Photo Review: Celebrity Summit 2/7/15 Southern Caribbean (with 2 days in San Juan)

[HeatherC430]

First off - thank you once again for taking the time to inform all of us on your experiences. I find it both informative and helpful in planning upcoming cruises to get the feedback and experience from those willing to provide it in such detail.

 

My Question: Fortaleza Suites - I am currently booked at the hotel for our upcoming cruise in November. We are staying in a two bedroom "suite" San Sabasten Suite - it is listed like a two bedroom apartment. We decided we really wanted to stay in Old San Juan. We have been to San Juan twice but friends of ours have never been - so we wanted them close Old San Juan so we could spend the day and evening walking around showing them all the history and culture.

 

I am now a bit concerned about staying here based on your reviews and experience. I am hoping maybe since ours was a two bedroom "suite" that perhaps it may be in a bit better condition? I am not looking for up scale. But it has to be clean. It works out to be approx 150.00 per couple (300.00 total for the two bedroom apartment). It states it has a kitchen, bathroom, two bedrooms, sitting area)

 

On their sites it lists "rooms" and "suites" Do you happen to recall what "room" or "suite" you may have had?

 

We have a reasonable flight time 4:00 in the afternoon - so we shouldn't have an issue with our departure (its s shame you had to go through that after such a lovely vacation).

 

Thanks again for your input and information.

 

You're welcome. I'm glad to hear that you've found my review helpful.

 

My suggestion is to do alittle research to see what sort of reviews people have posted of that individual suite (on tripadvisor or cc). I was able to find the link below with some photos. It clearly looks much nicer than the one room we had. Our room and the "lobby" if you want to call it that was less than appealing. Plus, there's the whole walking through the jewelry store to get to the hotel too! lol. But, if you're sole goal is to be IN old san juan and be in amid the action, this location should accomplish this. The location in terms of being centrally located was the only positive for us (because our room really was pretty awful). We had the Princessa Room (small, no windows, not a whole lot of anything). To us, it felt like we were staying at a Puerto Rican boarding house. It's not that it wasn't "clean" but it had sort of dingy feel to everything. There was a gap between the door of our room and the common area where you could hear people coming/going and talking pretty much the entire time we were in the room. Plus, we were there on Valentines Day which probably made it worse because trust me when I say there was nothing romantic about the room in this hotel!

 

If you take a look at the pictures in my review that I took of the room, and the pictures of the exact room the hotel posted on their Facebook page (I think I posted them both), you can see that yes, there's the same room but there's a huge difference between the professional photos and what you get in real life. Really it's all in what's most important to you. And, your suite does appear to be MUCH nicer than the room we had.

 

Personally, going forward I'll probably continue to get a 4-star hotel in the Condado area on future visits and just take the 10 minute taxi ride each way into old san juan (which has been fine on my last 2 visits to San Juan).

 

http://www.luxuryrentalspr.com/vacation-rental-home.asp?PageDataID=63369

 

Let me know if you have any other questions!

[Barwick Cruiser]

Hi Heather, another great review...love all the amazing pics you post along with the descriptions. We are on Summit next Feb for a b2b and I'm wondering what time you had muster at? Another reviewer said their Summit sailing had muster around 7:30 or 7:45 was that the same with you? I'm trying to make a reservation for Select dining the first night and want to eat before muster since I don't want to miss sailaway either...

Thanks!

Cathy

[wendycook22]

Thanks again Heather. Maybe we will just leave it and see what happens. we have stayed in Conado and Isle Verde in the past, but with it being our friends first San Juan experience I think they would really enjoy staying close to the town.

 

I read some reviews on Homeaway from guests that stayed in our room category and they seemed very pleased with the accommodations. we will just go in thinking it is a place to rest our heads at night and see what happens. Perhaps if I go in with your experience in mind maybe ours won't seem so bad :P

 

I do have one more question. If the entrance to the hotel is through the jewellery store what are their hours? How do you get into the building if you are out late?

 

Thanks again!

[GingaNinja88]

Wowzers!!! Great Review Heather!!! I almost feel like I was really there... ;-)

[HeatherC430]

Hi Heather, another great review...love all the amazing pics you post along with the descriptions. We are on Summit next Feb for a b2b and I'm wondering what time you had muster at? Another reviewer said their Summit sailing had muster around 7:30 or 7:45 was that the same with you? I'm trying to make a reservation for Select dining the first night and want to eat before muster since I don't want to miss sailaway either...

Thanks!

Cathy

 

Thank you Cathy! I believe must was indeed around that time period the other poster mentioned. I would think if you make an early reservation at select dining (I think 5:45 is the earliest), you should have enough time to dine before the muster drill, then you'll have plenty of time to spare before sailaway. We never make it to dinner on the first day onboard the ship so it's never been an issue for us. Enjoy your back to back! The Summit with it's port intensive nature would be a great back to back! I'll be on the Silhouette next year, but returning to the Summit in 2017. :)

[HeatherC430]

Thanks again Heather. Maybe we will just leave it and see what happens. we have stayed in Conado and Isle Verde in the past, but with it being our friends first San Juan experience I think they would really enjoy staying close to the town.

 

I read some reviews on Homeaway from guests that stayed in our room category and they seemed very pleased with the accommodations. we will just go in thinking it is a place to rest our heads at night and see what happens. Perhaps if I go in with your experience in mind maybe ours won't seem so bad :P

 

I do have one more question. If the entrance to the hotel is through the jewellery store what are their hours? How do you get into the building if you are out late?

 

Thanks again!

 

I think if you go in with realistic expectations of the place, you'll be fine. There's no doubt that you room being a suite will be nicer than ours was. Our room had to be the bottom of the barrel!

 

Technically there are 2 entrances: 1. going through the Jewelry store, and 2. there's a door that has a small sign on it with the name of the establishment. It's pretty non descript and would be easy to miss, but it's right next to the jewelry store. When the jewelry store is closed, you would use that entrance. When we arrived the jewelry store was closed, but that door was open. I remember them saying that if you came back after hours you would need to use your key in that side door to enter. The cleaning staff was there early when we arrived so we didn't have an issue with getting into the door. You should be good. I'll be interested to hear how your experience is with the place being in a "suite".

[HeatherC430]

Wowzers!!! Great Review Heather!!! I almost feel like I was really there... ;-)

 

Thanks GingaNinja! One day you'll get to experience onboard life! ;)

[CruisinCrow]

Thank you Cathy! I believe must was indeed around that time period the other poster mentioned. I would think if you make an early reservation at select dining (I think 5:45 is the earliest), you should have enough time to dine before the muster drill, then you'll have plenty of time to spare before sailaway. We never make it to dinner on the first day onboard the ship so it's never been an issue for us. Enjoy your back to back! The Summit with it's port intensive nature would be a great back to back! I'll be on the Silhouette next year, but returning to the Summit in 2017. :)

 

I hope you don't mind if I pop in here. We're just off Summit (April 18 sailing) and the muster was at 7:45. We had Select dining and ate dinner at 6. Service was really slow so we had to rush through dessert to get to muster in time. Sailaway was at 8:30.

[HeatherC430]

I hope you don't mind if I pop in here. We're just off Summit (April 18 sailing) and the muster was at 7:45. We had Select dining and ate dinner at 6. Service was really slow so we had to rush through dessert to get to muster in time. Sailaway was at 8:30.

 

Not at all. Thanks for jumping in CruisinCrow. Timeframes on day 1 onboard are always alittle hazy for me ;)

[Barwick Cruiser]

I hope you don't mind if I pop in here. We're just off Summit (April 18 sailing) and the muster was at 7:45. We had Select dining and ate dinner at 6. Service was really slow so we had to rush through dessert to get to muster in time. Sailaway was at 8:30.

 

Thanks Heather and CruisinCrow for that info. I've made a select dining res for 6 and will hope for the best. Dessert isn't something we usually stay for anyway, love grabbing those cookies at Cafe Al Bacio with my evening tea, so we should be ok there.

[karensc]

"P.S. We love cats (we have 5 of them at home). So you'll see a variety of cat photos as we encounter them on this trip."

 

Heather, I already loved your envies, but now I am hooked, my husband and I are cat lovers, too!:)

 

Sorry, I mistyped " reviews"! :(

Edited May 6, 2015 by karensc
Typo

[karensc]

"P.S. We love cats (we have 5 of them at home). So you'll see a variety of cat photos as we encounter them on this trip."

 

Heather, I already loved your reviews, but now I am hooked, my husband and I are cat lovers, too!:)

[HeatherC430]

"P.S. We love cats (we have 5 of them at home). So you'll see a variety of cat photos as we encounter them on this trip."

 

Heather, I already loved your reviews, but now I am hooked, my husband and I are cat lovers, too!:)

 

That's great to hear! 5 cats are WAY easier than kids too (at least I imagine that to be the case). They can be left at home while we cruise and their cat-sitter checks in on them daily when we're gone. Yes, we have a cat-sitter! lol :)

[BBnVA]

Thanks for the review. I'm sailing on the Summit for the first time in October, with this same itinerary.

[HeatherC430]

Thanks for the review. I'm sailing on the Summit for the first time in October, with this same itinerary.

 

Enjoy! Let me know if you have any questions!:)

[jigger]

Awsome review !!

[cruise47]

Your detail photos of your cruise experience is really awesome!

[HeatherC430]

Awsome review !!

 

Your detail photos of your cruise experience is really awesome!

 

Thanks for reading! I'm glad you enjoyed! :)