Celebrity summit review 23 jan 2016

This is review of our recent trip on Summit. i have gone into much detail so will post daily over 7 days.Please feel free to ask questions or comments(nice ones please)

CELEBRITY SUMMIT 23 JAN 2016

Itinerary

San Juan, Puerto Rico

At sea

Bridgetown, Barbados

Castries, St Lucia

St John`s, Antigua

Philipsburg, St Maarten

Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Just to introduce ourselves. We are a married couple from the East of England in the UK so please forgive some sayings which you may not understand if you are from further afield. Eg American! Ages:- myself 50 & my wife (J)49.

We love to get away in our winters (dark, wet & cold if you are not from round here) to somewhere warm and sunny. Have cruised 4 times before, twice around the Med and twice around the Caribbean. Cruising suits us as we prefer not to be in the same place all week and to wake up every morning with a different view is fantastic. And we enjoy meeting new people. Have sailed on RC twice, Celebrity once and MSC once, but never again (too many people and the language barrier which meant all announcements were relayed several time in different tongues).

We booked the cruise just before Christmas after great deliberation. Which ship?Which itinerary? We love the Caribbean and have sailed on Eclipse before but didn't have time or finances to do this again. Because we were on a tight budget we chose an inside cabin. ‘Oh no’, I here you cry but it was that or the Canary Islands, so it was a no brainer. So we only had to wait a few weeks but because of this we did not get any promotional offers, so no drinks package for us! We considered whether to buy one but decided to take it day by day and see how it progressed knowing we could keep an eye on it though the TV in our room. More of that later.

Took the flight from Gatwick London with Norwegian Air on a Dreamliner which made the 9 hrs slightly more bearable, the Wednesday before the cruise and landed in San Juan in the early evening.* After reaching our hotel we took a snack at the bar and a couple of complimentary drinks and due to the 4 hr time difference we were ready for bed.

Stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott at Isla Verde Beach for three nights and were very pleased with the accommodation and service. It is set right on the beautiful beach so wonderful views for our breakfast ($17). Pricey but was worth it as such a lovely setting, Great beach and pool. We ate our evening meals just down the road at a local Puerto Rican restaurant called Platos and had 2 lovely dinners here. The hotel is quite a walk from the centre of town (as we found out on a 2 hrs hike on the first day) so choice is limited but it suited us very nicely. The only down side is the location as its across the road from the main airport which means significant plane noise during the day but this didn’t bother us and*when we were in our room it was not a problem.* Regarding the beach, the waves are large which I love but it would not suit everyone.

Tomorrow we board the ship to see if.

It is bad as some reviews suggest?? Rust bucket comes to mind!

Does the change of formal to chic nights work??

Can Captain Alex Papadopoulos parallel park as good as Captain Kate??

And most important can we survive with no drinks package??

Following your wonderful review! Thank you for taking the time to share with us.

Marie

Eagerly awaiting the next installment!

We will be boarding the Summit in 2 weeks. This will be our 6th time on the Summit, the last cruise being Oct 2015. We love the Summit. I think the itinerary you are on is the best one, lots of really beautiful beaches. Looking forward to your impressions.

Off to a great start!

I like the itinerary especially sailing from San Juan.

Am curious to hear about the "rust bucket"

Norris

I'm looking at Summit this December!! The exact same itinerary!!! So looking forward to hearing about everything!! Yes, we too are looking at an inside!! Port intensive... We are rarely in the room!!!

PLEASE tell ALL! Because we are looking at EXACTLY EVERYTHING THE SAME!

I'm looking at Summit this December!! The exact same itinerary!!! So looking forward to hearing about everything!! Yes, we too are looking at an inside!! Port intensive... We are rarely in the room!!!

PLEASE tell ALL! Because we are looking at EXACTLY EVERYTHING THE SAME!

Right now if you book an outside you will get 2 perks. If you choose the beverage pkg and the $150 OBC you will more than offset the price difference from an inside cabin. Remember, you can always cancel with no penalties but the offer of 2 perks for the price of 1 is limited, and the price on this cruise rarely goes down. It usually sells out. Even if you don't drink alcohol you can still use the beverage pkg for specialty coffees and teas and bottled water, canned sodas, fresh squeezed oj, virgin frozen drinks, smoothies, etc

IMO this is the best itinerary of any Celebrity Caribbean cruise. The Summit will be through dry dock in March so any wear and tear (and it was minor in Oct) will be fixed. They are also adding an outdoor movie screen during dry dock.

*

Saturday 23 Jan. Embarkation day.

On Saturday morning after lingering over breakfast and enjoying the great view we where undecided whether to stay here until late afternoon or get to the ship early. Anyway J decided we would get there early before the masses arrived and so we took a cab ($25) to the port at about 11.30. The taxi driver wasn’t sure which port and neither were we but this was not a problem as we spotted the Summit and made our way there. While driving down the port road there where loads of taxi going the other way and I feared the worst. Had we made the wrong choice? Should J have listened to me for once?

Panama terminal as I think it is now called was located away from the main port and not across the road from the Sheraton hotel which we had presumed. The previous day we had taken a visit to San Juan old town and looked inside the Sheraton. and weren’t over impressed. We nearly stayed here but where glad we had chosen the stay at the beach. It looked a bit tired and smelt musty.

It was confusing which line to get in as there was a Royal Caribbean ship in as well and I couldn’t see any signage but J guessed correctly (as always!) and we had a had a small wait to give our luggage to the porters plus the obligatory tip. There was no queue at check and after asking about upgrades (well you have to don’t you?) and being told to see guest relations once on the ship it was completed very promptly and we were on the ship within 10 mins of arriving by 12.30.

Our two bottles of wine, which we had bought on our walk/hike at Isla Verde were not even looked at, if I had known I would have smuggled on gin!! Once we were on board we were given a small, and I mean small, glass of bucks fizz and we had a quick walk around deck before going for lunch at the Oceanview Cafe. Pleasantly surprised by the amount of spare tables available as in the past we have seen hordes of people on the first day behaving like they haven’t eaten for a week. (you know who you are) Food was good with lots of choice.

After lunch we located our cabin on deck 9. As I said before of our budget we went for an inside cabin (9055). Our luggage was all there for a change, previously we have had some kept back in security as we normally don’t read the rules about bringing an iron on board! We don’t travel light (40 kg allowed on Norwegian air- not that we bought that much!!) and even though formal night have ceased and been changed into Chic nights, something which we where disappointed with. J likes wearing her glad rags in the evening and I must confess I enjoy wearing my black tie.We even remembered to bring some extra hangers for the wardrobe as there is never enough and so there was plenty of space for everything. The room was so much better than last year on RC where J had to launch herself on the bed as there was no room to walk around it. The stateroom was in a great location in pretty much mid ship and we only had 1flight of stairs to get up to the pool area and Ocean view café.

J decided to go to guest relations to see about an upgrade. She was not the only passenger with this idea and there was a long line there all asking the same questions. We didn’t succeed, did anyone I wonder??

Spent the rest of the day exploring the ship while trying not to blow the drinks budget. $8 for a bottle of Coors lite. I think we might not manage!

Muster was called at 7.30 so we made our way to the theater and had our names ticked off the roll call. We were in there at least 30 minutes as it was explained both in English and German for our European neighbours, who numbered 300 we where told.

We chose set dining at 8.30 which suits us as we tend not to get back on board until last thing and then like a drink on deck before getting ready for dinner. We had requested a table for eight so were surprised that there was only one other couple seated with us. But it was not a problem as we got to know each other.*Our server hardly introduced himself and I can’t recall his name. It was the same all week I must say we have had much better in the past.

After finishing dinner, at 10 pm,we thought we would check out the theatre and after Ken the cruise director had introduced himself (am I being rude by saying he must spend too much time in the Oceanview…) we saw a comedian called Rich Aronovich who was mildly funny. He was due back the following night in an adult only show which we hoped would be more to our bad taste!

We settled down for the night in our inside cabin/cell. In the early hours we were woken by an almighty crash as if someone was slamming doors in the neighbouring cabin or was Captain Alex a poor replacement for Kate?? (This happened every night and was resolved in the end. Keep reading for the conclusion.)

Tomorrow. Our one and only sea day. Thank goodness its just one - all of them people!!!

*

I'm looking at Summit this December!! The exact same itinerary!!! So looking forward to hearing about everything!! Yes, we too are looking at an inside!! Port intensive... We are rarely in the room!!!

PLEASE tell ALL! Because we are looking at EXACTLY EVERYTHING THE SAME!

If there is anything i miss,just let me know.Lord Brockett

Great review so far -- keep it coming! :)

Enjoying your review--we sail on Summit in a week so really looking forward to hearing more! As she's due to go into dry dock very soon, how does she look?

Thanks for the reports.

Enjoying the review.

Looking forward to the next installment.

Keith

Thanks for taking the time to post your review. We are on the same itinerary on 2 April so are very interested to read your report.

We are also flying Norwegian from Gatters. Are they as bad as some reviewers would have us believe? What was the legroom like? Would you fly Norwegian long haul again?

Looking forward to your next instalment...

I wrote a review also...

Yes.....Myself and 5 other of my sailing friends were in that line requesting an upgrade. My travel agent made a huge error and the six of us did not get balcony's. We would up with oceanview. I knew the ship was fully booked but with the storm in the Northeast some people had to miss the ship...Right???

Well they did...but apparently we did receive a phone call after waiting in line that all passengers who missed the ship on Saturday will be catching up with us in Barbados...

Looking forward to the rest of your review!

Thanks for taking the time to post your review. We are on the same itinerary on 2 April so are very interested to read your report.

 

We are also flying Norwegian from Gatters. Are they as bad as some reviewers would have us believe? What was the legroom like? Would you fly Norwegian long haul again?

 

Looking forward to your next instalment...

We flew Norwegian from Oslo to San Francisco nonstop and it was a great flight! Even better because it was only $539 for the two of us!

I wrote a review also...

 

Yes.....Myself and 5 other of my sailing friends were in that line requesting an upgrade. My travel agent made a huge error and the six of us did not get balcony's. We would up with oceanview. I knew the ship was fully booked but with the storm in the Northeast some people had to miss the ship...Right???

 

Well they did...but apparently we did receive a phone call after waiting in line that all passengers who missed the ship on Saturday will be catching up with us in Barbados...

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review!

I'm curious about the mistake that your travel agent made. Were you originally booked into ocean views and thought you had been moved into balconies or what?

Love the review so far. We leave a week from today!!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We flew Norwegian from Oslo to San Francisco nonstop and it was a great flight! Even better because it was only $539 for the two of us!

What a fantastic price. Glad you enjoyed the flight.

I'm curious about the mistake that your travel agent made. Were you originally booked into ocean views and thought you had been moved into balconies or what?

15 of us were booked as a group...some put $50 down with $250 due at a specified date, others put the full deposit down. all balconies reserved. When the $250 rest of the deposit was made travel agent found that Celebrity took the balconies away and gave us oceanviews.... it was stated in the group contract with the agent "that Celebrity reserves the right to take back balcony cabins if they are not fully deposited". TA never read contract...so therefore we will never use her again..............

15 of us were booked as a group...some put $50 down with $250 due at a specified date, others put the full deposit down. all balconies reserved. When the $250 rest of the deposit was made travel agent found that Celebrity took the balconies away and gave us oceanviews.... it was stated in the group contract with the agent "that Celebrity reserves the right to take back balcony cabins if they are not fully deposited". TA never read contract...so therefore we will never use her again..............

Oh no!! That's just terrible. Hopefully you had fun anyway. . .

From reading your post is there no more captain Kate?

From reading your post is there no more captain Kate?

I read she was on vacation(break).

Marie

If there is anything i miss,just let me know.Lord Brockett

My Lord Brockett, your review has been great!! It is very helpful!! Waiting to see what is next.

Sorry that you had a cell! i am sure you spent tons of money on air and other expenses for not much more you could have had a balcony or at least an oceanview. I also would be very angry at your TA he/she didn't do the best for you.

Make the best of it and try to only sleep in the "cell"and spend your waking hours on the decks.