Live from Summit 9/30

[notion]

PS Very few kids :) and hardly any at school age this cruise.

 

I always find that you don't see the kids anyway because they are being cared for so superbly by the "kids-entertainment-staff". :)

[mari10]

Hi to those on the Summit -

 

I'm bringing my 8 year old son on next week's Mexico sailing. Just wondering if you've noticed lots of kids or just a few. We only have Disney cruises to compare to and I know it won't be like that.

Thanks!

Hi Kalama,

If you're on the 10/10 sailing, I know there will be a few boys on the ship.

I think their age range is 6 -12.

 

Hi Michael,

Glad to hear such great news about the Summit. Lois and I can't wait for Monday. Hope there's some wine and martinis left!:D

Mari

[Lois R]

Hi Michael:) Glad you are having such a wonderful time:D

 

I agree with Mari...we can't wait to sail this ship too!

 

Kalama, please come say hello...we have a wonderful Roll Call and

there are at least 2 or 3 boys who will be going. Daniel, Jonathon, and

Jarret just to name a few;)

 

3 more sleeps:D

[runnerandme]

Thanks for the Summit news. I am anxiously awaiting our sail away end of Jan.

We too bought masks and white fun clothes for the CDS. I guess we will just use them for Halloween. Lois, have a great trip next week and I hope your shoes are comfortable. I still want a pair like them...Connie

[kalama]

Hi and thanks for your replies. I'm signed up for the C.C. roll call party and will bring my son along. He'll be happy to hear that he won't be alone in the kids' club!

[charlielinda]

I'm glad you are having a great trip. Please tell AuntDebba that Linda and Charlie send their love. Also, please take great care of the ship -- we'll be boarding on the 23rd!

[AFT_LOVER]

til my DH & I get to do it in CC AFT. Oh you have me SO excited! I alo sent a thank you note for you to you-know-who........our gal.

 

We were at Olympic Triad boxing last night with USA vs Ireland & Italy. A friend who is a 6'6" female boxer up gainst Ali's daughter in April was commenting on boxing aboard a cruise ship. So I told her to call RCCL & Celebrity. If they can do poker, they can do boxing!

[Percy47]

To those of you on this sailing, I have a photo of your ship taken from shore in the San Diego area last Sunday (10/2). I was at the Hotel Del Coronado that day and saw a Celebrity cruiseship on the horizon that evening. I could just make out an "X" on the stack, so knew it must be a Celebrity ship. I took a couple of photos of it.

 

When I got home, I checked Celebrity's schedule, and it appears the Summit was the only Celebrity ship off the California coast on 10/2. I was on the Summit a couple of years ago (loved the ship) - fun to see her again from shore!

 

The file size of the photo exceeds CC's attachment limits. If anyone out there would like a copy of it, please let me know and I'll try to post it elsewhere on the Web for you.

 

Hope you've all enjoyed your cruise!

[turtlemichael]

Hi Percy

 

It was a great cruise, apart from the disembarkation which was 2 hours I wished I'd missed.

 

I am not sure what ship was the one you photographed but Summit was well past San Diego on 10/2. We were at sea between Cabo an Mazatlan, having missed Cabo because of Hurricane Otis.

 

Michael

[janrj7]

Had a terrific cruise, made all the better because of our wonderful CruiseCritic friends.

 

MACOP, I sent our friend a thank-you email as well; she's terrific. You asked about the cabin: Larry loaned me his measuring tape, and it came out to 10 ft 8 inches by 20 feet 10 inches. Plenty big!

 

Michael, I hear ya' on the 2-hour line! Whew. My guess is that it was all due to factors beyond Celebrity's control (i.e., Immigration and their very minimum staffing). I wish every port would adopt Galveston's setup, where the Immigration officials staff desks in the terminal itself rather than onboard. That went so much faster than in L.A. and New York, last year, with the lines snaking all over the ship! Not Celebrity's fault, though; their people were facilitating the process the best they could.

 

Basketlady, we loved meeting AuntDebba! And the ship is in great shape, you will love her.

 

Percy, isn't the Hotel Del fantastic?! Thanks for your offer, that was very kind of you. Even if it wasn't Summit, would like to see the pic!

 

littleboy, re: the cabin tour, we just arranged it amongst ourselves. Those who were willing to host emailed Debba, and she indicated that beside their names on the list of rollcall participants. We decided on a time and day at the Connections party. After the tour, anyone who wanted to lunch together just went down to the dining room together, and we asked for a large table. Have fun!

 

Phil, took some pics and will post them when we get home!

 

To update: after Acapulco we went to Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo. We just LOVED Zihuatanejo!! It reminded us of our own much-loved Nuevo Laredo 30 years ago. Friendly people. A great market with very reasonable prices and unique folk art. A little cafe called Mandarino with ceiling fans, cold Pacifico and local cuisine. Just wish we could have stayed much longer there!

 

Will post a little review when we get home in a few days (we're still on the road). But to sum it up, we were SO impressed with Summit and had a fantastic time.

 

Regards,

Jan

[turtlemichael]

Hi Jan

 

Yes it was great to meet all the Cruise Critic people and thank you for your hospitality. Thanks particularly to Debba for her great organization. Thinking of getting my hair beaded too Debba!

 

I thought all aspects of the cruise were great and exceeded my very good experiences on Galaxy last year. If Celebrity could have controlled the weather it would have been even better. But our inconvenience was nothing to that of the souls who's lives were destroyed by the same storms in Central America.

 

On the lines issue, you hear lots of rumors when you are (im)patiently waiting. I heard the immigration guys were 45 minutes late. That would have obviously been a big factor. But my main concern was the almost total lack of Celebrity staff visible as the line snaked from the theater for at least 200 yards around the various roomson Deck 4. There were old ladies trying to hobble along, and many people who should not have been in that situation. The only staff member I saw was the Activities guy Quentin and he did a great job despite the unreasonable abuse I heard him cop. It is to his credit he was willing to face the mob. Maybe it will take for someone to collapse and sue for Celebrity to review their system.

 

My plan next time, assuming I don't have a flight to catch, is to have breakfast and stay in my cabin until they announce last call for immigration. I do not want to put myself through that again. My day ended with a 30 minute taxi wait and, inexcusably, a 45 minute wait in line for a Hertz rental car at Long Beach because one of the two agents went to lunch and wasn't replaced.

 

But now its all over and I'm reflecting on the good things of the cruise. It was awesome, as my younger friends say!

[excitedofharpenden]

Hi Jan and Michael and welcome home. I'm glad you had such an enjoyable trip in spite of the weather. Jan, thanks for taking the pics. I look forward to seeing them. Phil

[ECCruise]

Welcome back Jan and Michael.

We disembarked Summit the day you guys embarked and had exactly the same problem with timing. Over an hour sitting in the Cinema followed by a long wait for a shuttle to the airport. With 4 ships in port that AM, I kind of figured that was the problem. How many were in port yesterday?

 

And Jan, isn't Zihua great? Probably our favorite port in North/Central/South America. Love just sitting there with a cerveza and a view of the beach. Too bad that the majority of other cruise ports become clones of one another with the same hokey jewelry stores--even in Alaska.

 

Glad you all had a great time. We love Summit and her crew!

[excitedofharpenden]

Thanks for the comments on Zhihua, Jan and EC. I'm really looking forward to that stop now. Phil

[turtlemichael]

Hi Phil,

 

Agree Z is great. Four or us took a taxi for 3 hours ($10.00 per person) all over and had a great tour. The waterfront area near the tender point was great fun. We also went to IXtapa which was really like any other high rise area with a nice beach. But Z was more interesting and friendly

 

EC, I think there were only 2 arrivals yesterday though there may have been 3. My guess is that Celebrity has lost a few customers because it was managed so badly, and even more so if it were the same the previous week.

 

M

[excitedofharpenden]

Thanks Michael. Sounds like a plan! Phil

[AFT_LOVER]

sounded just like yours. We got a letter the last night telling deck 9 to use the middle glass elevators to 4 for customs. So at 8AM we went to the glass elevators to go down to 4. There is this HUGE line all the way back to the ship, where we started from in AFT. Then this line went from back of ship to the theatre stage in the front. RIDICULOUS! They should have called floors to get folks done comfortably.

 

Then a postcard type note states that CC has embarkation in the Cinema with continental breakfast as you wait. We got there at 9:30AM after the 1.5 hour wait to just walk up to customs, give passports, we have nothing to declare, leave. Less than 2 minutes that took a 1.5 hour wait..... Then the cinema, which is very few CC folks, waiting for their color to be called. I looked all over the room for coffee, danish, anything & it was taken away at 9AM when we were to be gone.

 

3 hours til we got off & that was PRIORTY DISEMBARKATION FOR CC????

 

So this trip on Summit, we will have breakfast on the balcony & stay til we here final call.

 

 

 

Hi Jan

 

Yes it was great to meet all the Cruise Critic people and thank you for your hospitality. Thanks particularly to Debba for her great organization. Thinking of getting my hair beaded too Debba!

 

I thought all aspects of the cruise were great and exceeded my very good experiences on Galaxy last year. If Celebrity could have controlled the weather it would have been even better. But our inconvenience was nothing to that of the souls who's lives were destroyed by the same storms in Central America.

 

On the lines issue, you hear lots of rumors when you are (im)patiently waiting. I heard the immigration guys were 45 minutes late. That would have obviously been a big factor. But my main concern was the almost total lack of Celebrity staff visible as the line snaked from the theater for at least 200 yards around the various roomson Deck 4. There were old ladies trying to hobble along, and many people who should not have been in that situation. The only staff member I saw was the Activities guy Quentin and he did a great job despite the unreasonable abuse I heard him cop. It is to his credit he was willing to face the mob. Maybe it will take for someone to collapse and sue for Celebrity to review their system.

 

My plan next time, assuming I don't have a flight to catch, is to have breakfast and stay in my cabin until they announce last call for immigration. I do not want to put myself through that again. My day ended with a 30 minute taxi wait and, inexcusably, a 45 minute wait in line for a Hertz rental car at Long Beach because one of the two agents went to lunch and wasn't replaced.

 

But now its all over and I'm reflecting on the good things of the cruise. It was awesome, as my younger friends say!

[pbcbbc]

When I was on the ship the last two weeks of September, the head chef was a German, named Dennis Starch. I guess he's still on board.

Denis is a great guy! I had a wonderful conversation with him and some other crew members late one night in the Persian Gardens. The funny part was that I didnt realize they were crew members until I was ready to leave, lol. Not one part of our conversation had to do with the cruise or the ship. We went on about cars, sports and the best parts of California and Germany. It was nice to get to know them personally without shop talk getting in the way. A true highlight of my cruise!

[janrj7]

Welcome back Jan and Michael.

We disembarked Summit the day you guys embarked and had exactly the same problem with timing. Over an hour sitting in the Cinema followed by a long wait for a shuttle to the airport. With 4 ships in port that AM, I kind of figured that was the problem. How many were in port yesterday?

 

And Jan, isn't Zihua great? Probably our favorite port in North/Central/South America. Love just sitting there with a cerveza and a view of the beach. Too bad that the majority of other cruise ports become clones of one another with the same hokey jewelry stores--even in Alaska.

 

Glad you all had a great time. We love Summit and her crew!

 

Hi EC! There were only 2 in port that I saw, an RC ship (Monarch?) and Summit. I couldn't agree more about Zihuatanejo; what an intriguing little town! And so refreshing NOT to see Diamonds Int'l, etc. all in a row. I just wish we could have stayed there longer!

 

Having cruise withdrawal today, sigh.

 

Jan

[steveod]

I agree that the disembarkation of the Summit on 10/10 was quite a fiasco. I think I did luck out compared to others however. It seems sometimes concierge class helps, as we had a 10:15am flight from Long Beach and we were allowed to disembark in the white group...the first one. granted, we did have to line up at 6:15am for immigration, which never happened until about 7:15am, however we were also about the 10th and 11th people off the ship and made our flight with time to spare. I agree with the post that refered to Quentin being overwhelmed with so many angry people and comments. He was almost mobbed as he was directing traffic to get off the ship!

 

I would say the disembarkation was mostly the fault of immigration, however, while lining up at 6:15am, we did notice that we didn't actually dock until 6:30 am or maybe even later. I don't understand why we docked late, considering we had two days to get back to LA.

 

This was my first Celebrity cruise, and I had wanted to try others, like Princess, however I am afraid to stray from Celebrity now and end up being dissapointed!

 

Steve

[steveod]

Sorry, posted my reply again accidently

[steveod]

Sorry, posted my reply again accidently

[Lsimon]

Hi to Jan, Michael and all of our other cruise friends from the Summit last week!

 

Despite the hurricane and loss of the Cabo port we had a fantastic time on the Summit. It was our third trip on the Summit. We've found that there is always something new we like on the ship - and sometimes something we enjoyed on a prior trip that was slightly less. All in all a great trip and we can't wait for our fourth Summit trip, to Hawaii, next March.

 

There were some nice reorganization in the Waterfal cafe with a new configuration for pizza and pasta and better hours for the Sushi bar.

 

The guitar player, usually at the open air Waterfall Bar aft of the cafe was fantastic - best we've seen on celebrity.

 

We were not disappointed that Cirque cancelled and were thrilled to find that the party band and related dancing has returned to the Bar at the Edge. The "Edge" has retained the Cirque decor, but we don't know if it will be a permanent feature. They even still had the masquarade party similar to White Night, butwith music and dancing to the party band. Unfortunately we were too tired to attend.

 

As usuall we enjoyed the company of our fellow CC cruise friends in the Martini Bar before dinner, especially Mike and Mary whom we met through the CC boards on the Summit last March.

 

We found the food at least as good as prior cruises and perhaps a tad better.

 

We also had the pleasure of being invited to the Captains table for dinner with the Staff captain. Quite and experiance. Not sure how we were selected. I think it was probably based on having the highest bar bill on our prior Summit cruise, either that or it was possibly the same reason that Blondie and Dagwood made it (look here http://home.comcast.net/~lfsimon/vpic/er-B-dinner.gif )

 

So all and all a great cruise, despite weather that was so-so. I will say that I didn't enjoy the ports themselves in that area of Mexico as much as the Caribbean and Cozumel, but that is my own preference and it might have been tainted by the weather. But the on board experiance was just what we wanted.

 

So regards to all you past and future Summiters!

[excitedofharpenden]

Larry and Sue, welcome home. I'm glad you had such a good time on Summit again. Loved the cartoon by the way:D

 

Phil

[janrj7]

Phil, I just sent you an email with the URL to my pics of 7208 ... let me know if you don't get it!

 

I know you will enjoy that cabin on your upcoming cruise!

 

Jan