March 30, 2019 review of Summit

[MightyMike]

It never felt crowded. No matter what the activity, it felt like there was always extra capacity. This was for a full spring break cruise too!

 

We were always able to secure good seats in the theater 15 minutes before the shows.

 

It often felt like I was swimming upstream at the buffet with others going the opposite direction, but I chalked that up to the nature of a buffet. We never had to work to find an open table.

 

The dining room was full, but tables were often vacant due to passengers going to the buffet or a specialty restaurant instead. The lines waiting for Select dining seemed to be small and controlled.

 

Cafe al Bacio had some lines in the morning but that was mostly due to the time it takes them to make each fresh coffee.

 

I tried to provide a balanced review of the Summit because it does have some areas that need attention, but crowding is not one of them. If crowds are your main concern, I honestly believe you will be impressed with the Summit.

 

Yes, they added more cabins, but they also reduced capacity of numerous existing cabins by replacing sofa beds with sofas. For example, our stateroom capacity was reduced from 4 to 3. Many 3-person rooms are now reduced to 2. Summit's increased passenger capacity might be less than you think.

 

The room might look cold from photographs, but I did not get that feeling at all inside. The colors are more gray, but what the photographs fail to pick up are the textures and lighting. The walls have texture. Lighting comes up from a gap in the wall behind the bed. 

 

The library is gone, but there are numerous quiet places on decks 4 and 5--including an area with books shown here.

[PhoenixCruiser]

Thanks Mike!

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[trucker den]

I was on the same sailing. I also didn’t think it felt crowded. Except at the bar at rendezvous lounge or cellar masters before dinner or cafe al bacio in the morning. But I don’t think it was as bad as some people are complaining about. I never waited more than a couple of minutes for a drink.  

[FlorenceItaly]

8 hours ago, MightyMike said:

It never felt crowded. No matter what the activity, it felt like there was always extra capacity. This was for a full spring break cruise too!

 

We were always able to secure good seats in the theater 15 minutes before the shows.

 

It often felt like I was swimming upstream at the buffet with others going the opposite direction, but I chalked that up to the nature of a buffet. We never had to work to find an open table.

 

The dining room was full, but tables were often vacant due to passengers going to the buffet or a specialty restaurant instead. The lines waiting for Select dining seemed to be small and controlled.

 

Cafe al Bacio had some lines in the morning but that was mostly due to the time it takes them to make each fresh coffee.

 

I tried to provide a balanced review of the Summit because it does have some areas that need attention, but crowding is not one of them. If crowds are your main concern, I honestly believe you will be impressed with the Summit.

 

Yes, they added more cabins, but they also reduced capacity of numerous existing cabins by replacing sofa beds with sofas. For example, our stateroom capacity was reduced from 4 to 3. Many 3-person rooms are now reduced to 2. Summit's increased passenger capacity might be less than you think.

 

The room might look cold from photographs, but I did not get that feeling at all inside. The colors are more gray, but what the photographs fail to pick up are the textures and lighting. The walls have texture. Lighting comes up from a gap in the wall behind the bed. 

 

The library is gone, but there are numerous quiet places on decks 4 and 5--including an area with books shown here.

This is a great space.  Thank you.  I may have missed it if not for you.

[Ereggae]

17 hours ago, MightyMike said:

 

6016 - 6030 even numbers

6021 - 6035 odd numbers

 

They are forward-most eight cabins on each side of deck 6.

 

Even though they are the lowest-priced balcony category (2C), the balcony is twice the size of other standard balconies.

 

Thanks Mike.  Appreciate the prompt response.

[MightyMike]

21 hours ago, MightyMike said:

 

6016 - 6030 even numbers

6021 - 6035 odd numbers

 

They are forward-most eight cabins on each side of deck 6.

 

Even though they are the lowest-priced balcony category (2C), the balcony is twice the size of other standard balconies.

 

One minor clarification:

 

The Sweet Sixteen cabins are the forward-most eight balcony cabins on each side of deck 6.

 

There are some window cabins further forward.

[BarbinMich]

Thanks for your review, MightyMike!  We were last on the Summit in 9/2015 for a 10-day Can/NE cruise out of Boston and she was in desperate need of refurbishing, especially the buffet where we eat all our meals on a cruise.  So glad to hear about and see the result!  We had first been on her in Jan 2003 when she was less than 2 years old and we were very impressed!

[MightyMike]

On 4/8/2019 at 8:56 PM, maggieq said:

Interesting that a best western scores higher than the summit. 

 

Point taken. They were graded with different scales and different expectations.

 

My expectation for Best Western was for value. They exceeded that expectation.

 

My expectation for the Summit was for near perfection. I'm a tough grader!

[Swordfish1949]

Thanks MightyMike for the review - we're on the Summit next year to Greenland/Iceland/Ireland.

 

[kirbymuxloe]

hi mike

thanks for review we are in 6030 too in June on independence cruise. lovely to see pictures.

maggie

[hcat]

On 4/10/2019 at 6:43 AM, FlorenceItaly said:

This is a great space.  Thank you.  I may have missed it if not for you.

Been awhile since we were on Summit.  Can't quite place this location..It looks nice for reading....

 

Is this the entrance  way to the lounge/bar? I see a drink menu on the table

Edited April 18, 2019 by hcat

[FlorenceItaly]

2 minutes ago, hcat said:

Been awhile since we were on Summit.  Can't quite place this location..It looks nice for reading....

Is this the entrance  way to the lounge/bar?

I believe it is near the Rendevous Lounge.  We will be on the Summit in June, will let you know.

[Twice_a_year]

On 4/9/2019 at 9:33 PM, JCMass. said:

We are considering Celebrity for the first time, they are going to Canada both from Boston to Maine and then Canada and back.   The itinerary looks great, there is an overnight in Quebec.   We have done this cruise just 7 days on the Serenade of the Seas and really enjoyed it.  The idea of 12 days and more ports is appealing to us, and leaving from Boston we can drive.  

 

I have seen that the Summit has been to dry dock, and added more cabins and taken away public space.  I saw photo's of the new decor all the grey seemed cold a dreary. When Royal Caribbean did this on the Serenade of the Seas it became more crowded especially in the MDR, and pool area.  They took out the library which was missed, and took away space in the dining room for cabins adding to the crowding.    I understand they were trying to appeal to a younger crowd.   We thought we might try Celebrity,  the cost is higher, we don't want to pay more for the same thing.  

 

We have been on Royal Caribbean and Norwegian, and enjoy both for different reason, but we always travel on the smaller ships.   We are retired and enjoy relaxing on a cruise.  Would we be disappointed on the Summit, does  it feel crowded ?  

 

 

We had the pleasure to sail on the Summit on the R/T 12 day  Cape Liberty going to Quebec. This was before the refurbishing and we really enjoyed the size of this vessel. We have been on over 40 cruises that encompassed itineraries all over the world and keep this cruise in our top 10. Hope that you have a similar experience.   

[JCMass.]

We decided against taking this cruise.  We had booked the Canada cruise on the Serenade of the Seas for September 2020 out of Boston, and tried to cancel and transfer the deposit to the Summit cruise just a few days later.  

 

Unlike in the past Royal Caribbean would only let us transfer part of the deposit to another RCI cruise $700.00 we would not get the other $200. refunded at all.  We were charged a $900.00 deposit for a balcony cabin, much higher than ever before.   Then we would have to book the Celebrity Summit cruise another $900.00 deposit.   All this for 2 more days in Quebec, other than that the cruises were the same.  

 

What happened to getting your deposit back until final payment ?  Why such huge deposits ?  Since RCI and Celebrity are part of one larger company you would think they would allow changing at this point more than a year before the cruise.  They lost out on some loyal customers taking a longer and more expensive cruise because of these recent changes.  

[Aralim]

@JCMass., the $900 deposit ($450 per person) is standard for all sailings 9 days or longer. That’s spelled out in the minimum deposit info on both Royal’s and X’s site (albeit hard to find without a Google search).

 

As for not getting back $200 of your initial deposit, it sounds like you were booked on Serenade with a non-refundable deposit. Did you self book on Royal’s web site? Some time back they changed the site so that deposits defaulted to non-refundable, and required you to explicitly check a box on the next-to-last page of the booking sequence to indicate you wanted a refundable deposit (which would also bump up the price by a couple hundred dollars).

[JCMass.]

Thanks for your answer.  We booked through a travel agent, and I just looked at our confirmation and in small print it does say that we would forfeit $100.00 if we tried to change anything, the date or ship.  I missed that.  I understand that part of the reason for this was to discourage customers who were booking many cruises, with the intent of only taking one, they wanted to keep their options open.  

Edited April 20, 2019 by JCMass.

[hcat]

On 4/18/2019 at 6:55 AM, FlorenceItaly said:

I believe it is near the Rendevous Lounge.  We will be on the Summit in June, will let you know.

Thank you...will be appreciated

We never noticed those big round windows before!

[Swordfish1949]

Thanks for the review - we're on the Summit in 2020 to Greenland/Iceland/Ireland.

[elaineb]

Mighty Mike -  We were on the Summit the week before you.  My observations are similar.  The food was okay, but as our first Celebrity cruise, we were expecting oh so much more due to the hype.  It was really on par with Royal and Carnival.  We did not do any specialty dining, though.  We loved the ship overall - very pretty and I liked the size, not too big.  We loved the Solarium area and those bubbling pipes in the pool were great!  We enjoyed the shows and the Trivia.  However, the Trivia could have been better organized.  But since we were the first cruise after the refurb, we are giving Celebrity a little leeway.  As for the bar servers - all overworked and it took forever to get a drink!  We had those terrible chairs in the dining room - so uncomfortable and hard to move!  Our server brought me a second pillow on the 2nd night, and by the 3rd night, I added my airplane pillow.  And just a note - if you want extra copies of the daily paper, just as your room steward.  On a side note - our steward was sub-par and ended up in a future cruise credit for us.  Again, disappointed, as I have much better service on Royal and Carnival.  But the negatives did not in any way outweigh the positives.  We have booked another Celebrity cruise next October on the Equinox.😊

[davekathy]

3 minutes ago, elaineb said:

Mighty Mike -  We were on the Summit the week before you.  My observations are similar.  The food was okay, but as our first Celebrity cruise, we were expecting oh so much more due to the hype.  It was really on par with Royal and Carnival.  We did not do any specialty dining, though.  We loved the ship overall - very pretty and I liked the size, not too big.  We loved the Solarium area and those bubbling pipes in the pool were great!  We enjoyed the shows and the Trivia.  However, the Trivia could have been better organized.  But since we were the first cruise after the refurb, we are giving Celebrity a little leeway.  As for the bar servers - all overworked and it took forever to get a drink!  We had those terrible chairs in the dining room - so uncomfortable and hard to move!  Our server brought me a second pillow on the 2nd night, and by the 3rd night, I added my airplane pillow.  And just a note - if you want extra copies of the daily paper, just as your room steward.  On a side note - our steward was sub-par and ended up in a future cruise credit for us.  Again, disappointed, as I have much better service on Royal and Carnival.  But the negatives did not in any way outweigh the positives.  We have booked another Celebrity cruise next October on the Equinox.😊

Thanks for confirming that. Plus they are ridiculous looking. What was Celebrity thinking.  We would have asked to be moved. Did you have SD or TD? 

[elaineb]

17 hours ago, davekathy said:

Thanks for confirming that. Plus they are ridiculous looking. What was Celebrity thinking.  We would have asked to be moved. Did you have SD or TD? 

We had TD.  We were with my brother and his wife and they liked where we were - next to the large window, so we didn't ask to be moved.  The dining room was pretty full.  

[TeeRick]

MightyMike- thanks for the review, pictures and follow up answers.  Much appreciated.  We took Summit a couple of years ago out of NJ for Canada/NE and it was a great cruise.  I am eager to try her again now with the refurbishment.

[MightyMike]

Royal Caribbean has similar-looking oversized chairs in a specialty restaurant.

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/photos/ships/oasis-of-the-seas-368/150-central-park-162890/

[hcat]

1 hour ago, MightyMike said:

Royal Caribbean has similar-looking oversized chairs in a specialty restaurant.

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/photos/ships/oasis-of-the-seas-368/150-central-park-162890/

They look hideous..  and reviews say they are uncomfortable and very heavy to move to get in and out of.  Maybe X can send them over to Royal C and get something more comfortable...

 

A big negative on EDGE was chair and sofa selection....Many were not comfy, not ergonomic , had  no arms and  were too low to the ground.. even in BLU, the chairs needed a back pillow..seats were too deep.

[MamaFej]

Thanks for the review! We are looking forward to our first Caribbean cruise and our first time on Summit in January.

 

By the way, my kids (17, 20, and 23) LOVE Pink Floyd (and Queen, and Led Zeppelin, and BonJovi)... the youngest flew up to MT to visit the oldest for spring break where they attended and loved a Styx concert.