to go? Basically in your opinion is there one night the regular dining room menu was not as good as the other nights.

 

Also which specialy restaurant is the one not to miss if you are only going one night.

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

 

This is a link to a terrific review by jgnova. The first post has a link to the new main dining room menus, so you can see which doesn't appeal to you. For me, the fourth night was the weakest.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1648436&highlight=summit+plus

 

If I had to chose, I would go with Qsine only because it is so unique. I took the galley tour and sample dishes from both restaurants were shown at the end. The dishes from Qsine were amazing to look at.

 

If you want to wait to make your reservation, do it after the galley tour on day 2. That will give you a chance to see many dishes from each restaurant and compare.

[ChampionCruiser]

The announcement that the rooms were ready came soon after and we headed down to deck 6. As I said before, I chose cabin 6035, which is one of the “sweet sixteen” balcony rooms.

 

It was a bit tight for four adults, but we’ve stayed in MUCH smaller and were used to it. I was amazed at the amount of storage, though. All four of us fit our clothes in the closet and drawers. I’m used to living out of my suitcase on cruises, so it was a welcome change.

 

The new carpeting and furnishings were nice.

 

 

The bathroom was an ordinary cruise ship one, complete with the dreaded shower curtain rather than sliding door.

 

 

The highlight of the cabin, though, was the balcony! It was easily twice as big as the regular balconies at the same price. These balconies are partly covered and partly open to those above, so that is one thing to keep in mind.

 

This was taken the next day, but it should give you an idea of what to expect.

 

 

Along with its size, I really liked that you can look straight down at water from the balcony. Most balconies on the ship look down on life boats.

 

 

Here was our view facing aft. It gives a good comparison to some other balconies.

 

[Newsbuff16]

Great review and photos....looking forward to reading the next installments. Love the Summit!

[DPurcell58]

Enjoying this. I have to ask, where did the 4th person sleep because that pullout only looks big enough for one adult?

[ChampionCruiser]

The lifeboat drill was held at 3:15 and was as painless as possible. Celebrity holds their drills indoors like Princess. Though not enjoyable, this made the drill much more bearable.

 

We made our way to the pool deck for sail away right after the drill. It wasn’t long before the hot tubs and pools were being used. Our vacation had officially begun!

 

 

We actually pulled away from the pier a few minutes ahead of schedule. Next stop, Bermuda!

 

 

The 911 memorial at the cruise port is beautiful.

 

 

I really enjoyed sailing out of New York. We were greeted by a firefighting vessel, which was a first for me, and I always enjoy passing under bridges on cruise ships. It reminded me of my cruise out of Baltimore.

 

 

 

We made it!

 

[ChampionCruiser]

Enjoying this. I have to ask, where did the 4th person sleep because that pullout only looks big enough for one adult?

 

The small couch converts to a single sleeper. Once it's pulled out you have to climb over it to get to the balcony. I think this may be the last time the four of us share one cabin. It's doable but definitely a challenge.

[ChampionCruiser]

The sail away party was still in full swing when we headed down to the cabin to get ready for dinner.

 

 

The Norwegian Star had followed us out of New York and was our traveling buddy for the entire cruise. It was a little weird seeing the same ship every single day, but at least we knew we were heading in the right direction!

 

 

 

Our first night in the dining room wasn’t the best one. We met our waiters, Leonardo and Denny, who were terrific. Denny especially made our cruise a memorable one. The problem with night 1 was that they seemed overwhelmed and the service was s-l-o-w. I’m glad every other night was amazing, because I was a little worried. I ordered the tangerine and granny smith soup (yummy), prime rib (good), and cheesecake (you can’t go wrong there).

 

The first show, “A Taste of things to come”, was enjoyable. We met our AMAZING cruise director, Sue Denning, as well as most of the guest entertainers for the week. They were all very good, but the a cappella group “Up till 2” was our favorite. We went to many of their shows throughout the week. I'm sure I'll talk more about Sue later. Not only is she funny, but she is really talented as well.

 

My sister and I roamed the ship after the show, but that pretty much ended our first day on the Summit. It was a great way to start the cruise!

 

 

Up next: Day 2, at sea

[cruise47]

Congratulations on your graduations. Your review is just outstanding!!!

[Gaynors]

On our May 27th Summit cruise they had small ship replica ornaments in the shop for $12.95. I thought about getting one but chose the magnet instead, that way I'm reminded year round of the great time I had on the Summit!

 

They must have been out of them on your cruise :(.