Celebrity Summit review April 23 - May 1, 2016

[conquesodor]

Celebrity Summit

April 23 - May 1, 2016

8 Day repositioning cruise from San Juan to Bayonne.

 

Ports: San Juan, Puerto Rico; St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands; St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles; King's Wharf, Bermuda; Bayonne, New Jersey

 

Veranda cabin # 6094

 

This was my 3rd cruise with Celebrity and the first time for my fiancé. We both had a fantastic time and our overall experience with Celebrity and Summit was very good. I don’t have a detailed, day by day review to offer you, but I’ll highlight some of my key impressions for the things that matter most to us. I meant to post this review sooner, but having just booked my next Celebrity cruise, it has prompted me to finally do it. I’ll share a link to a gallery of some photos from our trip and will do my best to answer any questions.

 

Summit is a lovely ship and she met our needs almost perfectly. We had read about the refurb and can say that Summit was in great shape. Our deck 6 veranda cabin was clean and well maintained, although cabins such as these and other areas that were not part of the refurb showed some graceful signs of age. The only unpleasant thing we noticed the entire trip was a funky smell in the corridor outside our cabin on a few occasions. There was a heavy duty dehumidifier running in the area on the same days, so perhaps there was a plumbing issue, but thankfully it was only apparent a couple times and only in the corridor.

 

We really enjoyed this itinerary, with its mix of caribbean ports and Bermuda. We arrived one day early in San Juan and had a very nice stay at the Marriott in the Condado section of the city. We arranged ahead of time to take the “Flavors of San Juan” food and culture walking tour, which was fun and educational. It made for a great way to spend the day before boarding the ship. We booked two Celebrity excursions, snorkeling in St. Thomas and kayaking in Bermuda - both excellent. We did St. Martin and most of Bermuda on our own, which worked out great. We ate a particularly memorable lunch at Le Chanteclair bistro on Marina Port Royale in Marigot.

 

Speaking of memorable dining, I’ll disclose that I’m a pretty good cook and a foodie who has sometimes eaten in world class restaurants, so food and wine on board were important considerations. That said, I also understand that a kitchen pumping out thousands of meals a day isn’t going to serve food with the meticulous care that a small, fine dining restaurant can achieve. However, we still felt that the food overall was quite good, especially considering what we paid for it and the challenges that serving food on a cruise ship entails. There may have been the occasional dish here or there that was disappointing, but we generally enjoyed ourselves and ate some terrific meals. I’ll go into a little more specific detail below.

 

The quality of the food in the main dining room was usually very good and lived up to what I’ve come to expect from Celebrity in the past. It seemed as if Celebrity has taken to offering smaller portions in the MDR than I recall previously, but I don’t necessarily think this is a bad thing. I actually enjoyed the experience of ordering the full range of courses and not feeling like I was overdoing it. Considering how easy it is to eat as much as you want on board, I can’t fault them on what is perhaps a sensible way to cut back on waste. I should mention here that we went with “Celebrity Select” flexible seating and we always requested a table for two. We usually went to dinner around 7pm and only once did we have to wait more than 5 minutes for a table (which was about 20 minutes). We ate a few breakfasts and a lunch in the MDR, which were enjoyable as well. Carmello, one of the servers in the MDR, was exceptionally good.

 

Our feelings on the Oceanview Cafe are a bit more mixed. Most of the time there was a nice selection of food offered, much of which was quite tasty. However, at times we were surprised to find sections that were either closed or had been severely depleted. One evening we were hoping to enjoy the salad bar, only to find that the greens were all gone. Crew went off to try to bring more up, but if it came, it was long after we had given up. (It was probably after 8pm, for what that’s worth). There was plenty of food during peak hours, but the crowds sometimes made the experience difficult to enjoy.

 

We tried all three of the upcharge restaurants, which was our first time eating in either Qsine, Bistro on 5, or Tuscan Grille. My only previous experience with upcharge dining was in the Olympic restaurant on the Millennium in 2008. I ate dinner there with four other members of my family and we all opted for the wine pairing option. The entire evening, from the food, to the service, and the ambiance, was exceptional and is recalled fondly by all of us to this day. Needless to say, this set a very high level of expectation for what Celebrity can and should offer for an alternative extra fee restaurant.

 

After the Millennium, I sailed on the Mercury, which did not have any alternative dining, so I was really looking forward to dining in Normandie on the Summit - that is until they removed it during the recent dry dock and replaced it with Tuscan Grille. This was very disappointing, but I was still hoping that the same level of excellence would be evident. Unfortunately, Tuscan Grille fell far short of the special dining experience that it should have been. Whereas the Olympic restaurant was elegant and classy, the Tuscan Grille was very contemporary and understated. A more modern ambiance isn’t necessarily a bad thing and it’s hard to quantify exactly why it was underwhelming, but in this case it simply didn’t feel distinctive, inviting, or special. Another factor was the quality of the service, which wasn’t nearly as personal, attentive, or polished as was evident in Olympic. In fact, the dining room was less than half full, yet the service felt kind of flat, almost aloof at times. Finally, while the food was prepared well and of good quality, the Italian steak house menu wasn’t particularly inspired. In other words, Celebrity replaced Normandie with a restaurant experience that isn’t hard to find back home in the States, whereas Olympic (and it’s sister restaurants) were each unique and offered guests a truly special experience. Going further, I should say that even if I didn’t have Olympic as my yardstick of comparison, I still wouldn’t have been particularly impressed with our time in Tuscan Grille.

 

Thankfully, our experiences in Qsine and Bistro on 5 were both much more enjoyable. If it had been up to me, we wouldn’t have tried Qsine, as it seemed kind of gimmicky in concept and I worried it was more style than substance. However, my fiancé wanted to try it and Summit was offering a discount, so we booked it. I’m happy to say that I was very pleasantly surprised with how good the food was, as well as the quality of the service and general ambiance of the dining room. Our waiter “Madee” (not certain of the spelling) was very warm, engaging, and eager to please, which helped make the entire meal that much enjoyable. We tried Bistro on 5 for dinner on a different evening and had an extremely good time there as well. There were very few people eating dinner there (I later learned it’s much more popular at lunchtime for some reason), so it felt like we had the place to ourselves. One of our servers was Annamaria and she was a delight. I had the tuna tartar and the cowboy crepe, both of which were outstanding.

 

A few negatives that deserve calling out:

 

We did not enjoy the DJ party atmosphere that took over the center of the ship in the evening. The loud dance club music detracted from the ambiance of decks 4, 5, and 6. You could hear the music well inside Tuscan Grille, and detracted from enjoying an after dinner special coffee drink at Cafe al Bacio. We liked the martini bar, but avoided it when the DJ was playing. There already is upbeat music playing at Crush, so Celebrity really should leave the DJ for venues that are more isolated.

 

I dId not appreciate the hard sell of drink packages immediately upon embarkation and throughout the first evening of the cruise. Thankfully, this disappeared the rest of the cruise. (This cruise hadn’t qualified for the go-better-best promotions offered on many others, so perhaps they don’t always do this?)

 

The ship's photographers and the costs for photographs were disappointing / outrageous. We opted to get our pictures taken on many occasions, but found that we liked very few of the shots taken of us. We only found a few pictures that we truly loved and thought the prices very expensive and options to acquire them limited. Having recently vacationed at Disney World, we found the flexibility and convenience of their program far superior.

 

I wish Celebrity offered more / better information on ports of call. I generally like to research destinations ahead of time, but I still would have liked to have seen handouts or presentations that gave more practical advice or historical / cultural knowledge about each location. It seemed that most of what is offered passengers is either promoting Celebrity’s own excursions or where you “should” go shop. This is of limited value to those of us who want to explore on our own and have a more authentic experience.

 

Returning now to the good stuff:

 

Some of our favorite places on the ship were the Sunset bar and Cellar Masters. The bar staff here were excellent and we also enjoyed the musicians that frequented these two locations - a folksy guitar player and a guitar/singer duo. (I did miss the string quartet that was on previous Celebrity cruises.)

 

Cafe al Bacio was wonderful and was visited by us once or twice every day.

 

We loved our veranda (aka balcony) and relished having room service breakfast there on many mornings and drinking wine there almost every night. :D

 

The thalassotherapy pool area was lovely.

 

Seeing some of the other overgrown cruise ships in port, with what appear to be entire amusement parks stuck on top of them, made me appreciate Celebrity even more! :eek: :)

 

Service across the ship was generally friendly and courteous. This was particularly noticeable on a few occasions when some of our fellow passengers were witnessed being rude or obnoxious to crewmembers that nevertheless maintained their composure.

 

I hope you found this review helpful or interesting. While I highlight some of my disappointments and gripes, I hope you won't think that we have any regrets about Summit or choosing Celebrity. We loved our time on the Summit and are looking forward to future sailings with Celebrity!

 

As promised, here is a link to a photo album of some pictures from our trip. It’s not everything we saw or did, but with a few exceptions focuses on life on the Summit.

 

Album: https://flic.kr/s/aHskK3i3cE

[twinsbur]

Thanks for the great pictures and the review!!:D

Edited October 18, 2016 by twinsbur

[Stteenvoern]

I was on the cruise with my husband, too! Didn't find myself in any of your pictures, but glad you enjoyed! We had a blast!

[CruiserN1]

Great photos! Looking forward to our cruise on Summit next month.

[LucasLounger1]

Thanks for the review. We are on this cruise next April.

[lvz2cruz]

I am interested in the same sailing this year.

We love Bermuda and wonder if you were able to swim there. We have been mid to late May and I think the water is fine though many do not.

Were there a lot of people in the ocean when you were there?

Thank you and thanks for the review.

[quaker77]

Thanks for the review and great pics feel almost there. April seems so far us to enjoy the Summit

[Stteenvoern]

I am interested in the same sailing this year.

We love Bermuda and wonder if you were able to swim there. We have been mid to late May and I think the water is fine though many do not.

Were there a lot of people in the ocean when you were there?

Thank you and thanks for the review.

 

It was too chilly for the water this year, but if the weather goes the right way, I'm sure it's happened before!

[kenevenpar]

We were on the May 8 sailing, and had no problem going in the ocean at Horseshoe. The beach was actually fairly crowded.

[hogwildcruzers]

Beautiful photos, will be sailing to Bermuda on the Summit for our 12th anniversary in May, thanks for posting this review and pics!

[bazbov]

Hello and thank you for posting your review. :)

[I_r_a]

Thanks for sharing, C

 

Ira

[tweetylori]

Loved your review and pics...especially the food parts, thank you! What were your favorites in Qsine?

[conquesodor]

I am interested in the same sailing this year.

We love Bermuda and wonder if you were able to swim there. We have been mid to late May and I think the water is fine though many do not.

Were there a lot of people in the ocean when you were there?

Thank you and thanks for the review.

 

I'm not sure what the exact temp of the water was when we were there April 28-29, but googling the average temp says that it is around 70 degrees at that time of year, which seems about right. We never went swimming, exactly, but after our afternoon kayaking excursion we had a little time to relax and I spent a good part of it up to my knees / waist, which felt wonderful to me. Of course, we had been out for several hours under the sun and the air temp was in the low 70s. (according to one web site, the average water temp range for April - May is 67-74 degrees.)

 

We went to Horseshoe Bay around 5pm and most of the crowds were leaving when we arrived. When we left, just before sunset, we had the place nearly to ourselves. It was lovely. My guess is it would be very different earlier in the day.

 

See attachments for pics of both scenes I describe. :)

[conquesodor]

Loved your review and pics...especially the food parts, thank you! What were your favorites in Qsine?

 

Thanks! :)

 

I don't remember anything from Qsine that we didn't enjoy. We ordered the amount of courses recommended for the two of us and we were stuffed by the end! We made choices that seemed like the best 'bang for the buck', meaning we skipped things like the tacos, sliders, or disco shrimp, that could easily be found back home. The items we had were:

 

Sushi Lollipops

Tresviche (ceviche 3 ways)

Lobster Escargot

Painters Mignon (filet mignon with 5 different sauces)

Lava Crab

"Share for two or more Patlican Salata" (Mixed Olives – Tzatziki – Eggplant Imambiyaldi Tabbouleh – Hummus – Chicken Kofta – Zathaar Lamb Chops – Kibbeh Mediterranean Chili – Falafel – Goat Cheese Cigars)

Chocolate Tombstone

[Cinerama]

Thanks for the review and pictures. We will be on the Summit 4/30.

[tweetylori]

That is exactly the kind of tactic we would do if we try Qsine on our upcoming Silhouette cruise. All sounds good, thanks again!