Summit Review 2/2-2/9/08

[usha]

DH & I were on the Feb 2nd cruise too, and also on the Feb 9th sailing as well. It's amazing how the other pax onboard can make one week so different from another on the same ship. We met lots of really nice pax on both cruises, but in our experience, we felt the more courteous pax were actually on the Feb 2nd sailing, with more rude, "special" people on the Feb. 9th cruise!

[lvcruiser]

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 There is some frayed carpeting and depending on your cabin, some outdated decor; however overall she is in great shape.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.........

 

I just wanted to give you some comparisons to the cruise the week before yours on 1/26...

 

Your assessmenet of the ship's condition is the same as mine. Pretty good for a ship its age and better than some that are newer than her.

 

Your cabin was only a few down from ours in 6144 and we had the same cabin attendant, Josephino. He was the best DW and I have had on any cruise, going out of his way to ensure we were happy and had everything we wanted, sometimes even without asking.

 

Your experience in the Normandie almost mirrored ours regarding the service, but our food was even a lesser quality than we had seen in other specialty venues on =X= ships. Your comment about better service depending on the cost of the wine you purchased rings very true, since we experienced a standoffish wait staff and maitre'd once we told the sommelier that we were not wine drinkers and would not need his services. And in case you didn't notice on the menu, not only will your service be better by ordering expensive bottles of wine, you also get an extra course during your meal. While the specialty venues always had six course meals in the past, we were treated to a five course and had to choose between getting an appetizer or soup, but not both. I will admit, however, that the amount of food they served made up for the missing course.

 

We were also near your table in the Cosmopolitan at table #442, one table away from the starboard side and near the waiter's station. Being so close to the station would make one think his service would be outstanding, but our waiter was difficult to find most of the time, and difficult with whom to communicate when you could find him. The food was good, but the service was the worst DW and I have received on nearly any cruise. We were part of the main seating at 6:00 and on three evenings, we were still eating our desserts when they turned the overhead lights on to signal we had to leave and make room for the next seating. On one evening, people at other tables were getting up and leaving as we were being served our entrees and the table next to us still had their salad plates on the table. After speaking to others on our cruise about this subject, I found out we were not the only ones with this problem and much was said about the fact that the crew was brand new, having been picked up the week before on the new itinerary for the ship. We assumed things would get better when the crew developed a good routine, but it now sounds like the subsequent cruise(s) were no better and Nimrod gave you exceptional service by present standards for the ship.

 

Your comments regarding rude people are an extension of my own thought process. Also, on our cruise did we witness rude and inconsiderate indiviuduals in nearly every public room, but particularly in the buffet and the casino, but they were kept to a minimum other than one 400 person group that seemed to know absolutely nothing about "cruise style." Most embarrassing was the fact that the rudest of all were people from the States, acting as thought that gave them entitlement of some kind. But I witnessed nothing close to what I had happen on my last cruise aboard the RCI NOS. While standing in line at the lunch buffet one day, ready to fix a hamburger, I had a man in his early 40's actually take the tongs out of my hand and grab the patty I was looking at. When I told him there was a line he should stand in rather than butting in, he responded by saying that he NEVER stands in any line.

 

You mentioned that you do not fault Celebrity for the goings on with the rude and drunk onboard your cruise. I am afraid I must disagree with you on that point as well as anything that someone may want to say about the lack of adherence to the dress code. Several years ago, if someone got into a fight in the casino and anyone was injured, the offending party would be put off the ship at the next port and possibly arrested, depending on where the ship was when the incident occurred. In 2002 when we sailed on the Infinity, I changed back into my port clothes after a formal dinner because my feet hurt and I wasn't going to wear tennis shoes with a dark suit for the rest of the evening. When I approached the pizza station in the buffet late that evening, I was told by the server that I was not dressed for the evening and he refused to serve me. Where did that attitude go? Now, Celebrity allows anyone to do practically anything they want without consequence. It is obvious why this has changed - they are trying to keep their ships booked and have to appeal to a broader spectrum of society. But allowing fights in the casino or shorts and t-shirts in the main dining room is Celebrity's decision and no one else's. When cruisers know they can do these kind of things and get away with it, they will continue to push the outside of the envelope and do more and more brazen things. If Celebrity would once again take action against incidents such as what you described, it would be curtailed. But they won't do it because it would cost them business. On our cruise, possibly because it was early seating, young ladies were turned away at the door by the asst. maitre'd because they were wearing shorts on casual night. This particular asst. maitre'd apparently followed the dress code fairly closely because I personally did not see underdressed individuals in our half of deck 4 in the dining room. Others with whom I have spoke have said that in other sections and particularly during the late seating, there were many who did not follow the code and were still allowed in for dinner. So now we are not only talking about a difference between ships in the fleet making the passengers follow set rules or guidelines, we are looking at differences between staff on the same ship and cruise. The atmosphere you mentioned will only continue to get worse until Celebrity decides to get everyone on the same page.

 

I'm not sure why you were told to assemble in the conference room for disembarkation. Since you were in a suite, you should have been instructed to go to the cinema, where anyone with priority disembarkation, such as those in suites, CC cabins and Club members would go and be called before anyone else in their color group. Sounds like a screwup to me. I thought about the valet luggage service, but for $40 between the wife's and my baggage, all being pretty light, we felt it wouldn't be worth it. Reading about yours and other's experience with it, I'm glad we carried our own.

 

DW and I picked this cruise specifically for the itinerary, since we wanted more port days and we had never been to any of these islands. We took extra time off after the cruise, knowing we would need a vacation from our vacation, and it worked out quite well. But like you, I will be looking for a more relaxing itinerary for our next cruise. I'm glad you had a good time; so did we the week before.

 

John

[jaybird from SC]

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.........

Sorry you had a bad experience with the valet luggage program. We've used it before with absolutely no problems and yes, we put the bags out the night before and never saw them again until we arrived at our final home airport. on the other side of the country. Worked great for us. We reported to our assigned location on the ship and were called promptly to disembark luggage free except the carryon. We agree that Summit is still a wonderful ship and the service we received was fantastic. We were Concierge Class on Sky Deck.

[Lokalona]

We were also on the 2/2 sailing and in cabin 6131 which IMO is one of the best on the ship because of the balcony being so huge and angled. We had Anthony and Lawrence for our guys and they were awesome! I will also complain about the valet service. We did not get our luggage tags to sit the bags out our door until 2:30 am. I called at midnight because I wanted to go to sleep and they told me the machine to print the boarding passes was not working and they would call as soon as it was...I sat on the balcony waiting..and waiting while DH slept...we did reach PR at about 2am..and I watched all of that then finally the tags arrived...seemed like I shouldn't go to sleep after that since we were already in port. We were instructed to go to a waiting area other than the conciege class area and I was dissapointed in how all that went down too. I did however now I had to pass my luggage through customs and hand it off to a porter. It seemed quite confusing though.

I found many passengers very rude as well and I am from the states..I think most of the ship was from Canada, everyone I asked said they were form there. No one I met personally was rude but man there were rude people in the buffet and trying to get off the ship in Bonnaire..I laughed at the rude lady in front of me and asked her how on earth she could be so pissy in paradise? The weather was lovely and the ship was in OK shape. I was not impressed w/ the entertainment but did enjoy the superbowl party.

 

I agree that I am cruised out for a while and next up is Hawaii...roll out of bed onto the beach for 10 days, no time limit and no rude buffet people!

[arlutz0527]

We noticed this on the Connie last year. The assistant worked more tables than the waiter. In fact the assistant covered tables for two waiters.

 

Allen and Diana

[jaybird from SC]

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. ;)

We recently used the luggage valet service on Celebrity Summit..Put our bags out the night before and never saw them again until we reached our final destination. If fact a couple of pieces didn't make it until the next day and were delivered to our door at home.

[jlhc99]

DH & I were on the Feb 2nd cruise too, and also on the Feb 9th sailing as well. It's amazing how the other pax onboard can make one week so different from another on the same ship. We met lots of really nice pax on both cruises, but in our experience, we felt the more courteous pax were actually on the Feb 2nd sailing, with more rude, "special" people on the Feb. 9th cruise!

 

usha - From your picture, I think we remember you and your DH from Karaoke in the Rendez-Vous Lounge. Am I correct? If so, you both sounded GREAT!!

[usha]

Thanks!!! We did do karaoke in the Rendezvous! DH did his dreamy "Elvis". I did "my guy" one night, and I don't remember what else another night.

Did you karaoke? If so, what did you sing?

[jlhc99]

We didn't sing - thank God as the entire lounge would have evacuated if they heard my singing voice :). We were just silent observers - it was entertaining to say the least!

[DMPalmieri]

Could you pleas tell me what nights are the formal nights, Also we where just on rccl ship and they limited the lobster to one a night are they doing this on celebrity? thanks

[jlhc99]

Could you pleas tell me what nights are the formal nights, Also we where just on rccl ship and they limited the lobster to one a night are they doing this on celebrity? thanks

 

On our cruise, the formal nights were Monday and Thursday. Lobster was only offered on the menu on Thursday night.

[amsp]

chris and i are getting ready to go out on a similar cruise to yours (but on that not to be named party line). please contact me. cpaynter at sbcglobal dot net. i miss talking to you and hector. how is the not so new place now? my numbers have not changed if you still have them. after a long time in coming our construction is nearing completion (we were moved to a hotel for 6 months a year ago). lost a lot of the data on my hard drives including your email.

 

would love to get in touch - especially before we leave on april 27. send my love to hector (and at that time just one niece).

 

ann

[Kaboochi]

Sail from San Juan, 5 ports from there - the only ship that offers this in the Carib: fantastic itinerary. How can you complain that there are too many ports? Stay on board one day. When we were in Grenada we made that our extra day at sea. Summit is a great ship - the rude passangers can make it embarrassing if they and you are American: just chalk it up to ignorance. Ah, Summit in the Carib - the absolute best. Laurie