First time cruisers back from the Beautiful Celebrity Summit!

[Keith1010]

Enjoyed part 1 and look forward to reading more.

 

Keith

[sarahc78]

Really enjoying your review!

[NJtomato]

YAY!! This is the cabin we will be in on our Bermuda cruise!! Thanks for posting photos and info!

 

What do you mean by an angled balcony? I cant tell by the photo. I hope there is room for another chair as I only see one in the photo.

[stellarose]

So anxious for more!!!

[sound_guy0918]

Great review and we can't wait to read more.

[just_looking]

YAY!! This is the cabin we will be in on our Bermuda cruise!! Thanks for posting photos and info!

 

What do you mean by an angled balcony? I cant tell by the photo. I hope there is room for another chair as I only see one in the photo.

 

Sorry, the picture is misleading with only the one chair showing. Yes, there is another chair hiding to the right. It's really hard to take a picture of the entire balcony!

 

Here's a picture that shows the angled balcony railing:

 

 

The balcony wasn't huge, but bigger than standard, and I think there might even have been room for a footstool in front of the hidden chair to the right.

[just_looking]

* CRUISE, DAY 1 (part 3)

I had planned to lunch in Bistro on 5, (again, a hint that I’d read here on CC), but we’d had such a late breakfast that we weren’t hungry for lunch at all. Just a comment about lunch on the first day. From other posts I’d read here, I thought the buffet was going to be a huge feeding frenzy, and Bistro on 5 might be crowded, too. But we didn’t notice crowds at all in either venue whenever we passed by that afternoon. I wonder if the Puerto Rico sailings might be different because of the late sail-away, with passenger boarding spread out from 11AM to 7PM?

 

Between rain showers, we sat at the Sunset Bar for a while and watched passengers on the Royal Caribbean Brilliance of the Seas as they watched us, too. :) I ordered a Cool Caribbean which was the featured drink of the day. I was toying with the idea of trying the drink of the day every day, This one was sweet and juice-y.

 

 

As we stopped by our cabin again, we noticed lots of luggage being delivered. For some reason, ours was almost the last to be delivered (on our hall at least), between 4 and 5PM – and yes, we’d tipped the porter!

 

Later on we headed to Michael’s Club, but it didn’t open for business until 6 the first day (and most days after that also). I never did get a beer at Michael’s as it always seemed we were doing something else by the time they’d opened.

 

Around 5:00 we were getting pretty hungry so we headed for the buffet. I’d heard that there was sushi every day starting at 5PM, but I was mistaken: There was sushi every day at 5:30, BUT not the first day. So we grabbed some pizza instead. We didn’t want to fill up, but we hadn’t had anything to eat since our late breakfast, except the little canapés.

 

We sat for a while in the Rendez Vous Lounge, for our first taste of some of the onboard entertainment. First we heard guitarist Sean Roach who did a good job covering a variety of artists. We both enjoyed listening to him in different venues throughout our cruise (he tended to show up almost every day at the Sunset Bar). Then we heard the Crewners, an a Capella group. I loved them and thought their act was super-cute, but Bill was less impressed.

 

We had to attend the muster drill at 7:45. This was a curious and somewhat useless experience. Hundreds of us packed into the Rendez Vous lounge (standing room only), trying to watch a crew member putting on a life vest. We could see one of the crew members, but it was obvious that other passengers were not in a position to view what was going on. Anyway, that over with, we headed to Normandie!

 

Our dining experiences in Normandie were nothing short of fantastic. The service was friendly and attentive, and the food was superb in both presentation and taste. I won’t review each of our three evenings there in detail, but here are some of the highlights: Lobster tail prepared table-side, venison, chateaubriand, crepes ballon rouge…and many of the appetizers were so good that by the 2nd & 3rd visit we just might have been ordering two appetizers each. ;) There is also a cheese course before the dessert, which we loved. The first night Sergio brought out a cart with the cheeses and we pointed to the ones we wanted. He prepared a plate for each of us and added nuts, dried & fresh fruit, and crackers. On our next visit we asked for the cheese plate, but it was brought out to us already plated, and missing the Roquefort we’d so enjoyed on the first night. So we asked for it. It took a while, but our waiter finally showed up with a plate of blue cheese. It was yummy, but we don’t think it was Roquefort – we think they had run out of it in Normandie, so had gone to another kitchen area for a different blue cheese. They got an A for effort on that one!

 

We attended the 10:30 PM “Celebrity Showtime: Opening Night” in the Celebrity Theater. Our cruise director was Alexander Yepremian – what an energetic, personable guy! The show was great; it was nice to see a variety of performers that we’d be seeing again throughout the week.

 

All in all, a wonderful first day!

[vermonter16]

Great review! Loving reading it and thanks for the photo of the balcony. We will be on Millie in 2 weeks and will be in cabin 1103 so not too far away!

[ozarkmama]

enjoying your review, eagerly awaiting more.

[cruise pup]

CRUISE, DAY 1 (part 1)

My first impressions on the ship: Wow! I’d read a handful of negative reviews from recent sailings, so I was a bit worried. I mean, some of the reviews made it sound like a rusted old hulk of a ship; we’d pictured something like this:

 

 

[ATTACH]269026[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

All I can say is, What were those reviewers thinking? The Summit is in wonderful condition. It was obviously newly renovated, and everything was super-clean and well maintained. We were looking for problems and just didn’t see any

 

If people take the trouble to voice their complaints then I see no reason to contradict them. I myself have complained about many issues that I find important like the lack of tooth picks at the dinner table, all those pesky reminders to wash your hands (it so happens I do that once a week whether they need it or not), and worst of all, being told by my cabin steward that I'm not allowed to take home the shower curtain. So before you have issues about other people's issues you might want to walk a mile in their shoes (which probably were lifted from a bowling alley).;)

[just_looking]

...and worst of all, being told by my cabin steward that I'm not allowed to take home the shower curtain. ...

 

Oh, so you are the reason they removed shower curtains and put in glass doors?? :D

[miched]

The negative comments you read probably come from past passengers that have sailed on the S class ships in AQ.

 

Our previous experiences on X were on the S class in AQ. We booked a AQ on the Summit after the refurb. It was a dissapointment as the cabin we had was on deck 9 and was a converted CC cabin. It was not new as those on 11 are. The only thing new was the shower panel and glass door on the shower. There were also two new chairs on the balcony. The cabin was a little tired as you observed about the deck furniture. If they were converting the cabins you would have expected them to do a complete refurb to those cabins but they didn't.

 

Since this is your first cruise you would naturally be impressed because the Summit overall is a very nice ship. For your next cruise book a S class in AQ and you will see the difference and realize what some of those negative comments are all about.

 

Even though we were disappointed about a few things we have booked another cruise on the Summit and this time we have cabin 1136.

 

 

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[just_looking]

The negative comments you read probably come from past passengers that have sailed on the S class ships in AQ.

 

Our previous experiences on X were on the S class in AQ. We booked a AQ on the Summit after the refurb. It was a dissapointment as the cabin we had was on deck 9 and was a converted CC cabin. It was not new as those on 11 are. The only thing new was the shower panel and glass door on the shower. There were also two new chairs on the balcony. The cabin was a little tired as you observed about the deck furniture. If they were converting the cabins you would have expected them to do a complete refurb to those cabins but they didn't.

 

Since this is your first cruise you would naturally be impressed because the Summit overall is a very nice ship. For your next cruise book a S class in AQ and you will see the difference and realize what some of those negative comments are all about.

 

Even though we were disappointed about a few things we have booked another cruise on the Summit and this time we have cabin 1136.

 

I'm sure you will love 1136. I've heard they didn't do as nice of a job on converting the 9th deck cabins to AQ, as they did with building out the completely new cabins on 11. We went on a cabin crawl and saw a couple of cabins on deck 9 - one was AQ and it just wasn't as nice. They had a HORRIBLE balcony - tiny, partially obstructed view, and dark from the overhang. The occupant said she had no idea the balcony would be like that. (It's cabin 9100 if anybody wants to know what cabin to avoid)

 

I hope to travel on an S class soon. I'm sure we'll love it, too, but I just can't imagine it would make me despise the M class which as of this moment I'm completely in love with. :)

[celebrityprincess]

I'm enjoying your review. It's so much fun to read about one of my favorite ships!

 

I was on the Summit in October and just got back from a cruise on the Eclipse. While I thought the Eclipse was very nice and a beautiful ship (and we had a great cabin), I LOVE the M class ships. The Summit and Constellation are my favorite ships. I plan to go back to the Summit next year. There is just something special about the M class ships. I would sail S class again, but my preference will always be the M class.

[just_looking]

* CRUISE, DAY 2 (part 1)

 

Despite being up late the last night, I still woke up early. Then of course I had to check out the view from our balcony. It was only 6AM but St Croix was already in sight, and it was a BEAUTIFUL sight!

 

 

 

 

 

We are coffee drinkers, so we dressed quickly and were at Café al Bacio just after they opened at 6:30 AM. I didn’t mention that we had stopped at Café al Bacio the first day. I usually drink brewed coffee, but when I asked for it, the barista suggested that I try an Americano. Am I glad I did! That became our coffee drink of choice for the entire trip. We started every morning with an Americano, and had one every afternoon also. It was apparently covered on both the classic and premium packages, as Bill (who kept the classic package) was never charged for his coffee. Café al Bacio quickly became our favorite hangout on the ship. All the staff were marvelous – friendly, attentive, consistent service. I really thought the service we received there was as good as Normandie! On our guest comment card at the end of the cruise, I named names. :) Michael and Daria were both particularly helpful, but really, all the staff were great. After the 2nd day, we also got into the habit of leaving an extra dollar or two. Before our cruise I wondered why folks were tipping extra since the tip is included in the purchase, but we quickly felt that the service received in Café al Bacio was so good that they deserved a little extra.

 

We were at Blu shortly after the opened at 7:30, and quite a few tables were already occupied. (We eventually figured out during the cruise that Blu always opened a few minutes before their stated opening hour, for both breakfast & dinner). Breakfast was good, and the baked goods and fresh OJ being brought around were a nice touch.

 

We didn’t have the greatest day in St Croix. I’d had the brilliant idea of renting a car and going out on our own. I really wish that we’d just done a beach day at Sand Castle, or gone on a ship excursion. The driving on St Croix was pretty stressful, between driving on the wrong (left) side of the road and the poor condition of the roads and the lack of signage! I had a map, but we missed a turn more than once because there was no sign telling us the name or number of the road we were crossing. We first drove out to Sandy Point, but were disappointed that it was already closed for the season. (I’d been unable to get any info about this online before our trip). Then we headed to Christiansted. Because it was Sunday morning, almost all of the shops & restaurants were closed. We visited the fort, which Bill loved, as he’s a history buff. We then drove over to Cane Bay, but that was a less-than-impressive beach to us. Bill had brought his snorkeling gear, but we didn’t see anybody else snorkeling so we weren’t sure where the good snorkeling was supposed to be. The beach was very rocky. After walking up & down the beach and dipping our toes in the water, we decided to head back to the ship. A few missed turns later, we finally made it back. :)

 

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed the rest of our afternoon – lunch at the AquaSpa café, and Bill tried out the Persian Gardens. We then headed for Café al Bacio for an afternoon snack:

 

 

 

The first day, we’d received an invitation to the Cruise Connections party for today, yay! It was held at 5:15 PM in the Revelations Lounge. Celebrity provided cookies and some non-alcoholic beverages, but the bar was open for purchases. I tried the Pomegranate Mojito – Wow! That became my favorite drink of the cruise. I immediately abandoned my idea of trying the featured drink every day, and decided I’d stick with the Pom Mojito from now on. :D

 

 

Alexander, the cruise director, was on hand to greet everyone and we had a nice chat with him. We didn’t meet a lot of people, as everybody was sitting instead of working the room. But we sat down with a really fun couple, Angie & Glenn. They’ve been on lots of cruises so it was fun hearing about their experiences. During the week, we found for the most part that people who like cruising are very social and friendly people!

[NJtomato]

Thanks for this review. Im learning a lot.

[just_looking]

CRUISE, DAY 2 (part 2, evening)

It was formal night, and although we were dining in Qsine and didn’t need to dress formal, I still wore a nice dress and Bill wore a jacket with his dress slacks & shirt. We ended up in the Rendez Vous lounge for a little while before the first dinner seating, and what a great show that was! We enjoyed watching everybody walk through the lounge on their way to dinner in all their finery. For that reason, and the fact that the lounge always had live music in the evenings, this became one of our favorite pre-dinner hangouts.

 

Qsine is definitely a unique dining experience! I have to give it a mixed review (for this first night at least). We had 5 items the first night there; what I can recall offhand are the sushi lollipops and the painters mignon and the Taj Mahal. The sushi was a cute presentation but more of a gimmick than anything. The filet mignon was wonderful.

 

We had some service glitches. Our waiter had asked about allergies before taking our order, and I informed him of my mango allergy. Yet soon after he took our order without comment, and as it turns out two of the items we ordered had mango! (It was not listed as an ingredient on either item). The second item was my dessert which featured mango gelato, and it took them over 10 minutes to bring my second choice out while Bill’s beignets wilted.

 

We also ended up there for 2 ½ hours because the timing of the service fell apart after the first 90 minutes. Between my replacement dessert, and not getting coffee we’d ordered, and waiting on a check (I had to sign for the $.50 difference on a glass of wine over the $12 premium package limit), we sat a LONG time doing nothing for an hour. It really surprised us, as we’d received more attentive service everywhere else during our cruise.

 

Overall, I’d recommend Qsine despite the glitches. But if you have serious allergies be prepared to ask about everything they bring you, as I think the menu is purposely vague to add to the surprise/excitement factor of the meal.

 

After dinner we got to see The Crewners in Concert, which was a fun show.

 

Then we attended the 10:45 show of “Captain’s Gala Toast & Celebrity Showtime: iHollywood”. The Captain’s toast and introduction of the staff was fun. I had wondered what the big deal was with the Captain’s Toast, but it was really nice to see all the officers in person whose hands we were putting our lives in for the week.

 

Although I usually like Broadway-style shows, I wasn’t crazy about the show. It was kind of bizarre. Flashing lights & robots, etc. We were seated toward the back on the port side, and right after the show started we noticed a strong cigarette smell. It turns out the smoke was blowing in from the smoker’s deck 4 whenever someone opened the door to the deck. So, the smoke combined with not really liking the show and being really tired, we decided to slip out early and head for bed. Thus ended another (although not perfect) still great day on the Summit!

[cruise pup]

Thanks for your great reporting. I board the Summit 3 weeks from this coming Sunday. I can't wait. Got a great happy hour special and they even allowed me the $100. Captain's Club obc. No 123 Go allowed at my pricing but the $100. off a Premium Package is like getting 2 days for free.

 

Sorry you went through all that nonsense at Qsine. Food allergies are no laughing matter but it did remind me of an episode of The Simpsons where they go to an all you can eat seafood buffet and Marge has a seafood allergy. Nothing, and I mean, nothing on the menu didn't have some kind of seafood ingredients so I here dinner turned out to be Tic-Tacs.

[sound_guy0918]

* CRUISE, DAY 2 (part 1)

 

 

 

We didn’t have the greatest day in St Croix. I’d had the brilliant idea of renting a car and going out on our own. I really wish that we’d just done a beach day at Sand Castle, or gone on a ship excursion. The driving on St Croix was pretty stressful, between driving on the wrong (left) side of the road and the poor condition of the roads and the lack of signage! I had a map, but we missed a turn more than once because there was no sign telling us the name or number of the road we were crossing. We first drove out to Sandy Point, but were disappointed that it was already closed for the season. (I’d been unable to get any info about this online before our trip). Then we headed to Christiansted. Because it was Sunday morning, almost all of the shops & restaurants were closed. We visited the fort, which Bill loved, as he’s a history buff. We then drove over to Cane Bay, but that was a less-than-impressive beach to us. Bill had brought his snorkeling gear, but we didn’t see anybody else snorkeling so we weren’t sure where the good snorkeling was supposed to be. The beach was very rocky. After walking up & down the beach and dipping our toes in the water, we decided to head back to the ship. A few missed turns later, we finally made it back.

 

We spent a week on St. Croix a few years ago and I wouldn't put it on a list to visit from a cruise ship. Keep up the great review!

[Ron_L]

Nice job! We're doing the same itinerary in December!

[TLC2CAMP]

Really enjoying your post! Thanks for all the time and effort is takes. We will be on the Summit in Feb 2014 and after reading your posts I wish it were tomorrow. Thanks again.

[just_looking]

Nice job! We're doing the same itinerary in December!

 

Really enjoying your post! Thanks for all the time and effort is takes. We will be on the Summit in Feb 2014 and after reading your posts I wish it were tomorrow. Thanks again.

 

Thanks for your kind comments. You will love the Summit!

[just_looking]

We spent a week on St. Croix a few years ago and I wouldn't put it on a list to visit from a cruise ship. Keep up the great review!

 

Thanks!

 

Sorry you went through all that nonsense at Qsine. Food allergies are no laughing matter but it did remind me of an episode of The Simpsons where they go to an all you can eat seafood buffet and Marge has a seafood allergy. Nothing, and I mean, nothing on the menu didn't have some kind of seafood ingredients so I here dinner turned out to be Tic-Tacs.

 

Ha ha. I did sort of feel like I was at the mango buffet. What are the chances that not one, but two of our dishes had mango!

[just_looking]

OK, I am going to try to post lots more today. The last 2 days I've been in a quilting workshop so I didn't have much time to update (I have most of the review already written, but it's getting the pictures edited that is taking time now).

 

I'm trying to reply to everyone who leaves a comment, but if I miss you, sorry! I am using the multi-quote and for some reason it only lets me quote 2 posts. So then I have to do 2 more, etc. I see other posters sometimes multi-quote more than two; I wonder how? :confused:

[just_looking]

CRUISE, DAY 3

Started the day off again in Café al Bacio and then Blu. I knew from CC that I could order eggs Benedict even though it was not on the menu. Bill was shocked at my audacity, but I assured him I knew what I was doing. :D I ended up with the eggs Benedict two more times on the cruise, as they were perfectly done. (sometimes a restaurant can’t poach an egg properly or get the hollandaise sauce right).

 

Our port of call today was St Kitts. As we approached that morning, we passed an itty-bitty ship. Shortly after we docked, the little ship docked. It turned out to be the SeaDream Yacht. I have to admit that Bill and I had been wondering if we would like the smaller luxury cruise lines more than Celebrity. After seeing the SeaDream, we no longer wonder. It was WAY smaller than we expected. We were so happy all week on the Summit that I'm not sure we would want to be on such a small vessel. We took a picture from the island of the 2 ships docked next to each other. You can barely make out the SeaDream in this photo; it's at the front of the Summit.

 

 

We had a fantastic tour with Thenford Grey. (I had read about him both on CC and on Trip Advisor). It was an all-day excursion in which he drove us around in a small bus to the highlights of the island. The Fort is not to be missed!

 

 

 

 

Thenford was such a knowledgeable and personable guide. Way more educated than the typical tour guide – he quoted poetry to us! We ended the day with a beach stop of about 90 minutes. There was a beach burger joint called the Shipwreck which served very tasty burgers and delicious fries and the local Carib beer.

 

Today was our first chance to hear Jordan Peterson, piano player. He was FANTASTIC! We made a point of seeing him whenever it fit into our schedule. He could typically be found in Café al Bacio during the afternoon or early evening. I think he sometimes had late sets, too. He sang a lot of Elton John, Billy Joel, and even some Alicia Keys. (he’s very versatile!) He took requests, and when I asked for Coldplay, he said he’d started working on one, and a couple of days later played it for us. Just so talented and also very personable.

 

We decided to see the early show tonight, so we knew we’d be having a later dinner in Blu. This gave us the chance to try sushi at the Oceanview Café. We were there right after they opened and each got a plate of sushi. It was a great snack, but, living in Southern California we have access to really good sushi, so, we wouldn’t have made this a full meal.

 

The show tonight was the comedian Fred Klett. He was hilarious. Word to the wise: Don’t be late to his show. You will be sorry. :)

 

We had dinner for the first time in Blu. We were very surprised when we arrived at about 8:20 to see a LONG line. Maybe everyone else at the early show beat us there. :) Bill suggested that we go somewhere else – umm, no, I want to finally have dinner in Blu! So we waited, and luckily several other folks were not so patient and they abandoned the line. :) We passed the time chatting with a couple from Canada. I love meeting people from different places. The total wait was only about 15 minutes, and we ended up with a window table. Not that you can really see much at sea at night!

 

Thoughts on Blu: The tables weren’t as close together as I’d heard, although at the 2-tops you couldn’t have a totally private conversation. I think the tables are closer together on the Solstice-Class ships. The food was overall very good and fresh. The service was good, but, not over-the-top good like we’d had in Normandie. Maybe dining in the specialty restaurants ruined us for Blu. :) I am looking forward to dining in Blu again on our next cruise in June. We don’t have any specialty restaurants planned, so I think I might feel more like it’s “our” dining room if we are eating there nightly.

 

We were really tired tonight after not getting enough sleep since the night before our travels began. So we decided to make it an early evening and headed to bed soon after dinner.