Review of Oct 16 B2B on Summit - Part IV - Good, Bad, Inbetween

[jode]

So here are my final thoughts on our recent B2B. Overall Celebrity Summit was a very good experience. No it certainly did NOT exceed our expectations - maybe time for a new slogan. We are pretty easy cruisers - overlook a lot and are generally very happy to just be on a cruise. But some things really were frustrating such as:

 

1. How can they run out of 1/2 & 1/2 creamer barely 3 days into a cruise? Not the end of the world but it is our preference with our coffee. They tried to pass off filling the 1/2 & 1/2 pitchers with milk but we were finally told that they "ran out" and wouldn't have more until the next cruise.

 

Also - how can they run out of AA batteries two days into a cruise? Very common size for cameras they just shrugged when they told us they ran out.

 

This makes us wonder about ordering and storage. Are they cutting back on inventory so much as to run out very early on?

 

2. We spent way too much time at guest services trying to get our room cards recharged. In the two weeks we had to have our room cards recharged no less than 7 times - and they actually had to replace them completely at one point not because they were not opening our door but because they wouldn't allow us to charge anything on them - boy THAT got their attention! We were finally told that when we charged something in the shops, after the clerk ran the card through the reader it would often "disable" it so that we could not open our door. I guess maybe we DID shop too much because we were constantly having to have our cards recharged!

 

3. Staff cutbacks - I am sure this is universal in cruising now but Celebrity needs to figure out where to cut and where not. For example, the indoor pool area had NO towels in the bin well after 10 am most mornings. The beginning of the week they had placed towels on the chairs - nice touch - by the middle of the week not only were there no towels on the chairs (no big deal) but there were NO towels in the bin and people were walking around looking for towels after an early morning swim.

 

4. There is less staff in the buffet area generally we feel. The dishes of food are placed very deep and I am sure it is to discourage self service and they want you to have their staff serve you - I get that. However, several stations had no staff there and people were struggling to reach over platters of food to get the item they wanted in the back. Not efficient, customer friendly or hygenic. Also by 9:30 - 10 am every morning the coffee stations were a mess - yes people are not neat and on vacation have little interest in cleaning up after they spill something - so the coffee stations were puddles of coffee under the urns, puddles of milk etc under the dispensers, empty containers which should have had "clean" spoons to stir your coffee and the container of "dirty" spoons was so full people were just putting them on the counter, etc. I know it is impossible to keep up with the vast number of people serving themselves their beverage but it seemed that the staff there is so thin that they just don't have the number to do general clean up. On the other hand - the staff is SO efficient in removing your plate when "they" think you are done that they wisk it away prematurely in order to clean the table and turn it over to another person. Often my plate was removed while I was putting the last bite in my mouth!

 

5. Dinner options: We found the food to be generally good - but very few "WOW" items and the ones that were seemed to be ridiculously small. For example I ordered Scallop(s) Rockefeller one night - presentation was lovely - in a scallop shell, bed of spinach, lovely sauce and yes one scallop - about the size of a quarter. It was wonderful but truly a tease. I know I could have ordered another one (or two) but I hate to bother the waiter to have to put in another order and perhaps hold up serving the rest of our meal. The following week my husband ordered them because I had raved about them. Again one scallop in a shell - but his was the size of a quarter and mine was literally the size of a dime - guess that was Karma for me to complain about the previous one being too small!

 

Also one night the vegetable was broccoli florette and carrots - fine but it was literally ONE broccoli florette - barely a bite and looked ridiculous on the plate with 3 carrots tiny slices.

 

We agree that there is so much waste with food and the smaller portions are indeed appropriate - but "dinner" should not be a mere "taste" of something.

 

6. By the middle of the second week the sauna was barely registering 100 degrees. It was fine (if not as hot as I would prefer) up to that point but doesn't seemed to be checked or maintained. Also the large porthole is nice to sit in front of as you sauna - but the cracked and broken seal is not attractive and looks very unkept. Also our room (9039) looked very run down. Stains on the couch, one bathrobe had mysterious brown stains on the collar - almost like someone had worn it to dye their hair! Something that stained should never be put in a closet for a passenger to use. Many of our towels actually had holes in them - again how can Celebrity put their reputation on the line to furnish items that never should be put in guest rooms. Very poor impression to encourage repeat passengers. Also the drawers in our closet were misaligned or worn out, etc. You had to really yank them to get them out then had to practically use your foot to push them back in. This didn't make our cruise awful - just a sign that the Summit is old and tired and needs some TLC.

 

Now for the good!

 

1. Staff was amazingly friendly - every one of them. Eager to help you and always with a smile. Celebrity should be very proud of their staff.

 

2. We loved Al Bacio - nice cozy place to sit and very nice pastries all free. We kept trying to get one of the apple turnovers but every day they would be gone by the time we got there. Hint: I finally decided to go down very early one morning and got one and brought it with us to have with our breakfast in the buffet. This was brilliant because prior to that we would stop down later in the day when they were already gone. Well it was "brilliant" until we did it EVERY morning after that and my tight clothes now are a testiment to it maybe not being such a good idea!

 

3. The Summit has lots of wonderful cozy sitting areas - both inside and out. Very nice!

 

4. Getting on and off the ship was amazingly quick and painless - kudos to them for this!

 

5. Liked the buffet as a choice for dinner. We are typically MDR eaters for dinner but after experiencing the Top Chef menu the first week (and found it awful) we opted to go to the buffet for dinner when the Top Chef menu was served the second week. I had great stir fry for dinner -- but again they "ran out" of red pepers for the stir fry.

 

6. The beef dishes were consistently wonderful. One night I had a steak that seemed tough when I went to cut it but one bite proved that it was tender and flavorful.

 

7. On board shopping was fine - so fine that hubby bought two watches at very good prices and I got earrings and three pendants - all marked down and at very good prices. This is more than we have ever bought at one time and probably due to a lot of on board credit but also they had a good selection for what we wanted. I did find the "high end" jewelry shop to be very "high end" with not that much variety. But the "regular" jewelry shop had some nice reasonably priced items and very helpful staff.

 

8. Overall it was a wonderful two weeks although definitely not as "memorable" as our prior experiences with Celebrity have been in years past. I guess this is due to general cutbacks/changes in cruise lines. Also our choice of an older ship did not lend to a wow factor but more of a comfortable if tired looking old friend. In the future I think we would lean more towards a cruise at a reasonable price but with a newer ship.

 

Happy to answer any questions. Our cruise next April is a transatlantic on Royal Princess. This will be our first Princess cruise (of about 20 cruises) and we are looking forward to seeing how a cruise on that particular line compares to Celebrity.

[easyboy]

You are right. Cutbacks are now being practiced across the cruise industry.

Thanks for your review.

[Nanny8]

Jode,

Thanks for such a comprehensive review. I am sorry to hear that Summit has declined in many areas. We haven't been on it in over a year but our other trips were excellent.

Holes in towels and stained robes just doesn't sound like their usual standard and it seems that they are going very "budget" conscious. Unfortunate because we have preferred the Summit to other cruises.

As for the food review, thanks for updating us all. I love scallops and since I'm from Nova Scotia (and hubby's uncle owns a scallop dragger) we are very particular about our seafood. It's a shame that they have dropped the size of these wonderful morsels because it's one of my favorite foods (although I am very particular because I have a bias about our NS scallops and lobster). I will likely order them but I will make sure I order two right away so I can get more than just a taste ( we are living in Ontario now and rarely get any seafood here because it just isn't fresh enough).

The port reviews were great also. We are seeing lots of people talk about Martinique in the same fashion and are glad that we are renting a vehicle there so we can explore on our own rather than walk downtown.

One question though, did you have a hard time accessing the rooftop seating area? I would love to just sit and relax in an area like that and devour a good novel, but I wonder how many chair hogs there will be.

[Flatbush Flyer]

OP: sounds like it may be time to consider a move to Oceania.

[njdogmom]

My last Summit cruise was last year. It was a floating slum. Crappy food and severe understaffing in the buffet made eating there unpleasant. Bistro on 5 (before the sushi adventure) was taste-free and inedible. MDR understaffed, food good but cold, and service was extremely slow. We refer to that week as the Cruise from Hell. To their credit, the waiters, bartenders and stateroom attendants were helpful and extremely pleasant, except for the surly ones who were assigned to the buffet.

We have a lot of Celebrity cruises under our belts (Elite status), and are excited to be cruising on Silhouette (for the 5th time) in two weeks. We are not fussy, especially on vacation, and live to cruise but you couldn't pay me to cruise on Summit. Seriously.

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[Woobstr112G]

Thanks for taking the time to post your review......:):):)

 

Bob