Just off Summit - Nov 2nd

[cruisin 07]

Over the years have gained so much from CC forums. Thought I do a little pay back.

 

Embarkation: Arrived terminal 10:05 AM: 25 people in front of us. Not checking luggage or boarding until 11 AM was informed. At 10:30 about 50 people in line. They let those that had lined up early before they put out signs – like us – that were in the no luggage line go inside and check in if you were doing self-boarding. In other words, not checking any luggage. After this we were the only ones in the no luggage line with 4 bags to check. I know 4 is a lot but 2 were all my scuba and camera gear. I tipped porter $10 and he checked in our luggage. They started checking luggage at 10:45. Check in was a breeze with preprinted boarding passes and then waited to board. Very limited seating. Maybe 40 seats. 11:05 they let us board.

 

Could go to room and drop off your carry on. All rooms ready at 1 PM. Our luggage delivered at 2 PM.

 

Drill at 4:45 PM

 

Summit: Really enjoyed the ship. The only time felt crowded was sea days around pool. Did see crew members walking around pool picking up used towels on chairs that didn’t have any personal items on them. Décor was pleasing to the eye and crew always cleaning. Crew seemed happy to be on board. Always said hello when passing by. Plenty of bar servers walking around pool area and Oceanview Café.

 

Cabin 8088 a concierge class. Got it because of better location at same cost at purchase time of Veranda cabin. Very quiet cabin and great location. Received 2 bottles of wine, 1 boarding day and the other ½ through the cruise. Didn’t drink it. The only amenity we use was the requested cheese tray which arrive about 2 pm. Best when covered with plastic wrap vice metal plate cover. Stayed fresher.

 

Photo’s:  Dining Room ones $20 each. All others $25 each when purchased without a package.

 

Celebrity App. This is great. Did our pre boarding check in on it.  And once on the ship sign up at no cost. You have all types of info available. Ship deck plans, what’s happening throughout the day, when things open, menus at main dining room, your booked excursions and so much more.

 

Drink Package. We up graded to the Premium Package. Specify the liquor brand or you get the well brand. Can order doubles. No time limit between orders. Could order drink, water and soda at same time. Used a Yetti some bartenders would take the Yetti to make the drink others said you had to pour it into it from the glass. If that was the case, I would get my drink (a double) and a glass of ice and a coke and fill the Yetti  myself. Always asked for bottle water and sodas when ordering drinks to keep cabin stocked. Also, would order double shots neat to have in cabin. This way when back from diving I could make a drink while cleaning my gear.

 

Cruise critic meet and greet was at 9:30 am first sea day. All Department Heads of the ship were there and introduced by the captain. Met other CC members and could ask questions of crew members.

 

Cruise Critic Slot Pull: 32 participates at $15 each with 5 pulls each on Wheel of Fortune. Everyone doubled their money. Celebrity put up prizes for the 5 highest individual amounts. Think the highest was $100 in slot play.

 

Food: We are not foodies and really enjoyed everything we ordered. The one exception was the veal. Maybe because I never really eat it and wanted to try something different. All meats were cooked exactly as ordered and quite good.

 

     Oceanview Cafe: Not only did they have hand sanitizing stations when entering but also full-size sinks to wash your hands. Very well thought out. Over a dozen different food stations and at least 4 drink stations inside a large oval ring with seating on the outside. Each station has a sign stating what it is serving. Longest line I witness was the eggs made to order which was fast since he had 3 skillets going at once. We had no issues with finding quality food that we enjoyed eating.

 

     Cosmopolitan Main Ding Room:  We had early seating – 6 am. Nice décor, we were seated deck 5 for a table for 2. Expect to be there between 1:45 to 2 hrs each night depending how full the dining room is. Grilled chicken and New York sirloin on menu every night. We both enjoyed these 2. Ordered 2 entrees: lobster and beef wellington one night. Instead of 2 separate plates both entrees came on 1 plate with sides which was nice since not much space on table top.

 

     Dress code: Didn’t go on first night. Even though Celebrity website, phone app and on back of the Table Reservation with table number in cabin all list the proper dress code they didn’t enforce it. Saw men in shorts, hat and in some cases flip flops which is clearly stated not allowed in the evening hours. When I asked the maître was told they can’t watch everyone that enters and finally said they wouldn’t turn anyone away. If that’s the case just get rid of the dress code.

 

Shows: We didn’t attend any. Times just were not convenient for us. Halloween party was a great time. We along with many others dressed in costumes. Lots of fun.

 

OBC: OBC as a perk nonrefundable. Unused OBC given by TA was credited back to credit card on file.

 

TV

 

1     Navigation

2     Summit Channel

3     Shore Excursions

4     Port Shopping

5     Future cruise Vacation

6     Celebrity Channel

7     Families & Sea – Kids TV

8     Sea TV - Sitcoms

9     Food Network

10   HGTV

11   Travel Channel – Mostly ghost hunting

12   ITV Choice – British TV

13   Fox News

14   MSNBC

15   CNBC  

16   BBC World News

17   Prime Journeys

18   ESPN

19   ESPN 2

20   Special Events 1 - Sports

21   Special Events 2 - Sports

 

Disembarkation: You are given luggage tags with numbers. These numbers represent your disembarkation times. Really think you can walk off anytime you want.  Luggage out by 10 PM the night before. We left ship at 7:25, got a porter. Luggage set up by numbers given easy to locate. Porters have their own immigration line and then to waiting taxi. Taxi fare with 4 bags $25. Fare $19 + $2 gas surcharge + $4 for luggage. At airport was through agriculture inspection (don’t forget this step), airline ticket counter and TSA by 8 am.

 

Will be cruising on the Summit again that coming Jan 4th.

[wrk2cruise]

Was also on this cruise (and the one before it).  We ate in Blu and just wanted to say I did see Joe turning away people in shorts.  I heard and saw that the same rule was not being enforce in the MDR.  I just wanted to point out that it really depends on the staff at the door and don't think they never enforce the rules or you may be eating in the buffet every night.

[vtcruising]

Thanks for the review! Sounds like you had a great cruise. The bar service and MDR sounded excellent. We may try a porter next time. We always think we should haul our own stuff and the waits aren't too long usually, but having the porter take over may make for a better ending to a cruise.🙂

[cruisin 07]

Forgot to mention we did enjoy the cruise very much. It was our first Celebrity cruise

[lizzy911]

Thanks for your review. Just to confirm - you went out of San Juan? We are taking our first cruise out of San Juan on the Summit on Saturday. I have been curious on boarding times as we were given 2:30 and would prefer to board between noon and 1:00.

[cruisin 07]

Yes out of San Juan. Our boarding time was 2:00. We just checked out of the hotel and went right over in the morning.

[Projunior]

Did your table-for-two in the MDR afford you much privacy? We have been on several Celebrity cruises where our two-top was located about 12 inches from the tables on each side of it. We are sailing the Summit out of SJU in December.

[Turtles06]

25 minutes ago, Projunior said:

Did your table-for-two in the MDR afford you much privacy? We have been on several Celebrity cruises where our two-top was located about 12 inches from the tables on each side of it. We are sailing the Summit out of SJU in December.

 

I'm not the OP, but we were on the Summit for two weeks in September.   Very few problems, but the biggest was the fact that almost all of the two-tops in the MDR, on both decks, were about 2 inches or so from the tables next to them.  You were essentially sitting at a table for four (or six) with two (or more) strangers.   (A full 12 inches would have been welcome!)  There were two-tops that were by themselves along the walls, but those tables had the really tall, heavy, Alice in Wonderland chairs.  The looked terribly uncomfortable; I sat in one on the way out one night to see if they were as uncomfortable as they looked, and they were, at least for me, a short woman.

 

My wife and I really don't like to be forced to dine with strangers (which is why we don't opt for "traditional" dining),  but that is essentially what Celebrity is doing in the MDR.  Sometimes you are lucky with your neighbors (we were on one night), and sometimes you aren't.  One night, the guy next to us even made a gratuitous, insulting political comment.  Even when you manage not to speak to the people two inches away, the only conversation you can feel comfortable having with your spouse is an innocuous one about the food.   The whole set up made us so anxious every time we thought about going to the MDR that we wound up having dinner in the buffet more often than we would have preferred.

[SuzeCruz1]

34 minutes ago, Turtles06 said:

There were two-tops that were by themselves along the walls, but those tables had the really tall, heavy, Alice in Wonderland chairs.  The looked terribly uncomfortable; I sat in one on the way out one night to see if they were as uncomfortable as they looked, and they were, at least for me, a short woman.

 

We were on Summit 9/1 to Bermuda, and were assigned a two-top along the wall with the awful 'Alice in Wonderland' chairs (I love that description). Very uncomfortable, the seat was too deep back to front (even with extra pillows), and the chair was too heavy to maneuver once you were seated.  After about 1/2 hour of trying to get comfortable, our waitress replaced it with one of the regular chairs, which was much better.  And it made it easy to find our table on the nights we ate in the MDR.  

[DrivesLikeMario]

So did I understand correctly that you put your luggage out the night prior, disembarked and it was waiting for you at 7:25am?  Did you see an immigration line for Global Entry?

[cruisin 07]

We were seated on deck 5 on the MDR with our table #472 of two next to the opening looking down on Deck 4 MDR. So it was really open since we could just look across to the other side of deck 5 or down on deck 4. There was a table for 2 next to us. And yes very close like someone mentioned inches. We were fortunate that those occupying this table were the same every night and very friendly and we got along. 

 

As soon as the ship docked luggage started coming off. I watched it from my balcony. It was done by the time we got off the ship. No Global Entry since you are still in the US.

[cruisin 07]

Forgot to mention. We ordered room service for breakfast one morning. They called to let us know it was on its way and arrived less than 5 mins later. Egg still hot and juice cold.

[hiccups]

2 hours ago, Projunior said:

Did your table-for-two in the MDR afford you much privacy? We have been on several Celebrity cruises where our two-top was located about 12 inches from the tables on each side of it. We are sailing the Summit out of SJU in December.

As you probably know, it's not unique to X to have the two-tops located so close to the next table--we've experienced that on pretty much every cruise line we've sailed.  We usually exchange a few pleasantries with our table neighbors, and then enjoy our dinner. 

On Azamara a couple weeks ago, it was the birthday of the gentleman at the table next to us, and the wait staff brought him a cake.  He pardoned himself for interrupting our dinner, but asked if we'd share his cake, because he didn't want to see it go to waste.  So after we finished our meal, we had some cake, and made some new onboard friends 🙂 

[bayonnejoe]

1 hour ago, DrivesLikeMario said:

So did I understand correctly that you put your luggage out the night prior, disembarked and it was waiting for you at 7:25am?  Did you see an immigration line for Global Entry?

No Global Entry in San Juan. 

[cruisin 07]

All luggage out by the time we left the ship

[Turtles06]

2 hours ago, hiccups said:

As you probably know, it's not unique to X to have the two-tops located so close to the next table--we've experienced that on pretty much every cruise line we've sailed. 

 

We've never been on any cruise on any cruise line, including our prior sailings on X, where the two-tops were as close together as they were on our September cruise on the Summit.  It was ridiculous. 

[hcat]

4 hours ago, SuzeCruz1 said:

 

We were on Summit 9/1 to Bermuda, and were assigned a two-top along the wall with the awful 'Alice in Wonderland' chairs (I love that description). Very uncomfortable, the seat was too deep back to front (even with extra pillows), and the chair was too heavy to maneuver once you were seated.  After about 1/2 hour of trying to get comfortable, our waitress replaced it with one of the regular chairs, which was much better.  And it made it easy to find our table on the nights we ate in the MDR.  

We always check out our table upon boarding as we do not like banquette seating nor those awful big chairs!  We'd ask for normal chairs.,.glad they were able to swap it out for you

 

On Infinity for lunch they seated couples along the back by the window...no break in the back row..no escape!  Luckily we had the end seats but they served us as one group...very awkward!

 

Nice review and happy you enjoyed your cruise on SUMMIT. 

We are booked for May

[PhoenixCruiser]

Thanks for your review!

 

We too are first time Celebrity cruises on the Summit and your comments are helping me plan.

[DrivesLikeMario]

3 hours ago, bayonnejoe said:

No Global Entry in San Juan. 

Thanks.

[DrivesLikeMario]

2 hours ago, cruisin 07 said:

All luggage out by the time we left the ship

Thanks!  That's really quick! 👍

[srdancer]

We had select dining table for 4 on Summit in Sept. There were several 2 tops right next to us. We enjoyed talking to our neighbors. We met a nice couple from the UK one night and ended up requesting to  have them next to us as often as the table was available. 

[Turtles06]

25 minutes ago, srdancer said:

We had select dining table for 4 on Summit in Sept. There were several 2 tops right next to us. We enjoyed talking to our neighbors. We met a nice couple from the UK one night and ended up requesting to  have them next to us as often as the table was available. 

 

And we met a really nice couple from the UK one night in September sitting next to us as well.  (Maybe they were the same folks, LOL!)  But that's a total crapshoot, and not one we want to take every night.  Last year on the Silhouette, the two-tops, while fairly close together, were just not as close as they were on the Summit in September.  

[varoo]

On 11/4/2019 at 1:20 PM, Projunior said:

Did your table-for-two in the MDR afford you much privacy? We have been on several Celebrity cruises where our two-top was located about 12 inches from the tables on each side of it. We are sailing the Summit out of SJU in December.

 

You were  lucky to have 12 inches between the tables.

 

Through the years as they kept adding more and more cabins to those ships, the dining room became more and more crowded because they kept packing in more tables,  moving them closer and closer together.

 

Now it has reached the point of absurdity as there is not even room enough for the waiter to walk between the tables.

So when serving two people seated at the same two-top, the waiter first serves one and then needs to walk all the way around the entire row to serve the other person. 

They do this again and again, as they serve each course.

They are not supposed to reach across in front of you to serve the person on the other side of the table, but occasionally some  will do that.

 

It is not so bad in fixed dining as they can serve one side of the table first along the entire row, and then serve the other side.

 

But in select dining, people are coming and going at different times.

 

  

 

Edited November 5, 2019 by varoo