Summit 12/8 review - good but not great

[AtlantaCruiser72]

I sailed on the Summit 12/8 cruise and wanted to share some thoughts and opinions with everyone.  I have previously sailed on numerous ships in the fleet, including the Mercury, Century, Infinity, Constellation, Solstice and Equinox, so feel I have a pretty broad range of experience with the vessels and brand.  The most recent was Equinox in December 2017, so not that long ago.

 

Lets start with the exceptional, and there was a large amount of that!  The staff could not have been more universally wonderful.  We had one of the best dining teams and cabin attendants I have experienced in years.  Our Wine Sommelier in the MDR, was new to the position and learning, but was exceptional in his attentiveness, making sure my preference of wine pairings was accommodated and timed correctly.  We took all of our evening meals in the MDR (8:30pm traditional seating) this cruise and were exceptionally pleased with the quality of foods and the service.  Beyond the MDR the smiles were in evidence wherever we went and the staff could not have done more to please, with rare exception (more on staffing levels in the bad category however).  I was uniformly pleased with the food quality, selection and freshness throughout all of the venues (MDR, Oceanview Cafe, Cafe al Bacio and Pool Grill).  Entertainment by and large was of a very good quality, though I felt sorry for the entertainers as they were programmed poorly (and often played to near empty venues - odd timings/locations) by a less than stellar Cruise Director.  That said - the available live music was diverse and enjoyable and should have had better audiences than they did.  The production cast was of a good quality and the specialty acts (magician and acapella group specifically) were entertaining and engaging.  I really want to applaud the Celebrity casting team who chose the performers for the shows - they chose based on TALENT - the two female lead singers and one of the male singers were not he usual stick figure Barbie/Ken doll types and one of the female dancers was proudly, beautifully, bald.  It was wonderful to see a cast of talented and diverse persons!  BRAVO!  Also I want to applaud the creative team for their attempt at putting together an original 45 minute musical (Chandelier).  While it won't win any Tony awards it was creative and different and a pleasant entertainment.  The other two production shows were equally as enjoyable.

 

Now the just so/so .........  a lot of this relates to the cruise director and his staff.  First the volume of the music in the theater/pool area was simply deafening.  I like loud music, I enjoy a lively pool scene, but when I have to literally SCREAM at my mom while trying to get burgers and sort tables by the pool grill it is simply just too loud.  It was the same deafening volume whether it was a member of the Cruise Directors staff leading an activity, canned musak, or live band.  I feel if it had been turned down just a few notches that I would have spent more time by the main pool.  Similar experience in thew main theatre - the amplification of the production shows was at such a volume that it would give me headaches.  This was especially evident with the acapella group, who might have been very good, but were ear-splittingly over amplified.  Secondly, the cruise director had a poor planning of live music.  When coming out from the early show at 7:45ish there would only be one live music act, which was the excellent guitarist performing in the main atrium.  The string quartet, the two bands and the piano vocal duo all would be on break during the 745-815 timeframe which makes no sense whatsoever as this is when most people would go to one of the lounges for a pre-dinner cocktail.  Better would have been the breaks be more staggered and have at least 2-3 venues with live music at any time, especially peak times before and after shows while folks are waiting or just finished with dinner.  Also, other than theme nights in the Revelations lounge, there were few to no evening audience participation game-show type activities compared to other sailings I've had on Celebrity.  The ship was pretty dead in the evenings outside the Martini Bar.  

 

Now the bad, and it will be brief.  There was the hardest push for Specialty dining sales I have ever seen on any ship.  They simply were EVERYWHERE - slithering through the MDR during meals, in the buffet at any and all hours, roving the pool decks, at the elevator lobby during disembarkation and embarkation at the ports.  They were aggressive with their push and would consistently interrupt peoples conversations, and step in front of people to stop them walking to try and hawk their dining .....  The pricing they were pushing was not much different than normal (which I feel is too high) and from all reports the venues were practically empty.  I even had THREE vm on my in-room phone from the Captains Club host offering to assist with Specialty Dining and what a "great" offer he had for me to dine in Q-Sine at 10% off!   This was a BIG sour note in an otherwise enjoyable cruise.  The other area I'd put into the bad column was staffing levels in the bars - there simply are not enough staff, even when the lounges are virtually empty it can be difficult to get table service.  The staff that are there are doing their best, but there is just not enough of them.  I know a large portion of this is staffing cutbacks from corporate, but it creates a less than stellar experience, and keeps guests from wanting to use the lounges.

 

Overall the ship was in good repair and the staff were doing an admirable job of keeping her up, especially considering she is going in for a significant revamp in February.  I have always enjoyed the Millennium class ships, but it is time for a major overhaul, as the ship just feels a little tired.  I'm glad I got to sail the Summit before she is totally redone, but she's ready .......

 

As I said earlier - the VERY good to EXCELLENT far outweighed the negatives for me and I look forward to another cruise on this class of ship in the near future!

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review!

[Atwell]

Thank you for your review.  We will be on the Summit for the Jan 5 and Jan 17 sailings.  I am glad to hear that the staff is trying hard, as always, to please their guests.  That will be enough to make us happy.  We will ignore the other distractions such as the hard sell of the Speciality dining.  We have sailed the Summit numerous times during the past 5+ years she has been sailing from San Juan and have always enjoyed the staff and the ship.  Only a little over a week to wait!

Edited December 28, 2018 by Atwell
correct misspelling

[Silkroad]

Thanks for your review. It’s a pity the lounges were short staffed. We had a simply lovely time in Summit’s lounges 18 months ago, but they were fully staffed at that time. I empathize with you about the ear-splitting music. We had that problem on a different ship (in the OVC) and it took numerous passenger complaints to get the volume reduced to a reasonable level. Despite some wear and tear, she’s a lovely ship. It will be interesting to see the changes after her next dry dock.

[DaCruiseBug]

It’s sad to hear that on a ship with prices more then double what you’d pay on the NCL Bliss or MSC Seaside you still have such a crew shortage. Where’s the money going? Jeez!

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for taking the time to post your comments.

[PRH]

We were on this cruise.  Agree about the loudness.  Complaining doesn’t seem to make a difference.  Now I will say, there were a lot of young adults on this cruise and th3 subsequent one so perhaps this is part of trying to attract them.

 

in addition, there was no question of short staffing.  Crew were very friendly and trying to be cheerful but were clearly overwhelmed.  Our sommelier in Lumanae was obviously new in his position and recommendations were “party line.”  No imagination or depth of knowledge.  He was the only sommelier in Lumanae and it looked like he floated between Lumanae and MDR.  We often got only one pour of wine because he was nowhere to be seen.  In the buffet, we were never approached for drink service.  You had to go to the bar and wait for the single bartender to make your order.  Our Lumanae waiter was at breakfast and dinner and also behind the line in the buffet at lunch—talk about a loooooong day!  Food delivery was typically very slow—even when we were among very few people there.

 

i will commend the Summit captain and CD for continued updates on the port strike.  In addition, it was clear things had been thought thru.  Housekeeping was sent to the luggage room and all luggage was brought up to deck 4 for passengers to claim and walk off.  Not only that, cabins were ready early and embarking passengers were delayed only half an hour!  Many commented that if they hadn’t received the email notification, they wouldn’t have even been aware there had been a problem.  Our steward was exhausted from the very early morning drama but felt that they had been well supported.  The martini bar bartender wasn’t even aware of the strike!

 

We won a dinner for two at the b2b gathering for Quisine—actually two certificates so we gave one to a couple we met in line at embarkation and had dinner the last night together.  Very good food but overwhelming.  The filet was excellent. 

 

We loved the Summit (our first cruise on her) and her Oceanliner feel.  It was  unfortunate that obvious short staffing created problems in bar and food service.

[tallnthensome]

I’m glad to read that they were desperate for specialty dining customers. Maybe they’ll learn that people are wising up and no longer willing to pay high prices for food when high prices for cruise fare has already been paid. Maybe they’ll get the hint. The new MSC Seaside had pushy sales people and their specialty restaurants were empty as well. 

[Alsmez]

Thanks for your review. We are sailing the Summit in May and I'll be interested to see if any of these issues improve after the drydock/renovation. This will be our first time on an M-class ship after four enjoyable cruises on S-class (Equinox, Silhouette and Reflection). We typically sail in a standard balcony with a dining package because we prefer not to eat in the MDR, but in this case we decided to book a Sky Suite for Luminae given that there are only two specialty restaurants on Summit (not to mention that the two options are Qsine and Tuscan, which have both failed to impress on our last two S-class cruises). I agree that the price of specialty dining is too high unless you get a significant discount or buy a package, and that is especially true if there is no Murano or Sushi on 5 in the mix.

[davekathy]

Thanks for posting your opinions and experiences. 

[Zoedokey]

We just returned from an Infinity cruise and the pushing of specialty dining was just awful there as well.  The galley tour could have been interesting but was a sales pitch and I would never take another.

 

The roving drink service was really good though.