Summit Review 2/2-2/9/08

[jlhc99]

Hello All,

 

I was hoping to get this review posted before now; however just upon returning to reality, I was summoned overseas for a business meeting and could not get to this before now. My review will be as concise as I can make it. After reading so many reviews prior to our cruise, there are some definite highlights I wish to stress upon.

 

First and foremost, for all of you who have traveled on the Summit in recent months and posted some negative comments about the overall condition of ship, fear not those of you who are booked on her in the upcoming months. She is an older vessel in the Celebrity fleet; however by NO means as bad as some people make her sound to be. There is some frayed carpeting and depending on your cabin, some outdated decor; however overall she is in great shape.

 

In terms of cabin service, all I can say is that it was awesome! We were booked in Sky Suite 6132 which comes with a huge verandah and butler service. Our cabin attendant, Josefino, was superb as was our butler, Rikki. Their attention to detail was second to none. For example, we rented tuxedos from Cruiseline Formalwear for this sailing and on the first formal night, I discovered my jacket had what seemed to be burn marks on it - Rikki immediately found me a replacement. As he was also the butler for the Penthouse Suites on the same deck, he made it a point to offer us the same hors d'oerves every evening that these suites were getting (caviar, shrimp plates, etc.) We made certain to tip both of these guys very well.

 

On our 2nd night, we dined at The Normandie and were really looking forward to the experience given what we had read on these boards. Unforunately, our dinner for the 5 in our group was less than superb, as was the service. Our wine steward was extremely inept, and he seemed to only want to please those who bought bottles of wine priced over $100. The portions served were huge; however too much food in our opinion. Looking back, we have to laugh as we think we only paid the extra $30pp so that we could have 5 of the wait staff simultaneously uncover our entrees and say "bon appetit". Not fine dining in our opinion and not worth the extra money.

 

Our experience in the Cosmopolitan Restaurant was quite the contrary. The service, food, and ambiance was great every other night of the cruise. We were seated at table 469, on the main floor just next to the stairs. Our head waiter was named, "Nimrod", from India I believe and while we all giggled at his name, we were extremely impressed with his devotion to his job. Our wine stewardess, Ramona, from Romania was superb.

 

This cruise is very intensive in terms of ports of call. Only one sea day at the end of the week; however I believe everyone booking this will realize that. We found the ports to be very good. On St. Maarten, we booked a private tour with Joyce Prince and she was awesome. We happened to be on Dominica for Carnival Monday and the ambiance, music, and costumes were incredible. For this stop, we booked a private tour with "Antours". Our guide and driver were awesome. Grenada is a beautiful island, as is Bonaire. Aruba to us is a "been there, done that".

 

My next point is bound to ruffle some feathers so to speak; however I believe it worth mentioning. While we found the Celebrity product to meet our expectations and having sailed with them once before, we found this particular sailing to be full of rude and inconsiderate people. While onboard we witnessed 2 fist fights, drunk and disorderly conduct in the casino, cutting in line at the buffets and upon disembarkation in Bonaire, and people showing up in jeans and t-shirts on formal nights. I realize everyone has their agenda so to speak in terms of vacation; however we were quite surprised with all of this. No fault by Celebrity; however it seems that what was once classified as Carnival is for the partying set and Celebrity is more upscale has gone by the wayside. I suppose that is travel in general these days.....

 

On some final notes - for anyone booked on Deck 9 in CC cabins (as our friends were) - please note that there is a huge overhang from Deck 10 above and it blocks any aspect of sun except in the early morning, or late evening depending on which side of the ship you are on.

 

As for the valet luggage program for disembarkation - at $20 pp for 2 bags, we thought this to be this most ridiculous set up in terms of organization. Mind you, it is only valid for certain airlines and if you qualify, you are required to fill out the necessary forms mid-week if you are interested in participating. As our flight home was at 5pm, we opted for this as we did not want to lug our bags all around Old San Juan that day. We received our color coded disembarkation luggage tags on the last day at sea, only to receive other ones later that day with the valet instructions and a different group code (DDDD). As customary, we put our luggage out the last evening. On the day of disembarkation, instructions given were that our group was to assemble in a conference room on Deck 5 at 730am. Upon arrival in that room, there was no one from Celebrity to give any further instruction. I happened to walk to the restroom and past the cinema where upon entering, I saw that there was coffee, tea, and pastries waiting for all who entered, none of which was offered in our "area". I returned to our "area" and within 5 minutes, a rep from Celebrity entered and told us our numbers had been called. We left the ship, went though US immigration and into a huge warehouse type area with all of the bags lined up. This was this biggest disappointment as our tags were grouped with many others and it took us a good 1/2 hour to locate our bags. Once we had, another trek through customs and then to another area to drop off our "valet" bags. Lots of porters helping with bags; however they were yelling at the attendants to get out of their way. My other half is Puerto Rican and he made it a point to tell one of them in Spanish to move out of our way. To top it off, we arrived home in Chicago only to find that one of our bags did not make the flight. It was delivered the next day; however a CC member who I have been in touch with has said that 4 of their 5 bags are still missing.

The Celebrity documents issued for this service state that "you leave your bags outside of your cabin on the last night, and you do not claim them until you arrive at your final destination" - not true and beware....

 

All in all, we had a great time; however this was not a relaxing vacation by any means - too many ports and too little time in each. To each his own; however we are done with cruising for now - our next warm weather vacation will be an all inclusive resort where we can relax and enjoy.........

[LisadelRio]

Thank you so much for taking the time to write a review. We are booked on the Summit in March and are really enjoying every bit of info we can get.

 

The funny thing is that our last vacation was 10 days at an all-inclusive, private island in St Vincent and the Grenadines. (Young Island, if you're interested.) We did nothing but relax. It was great and now we're looking forward to this active itinerary!

[shinbal]

Hi JLHC99 - my partner and I were on the same cruise. We were in Concierge Class 9149. Not sure if we met - perhaps we did. We were in a group of 8.

 

I read the review and found it funny how different two people's experience can be. Mainly, my difference with your reivew was with the dining room and with Normandie - however, I have some other aspects of service that didn't impress me on my fourth Celebrity sailing.

 

Our experience with Normandie was 100% the opposite of yours. We were a table of eight. The service was five-star. The food was excellent. Every aspect of our evening was absolutely perfect. I recommended Normandie to several folks on the ship with whom we became acquainted, and a few took our recommendation with happy results. I was really sad to read your review.

 

Had this been a longer cruise than 7 days, I would have begun to dread Cosmopolitan restaurant. We really liked our waiter and assistant, but the service was PAINFULLY slow. By the second formal night, I was dreading the dining room. Rightfullly so, as we were just being served our dessert when the Service Director was shouting over the microphone for the assistants to carry all the chairs from the first floor to the second, to make room for the Grand Buffet. Our assistant was covering way too many tables, and our waiter, while nice, tried too much to be "The Entertainer". While we were waiting for our food, or dessert, (at a table for 8), he was doing Origami for or telling jokes to another table. Our food delivery was uneven; many of us were still getting salads while entrees were arriving for others. And our Assitant Maitre d' was nice, but extremely unattentive. Twice we tried to voice our concerns, but they looked at us as though we were crazy. A couple with us, who was on their 8th Celebrity sailing, said they'd never had it this bad.

 

My other complaint was with the breakfast service in Concierge Class. We did in-room breakfast 4 times. Not once was our food hot. A couple times, eggs were lukewarm. But they could not get a hot meal to us. Again, we politely voiced our concerns to customer relations who offered to "send new food", but by that time, the moment had passed. I am at a loss to understand why 3,000 room hotels can get hot food across resorts to their guests; and how other ships manage to do this. the heavy word on Concierge Class food this trip: IT STUNK.

 

That being said, our cabin attendant, Jose, and his assistant whose name had too many consonants for me to remember - were the best we've had on a ship. We too rented tuxedos, and Jose ran back and forth several times to make sure we were fitted 100% correctly.

 

We witnessed the fight in the casino as well. There were lots o drunks on board. And as for the dress code, I've come to a conclusion: Cruise lines are not willing to sacrifice selling a cabin in order to maintain a standard. They can ask politely, put up signs, and print it everywhere. There used to be three types of cruises - appealing to a "party boat" theme, a mid to upscale theme, and a super-rich theme. I'm of the opinion that the party boat the mid/upscale have been combined, by the lowering of cruise prices, much the same way air travel was made more affordable by discounters. Some people will just not take direction on how to dress. I appreciate the tradition. Some do not. I'm actually embarassed for people in shorts and jeans in the dining room.

 

I can speak directly to your point on the CC cabins and the overhang. This was our third sailing on a Millennium Class Ship (Constellation and Millennim as well). I asked the cruise sales manager if I just didn't notice the overhang from the restaurant before. She told us that it was the same on every Millennium class ship, but we never noticed it on the other ships. Maybe others here can tell me if that's correct. We had very, very little sunshine on our verandah.

 

We got lucky with the baggage valet service. We had an easy time finding our bags, but the pamphlet on this service is very misleading. As stated above, they make you believe that you won't see your bags from the night before until your final destination, and that's clearly not the case. It was worth it to us, because we had 12 hours in San Juan before our flight. $20 apiece to not deal with our bags was worth it - but they need to make it clear up front that you have to claim them in the warehouse first.

 

I also found the Customs officials at San Juan comical. Two barely looked at the forms, and one was pure Gestapo. Since we're not "married", we always approach them individually. My agent passed me right through; but my partner's agent asked him a dozen questions about why he was alone, who were his friends, and, unbelievably, what his employment status was. LOL. YIKES.

 

I agree with your assessment of the cruise overall. Too many ports - too little time! I felt like I needed a vacation from my vacation when I got home! I would have eliminated one of several ports in order to have another day at sea. But, it was a really delightful cruise. We were with six other friends, all in Concierge Class.

[Toni's Mom]

We just returned from the 2/9 sailing and experienced some of the same things as the OP. The first thing I noticed was that the demographic was considerably younger than on our previous X sailings. There were quite a few children aboard, although they were never a problem. We also did not see any problems with drunks. What we did see was large numbers of people in shorts, t-shirts, jeans, and rubber flip flops in the evenings, even on formal nights. Although many passengers dressed beautifully - including many of the children, I would estimate that less than 10% of the men wore tuxes on formal nights.

Our meal in the Normandie was delicious - we chose the wine pairing menu - but although our waiter was a consummate professional, we cannot say the same for his staff. Their service was much less professional than we experienced on Millennium, and the waiter apologized for them more than once.

This cruise was more port intensive than we've had in the past, with just one sea day, and we found ourselves worn out by Friday.

We too used the luggage valet program (as we have in the past) and our only problem was that we didn't receive our luggage tags until 10 minutes before we were due to put out our bags for pickup. Cruise Critic friends had the same experience. Despite both of our flights leaving an hour late, all of our bags arrived with us at our final destination.

[TRadle]

Everyone is required by law to take their bags through Customs. You can't get around this with Valet service. What they mean when they say you won't see them until your final destination is that you won't see them after you get through Customs until your final destination. ;)

[harry0]

Just back from the Summit 2/9 sailing also. Had a great cruise but did see some areas that were disappointing.

 

1. Pools were closed most of the 1st day of the cruise. We like to get there early and enjoy the first pool day.

 

2. At the Champagne bar our drinks took 20 minutes and were not what we ordered. Next night our drinks were wrong again. We were told there was a shortage of Martini glasses. Seemed to me they needed more help as this area is hopping before dinner.

 

3. Though the service was generally great I noticed many crew members were not too friendly. This included dealers in the casino, and other crew not returning greetings while passing in the halls.

 

Great cruise but we booked Royal Caribbean for next cruise. I read reviews recently that echoed mine. I hoped they were false but had some truth.

These things did not make for a bad cruise but it seemed different from our last 6 Celebrity cruises.

Harry

[jlhc99]

Hi JLHC99 - my partner and I were on the same cruise. We were in Concierge Class 9149. Not sure if we met - perhaps we did. We were in a group of 8.

 

I read the review and found it funny how different two people's experience can be. Mainly, my difference with your reivew was with the dining room and with Normandie - however, I have some other aspects of service that didn't impress me on my fourth Celebrity sailing.

 

Our experience with Normandie was 100% the opposite of yours. We were a table of eight. The service was five-star. The food was excellent. Every aspect of our evening was absolutely perfect. I recommended Normandie to several folks on the ship with whom we became acquainted, and a few took our recommendation with happy results. I was really sad to read your review.

 

Had this been a longer cruise than 7 days, I would have begun to dread Cosmopolitan restaurant. We really liked our waiter and assistant, but the service was PAINFULLY slow. By the second formal night, I was dreading the dining room. Rightfullly so, as we were just being served our dessert when the Service Director was shouting over the microphone for the assistants to carry all the chairs from the first floor to the second, to make room for the Grand Buffet. Our assistant was covering way too many tables, and our waiter, while nice, tried too much to be "The Entertainer". While we were waiting for our food, or dessert, (at a table for 8), he was doing Origami for or telling jokes to another table. Our food delivery was uneven; many of us were still getting salads while entrees were arriving for others. And our Assitant Maitre d' was nice, but extremely unattentive. Twice we tried to voice our concerns, but they looked at us as though we were crazy. A couple with us, who was on their 8th Celebrity sailing, said they'd never had it this bad.

 

My other complaint was with the breakfast service in Concierge Class. We did in-room breakfast 4 times. Not once was our food hot. A couple times, eggs were lukewarm. But they could not get a hot meal to us. Again, we politely voiced our concerns to customer relations who offered to "send new food", but by that time, the moment had passed. I am at a loss to understand why 3,000 room hotels can get hot food across resorts to their guests; and how other ships manage to do this. the heavy word on Concierge Class food this trip: IT STUNK.

 

That being said, our cabin attendant, Jose, and his assistant whose name had too many consonants for me to remember - were the best we've had on a ship. We too rented tuxedos, and Jose ran back and forth several times to make sure we were fitted 100% correctly.

 

We witnessed the fight in the casino as well. There were lots o drunks on board. And as for the dress code, I've come to a conclusion: Cruise lines are not willing to sacrifice selling a cabin in order to maintain a standard. They can ask politely, put up signs, and print it everywhere. There used to be three types of cruises - appealing to a "party boat" theme, a mid to upscale theme, and a super-rich theme. I'm of the opinion that the party boat the mid/upscale have been combined, by the lowering of cruise prices, much the same way air travel was made more affordable by discounters. Some people will just not take direction on how to dress. I appreciate the tradition. Some do not. I'm actually embarassed for people in shorts and jeans in the dining room.

 

I can speak directly to your point on the CC cabins and the overhang. This was our third sailing on a Millennium Class Ship (Constellation and Millennim as well). I asked the cruise sales manager if I just didn't notice the overhang from the restaurant before. She told us that it was the same on every Millennium class ship, but we never noticed it on the other ships. Maybe others here can tell me if that's correct. We had very, very little sunshine on our verandah.

 

We got lucky with the baggage valet service. We had an easy time finding our bags, but the pamphlet on this service is very misleading. As stated above, they make you believe that you won't see your bags from the night before until your final destination, and that's clearly not the case. It was worth it to us, because we had 12 hours in San Juan before our flight. $20 apiece to not deal with our bags was worth it - but they need to make it clear up front that you have to claim them in the warehouse first.

 

I also found the Customs officials at San Juan comical. Two barely looked at the forms, and one was pure Gestapo. Since we're not "married", we always approach them individually. My agent passed me right through; but my partner's agent asked him a dozen questions about why he was alone, who were his friends, and, unbelievably, what his employment status was. LOL. YIKES.

 

I agree with your assessment of the cruise overall. Too many ports - too little time! I felt like I needed a vacation from my vacation when I got home! I would have eliminated one of several ports in order to have another day at sea. But, it was a really delightful cruise. We were with six other friends, all in Concierge Class.

 

Steve,

 

I don't believe we met onboard. We did see that there were FOD parties listed in the cruise dailies; however we did not make it to any of these. I did notice quite a few family onboard however.

 

Your comments about the Cosmopolitan I found very interesting and I agree just how different two persons experience can be on the same cruise. To your point about entrees arriving before salad were finished, I am realized surprised by this. Our group never experienced anything of the sort. In fact, when one of us would leave the table to use the facilities, his/her next course was never served while not at the table. A nice touch in my opinion. Believe it or not, our service was sometimes a little too rushed at times - not slow at all. I did not mind this as we had late seating and getting out of the restaurant before 11pm was nice!

[jlhc99]

Everyone is required by law to take their bags through Customs. You can't get around this with Valet service. What they mean when they say you won't see them until your final destination is that you won't see them after you get through Customs until your final destination. ;)

 

Yes, I am aware that you must clear customs with your bags; however my point was that Celebrity's information they provide is misleading in this regard. The forms they provide with the luggage tags for the valet service should clearly state this. I can just imagine some poor soul(s) not stopping with the throngs of people trying to locate their bags thinking theirs are going directly to the airport - only to arrive home with no luggage!!

[mtjlr]

We, too, were on the 2/2/08 Summit cruise. It was a get-a-way for 4 long-time friends leaving our husband's at home. The last time I sailed Summit was in 2003 and had also read the reviews of the ship being rundown. We were pleasantly surprised by the good condition of the ship. Granted, there was some varnishing that needed to be done and the carpet in the stateroom was worn in spots, but overall I thought the ship was in great shape. Our room steward was excellent.

 

Though we did not witness any fights, we did see our share of rude people. In fact, we changed to a table of 4 after our first night in the dining room at our assigned table. Our 4 tablemates were rude to the staff and overall not pleasant, so we moved to a table for 4. The dining room staff were very accommodating in helping us with this move. Our maitre d's in both areas were very attentive and spoke to us several times during the cruise. In fact, we were seated near the captain's table and joked with the maitre d one night that about the extras they were getting. When we returned to our cabin, there was a plate of chocolate covered strawberries from him.

 

Then, there was the guy on the stairs as we waited to disembark in Bonaire who couldn't understand, no matter how many times a nice young lady tried to explain it to him, why there was a line getting off the ship. She tried to tell him in a nice way that this was better than tendering and that 2,000 people were trying to get off the ship at the same time. He was still rude and obnoxious about it.

 

We also witnessed a rude woman in the buffet who seemed to assume that the wait staff were her servants, and when she didn't get her ice tea delivered to her immediately when she sat down, she registered a complaint. We couldn't believe it.

 

But, we also met some very nice people. I did not notice the lack of formal attire in the dining room, but did notice that on formal night around the ship there were a lot of people in shorts, t-shirts, etc.

 

Our waiter and assistant waiter were very good and very attentive. I didn't notice slow service in our area. We always got our food in a timely matter.

 

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip, but do agree it is port intensive, but that is usually the case on a 7-day. Two in our group went snorkeling in Bonaire, but 2 of us went back to the ship after a short time ashore and treated it as a day at sea.

 

This was my 8th cruise on Celebrity with a break in the last few years for a couple of Princess cruises. It was great to be back on Celebrity. We had wonderful time!

 

Mary

[luvcruisez]

We also were on the Feb. 2 cruise. We have sailed on the Summit twice and thought our meal this time in the Normandie was very disappointing -- not even close to what we experienced a month ago on Millennium. Also thought service generally was inferior -- Concierge Class room never made up by the time we returned from a 10 am breakfast (despite requests) and wait staff in dining room totally devoid of personality. Disagree with the poster on the casino, however, where we thought the dealers were personable and competent. But notwithstanding all this, we overall still like the Summit and will sail on her again.

[hugsthecat]

We were on the January5th sailing of the Summit. There were a group of about 40 of us CC people and we all had a very good time.

Everybody has their opinion about what they liked and didn't like. One simply has to go with an open mind and try and enjoy themselves.

With respect to the baggage..the form which I got clearly stated that you had to collect your bags in the customs area and bring them to the specific area. I consider the $20.00 a reasonable price.. I did not have to drag my bags around San Juan ..I didn't have to wait in line at the airport to check in etc.

 

Michael

[hugsthecat]

We were on the January5th sailing of the Summit. There were a group of about 40 of us CC people and we all had a very good time.

Everybody has their opinion about what they liked and didn't like. One simply has to go with an open mind and try and enjoy themselves.

With respect to the baggage..the form which I got clearly stated that you had to collect your bags in the customs area and bring them to the specific area. I consider the $20.00 a reasonable price.. I did not have to drag my bags around San Juan ..I didn't have to wait in line at the airport to check in etc.

 

Michael

[casp]

 

All in all, we had a great time; however this was not a relaxing vacation by any means - too many ports and too little time in each. To each his own; however we are done with cruising for now - our next warm weather vacation will be an all inclusive resort where we can relax and enjoy.........

 

I have to agree with you...this X Cruise just seemed to be off.

 

Everytime I left a little space between me and the tray in front of me, there was someone cutting in line...I even had a passenger cut in front of me and then ask for a bowl for his fruit...I told him that if he "started at the front of the line that would not be a problem." I then handed him the bowl from my tray, he smiled and carried on. You thought that they were running out of food.

 

Dining room...painfully slow...early seating and we never finished much before 8:15! Food was marginal at best, there was only one entree that stood out and that was the veal chop.

 

As for the dress code...and I'm going to get thrown under the bus for this one...if "X" is going to start offering the casual dining option, along with the stir-fry bar, sushi, pasta bar and pizza then look forward to seeing people in shorts walking around the ship in the evening on formal nights...you can't expect them to stay in their cabins and they are not going to go back and dress to see a show or play in the casio. Doesn't bother me. My wife and I don't dress to the "9's" yet on formal nights we respect the dress code this includes my 6-year old in a sport coat and tie.

 

I thought they built these ships to travel faster to see more ports and stay there longer...but with "X's" parent conmpany RCCL losing .51 cents per share due to fuel costs look for shorter stays and more coasting between ports.

 

There were a few other things that bothered me...a $120 fee to be an "X Club VIP" this meant that my son could tour the bridge, galley and backstage, yet 2-years ago this was free, more nickels and dimes. My 6-year old has sailed 5 times on "X" no benefit package here.

 

"X" needs to review its benefit package for past cruisers, Elite Members have it so much better on RCCL then "X" there is really no benefit for loyality on "X" my opinion, thank you.

 

We were in 8135, CC, and our cabin attendant, Fredrick & Rene' were excellent could not have asked for better service. This also was the case for Jose & Freddy in the dining room table 519.

 

The at sea day, I have totally had it with the "reserving" of lounge chairs. I spoke with a passenger who had sailed Crystal in the past year and they stated that if you left your chair unattened for a reasonable length of time they would gather your stuff up and hold it at the pool bulter area. This gives everyone a chance to get a seat. This is the only day that people are on deck at 6:30 in the morning hoarding chairs then go and eat breakfast.

 

Summit's Condition, tired, needs the 18-20 days of rehab.

 

We also are shifting gears, all inclusive during the week of Easter...just want to try something new. I really think that cruising needs a makeover, done the Crown Princess too big for my tastes, like the size of Galaxy yet that is not the directing that things are going for mainstream cruising. Need to see the reviews on Solstice before I make any decisions.

 

All the best to you...

 

Steve & Carolyn

[shinbal]

 

Then, there was the guy on the stairs as we waited to disembark in Bonaire who couldn't understand, no matter how many times a nice young lady tried to explain it to him, why there was a line getting off the ship. She tried to tell him in a nice way that this was better than tendering and that 2,000 people were trying to get off the ship at the same time. He was still rude and obnoxious about it.

 

We also witnessed a rude woman in the buffet who seemed to assume that the wait staff were her servants, and when she didn't get her ice tea delivered to her immediately when she sat down, she registered a complaint. We couldn't believe it.

 

Mary

 

Mary, I cracked up laughing reading your post. We must have been right next to each other in the Bonaire departure line....because I remember the same guy. And to put it in perspective....I think it was a whole TEN MINUTES before the line was moving swiftly. Not a big deal, right? Well, it's always a good reminder of how NOT to behave!

 

What made me laugh the second time was that we saw a "complaining iced tea lady" as well, a couple of times! I generally don't ask attendants to get me soft drinks like that in the buffet area, though I know they're willing; but in the time it took her to complain, she could have brewed it herself! :-)

[shinbal]

Steve,

 

Believe it or not, our service was sometimes a little too rushed at times - not slow at all. I did not mind this as we had late seating and getting out of the restaurant before 11pm was nice!

 

Only once did we get through dessert before 11, and that was at 10:50. Ugh. I really believe they have cut staffing in the dining room.

[jlhc99]

Mary, I cracked up laughing reading your post. We must have been right next to each other in the Bonaire departure line....because I remember the same guy. And to put it in perspective....I think it was a whole TEN MINUTES before the line was moving swiftly. Not a big deal, right? Well, it's always a good reminder of how NOT to behave!

 

What made me laugh the second time was that we saw a "complaining iced tea lady" as well, a couple of times! I generally don't ask attendants to get me soft drinks like that in the buffet area, though I know they're willing; but in the time it took her to complain, she could have brewed it herself! :-)

 

Was the guy in question of East Asian decent (Indian/Pakistani) and the crew member a blond girl with a British accent? If so, we witnessed the same thing and must have been all in the same line at the same time....

 

Never saw the iced tea gal in action; however had plenty of rude people cutting in line at the salad station.

[jlhc99]

I have to agree with you...this X Cruise just seemed to be off.

 

 

I thought they built these ships to travel faster to see more ports and stay there longer...but with "X's" parent conmpany RCCL losing .51 cents per share due to fuel costs look for shorter stays and more coasting between ports.

 

There were a few other things that bothered me...a $120 fee to be an "X Club VIP" this meant that my son could tour the bridge, galley and backstage, yet 2-years ago this was free, more nickels and dimes. My 6-year old has sailed 5 times on "X" no benefit package here.

 

"X" needs to review its benefit package for past cruisers, Elite Members have it so much better on RCCL then "X" there is really no benefit for loyality on "X" my opinion, thank you.

 

The at sea day, I have totally had it with the "reserving" of lounge chairs. I spoke with a passenger who had sailed Crystal in the past year and they stated that if you left your chair unattened for a reasonable length of time they would gather your stuff up and hold it at the pool bulter area. This gives everyone a chance to get a seat. This is the only day that people are on deck at 6:30 in the morning hoarding chairs then go and eat breakfast.

 

Summit's Condition, tired, needs the 18-20 days of rehab.

 

Steve & Carolyn

 

Steve,

 

As for the coasting between ports, we noticed that between Bonaire and Aruba we seemed to be anchored @ 1am somewhere between the 2 as the lights in the distance from our verandah dictated no movement of the ship. Equallly, we were already coming around the SW corner of Puerto Rico around the same time Friday night/Sat morning.

 

$120 to tour the bridge/galley/backstage as a VIP member? That's ludicrious!!! On our Princess Alaska cruise 3 years ago, this stuff was free~ sure hope some other benefits were included in this price.

 

I am all with you about the deckchair scene on the last day of the cruise. Interestingly enough, I did read (in one of the cruise daily newsletters I believe) that staff would collect unattended belongings after a certain amount of time to give other passengers the fair option of their turn. Obviously this never happened - I don't know - I spent the last day on my large private verandah soaking up some last minute sun - by that point, I wanted to relax and not have to deal with the chaos on Decks 10 and 11 :)

[harry0]

I hope I do not sound like a grumpy complainer because I am not and this is Cruise Critic. But there is another thing that bothered the heck out of me. Not only was the pool closed most of the first day but dinner/ Muster drill the first day was chaotic. It was open seating dining. We arrived at 8:00 and were rushed through dinner to make the Muster drill. No time for cofee and dessert. Not a good way to start a cruise. For many people it was a travel day and 10:15 was a time they should have been sleeping. I have sailed out of San Juan before and remember the Muster drill being in late afternoon. Any one else think this was crazy?

[Amlee]

I hope I do not sound like a grumpy complainer because I am not and this is Cruise Critic. But there is another thing that bothered the heck out of me. Not only was the pool closed most of the first day but dinner/ Muster drill the first day was chaotic. It was open seating dining. We arrived at 8:00 and were rushed through dinner to make the Muster drill. No time for cofee and dessert. Not a good way to start a cruise. For many people it was a travel day and 10:15 was a time they should have been sleeping. I have sailed out of San Juan before and remember the Muster drill being in late afternoon. Any one else think this was crazy?

 

 

I am sailing on the Summit Mar 15th, and I had wondered how they did the muster drill. 10:15? You have got to be kidding me!? I have to ask how many showed up in their p.j.'s??

[jlhc99]

Sorry folks - the muster drill is set for 45 min before the ship sails in all ports

[jlhc99]

Hi JLHC99 - my partner and I were on the same cruise. We were in Concierge Class 9149. Not sure if we met - perhaps we did. We were in a group of 8.

 

I read the review and found it funny how different two people's experience can be. Mainly, my difference with your reivew was with the dining room and with Normandie - however, I have some other aspects of service that didn't impress me on my fourth Celebrity sailing.

 

Our experience with Normandie was 100% the opposite of yours. We were a table of eight. The service was five-star. The food was excellent. Every aspect of our evening was absolutely perfect. I recommended Normandie to several folks on the ship with whom we became acquainted, and a few took our recommendation with happy results. I was really sad to read your review.

 

Had this been a longer cruise than 7 days, I would have begun to dread Cosmopolitan restaurant. We really liked our waiter and assistant, but the service was PAINFULLY slow. By the second formal night, I was dreading the dining room. Rightfullly so, as we were just being served our dessert when the Service Director was shouting over the microphone for the assistants to carry all the chairs from the first floor to the second, to make room for the Grand Buffet. Our assistant was covering way too many tables, and our waiter, while nice, tried too much to be "The Entertainer". While we were waiting for our food, or dessert, (at a table for 8), he was doing Origami for or telling jokes to another table. Our food delivery was uneven; many of us were still getting salads while entrees were arriving for others. And our Assitant Maitre d' was nice, but extremely unattentive. Twice we tried to voice our concerns, but they looked at us as though we were crazy. A couple with us, who was on their 8th Celebrity sailing, said they'd never had it this bad.

 

My other complaint was with the breakfast service in Concierge Class. We did in-room breakfast 4 times. Not once was our food hot. A couple times, eggs were lukewarm. But they could not get a hot meal to us. Again, we politely voiced our concerns to customer relations who offered to "send new food", but by that time, the moment had passed. I am at a loss to understand why 3,000 room hotels can get hot food across resorts to their guests; and how other ships manage to do this. the heavy word on Concierge Class food this trip: IT STUNK.

 

That being said, our cabin attendant, Jose, and his assistant whose name had too many consonants for me to remember - were the best we've had on a ship. We too rented tuxedos, and Jose ran back and forth several times to make sure we were fitted 100% correctly.

 

We witnessed the fight in the casino as well. There were lots o drunks on board. And as for the dress code, I've come to a conclusion: Cruise lines are not willing to sacrifice selling a cabin in order to maintain a standard. They can ask politely, put up signs, and print it everywhere. There used to be three types of cruises - appealing to a "party boat" theme, a mid to upscale theme, and a super-rich theme. I'm of the opinion that the party boat the mid/upscale have been combined, by the lowering of cruise prices, much the same way air travel was made more affordable by discounters. Some people will just not take direction on how to dress. I appreciate the tradition. Some do not. I'm actually embarassed for people in shorts and jeans in the dining room.

 

I can speak directly to your point on the CC cabins and the overhang. This was our third sailing on a Millennium Class Ship (Constellation and Millennim as well). I asked the cruise sales manager if I just didn't notice the overhang from the restaurant before. She told us that it was the same on every Millennium class ship, but we never noticed it on the other ships. Maybe others here can tell me if that's correct. We had very, very little sunshine on our verandah.

 

We got lucky with the baggage valet service. We had an easy time finding our bags, but the pamphlet on this service is very misleading. As stated above, they make you believe that you won't see your bags from the night before until your final destination, and that's clearly not the case. It was worth it to us, because we had 12 hours in San Juan before our flight. $20 apiece to not deal with our bags was worth it - but they need to make it clear up front that you have to claim them in the warehouse first.

 

I also found the Customs officials at San Juan comical. Two barely looked at the forms, and one was pure Gestapo. Since we're not "married", we always approach them individually. My agent passed me right through; but my partner's agent asked him a dozen questions about why he was alone, who were his friends, and, unbelievably, what his employment status was. LOL. YIKES.

 

I agree with your assessment of the cruise overall. Too many ports - too little time! I felt like I needed a vacation from my vacation when I got home! I would have eliminated one of several ports in order to have another day at sea. But, it was a really delightful cruise. We were with six other friends, all in Concierge Class.

 

Steve - my partner thinks he remembers you and your group from the shopping arcade in Grenada (it seemed to be like a gay bay with men galore just before last call). Did you guys happen to notice the French speaking man wearing the Fidora? HOT!!!! We also saw him on the beach in Aruba in his thong but the wife/gf/friend was in tow. Anyway, we were the tall guy with shaved head with the Puerto Rican guy with long hair

[Amlee]

Sorry folks - the muster drill is set for 45 min before the ship sails in all ports

 

Not sure why that slipped my mind, but I knew that. Doh! That's close to bedtime.

[bubbie617]

...a $120 fee to be an "X Club VIP"

 

We are sailing on Summit at the end of March. Please tell me what the "X Club VIP" is and why anyone would pay the $120 to join. What does that buy you besides a couple of tours?

 

Thanks for the info.

[mtjlr]

jlhc99

 

No, the guy we saw on the steps had light brown hair and a beard. There must have been more than one unreasonable person on the stairs going ashore in Bonaire. Then, he and his wife sat right next to us at the show that night. The girl on the steps was a blond British girl, so she must have had to put up with more than one jerk that day.

 

shinbal - I also get my own drinks when in the buffet and don't expect anyone to wait on me there. It is just really hard to understand the behavior of some of the passengers we encountered on this cruise, but we tried to ignore those and overall had a great cruise. We have had a record amount of snow this winter here in Wisconsin, so it was wonderful to be some place warm.

 

Mary

[casp]

We are sailing on Summit at the end of March. Please tell me what the "X Club VIP" is and why anyone would pay the $120 to join. What does that buy you besides a couple of tours?

 

Thanks for the info.

 

This is from my original post...There were a few other things that bothered me...a $120 fee to be an "X Club VIP" this meant that my son could tour the bridge, galley and backstage, yet 2-years ago this was free, more nickels and dimes. My 6-year old has sailed 5 times on "X" no benefit package here.

 

Susan...the "X Club VIP" is the kids club and what was free a year or so ago is now $120 charge. So you have 1st Class Kid Passengers and Steerage...my son has sailed on Celebrity 5 times, this is the level of loyalty that you see on "X" lately.

 

Steve