Summit Review - Nov 29 to Dec 6 2014 - With Pictures

[Adoremus]

Wonderful. Keep it coming. Leaving on the summit end of February [emoji106][emoji1]

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[poffles]

So before I carry on with how the trip unfolded it would seem fitting to offer some random thoughts about this cruise, apologies if I seem to be all over the place with this and I expect I will repeat some things later and elaborate a bit more with context. I'll offer this here to give readers an immediate fix with overall thoughts.

 

So what I loved about this ship:

 

- welcome champagne ... nice gesture and what nicer way to kick off vacation

- random pockets of sitting areas, a couch here, a chair or two there, that seemed to be isolated from the noise that was just around the corner.

- elevators that were never so full we could not get on (though I did pass sometimes since I knew another empty one would soon follow and that was only at a peak time and expected.)

- no smoking in any internal areas - this was soooooooooo awesome!

- no loud announcements all day long

- subtle elegance of public areas

- random "hello" and "how are you today?" from staff of all ranks

- drink package and not having to sign a single slip .. and getting actual can of pop not fountain! (seems silly but plus in my books)

- deck four that has outside access all around the ship ... newer ships seem to be cutting this to make more money from cabins so I cherish this design (NCL Epic prime example). After all it is what I love most about cruising.

- going to counter at Cafe al Bacio and ordering a latte and being asked if I would be sitting down in the area and upon saying yes being told to sit and they will bring it over to me ... nice service.

- Bistro on Five. New menu offering steak was great. Went there two evenings and ordered steak both times and felt it was more than worth the $7 charge. The quiet ambiance of this restaurant was nice.

- the beds. Odd thing to mention perhaps but I'm 5'9" and typically the bed runs out before I do and I even have issue with the width and always feel they slant down on the sides giving me the feeling I'm gonna fall out. The beds on Summit were wonderful, longer than me and I never felt like I could fall out and they were very comfortable, so much so that they get a mention :D

- the night light in the bathroom.

- breakfast room service having hot items as an option. Disney may have had this but that was my first cruise and only 4 days so the memory is distance. More recent cruises have offered only continental style items so good on you Celebrity!

 

Much more that I know is escaping my mind right now but when I think of things I'll do a part two ... promise.

 

Of course I'll have to have a "what I didn't love ..." but will save that for later and the list is shorter (I think :p). It may spin more as "I wish they had ... " list.

Edited December 30, 2014 by poffles

[ace6636634]

Enjoining the review! Thanks for posting. How were the seas? Do you feel the drink service wasn't as good when the staff found out you had the 123?

 

I'm booked on the Summit 4/4 and also coming in 2 days before. Still trying to determine precruise hotel. The hotels seem very pricey.

[Kaz5153]

Thank you so much for the wonderful reviews and pictures. We are doing a B2B early February and if I was excited before - your reviews have me even more so. Again, thank you!

[NotACruiserYet]

We were on this cruise with you - and I agree - SUPER vacation!

[poffles]

Enjoining the review! Thanks for posting. How were the seas? Do you feel the drink service wasn't as good when the staff found out you had the 123?

 

I'm booked on the Summit 4/4 and also coming in 2 days before. Still trying to determine precruise hotel. The hotels seem very pricey.

 

Thanks so much, glad you are enjoying it.

 

Seas were great, I personally did not feel any sway to the ship side to side. We did notice one day where the ship rocked front to back and not sure if it was due to the ship speed or seas or both. If I had not witnessed the pool water swishing front to back I would not have realized it was doing that ... it was later in the evening too thus my thinking it was ship speeding to reach next port. Was very different than our experience on the NCL Epic, that ship rocked so bad people were almost stumbling trying to walk straight and the seas did not seem that bad to warrant it so we blamed it on bad design. And no word of a lie, my friend actually fell out of bed one night and it was off the foot of the bed not the side. I still laugh when I picture her looking up from the floor.

 

Drink service, I really felt no difference in service though I did find the staff more indifferent at the pool bars than at other bars throughout the ship. Not sure if it had anything to do with having "the plan", I tried to believe it had more to do with them being busy (though sometimes that wasn't the case). Not a blanket statement about all staff in these areas, more a certain few but could have been me misreading them. All this said, I have no idea how service would be without drink package on Celebrity since it's my first sailing with them so I can't fairly speak to a difference. Service was certainly as good (or better) than what I've have had on other cruises so it was good for me. I'll add that I mostly drink beer so I'm not too demanding in my requests and I didn't have to wonder so much about waht drinks were include given beer is more clearly defined. When asked, the bartender would make you any drink if you gave them an idea of what you might like which I did on occasion as I don't like the sweet foo foo drinks that are more common. I did not upgrade from the Classic and felt no need to do so, though my next cruise on the Reflection I'm thinking about upgrading to try some martinis .. still pondering.

 

And yes hotels are pricey, their taxes are killer! In the end we thought more about the area we wanted to be in and selected out of what was there. We figured this was all part of the trip experience and didn't want to regret our decision to save a couple bucks. The Sheraton Old San Juan was too close to everything for us to think beyond that, last trip we stayed at the other Sheraton near airport since our arrival was only night before and late. That hotel was fine for short stay but would not want to be there for longer pre stay as you couldn't walk to anything. Good luck to you.

Edited December 30, 2014 by poffles

[poffles]

We were on this cruise with you - and I agree - SUPER vacation!

 

Glad to hear it wasn't just me with stars in my eyes :D And it can't be all due to the itinerary either as I've done similar southern cruise out of San Juan on Carnival and I'll just say the two sailings couldn't be more different.

 

As I mentioned earlier, I know many factors affect a cruise - ship/passengers/weather/staff - but I have to say I still can't bring myself to book another Carnival cruise after doing the Victory out of San Juan and it's all down to my onboard experience. Maybe one day :rolleyes:

[poffles]

Thank you so much for the wonderful reviews and pictures. We are doing a B2B early February and if I was excited before - your reviews have me even more so. Again, thank you!

 

Thank you! Glad I can heighten your anticipation. That's all part of the fun.

[ChrisRoo]

Very nice review. Truly laughed out loud picturing your friend looking up from the floor.

My Sister and I will be doing a similar cruise 2016 and your review is a really fun way to wait. Thanks!

Edited December 30, 2014 by ChrisRoo

[richsea]

Thanks for your report so far! Keep it coming! Even though we've been on Summit before, your experience is raising the level of anticipation for our upcoming b2b even more so!

[J3RZG1RL]

Hello - I've been on the summit 3 times in the last 4 years, I cannot, for the life of me - remember the shows/entertainment.

 

Are there shows? how are they? Are they broadway?

 

What goes on at night - besides drinking and dancing??

 

Any comedians or anything like that?

 

Thanks, Stacey

[dodger1964]

Glad u enjoyed what is my favorite X ship. We cruised her last month and had a great time. We love to walk along rail on deck 4.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[tangerinebunny]

We've booked the Summit for December 2015 and have been second guessing ourselves. Your review is very reassuring.

[poffles]

Hello - I've been on the summit 3 times in the last 4 years, I cannot, for the life of me - remember the shows/entertainment.

 

Are there shows? how are they? Are they broadway?

 

What goes on at night - besides drinking and dancing??

 

Any comedians or anything like that?

 

Thanks, Stacey

 

This made me laugh out loud because I was just there a month ago and I can't remember what goes on in the evening either .... hahahaha. Went to two shows, Sirens ... about three magical mermaids ... starring the Summit Singers and Dancers and it was good but barely memorable. The other one was the last night where they showed snippits of different acts that had been on all week and I sat there thinking "well guess we didn't miss anything" :) This area makes my "wish they did it better" list. They had a pair that did a cirque de soliel type body balancing act which was the best of the mix, they were actually quite good.

 

So guess it's mostly drinking :D and music ... they had live bands randomly playing throughout the ship. We dropped money in the casino here and there and hit the hay early most nights, after all I had such a nice bed to go back to each night! This itinerary being so port intensive mades the evenings an afterthought for us and the often found us sitting on the balcony listening to the waves, it just doesn't get any better.

 

I think maybe Celebrity knows people don't sail this itinerary so much for evening entertainment so they put less effort into it??? I'm not much for shows thrown together with singing and dancing, it tends to bore me ... apologies to others that appreciate this. My intentions were to attend the theater each night but the go with the flow put a wrench into things and the description of the feature show never sounded good enough to draw me in. Oh well ... next time.

 

I have all the "Celebrity Today"s from each day so I will take a look and list the major show for each night for you if you like.

[poffles]

We've booked the Summit for December 2015 and have been second guessing ourselves. Your review is very reassuring.

 

Why the second guessing?

 

It is a great ship with great staff. For us, as I just noted in the prior post, it's weakness was theater entertainment but I have yet to select a cruise for the evening shows, maybe one day. That said, when they are good it definitely adds to the trip. Epic did this well with a comedy club, cirque type dinner show, Legends in Concert, Blue Man Group, Blues Club ... compare that to mostly Summit Singers and Dancers on the Summit .. hmm :(

Edited December 31, 2014 by poffles

[poffles]

Very nice review. Truly laughed out loud picturing your friend looking up from the floor.

My Sister and I will be doing a similar cruise 2016 and your review is a really fun way to wait. Thanks!

 

I told her I was sharing her mishap with others and she said people likely won't believe it really happened ... it definitely did. I would not have believed it myself if I had not woke up and looked down at her :D Made the trip very memorable and I still can't figure out how she could fall out that way???

 

That ship rocked, and not in a good way!

[poffles]

Figured I'd list the main entertainment listed for each evening for anyone interested.

 

Sat:

Theater: Welcome Aboard Show - snippit of what's to come

 

Sun:

Theater: Captain's Gala Toast and Summit Singers and Dancers on journey of classic to silver screen to blockbuster hits of today.

Solarium: "Liquid" Ultra Lounge

 

Mon:

Theater: Juggler Ivan Pecel

Revelations: Sizzle Latin Rhythms Party

 

Tues:

Theater: Sirens - pirates and mermaids under the sea burlesque and fantasy starring Summit Singers and Dancers

Martini Bar: Martini Ice Party

 

Wed:

Theater: Stars in Their Eyes - tribute to legendary stars. Starry Celebrity Production Singers and Dancers, accompanied by Celebrity Orchestra

Revelations: Frozen White Party

 

Thurs:

Theater: Al Duchame - comedy/impressionist

Revelations: 70's Night Fever Disco Party

 

Fri:

Theater: A Voyage to Remember - showcase of the week

Revelations: Farewell Party

 

Hope this provides proof that something other than drinking happens in the evening (at least on paper) :rolleyes: Who knew LOL

Edited December 31, 2014 by poffles

[J3RZG1RL]

Yes, please, if you could let me know from the celebrity today that would be wonderful. We are planning a family cruise and it has 3 or 4 nights at sea.....I can't drink so I need something, if it is lame, as I remember, we might go on Royal instead since it has some shows and many more venue's to hit up, with the whole family I need a place to hide :) glad I made you laugh. thank you!

 

This made me laugh out loud because I was just there a month ago and I can't remember what goes on in the evening either .... hahahaha. Went to two shows, Sirens ... about three magical mermaids ... starring the Summit Singers and Dancers and it was good but barely memorable. The other one was the last night where they showed snippits of different acts that had been on all week and I sat there thinking "well guess we didn't miss anything" :) This area makes my "wish they did it better" list. They had a pair that did a cirque de soliel type body balancing act which was the best of the mix, they were actually quite good.

 

So guess it's mostly drinking :D and music ... they had live bands randomly playing throughout the ship. We dropped money in the casino here and there and hit the hay early most nights, after all I had such a nice bed to go back to each night! This itinerary being so port intensive mades the evenings an afterthought for us and the often found us sitting on the balcony listening to the waves, it just doesn't get any better.

 

I think maybe Celebrity knows people don't sail this itinerary so much for evening entertainment so they put less effort into it??? I'm not much for shows thrown together with singing and dancing, it tends to bore me ... apologies to others that appreciate this. My intentions were to attend the theater each night but the go with the flow put a wrench into things and the description of the feature show never sounded good enough to draw me in. Oh well ... next time.

 

I have all the "Celebrity Today"s from each day so I will take a look and list the major show for each night for you if you like.

[J3RZG1RL]

just saw this - thank you.

 

Figured I'd list the main entertainment listed for each evening for anyone interested.

 

Sat:

Theater: Welcome Aboard Show - snippit of what's to come

 

Sun:

Theater: Captain's Gala Toast and Summit Singers and Dancers on journey of classic to silver screen to blockbuster hits of today.

Solarium: "Liquid" Ultra Lounge

 

Mon:

Theater: Juggler Ivan Pecel

Revelations: Sizzle Latin Rhythms Party

 

Tues:

Theater: Sirens - pirates and mermaids under the sea burlesque and fantasy starring Summit Singers and Dancers

Martini Bar: Martini Ice Party

 

Wed:

Theater: Stars in Their Eyes - tribute to legendary stars. Starry Celebrity Production Singers and Dancers, accompanied by Celebrity Orchestra

Revelations: Frozen White Party

 

Thurs:

Theater: Al Duchame - comedy/impressionist

Revelations: 70's Night Fever Disco Party

 

Fri:

Theater: A Voyage to Remember - showcase of the week

Revelations: Farewell Party

 

Hope this provides proof that something other than drinking happens in the evening (at least on paper) :rolleyes: Who knew LOL

[keishashadow]

We'll be stepping aboard this Saturday:D

 

do you recall how long the cab took from the Sheraton in OSJ to the pier?

 

we stayed there in the past, so convenient when sailing from one of the nearby piers. this trip booked a Condado hotel. trying to decide whether to take a quick taxi into OSJ the morning of the cruise to poke around abit pre-boarding or perhaps drop our luggage at the ship & then head over in the afternoon. :confused: Trying to get an idea of how long to allow for transportation time before I decide.

 

another question, any issue with chair hogs on the sea day? wondering how early I need to rise and shine;)

[poffles]

We'll be stepping aboard this Saturday:D

 

do you recall how long the cab took from the Sheraton in OSJ to the pier?

 

we stayed there in the past, so convenient when sailing from one of the nearby piers. this trip booked a Condado hotel. trying to decide whether to take a quick taxi into OSJ the morning of the cruise to poke around abit pre-boarding or perhaps drop our luggage at the ship & then head over in the afternoon. :confused: Trying to get an idea of how long to allow for transportation time before I decide.

 

another question, any issue with chair hogs on the sea day? wondering how early I need to rise and shine;)

 

Don't recall exact time it took, too busy anticipating and looking around, but I know it wasn't long. Maybe 10 to 15 minutes. We actually did a bit of walking around OSJ ourselves that morning. There is more time in that day than a person realizes. Consider that there isn't even that much time in any of the planned ports along the way and the things that we seem to fit into the day.

 

As for sea day, didn't venture to the pool so didn't notice so can't answer that sorry. For the life of me I can't think of what we did do ...getting old sucks :D That's my excuse anyway.

[poffles]

Booking Future Cruise On Board

 

Before we set foot on this ship, we were thinking so positively that we would love Celebrity, we had plans to book a future cruise for us and my friends sister (I'll call her "D") and husband who have never sailed anywhere ever. Did not plan on cruising so soon after this one but "D" wanted to cruise and really wanted someone who's done it before, okay twist my arm a little more :D

 

For the first time ever, for any cruise line, they were (are) offering a charter 'all inclusive' cruise aboard the Reflection Feb through April 2015 out our city of Halifax - direct flight! We kept thinking how great it would be not to have to fly in day before, stay after, have a stop over somewhere change planes UGH do the taxis repeatedly, have drinks and meal included on plane, drinks and gratuities included on cruise. Okay so we are sold and I figured well we might as well wait until we are on the ship to book because if everything I read applied then we would also get OBC. And if you're thinking if the charter cost is worth it, cheaper to do it yourself blah blah blah ... for us when I did the math we actually saved money, not a lot but we definitely didn't lose, and the experience will be so different especially the flight being direct as it's been a while. And I've done pretty well all planning in the past piece by piece so I know the numbers.

 

So one of our first stops was Future Cruise Sales office.

 

 

It opened at 2 pm and we were waiting, we were on a mission. We were greeted with smiles and friendly service and there was no problem booking for us and the other couple and we got the OBC for both bookings based on my being a Captain's Club (in the making). How nice. We also got a one category stateroom upgrade, could not get for "D" because they were not Captain's Club members ... oooh we were special LOL

 

We were texting "D" to tell her, she was so excited, I love new cruisers! So off to the Internet Cafe we went. You can get to Celebrity website without cost so I created her a Celebrity login account. I then added the new booking and told "D" the login info so she could see for herself. Yippeee. She asks why she can't see breakdown of cost and I'm thinking she just doesn't know where to look so I shrug it off. Few minutes later it hits me ... dang it ... I forgot about the auto transfer to TA if you booked current trip through them and I did not want to do this again and I know you are limited in what you can do when it's tied to a TA ... back to the Future Cruise desk.

 

Long story short (though little late now I guess LOL) she had to cancel entire booking and book again but all our selections just carried over so more a system thing than anything. Had to refund deposits and recharge also. And there was a form we had to sign, a waiver that we did not want it passed back to TA. I like to control my own booking and wanted to make payments direct to Celebrity this time. Was so glad I caught this as I would have been so mad later.

 

I never gained anything from booking through a TA anyway, in fact my TA of 5 years left for another agency and didn't even let us know and we had the Summit trip booked with her ... nobody even called to let us know either. We only found out because we called her with a question, only to be told she didn't work there any more, not cool. We printed out our own flight docs and our own cruise docs without anyone from the agency ever calling to check if we were taken care of, simply forgotten. Very strange.

 

So for others that book future cruise on board , if you don't want it to go to the current TA be sure to mention because it is assumed without question.

 

So now the business is taken care of, we need to explore some more. We better like this cruise as much as we think or we'll have more business to take care of when we get home cancelling the Reflection :D

[poffles]

We did some roaming around the ship and don't remember anything meaningful to mention because the next vivid memory is the muster drill. I can't recall when it was held, think close to sail away 7:30 maybe? I'll have to check the "Today" later ...I don't have here with me right now.

 

Pretty lame drill. We were stationed in a main area (outside Michael's Club I think) and we stood and stood and stood. After standing what seemed an eternity they made an announcement and if you were lucky you could see past the person standing in front of you to see what the demonstrator was showing you to do in an emergency. I swear the demo was less than a minute. I especially loved having to stand there (NOT) and watch other passengers in area with seats while they watched their demonstration. Did not like how that was done but guess they have to spread people out ... oh well it was only moments out my week so moving on. Hopefully nothing happens that we need to really know what to do.

 

Finally can we push off!

Edited December 31, 2014 by poffles

[poffles]

As I mentioned earlier, I don't have a lot of pictures from around the ship which I am still surprised about. I typically take a lot but this trip there was too much going on (so many ports) for me to carry the camera in ready mode to take pictures. So I'll throw out the pictures I have. They are not all from day one for those that notice different islands in the background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[poffles]

More ...