Photo Review: Celebrity Summit 2/1/14 Southern Caribbean

[HeatherC430]

Thanks for your great review! It sure looked like a wonderful adventure!

 

I am heading onto the Summit for our 2nd ever cruise in May... to Bermuda. So, I am reading everything Summit right now :D

 

Will you continue with Celebrity? And Royal Caribbean? Or head back to Carnival? Or... are you not "loyal" to any cruise line?

 

We chose Royal (and Celebrity) to go with, we can drive to many of their ports, which is a big plus for us, for now.

 

So happy to have been grabbed the cruise bug...

.

 

 

We loved everything about our Celebrity cruise. There were only a few things that I think could be improved upon (which I’ll get to at the end once I’m done with the day to day and pictures). But Celebrity is hands down a better option for us in compared to all the Carnival cruises we’ve been in. With that being said, I wouldn’t hesitate to cruise on Carnival again (especially now that I have their platinum perks) for the right itinerary, ship, or price. We’re pretty much sold on Celebrity for the future – I’m glad I have 2 more cruises currently booked on Celebrity. For the record, up until this point I’ve been loyal to Carnival. The only other line I’ve tried has been NCL which neither myself or my DH were wild about. We probably won’t sail with them again.

 

 

Even though Celebrity is a related brand to Royal, I don’t see us cruising with them, only for the sheer fact that I interpret them to be the family oriented cruise line which quite frankly I’m not interested in. Part of what I loved about this cruise line was barely seeing any kids onboard (we literally saw less than 10 onboard all week – and my estimate of 10 is a stetch). So, for the time being, my loyalty appears to have shifted to Celebrity. Overall, at this stage of the game, it appears to be the best cruise line suited to us and our demographics. I’ll get into this more at the end when I give my overall comments.

 

 

I wish I lived closer to a cruise port! I’d probably cruise once a month if that were the case! :D

[mapleleafvoyage]

Thanks your input!!

 

I look forward to your final thoughts!!

 

We enjoyed our cruise in the Explorer and there were lots of kids--- it was ok, because none were mine, lol.

 

We are not that close, but a nice 8-ish hour drive to Bayonne, Baltimore and Quebec port is also do-able.

And with the help of cruise critic I find places to stay the night before, even doing the night before and sightseeing my stays. It still works out to be a better deal, and we get to see new places :D

 

Thanks again!!!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[HeatherC430]

Another day of rainbows...

 

 

 

 

[HeatherC430]

 

 

[HeatherC430]

So, this was the first encounter with the band XtaSea (I think they were called). Anyways, as we came to find, most days during the time of sail away from port they would play on the Lido deck for approximately 45 minutes each day. I loved having the live music on the Lido deck. This is something that Carnival has gotten away from in lieu of a DJ on deck (which I’m not fond of by comparison). They would play all cover songs of various natures and add their Caribbean/Calypso as I would describe it.

 

This is pretty much the only entertainment onboard where I would note in the daily Celebrity times and make an effort to attend. Like if we were in our room and it was approaching 5:00, it’s like let’s hurry up and get out there on Lido for the band! Typically when they’d play, they would get at least a few people dancing in front (some days more). There were even a few days where the crowd was a bit rowdier and begged for one more. In some cases, they’d play one or two more even if it was past their designated 45minute time slot on the dailies.

 

 

Edited February 13, 2014 by HeatherC430

[HeatherC430]

 

[HeatherC430]

Tonight we had reservations at Qsine for 6:30. I had booked online prior to our cruise. I had initially tried booking for the one and only sea day, but they only had late time slots left at that point – I didn’t realize at the time that sea day was a formal night which could have had something to do with why they were booked. I was really looking forward to trying this. Based on all the reviews and pictures I saw online it did look like a truly unique dining experience. I thought $45 per person ($90 total plus tip) was a bit much for the experience, but we did really enjoy it. I’m not sure I’d book in advance again. Possibly I’d do it again onboard if I was offered a discount, like many posters onboard make note of it.

 

We were given a window seat - they claimed it was the best seat in the house when they seated us! lol One person was designated as the “captain” and was told to add each item that we wanted. Our waiter told us to select 4 or 5 items for the two of us. We were both given the ipads to peruse the menu options.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 13, 2014 by HeatherC430

[HeatherC430]

We placed our order with our waiter, and then patiently waited for our first course to come out. They gave us a basket of rolls with 3 spreads while we waited (whipped butter, sour cream & something else?)

Our first course was the Spring Rolls. I know I took pictures of all the courses but for some reason the spring rolls photo didn’t upload to my photos online. There’s just a black photo in its place (my apologies). Our waiter had scaled down our portion or so he told us upon delivery. We had one of each spring roll so we split each one. They were among my favorite of everything we ordered, I wish he would have given us the full portion! The spring rolls came with dipping sauces as well.

 

Spring Rolls

 

 

Baby Back Spring Rolls with Chipotle Coleslaw & White Truffle BBQ Sauce {or} Vegetable Mélange with Cilantro, Chipotle Coleslaw, Sweet & Sour Sauce

 

Our next course was lobster escargot. It was pretty good, but not the best out of everything we got. I did enjoy dipping my bread into the butter sauce though!

 

Lobster Escargot

 

 

Lobster & Escargot Fritters with Parsley-Garlic Butter Sauce

 

[HeatherC430]

Next up, M’s Favorites – I ordered these because of the display and it being a nice mix of a bunch of different things. There were a couple things that were just ok – or I didn’t care for but that was more because of what they were and not because of the flavors not being right. Of the items included. I loved the goat cheese cigars and lamb chops! I just realized my DH took out one of the items before I got to take this picture! lol

 

 

M's Favorites

 

 

[share for 2 or more]

Goat Cheese Cigars

Patlican Salata

Mixed Olives

Tzatziki

Eggplant Imam Biyaldi

Tabbouleh

Hummus

Chicken Kofta

Zathaar Lamb Chops

Kibbeh

Mediterranean Chili

Falafel

 

Edited February 13, 2014 by HeatherC430

[HeatherC430]

Next up – The Tacos - I loved this! Again, our waiter scaled our order down to 2 tacos (one for each of us). I wouldn’t have minded having another of these and less of the other options, but at this point we were getting pretty full. They had us mix the guacamole ourselves with the ingredients at the table.

 

 

Taco "Royale"

 

 

Black Angus Sirloin Steak, Unordinary Tacos, Caramelized Onion-Poblano & Mortar Pestle Guacamole

 

 

[HeatherC430]

Next on the menu – crunchy munchies - These were just ok in my opinion. I wasn’t wild about any of the sauces that were served with them. I think our waiter saved these til the end so that we weren’t missing any of the better courses and didn’t fill up on these – which was a good move on his part. While we ate almost everything with each of the other courses, we only ate about half of what was served of these. We had to save some room for dessert after all!

 

 

Crunchy Munchies

 

 

Gaufrettes

French Fries

Sweet Potato Strings

Vegetable Chips

Potato Croquettes

Spicy Parsnip Crisps with "Squeezable Sauces"

 

 

[HeatherC430]

For dessert, we were given the rubix cube of sorts menu. Right before dessert they came around with the chocolate covered strawberries. We each had one as they went around from table to table with the grassy platter. They were very good! I wish we took more than one!

 

I chose the chocolate tombstone based on so many great reviews of it. How could you go wrong with all that chocolate? My DH chose the surprise – he said how could he not with such an interesting place. I can’t remember if it was a crème Brule of sorts? Or bread pudding? I don’t think he was sure what it was, but it was good. It came with a side of vanilla ice cream and a sauce.

 

 

 

 

[HeatherC430]

Thanks your input!!

 

I look forward to your final thoughts!!

 

We enjoyed our cruise in the Explorer and there were lots of kids--- it was ok, because none were mine, lol.

 

We are not that close, but a nice 8-ish hour drive to Bayonne, Baltimore and Quebec port is also do-able.

And with the help of cruise critic I find places to stay the night before, even doing the night before and sightseeing my stays. It still works out to be a better deal, and we get to see new places :D

 

Thanks again!!!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

I also wanted to add…I’ll be on the Repo cruise at the end of April that goes to Bermuda (with my mom)– so you should be able to catch my photo review of that one too, before you board the Summit in May (assuming I have my stuff together and bust out my review upon the week of our return – we’ll be back on May 4th).

[HeatherC430]

That morning I went to the Café al Bacio for some coffee to take back to the room for myself & DH before breakfast. I took a few pictures while I was there. It was hard to work in a morning stop here prior to going to the Lido for breakfast buffet each morning before heading off the ship in port for our excursions, but we did squeeze it in a few days during the week. The coffee & latte’s that I had were all very good. Everything I tried was included in the classic beverage package.

Each morning they’d have a bunch of different pastries, croissants & even two kinds of donuts in the glass case (free of charge). In the afternoons and evenings, the desserts in the cases would change. I really wanted to try the carrot cake in the evenings when I saw it (it looked SO good – but I was stuffed each time I passed! I’m definitely going to add it to my things of try when I’m on the Summit again in a few months!) Also, they had cookies in jars above the glass case. I must say that all the cookies I had in the buffet area during the week were exceptional – soft & fresh daily. (Unlike the Carnival cookies that tend to be of the harder variety).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 13, 2014 by HeatherC430

[Cruisin KLS]

For dessert, we were given the rubix cube of sorts menu. Right before dessert they came around with the chocolate covered strawberries. We each had one as they went around from table to table with the grassy platter. They were very good! I wish we took more than one!

 

I chose the chocolate tombstone based on so many great reviews of it. How could you go wrong with all that chocolate? My DH chose the surprise – he said how could he not with such an interesting place. I can’t remember if it was a crème Brule of sorts? Or bread pudding? I don’t think he was sure what it was, but it was good. It came with a side of vanilla ice cream and a sauce.

 

 

 

 

 

 

DH and I also ate in Qsine while on board and felt the same as you. We had high hopes from other reviews but thought it was so so. We did get 20% off while on board. We had ordered 6 items and thought half were really good. Plus dessert was amazing, although by that point I was stuffed. It is a lot of food for 2 people. Probably would have been better had we been dining with more people. I felt bad wasting food.

 

Side note, the waiter holding the strawberries was who sold us on making a reservation. He was promoting Qsine outside the buffet one day. Saw him during our tour of the kitchens and again the night we were dining. He remembered us both times and came over to chat with us. Great representation of Qsine.

 

Kristi

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[Cruisin KLS]

That morning I went to the Café al Bacio for some coffee to take back to the room for myself & DH before breakfast. I took a few pictures while I was there. It was hard to work in a morning stop here prior to going to the Lido for breakfast buffet each morning before heading off the ship in port for our excursions, but we did squeeze it in a few days during the week. The coffee & latte’s that I had were all very good. Everything I tried was included in the classic beverage package.

 

 

Each morning they’d have a bunch of different pastries, croissants & even two kinds of donuts in the glass case (free of charge). In the afternoons and evenings, the desserts in the cases would change. I really wanted to try the carrot cake in the evenings when I saw it (it looked SO good – but I was stuffed each time I passed! I’m definitely going to add it to my things of try when I’m on the Summit again in a few months!) Also, they had cookies in jars above the glass case. I must say that all the cookies I had in the buffet area during the week were exceptional – soft & fresh daily. (Unlike the Carnival cookies that tend to be of the harder variety).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The carrot cake is to die for. We also enjoyed the coconut cake and black and white cookies. Morning pastries were yummy!

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[2Fltravelers]

Love your detailed review. We are on this same itinerary next February so your info is greatly appreciated.

[HeatherC430]

The carrot cake is to die for. We also enjoyed the coconut cake and black and white cookies. Morning pastries were yummy!

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

 

Carrot cake is my favorite variety of cake too! Like I said, every time I passed and it was there, there were only a few pieces left! Next time, I'll take it to go (even if I'm already stuffed). I'm still kicking myself for not trying it! I'm making mental notes of your other suggestions as well. Thanks! :D

[HeatherC430]

DH and I also ate in Qsine while on board and felt the same as you. We had high hopes from other reviews but thought it was so so. We did get 20% off while on board. We had ordered 6 items and thought half were really good. Plus dessert was amazing' date=' although by that point I was stuffed. It is a lot of food for 2 people. Probably would have been better had we been dining with more people. I felt bad wasting food.

 

Side note, the waiter holding the strawberries was who sold us on making a reservation. He was promoting Qsine outside the buffet one day. Saw him during our tour of the kitchens and again the night we were dining. He remembered us both times and came over to chat with us. Great representation of Qsine.

 

Kristi

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app[/quote']

 

It's like I wished I could have eaten more of the stuff I loved and less of the things we found so-so. The things that were so-so we ate anyways, because like you, we also feel bad wasting food. I have a hard time justifying paying over $100 (when you factor in tip) when the food in the other areas of the ship that are included are just as good! With that being said, I doubt I'll ever pre-book in advance. If I were to get a discount onboard, I'd probably go again. I loved the tacos & spring rolls! For the other options, I'd try something new. I'm sure what others say about going in a large group, probably is better - but when you're only traveling with one other person, you don't really have an option. And, I'd rather not eat with complete strangers, just for the sake of trying additional items. The waiter with the strawberries was our waiter during our Qsine visit.

[CruisingYiayia]

We were on this cruise last week, too. We went to Qsine, but we had a group of 8. I highly recommend going with a larger group so you can sample a larger variety of foods. This was our second time dining in Qsine…the first time, it was just the two of us, and we were overwhelmed with the amount of food. We did get a 20% discount booking once onboard.

 

We also dined in Normandy, which was excellent…I highly recommend this restaurant, food and service were amazing. Our dining room waiter overheard us at dinner discussing we were going to Qsine the following night, and asked us if our group of 6 had tried Normandy. We told him we wanted to go, but we didn't have reservations. He offered to get us reservations, and also got us a reduced price of $30.00/person instead of $45.00/person. We went the 2nd formal night, and the restaurant was quite empty. One of our friends requested the private "wine cellar" dining room, which we enjoyed very much. I had the Lobster Normandy, which was excellent, and my husband had the Filet Mignon.

[HeatherC430]

Next up, Grenada

 

[hulamoon]

I am so glad to read your review. It was fun to join your excursions and appreciate your comments, as I may never physically do them myself. Lol

[HeatherC430]

 

 

 

 

[HeatherC430]

I am so glad to read your review. It was fun to join your excursions and appreciate your comments, as I may never physically do them myself. Lol

 

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying! Trust me...I think it's safe to say I've climbed my LAST volcano! lol (Never say never though I suppose...)

[HeatherC430]

We were on this cruise last week, too. We went to Qsine, but we had a group of 8. I highly recommend going with a larger group so you can sample a larger variety of foods. This was our second time dining in Qsine…the first time, it was just the two of us, and we were overwhelmed with the amount of food. We did get a 20% discount booking once onboard.

 

We also dined in Normandy, which was excellent…I highly recommend this restaurant, food and service were amazing. Our dining room waiter overheard us at dinner discussing we were going to Qsine the following night, and asked us if our group of 6 had tried Normandy. We told him we wanted to go, but we didn't have reservations. He offered to get us reservations, and also got us a reduced price of $30.00/person instead of $45.00/person. We went the 2nd formal night, and the restaurant was quite empty. One of our friends requested the private "wine cellar" dining room, which we enjoyed very much. I had the Lobster Normandy, which was excellent, and my husband had the Filet Mignon.

 

For this cruise, we chose Qsine over Normandy figuring we'd like the variety and uniqueness offered at Qsine better. I'll make a note of that. Like I said, I doubt I'd book any of the specialty dining in advance again. I don't like that you have to pre-pay when making the reservation ahead of time either (what if you didn't want to go once onboard or didn't feel up to it? I'm sure they'd refund you the money paid, but still). Plus, it's alittle irritating knowing that the table next to you probably saved 20-30% depending on what was offered to them onboard. I'll let them try and "woo" me with a deal onboard the next time! :D