What's going on with the Service on the Summit?

[Boo's Mom]

Hi Folks. I am just off the Summit.

 

What's going on with the service? I have sailed on the Century and the Mercury in the past 2 years....and the service I experienced on the Summit (although it was not bad...by any definition) did not equal the level of excellence I have experienced on the other two ships.

 

I am specifically speaking of the dining table assignments, service in the dining room, and the butler service.

 

Your thoughts, please.....

 

Boo's Mom

 

Even the winds and the waves obey him!

Matthew 8:27

 

 

[Spender Nui]

One or two people who are assigned to you may be a little less than you are used to or what is usual. That doesn't mean that the entire dining room has declined. We've had great servers and some that weren't as good. Usually they are acceptable or better. We've experienced the same thing with the housekeeping staff.

[ArtM]

Perhaps if you could give us a few specific examples, it might make it easier to determine if there has been a drop off, or if you happened to draw the short straw when if came to a table assignment.

 

And, the standard question - did you voice your concern to the maitre'd while you were on board? If he/she didn't do anything about your concerns, then there is a problem Celebrity needs to know about.

 

As a point of reference, we were on the Infinity 3 weeks ago, and were absolutely delighted with the dining room situation. We were traveling with another couple, and got matched up at a table for 8 with two other couples also traveling together. By luck of the draw or by some thought by whomever arranged the seating, it was a fabulous table.

 

Art

[Boo's Mom]

I was at two different tables for the evening meals. A third if you count the first night with open seating.

 

Three tables for lunch in the dining room. Three tables for breakfast.

 

The step down in service that I observed was consistent.

 

What I did not see on the Summit....was a strong presence of a Maitre'D. Yes, they were around, but I did not see them managing the waiters as I had seen them on the Century and the Mercury.

 

We had to ask for iced tea almost every night on the Summit. On the other two ships, it just appeared every evening.

 

On the C & M, the waiters introduced themselves and then asked our names...and then referred to us by our names all week. My children especially enjoyed this special attention. On the Summit, they did not know our names.

 

Empty plates stayed in front of us for quite a while on the Summit. This never happened on C & M. When our fork was down, here comes the waiter.

 

These are not things that make the service classified as bad. These are the things that made the service on C & M Superior. I missed them, because I was expecting them.

 

One evening at dinner, my husband spoke with a waiter who had sailed with us on the Mercury last summer. He told us that the Summit has better accomodations (for the employees), but that he really missed working on the Mercury. This again sounds like a management issue. When one has great management, one is often happy to work...and works better.

 

Just more thoughts...

 

Boo's Mom

 

Even the winds and the waves obey him!

Matthew 8:27

 

 

[ArtM]

The reason I asked whether you spoke with your assistant maitre'd is that when we were on the Summit last September, our maitre'd specifically told us that training the waiters and assistants was his job, and to let him know if there was any problem.

 

Even if you didn't speak to anyone, I hope you indicated your unhappiness with the dining room on the comment card at the end of the cruise. It will help future cruisers on the Summit if you did.

 

ArtM

[Boo's Mom]

ArtM..... Yes, I did offer my comments at the end of the cruise. I always take that card very seriously and I know the management does too.

 

Boo's Mom

 

Even the winds and the waves obey him!

Matthew 8:27

 

 

[themirsk]

Who was your butler?

[Boo's Mom]

He was Kenneth from India. At this moment he is enroute to India...having completed a nine month tour with Celebrity.

 

Boo's Mom

 

Even the winds and the waves obey him!

Matthew 8:27

 

 

[woodofpine]

I was on Summit as a pleb Veranda passenger 1/03 and 3/04. Dining service improved in '04.

[themirsk]

We did the Panama...May 7 ...our butler was Rikki. He was incredible! (#6104) Couldn't do enough for us. Sorry, your service wasn't up to par. We also had a wonderful waiter, Mario...from Dubrovnik. And, all the waiters- breakfast and lunch were also good. Service was excellent - even in the buffet!

 

M&M

[kitty9]

Boo'sMom, I can concur with you about Kenneth. He was our butler on the Summit in January and he really left a lot to be desired---basically very lazy, never came around and never did some of the simplest of tasks we asked for like keeping the frig stocked with Coke and water. Now, my mom's butler in the Penthouse was absolutely fantastic. Our waiter and assistant waiter were wonderful. We were at table 532. But, I did notice when we had lunch in the dining room, some of the waiters in there were very bad---slow, uncaring and very unfriendly.

 

Darcie

[Boo's Mom]

kitty9..... Yes, Kenneth left our ice bucket/water go unattended. That is so basic.

 

He told us that he has been a Butler for 2 years...probably as long as the Summit has sailed.

 

The videos that were available for the suites....had no G rated movies for my children to watch. The Non-rated movies (which I thought might be family movies) were given back to Kenneth, as they were very sexual in nature. He spoke about checking with the children's program to see if they had anything my children could watch. He never did bring us any movies...and never brought it up again.

 

Yes, I wrote a strong comment about these movies on the comment card at the end of the cruise.

 

Boo's Mom

 

Even the winds and the waves obey him!

Matthew 8:27

 

 

[jimmysny]

I'm also just off the Summit. Our waiter and assistant waiter introduced themselves the first night, asked our names, and referred to us by name for the rest of the cruise. Their service was outstanding.

 

The housekeeping staff was not up to par. They didn't do anything "above and beyond". However, the wait staff was absolutely great. And the Normandie - wonderful! We would have gone more often, except the service was so good in the main dining room that we didn't think it was necessary.

[2tsquared]

We are just off the Summit as well. Both my husband and I felt that while service was efficient, there was no effort to go "above and beyond" as stated by Boo's Mom. Our dining service was actually good, with the exception of the maitre'd. He showed up at our table on the 3rd night and began asking about our cruise experience. We told him that we were finding Alaska a wonderful experience. He pushed for what type of "experience" we were having on Summit. We replied that we found service to be adequate, but not stellar (the above-and-beyond approach was lacking). We asked him if there was a lot of new staff on board as our observations were that staff in several areas seemed unsure of what they should do and when. Well, from that night on he persisted in showing up at our table and going through lengthy discussions of how we were perceiving staff and service. He would start each "greeting" with a monotoned, canned speech on how much Summit wanted to please and how Celebrity certainly wanted us a return customers. No matter how we changed our answers to his inquiries (we got to the point that when he said hello, we immediately said "EVERYTHING IS GREAT!), he continued to ramble on and on. I actually hid behind a menu one night in hopes that he would pass us by -- he didn't. Needless to say, that is one individual who did not receive his tip envelope.

 

More on our thoughts later today in my overall review.

 

2tsquared

[Karen and Mark]

I've only been on the Mercury. WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL, knew names, ice teas request only for first night. Maid service was very nice; no problem empty fridge request, ice bucket for wine we brought aboard, always ice water available, special requests on room service were never a problem.. We had a regular balcony cabin. Mercury's service is why we booked the Summit. I realize a larger ship with more passengers might cause some minor hiccups in smooth service and I'm prepared for those unanticipated flubs on the Summit. I hate to think if I'm unhappy with my table service and complain to the Matre'D, that the service will improve but the Matre'D will become a problem. If he checks up on our waiter on all the following nights, fine by me. I can polite and thank him for his special attention.

 

Karen

 

Summit 9/3/04 Alaska Southbound

[seagulls]

When I sailed the Summit last year I thought that the staff were not as fabulous as on other Celebrity cruises. For instance, one night in the dining room, nothing on the menu appealed to me, so I asked for a steak. The food was served to everyone at my table except me. Half an hour later the other diners were almost finished with their main course and I still had not been served. I then asked the waiter to just bring me the chicken. I gulped down a couple of pieces and told the waiter he could take my plate, as the table refused to eat desert until I was ready. That was the only time I ever asked for something that was not on the menu. The waiter apologized and said that what I asked for was not unusual and the kitchen staff had let him down. I spoke to a few of the staff that were behind the counters in the shops and they told me that they really didn't like working on the Summit, it was too big and therefore made their jobs difficult. They all longed to be back on the Zenith and the Century.

[JNLROSE]

Wow! Reading all of this is interesting! We sailed Summit Feb 23-March 5th this year. Our dining waiter & assistant were SUPERB! Ziggy was the waiter. Our Assistant maitre'd, also visited our table almost each night--BRIEFLY--very nice young man.

 

We found the service excellent throughout the ship, in fact, we commented to each other quite a lot about the excellent service & overly friendly staff from what we experienced on our last sailing on Century. Don't get me wrong, the Century was also excellent, but we thought being larger with more people Summit would fall short in that department & she exceeded our expectations in that department!

 

Our cabin Steward, Maritesse left a "little" to be desired, but after asking twice for a couple of things, we never had to ask again! She and Andrew were very good the rest of the cruise.

 

I wonder if there has been a major change in employees prior to the repositioning to Alaska???

 

Reading all the nice things about Mercury sure is making me excited for November.

 

Rosie

E-mail me <a href="mailto:JNLROSE@AOL.COM">here</a href>

 

Look out MERCURY Here we come!!!

 

September 19, 2005--"Millie in the Med"--We're there!

[cathykins]

I must say that we have sailed the SUMMIT two Aprils in a row and have seen the service just get better. We had absolutely no complaints and actually found it to be a notch or two above the four Princess Cruises we have taken. We would sail her again in a heartbeat!

[charlielinda]

cathykins: I promise I'll get you the pictures soon.

 

As for the topic. I was on the Summit with cathykins in April of this year and found the service from the crusise director and social director, to cabin attendants, to the dining staff (in all the restaurants), to the spa folks, to the bingo staff to be outstanding. I didn't run into one person who didn't seem to love being on the ship and wanted us to feel at home on her. We had such a wonderful cruise with top notch service we booked another cruise in the Summit in October.

 

Voyager of the Sea -- September 2001; Galaxy -- May 2002; Zuiderdam -- September 2003; Summit -- April 2004; CAN'T WAIT -- SUMMIT OCTOBER 2004

[LoneStar72]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Boo's Mom:

What I did not see on the Summit....was a strong presence of a Maitre'D. Yes, they were around, but I did not see them managing the waiters as I had seen them on the Century and the Mercury.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Wow, Jill, it's like we were on different cruises! (I was on the same sailing as Boo's Mom...) Our Maitre'D came by every evening, and even arranged a no-notice celebration (complete with customized cake and customized singing) at my request when one of the couples at our tables decided to get engaged one day.<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>We had to ask for iced tea almost every night on the Summit. On the other two ships, it just appeared every evening.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>One of our table-mates asked for iced tea the first night, and a glass was sitting on the table every night thereafter, without further request. Another of our table-mates asked for a plain salad one night, said she preferred it, and was served one every night thereafter. She also evidenced a craving for chocolate, and our waiter either told her which dessert had the most chocolate that evening, or brought her a slide of fudge cake. I mentioned that I didn't like added pepper, either on salad or on meal items, and the waiter never offered it to me again. Another of our table-mates asked for lemon in her water the first night, and every night thereafter we had a decorative bowl of lemon slices at the table waiting for us. All this is indicative of great service.<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>On the C & M, the waiters introduced themselves and then asked our names...and then referred to us by our names all week. My children especially enjoyed this special attention. On the Summit, they did not know our names.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Not only our waiter, but our bus-boy knew all our names after the first night, and called us by name thereafter (of course, it was "Mister John"...)<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Empty plates stayed in front of us for quite a while on the Summit. This never happened on C & M. When our fork was down, here comes the waiter.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Again, our experience was the exact opposite. Our waiter was Jim from India, and the assistant was Tony from Portugal. The only deficiency I could come up with was that the sommellier rarely stopped by -- you had to summon her. On the other hand, the "bar guy" was there waiting to take the orders for the couple that always wanted a pre-dinner drink at the table.

 

Our cabin steward did everything we asked, and promptly. No lapses noted. He even arranged to get our luggage fixed after the baggage goons damaged it between Anchorage and the ship. It would have been nice to have gotten towel animals, but we didn't think that their lack was a problem (got them on Royal Caribbean and HAL).

 

Can't comment on butler or Normandie restaurant -- but our table-mates who dined in the specialty restaurant one evening came back raving.

 

I did notice that the wait staff in the Waterfall buffet very rarely came by with offers of coffee refills, but otherwise they were always competent and friendly, and kept the line open later than the advertised closing times quite often.

 

John

[Gabbiegirl]

WOW-

We were on Summit late last year and we were amazed at how much better the service was than on other X trips over the last two years. We were also in a suite and Kenneth was our butler. He told us that this was his first tour as a butler, but he did a good job. We let him know the first day what we wanted and he followed through, including having Spanish coffees waiting in our suite every night after dinner. He was not as personable as Edwin, our butler on Summit in 2001, but he still did a good job. Perhaps the end of his tour didn't come quick enough.

 

As for the dining room service, it was the best we have ever had. Millie was our waitress and she knew all our names after the first night, even though we switched seats frequently.

 

The one area that service had slipped, ever so slightly, was in the Normandie. It was still very good, just not quite as "Over the Top" as the first time we were there. But maybe that was just because we already knew what to expect so the novelty wasn't there this time.

 

On the whole the staff that we asked nearly always said they preferred working on the smaller ships like Mercury, but only because they are smaller not because of better management.

 

Sorry you were disappointed, we loved Summit! And would sail her again anytime the opportunity arises!!!

[Boo's Mom]

Hi John!!!!

 

I hope you are well rested!!

 

It does sound like you received great service!

 

There is just inconsistent management....it would appear.

 

Boo's Mom

 

...as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15

 

 

[cpzcruisenewbie]

We just got off the Summit at the end of May (the Panama Canal repositioning cruise) and we read this thread with such surprise. This was our frist cruise so we had nothing to compare, but it was so wonderful and the service was so excellent, we have booked another one on the Summit's sister ship, Constellation.

 

Our waiter Renaldo and asst waiter Sergev were fantastic (my husband just remembered their names out of his head by the way because he was so happy) and our bar server Paulie was great too. Sergev always had my iced tea ready after the first night. Paulie always brought my husband's soda and his cocktail and even when he was working other areas of the ship, he would spot us and ask if we needed sodas. Reynaldo bent over backwards to get our daughter to eat, and was SO happy when she finally are something other than potatoes!

 

We had wonderful service, to the point of giving our bar server an extra tip and personally thanking the morning omelette maker and the server at Cova Cafe for all the great cappucinos.

 

I'm sorry to hear that some of you didn't have as good service as we did - we can only hope we get half the service we got on our next cruise - it was that great!

 

Cheers,

Carol

 

Constellation - Jan 15 2005 - Southern Caribbean

 

 

Summit - May 7 2004 - S. America Panama Canal

 

[cpzcruisenewbie]

Oh, one more thing. Our asst maitre'd was also great. He came by each evening to check on us and our daughter and even learned how to make origami frogs from a japanese tour group that was on board, so that he could make little frogs for our daughter and the other children at dinner. He was great!

 

Cheers,

Carol

 

Constellation - Jan 15 2005 - Southern Caribbean

 

 

Summit - May 7 2004 - S. America Panama Canal

 

[bsails]

We were on Summit's May 21st Pacific/Alaska cruise and were disappointed. Having sailed the ship in September 2003, we couldn't believe the difference. We too had Kenneth for our butler. Adequate but not what we had been accustomed to on our previous cruise. Our waiter was O.K., the asst. waiter was wonderful. The housekeeping of our suite left a lot to be disired. We had to ask to have the balcony windows cleaned---we could hardly see out they were so dirty. And they were cleaned leaving multiple streaks and some sections totally missed.

 

I think the two things that bothered us the most this trip was the inconsistency of the food and the change in smoking policy. Breakfast was a hit & miss ordeal (runny eggs one day, overcooked the next)---and at dinner we had either really rare meat or so overdone we had to ask for a steak knife to cut it---and this was on a pork loin.

 

The smoke aboard ship made us sick. In September there was no smoking allowed in the Martini Bar, Champagne Bar, etc. Smoking was allowed only on outside decks on the port side and in Michaels. This time smoking was allowed on the port side of the ship at all the bars. However, it created a smokey starboard side as well, and the casino was unbearable to walk through---and you had to do it to get to the photo gallery. We have nothing against smokers mind you, but with all that is known about second hand smoke, why would Celebrity soften their smoking policy. My husband has heart disease and avoids smoking areas. It was difficult to do on this trip. There was even smoking at the elevators which wafted over to our starboard side outside our suite. Since a large number of Celebrity cruisers are older folks with medical conditions (e.g., asthma, CHF, CAD, etc.) I'm sure they found the current smoking policy a big disappointment. Celebrity really let us down. Is there another cruise line with a healthier smoking policy? If not, we'll have to give up cruising.

 

Barb

 

 

Summit Alaska C/T Sept 2003

Summit Pacific/Alaska May 2004