A Brief Overview of the Summit

[Sascol]

I probably won't have time to write a full review but I did want to share some of the experiences we had on our Canada/New England Trip on the Summit that sailed October 6th. Everyone here is always helpful to me so I am happy to answer any specific questions if you post them.

 

The Good:

This was our first time in Aqua Class. We'll never go back to anything else. BLU is top notch with personal, professional service, wonderful food and a quiet atmosphere. We sailed with a few other couples and it was never an issue to seat us all together at a table of 6. The longest we ever had to wait was 5 minutes. Some of the other 'benefits' of Aqua are really nothing special but BLU alone makes Aqua worthwhile.

 

We had one of the newly added cabins on deck 11 and enjoyed it. The fact that the balcony was not covered was really not an impact to us. You have privacy from above unless you happen to be leaning on your railing and someone on the empty deck above stretches all the way over to look down at you. We never heard a sound from above either (we were in 1118).

 

Service was prompt and friendly. Never had an issue that was not attended to immediately.

 

The not as good:

While the ship was refurbished and overall looked very nice, there were some obvious things that did not get attended to that we thought should have been. Examples of this would be some of the UV coatings peeling off of many of the windows in the public areas, rather dated decor in many spaces and well worn cushions by the enclosed pool/spa area. Some things overall just looked a bit 'drab'. With a little more attention the refurb would have been top notch but I guess the budget just did not permit this.

 

We found many of the towels/sheets/pillows to have a 'stale' smell to them. We had them changed on several occasions and each time they were replaced the replacements had the same issues. Towards the end of the cruise this did improve for some reason.

 

The lighting in many of the public areas and lounges seemed to lack ambiance and in some cases lounges were downright dark - too dark to enjoy. The atrium (which should be the focal point of the entire ship) had virtually no accent lighting most of the time after dark and this gave it a very bland appearance.

 

While we were not on this cruise to watch television in the cabin, on sea days we sometimes like to hang out and watch on demand movies and sometimes we like to unwind with a movie before we go to sleep. Our last two cruises on Solstice class ships offered FREE on demand movies for some of the not as recent titles. No such luck here. Only movies available on demand were on a pay per view basis. Some of the features on the TV that were available on our Solstice class sailings were also not available on the Summit.

 

One of the ports on this sailing was Sydney. We knew this going in of course and researched things to do there in advance but could not come up w/ anything that met our interest. What a wasted stop. We knew we were in trouble when we saw that one of the highlights identified on the handout was the POST OFFICE.

 

The Bad:

The food on the buffet food was downright awful. So bad that we opted to eat in Bistro on 5 more than we normally would. Fatty meats, pasty pizza, cold food and pasta with burnt tasting sauce are some examples. We gave many of these items tries on several days but had the same bad results each time. In our opinion this was by far the worst buffet we have experienced on our 15+ cruises. YUK.

 

The Unusual:

Deck 12 aft is a complete waste of space. There is nothing up there other than deck chairs and there was never anyone in the space. Certainly this space could be used for a lawn type setup like they have on their newer ships. It does not look like any thought went into this space at all. Maybe just a lack of $$$ to spend on it.

 

All in all a great trip. None of the 'not so good' things I mentioned would ruin anyone's trip but I thought they were at least worthy enough to point out to aid in everyone's decision making if this is a ship that is being considered for a future sailing. As I mentioned - happy to answer any specific questions you may have.

[Keith1010]

I am glad to hear that overall you thought this was a great trip and thank you for taking the time to write and post this review.

 

Keith

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review.

[cruisestitch]

shhhh...don't give away the deck 12 lounge area -- a quiet sanctuary for those who want to avoid the crowds!!

 

Yes, it could be a lawn area someday but for now.....

[Sascol]

shhhh...don't give away the deck 12 lounge area -- a quiet sanctuary for those who want to avoid the crowds!!

 

Yes, it could be a lawn area someday but for now.....

 

Deck 12 lounge area? What do you speak of? There is a deck 12? LOL.

[cruisestitch]

That's better :):):)

[Phxazzcruisers]

Thanks for your review. We will not be on the Summit until next year, so hopefully they will have some time do do a little redecorating......

[cruiserhal]

I probably won't have time to write a full review but I did want to share some of the experiences we had on our Canada/New England Trip on the Summit that sailed October 6th. Everyone here is always helpful to me so I am happy to answer any specific questions if you post them.

 

The Good:

This was our first time in Aqua Class. We'll never go back to anything else. BLU is top notch with personal, professional service, wonderful food and a quiet atmosphere. We sailed with a few other couples and it was never an issue to seat us all together at a table of 6. The longest we ever had to wait was 5 minutes. Some of the other 'benefits' of Aqua are really nothing special but BLU alone makes Aqua worthwhile.

 

We had one of the newly added cabins on deck 11 and enjoyed it. The fact that the balcony was not covered was really not an impact to us. You have privacy from above unless you happen to be leaning on your railing and someone on the empty deck above stretches all the way over to look down at you. We never heard a sound from above either (we were in 1118).

 

.

 

 

We were in cabin 1120 the cruise before you - the cruise with the bumper boat tenders. I agree with you 100% on going Aqua just for Blu. Makes it worth every penny. Also, your comments about the windows and other things are right on. That surprised me also.

 

One question - did youi have good heat in your cabin? On our trip the heater in our cabin did not work for the first 2 nights - same with a lot of others on deck 11 as well as deck 9, 7 and 2 (the only people we met that discussed the no heat issue). It took a little pushing with the front desk and cabin attendent (I think she pushed the repair people to get it fixed) to finally be able to get warm. I asked her to come in the cabin the second morning to see how cold it was and it only took 30 seconds for her to understand and tell us she would get it fixed. The front desk was not very helpful. Before anyone asks, I called the fron desk a number of times because it was in the middle of the night and I did not want to disturbe the attendent. No, it did not make us hate the trip or anything but it was annoying.

 

Personally, we decided we like the S-class AQ cabins better so we would only return to the M-class depending on where they were going. Also, the added cabins added so many additional people the ship seemed crowded very where we went.

 

Thanks for your review. I enjoy reading the other experiences on the trips we take.

 

Hal

[Sascol]

One question - did you have good heat in your cabin? On our trip the heater in our cabin did not work for the first 2 nights. Hal

 

Heating/Cooling the cabin was an issue....some nights we'd come back after dinner and it was like a meat locker in the cabin (even though nobody changed the setting). Other nights it would be as hot as an oven. On two occasions it was so hot my wife stood by the balcony and held the door while I stood at the hall and held the door to allow the cross breeze to blow the hot air out. This hot vs. cold went on and on for the whole cruise. Did you also notice how HOT the bathroom got because of the heated mirror? It would literally make standing by the mirror uncomfortable if the light was left on. We always turned it off but the steward would often leave it on. Again here - did not impact our enjoyment but it was annoying at times.

[neverbeenhere]

thanks, We are going on the Summit soon.

[phoenix_dream]

Thanks for your input. I am a bit disappointed to hear about the TV. We also are not cabin rats, but like to retire fairly early and catch a movie, or perhaps watch one on sea days. I was hoping with the refurb that they would be adding the nice on-demand movie features the S class ships have. I wonder why they don't have them? Also would think that with a major overhaul like Solsticizing they would take the time to make sure the entire ship was brought back up to 'like-new' standards. Sounds like that was not the case. But like you, I will not let the little disappointments ruin my cruise - I love M class ships and am definitely looking forward to sailing next month!

[cruisestitch]

As explained to us on board, Solsticizing referred to the adding of specialty restaurants and Aqua Class, not upgrading other services and features. New inns and tv sets were done mostly at the same time but would have been on the schedule anyway.

[Lois R]

Hi,:) thanks for your review. You mentioned sailing to Sydney??

Is that a port up in Quebec?

I always think of Australia when someone posts Sydney.

 

Sorry you had some issues but glad you had a good time.

 

I will be on her Nov 10th for the 5th time:)....she is one of my

favorite ships:)

[cruiserhal]

Heating/Cooling the cabin was an issue....some nights we'd come back after dinner and it was like a meat locker in the cabin (even though nobody changed the setting). Other nights it would be as hot as an oven. On two occasions it was so hot my wife stood by the balcony and held the door while I stood at the hall and held the door to allow the cross breeze to blow the hot air out. This hot vs. cold went on and on for the whole cruise. Did you also notice how HOT the bathroom got because of the heated mirror? It would literally make standing by the mirror uncomfortable if the light was left on. We always turned it off but the steward would often leave it on. Again here - did not impact our enjoyment but it was annoying at times.

 

Yes, the heated mirror is nice but does generate a LOT of heat. Sorry to hear about your problem. Honestly, on the Canada cruise I would prefer the too hot option because of being able to open the balcony door. Not a good option but better than frost bite. Trying to warm up an ice box is not easy.

 

Did you notice that if you sat on the balcony while the ship was moving the door would open and close on its own? There is no way to latch the door from the outside so you get to watch the door go back and forth and back and forth...

 

Honestly, I expected everything to work correctly on deck 11 since they were the brand new cabins.

 

Silly me. :)

[voyager1964]

 

 

The Bad:

The food on the buffet food was downright awful. So bad that we opted to eat in Bistro on 5 more than we normally would. Fatty meats, pasty pizza, cold food and pasta with burnt tasting sauce are some examples. We gave many of these items tries on several days but had the same bad results each time. In our opinion this was by far the worst buffet we have experienced on our 15+ cruises. YUK.

 

 

Sorry about to hear about the buffet. Did that happen during the breakfast, lunch or evening? Since you were in AQ, I would assume during the lunch, correct?

[Wine-O]

Sorry about to hear about the buffet. Did that happen during the breakfast, lunch or evening? Since you were in AQ, I would assume during the lunch, correct?

 

We spent a week on Summit this past summer and didn't visit the buffet one time. We used room service but mostly the Aqua Spa Cafe for both breakfast and lunch.

[Ontario Cruiser]

Hi,:) thanks for your review. You mentioned sailing to Sydney??

Is that a port up in Quebec?

I always think of Australia when someone posts Sydney.

 

Sorry you had some issues but glad you had a good time.

 

I will be on her Nov 10th for the 5th time:)....she is one of my

favorite ships:)

Lois,

It is Sydney Nova Scotia. As mentioned on our rollcall this will be our 4th time on the Summit. But we are not in Aqua class.

Ontario Cruiser

[kitty9]

I also remember strange smells from the towels. It's was almost a sour, vinegary smell, like they were using some kind of wash additive to diminish smells.

[Lois R]

Lois,

It is Sydney Nova Scotia. As mentioned on our rollcall this will be our 4th time on the Summit. But we are not in Aqua class.

Ontario Cruiser

 

Hi:) I am not in AQ either....just a regular balcony:D

[emo]

While we were not on this cruise to watch television in the cabin, on sea days we sometimes like to hang out and watch on demand movies and sometimes we like to unwind with a movie before we go to sleep. Our last two cruises on Solstice class ships offered FREE on demand movies for some of the not as recent titles. No such luck here. Only movies available on demand were on a pay per view basis. Some of the features on the TV that were available on our Solstice class sailings were also not available on the Summit.

 

Wow, I know it's a minor issue, but this is also the first I've heard of the free-on-demand movies not being available on M-class. That is disappointing because our upcoming cruise has a lot of sea days and I do like to watch movies in the evening. You say the TV was missing other features as well, do you remember if you could use it to order room service like on S-class?

[ariawoman]

This thread is making me a little scared of going on the 10/5/2013 sailing of the summit to canada lol.

 

I have to admit, I'm scared of going to M class since I LOVE the S class. The only reason we are considering it is because we'd not have to fly anywhere (SCORE!) and we'd not have to worry about taking as much time off to pad the trip since we live an hour from the port. Our other option for our vacation next year is the silhouette on 10/8 but it would require flying and well, flying just SUCKS these days. We just flew home yesterday from Barcelona and well, it's not an experience I want to have in the near future. Cramming people into 757-200s is just NOT acceptable for international in my opinion.

 

I hope that I find just as many threads filled with the wonderful things about the summit....time will tell. :-) We booked a future cruise while on board, so taking the 14 day would also earn us more tier credits and OBC - both which are attractive bonuses.

[Sascol]

Wow, I know it's a minor issue, but this is also the first I've heard of the free-on-demand movies not being available on M-class. That is disappointing because our upcoming cruise has a lot of sea days and I do like to watch movies in the evening. You say the TV was missing other features as well, do you remember if you could use it to order room service like on S-class?

 

You can do room service,yes. One of the other features missing was the ability to view your photos on the TV. Did not lose any sleep over that one though. We were just surprised that the features were not consistent with what we were used to.

[Sascol]

This thread is making me a little scared of going on the 10/5/2013 sailing of the summit to canada lol.

 

I have to admit, I'm scared of going to M class since I LOVE the S class. The only reason we are considering it is because we'd not have to fly anywhere (SCORE!) and we'd not have to worry about taking as much time off to pad the trip since we live an hour from the port. Our other option for our vacation next year is the silhouette on 10/8 but it would require flying and well, flying just SUCKS these days. We just flew home yesterday from Barcelona and well, it's not an experience I want to have in the near future. Cramming people into 757-200s is just NOT acceptable for international in my opinion.

 

I hope that I find just as many threads filled with the wonderful things about the summit....time will tell. :-) We booked a future cruise while on board, so taking the 14 day would also earn us more tier credits and OBC - both which are attractive bonuses.

 

Did not mean to shy you away. Nothing bad by any means outside of the buffet. Just not quite up to the standards of the Solstice class ships.

[Sascol]

Sorry about to hear about the buffet. Did that happen during the breakfast, lunch or evening? Since you were in AQ, I would assume during the lunch, correct?

 

BLU closed for breakfast at 8:30 on many days (quite early in my opinion). Sometimes we slept beyond BLU hours so we tried the buffet for breakfast on these days. This happened two or three times with the same bad quality each time. The made to order omlettes were decent but that involved a wait.

 

Regarding other food venues (Bistro, Qsine and the SS United States), these were all wonderful.

[stellarose]

My inlaws went in September. They loved it. Liked the changes. I am not worried about my trip next summer.