soccermommy

If we do it again, we probably skip the wine pairing because it was a lot of wine…glasses got refilled quickly. I do remember feeling VERY good, and I did like most of the wines. But that’s a personal decision, and I don’t think not having the wine pairing spoils the experience.

It was sold out on both Millennium and Summit last year, but on Eclipse in March they added an extra session, which we were able to book after it showed sold out on the app. It was a lot of fun, and imo, the group you are with makes the experience. Our group was wonderful, and the food and service exceptional. We did do the wine pairing, because, we’ll, we could and it was for my birthday, and the total bill was close to $500, including the gratuity. Very pricey. I think, however, I wouldn’t mind doing it again. It might be one and done, depending on how well I convince my DH. Was it worth it, yes, for us, but the cookbook included weighed a ton! Check with the Murano staff, there could be another night added, based on requests. It’s worth a shot.

So sorry, OP, that your Summit cruise was so unsatisfactory. We had our second cruise on her last August and had excellent service in our cabin. We joked we’re actually in steerage, Deck 2 Oceanview, but our cabin was immaculate. The only problem was the repetition of menus in the MDR but that was just before they changed.( There was much more choice on the Millennium in October, btw). I do have to say, though, if anything like your experience happened to us, we would be escalating it to Hotel Director level. I am not an old timer who remembers the old days on Celebrity, but we have been very happy with the product we have now. I have much more experience with NCL. Sadly, for a number of reasons, I don’t think we will be sailing them again. There have been cutbacks all around, but I hope you find someplace that makes you happy to sail.

I posted about my problems trying to watch this latest webinar on Eclipse. I don’t know who was nice, but we got the 3 points!

So I get back from the Eclipse, a wonderful journey around South America, and find another fantastic Jim_Iain cruise adventure. You have inspired us to become more adventurous in our cruising, and we are actually considering this for our 50th anniversary in 2026. Following this with great anticipation!

We just got off Eclipse and nearly threw the computer overboard trying to watch the darn thing. The webinar would stutter, stop and crash completely every minute or so. Finally we could not reconnect at all. When I went to the CC representative to ask about this, she said they knew about the “ glitch”. I am going to contact CC in Miami to see if good intentions and bad webinar on a Celebrity ship count for something. After all, we were on a Celebrity ship at the time! 3 points is still 3 points…. I guess.

We did the World Wine event on the Summit last year, and it was a lot of fun. I found my walking was a little unsteady towards the end…the pours were good and it’s a lot of wine if you try everything. But we did learn a bit about wine regions and their respective wines. We did the food and wine pairing on the last sea day of our Japan Millenium cruise. For some reason, there were a lot of cancellations and the five of us remaining had the choice of canceling or doing the tasting. We all agreed to stay and it was conducted by the Food and Beverage Manager, whose name I unfortunately don’t remember. It was so informative, and he also gave us a lot of information on how (and sometimes if) they get wines onboard. I don’t expect to get this kind of opportunity again, but we are thinking of doing this on the Eclipse ( next week!)

While we were in Tokyo we found a registered tour guide through TripAdvisor who worked with us before our trip to set up an all day tour based on our interests. As a result, we saw the Imperial Palace, several gardens, hit a couple of tourist areas, a museum, and ate at a restaurant in the Fish Market area frequented by locals which allowed us to try some of the freshest tuna we have ever had, and got a saki tasting. He was a lovely elder gentleman whose English was excellent and was probably the most organized guide I’ve ever met. I saw a number of tours on TripAdvisor which mention the guides are registered. I would highly recommend that as a good place to start.

I can’t answer about the Geisha tours, but the trip on the Shinkansen was interesting. We as a group took a bus from the pier to the train station, and they aren’t close, btw. Then as a group we went to the track for the train and were warned that once we arrived in Kyoto, we had one minute to exit the train…Trains in Japan are strict about schedules! Once we boarded, I barely felt the speed or any movement. Then we boarded another bus to visit the first temple, we parked and then walked uphill, then walked up quite a few steps inside the temple. The Golden Temple is much easier to walk because it’s level, but there is a fair amount of it. Yes, most of the tours do feature a lot of temples, and this past year was the first year Japan was fully open, thus there wasn’t a lot of choice in tours. I really enjoyed most of our ship tours, and admit it was a bit top heavy on temples, but there are a lot of them and the Shinto and Buddhist temples are very important to the Japanese. Trains are actually not that hard to figure out, and we found there was always someone who spoke English who could help us. We took the train from Tokyo to Yokohama with just a little help. Trains are relatively inexpensive and frequent, and there are videos online to help explain things. Good luck and just have a ball!

We booked a ship tour on our October Millennium sailing from Osaka to Kyoto which included 2 temples, a lunch and a train trip on the Shinkansen from Osaka to Kyoto (17 minutes!). I too wanted to see something of the Geisha culture and it wasn’t possible for us, but we did really enjoy the tour. Kyoto is so close to Osaka by train, and the temples are beautiful, but the older part of Kyoto is basically uphill, and there is a lot of walking. Imo, getting to and from Kyoto won’t be much to worry about, getting around might be more of a problem. While researching, I did see some tours on TripAdvisor for touring the Geisha district, but never investigated more deeply because we planned to spend our first day exploring Osaka, and the second day doing Kyoto. By the way, we also liked Osaka though it is very different from Kyoto. I sympathize with your knee problems, and for that reason think the idea to explore Tours by Locals or other specialized agent a good idea. You should be able to customize for your needs. I did read that booking a dinner with a geisha can be very expensive, which could explain the pricey quote you got. We did find, however, that many tours are pricey. Japan is expensive! What ever you do, you will have the cruise of a lifetime. We think this cruise was about the best one we have ever had, the ship is lovely, and the crew were fantastic. Please come back and let us know what you decided, and especially how you liked it! We loved Japan, and would go back in a flash, assuming we survive another flight from Boston.

We live in the Boston area, but have never embarked from Boston, just disembarked twice and the best thing about that was getting an Uber home. So, I am happy to see more cruises out of Boston, but understand why people want more cruises from New Jersey. I am getting the feeling Celebrity has made the decision to shorten cruises to 12 days or less, with an occasional 14 day here and there. That could be one reason why there aren’t many long cruises out of Bayonne. A good, comprehensive Canada cruise from Bayonne needs 14 days, imo. We like longer cruises, especially if we have to travel long distances to take them, though I will say the opportunity to see places like Iceland and Japan on a 12 day cruise was no hardship. It’s a shame because the cruise season is fairly short for the Northeast, and the opportunity to not travel long distances for a cruise is such a nice change.

We’ve used FBC a few times and have discovered that there usually isn’t much of a problem when booking domestic flights, like from Boston to Florida, and have gotten some nice price breaks. But on our last booking with them for our trip to Iceland, we could not access our booking to select seats after making final payment. We called FBC and they said we would get access only when the flight was paid for, and we told them it was, considering this was after final payment. The agent sounded surprised when she found our account, and Icelandair allowed access within the hour. Well, mistakes do happen, and ours was fixed, but we decided to book our own flights for our Eclipse cruise. The prices weren’t that different, anyway. I always check FBC’s prices to see if there are any good deals, but for international flights, feel much more comfortable doing our own booking. OP, I hope this gets resolved to your satisfaction.

Our first Celebrity cruise was in Concierge, mostly because it was cheaper than a veranda. With the exception of a TA cruise from Iceland, we have stayed with Concierge since; the prices we’ve gotten were not much more expensive than a Veranda, and the extra points added up since we tend to do longer cruises. It helped us make Elite much sooner! I put the perks in the nice to have but not critical category.

We try to make the Concierge lunch. It’s much less hectic than navigating the buffet. Depending on how crazy port embarkation is, it can be nice to sit and chill. And if necessary, drink. The menu is limited, though, and is, imo, more of a dinner than a lunch with the choices offered.

We’re going to be on the March 14 Eclipse cruise from Valparaiso, and I am trying to get as much information about the boarding process as I can. So far, it doesn’t sound great. If I’m reading this correctly, it’s getting the bus to the actual boarding area from check in that’s the problem? Our check in online starts Monday and I plan to get the earliest time I can and hopefully, just deal with whatever comes. But I think people have been a little hard on the OP. If you have had a bad embarkation, and Perth in 2019 is a vivid example for me, you try your hardest to avoid another one by asking for information. And of course, it’s a first world problem but we never forget how lucky we are to be able to travel. By the way, we just got an email from Celebrity about Buenos Aires. They are changing terminals there. Apparently with the storm damage, operations at the normal cruise terminal were, um, pretty bad. OP, if you do go to Bali, please post about it. It’s on my very long bucket list, but I have hopes for 2026.

Your pictures are stunning! I may have missed this, but what are. you using to take them? As far as the weather goes, I can only hope we get such good weather in March.

I am following this with great pleasure. Your pictures are stunning. We will be on the Santiago to Buenos Aires sailing in March, and am happy to see the Eclipse is in good shape. How have you found the weather? We will be traveling during the beginning of the South American autumn, abut would love some information on what to expect. Please enjoy your trip and keep sending your great pictures!

Well, I’m a sewer, so I never notice, and I’ve trained my husband well! But generally, sewing is noisy. I have to say it has never occurred to me to bring a sewing machine on a cruise, just way too much trouble, imo, and I want to enjoy what the ship offers. But I do understand why the OP would want to sew.

I sympathize with you, OP, I love to sew and quilt, and I still work for a well known chain of sewing and craft stores, even though I “officially” retired after 22 years. I do have a few concerns with this scenario, however. First and foremost, what are the plans for getting a machine to the ship. Some have suggested using a “mini” machine, or a cheap one. I would worry about the stitch quality of some of these cheap machines, you might not be satisfied. Full size machines are not lightweight either. If you are flying, please do not check it. Having seen what could happen to a suitcase, I can only wonder how battered or misaligned a sewing machine could get. As far as actually sewing on the ship, there aren’t a lot of public places I can think of where you can sew undisturbed. In fact, the only place I can think of would be a conference room. I don’t know how much these are utilized, but now that I think of it, if they aren’t being booked, why don’t ships have a quiet room for crafting, especially on a TA? But that is something you would have to ask the ship personnel, preferably before you cruise. I don’t know if a machine would be confiscated, it isn’t prohibited, and I think it might depend on the ship’s interpretation of the rules. You can, of course, use your room. Some machines are noisier than others, it might or might not be a noise problem for your neighbors. I don’t think a machine would be a power drain. I would precut fabrics before cruising, you just won’t have the space to lay out fabric unless you use the bed. Hand quilting might be a good solution here, it takes less space to bring and use. I have sometimes brought knitting, I don’t think hand work bothers anybody and you get to enjoy some of the ship’s sea day activities. Whatever you decide, have a great cruise!

We’ll be on the same itinerary in March, so I am excited to follow your cruise. We’ll be Concierge. Thanks so much for doing this.

I am looking forward to following your adventures. This is a fabulous itinerary and we looked at it, except we already booked a cruise…we are now in Yokohama waiting to board Millenium. Have a wonderful time. Your blog is so much fun to follow!

I was on the Summit in August and found the MDR menu a little limited, but I can say I did not lose any weight on that cruise. We’ll be on Millennium next month, and I expect I’ll be fine. And no lighter. In the past year, we sailed Princess, RCI and NCL, and we were not thrilled with the food on any of them. Cutbacks in food are plaguing many mainstream lines. We actually thought Celebrity was the best for food, but that’s just our own subjective opinion.

Since your reviews inspired us to follow in your footsteps, I.e. Iceland-Greenland on Summit, and soon Japan on Millenium, I am excited about your trip on the Great Lakes. I grew up on the other side of Lake Ontario, Rochester NY, and the Lakes are special. Safe travels, and have a wonderful time!

I know food is subjective…DH and I had major differences on some of our meals! For someone who will try anything, he was definitely pickier than I was. No one will starve on the Summit. It’s more likely you come home pounds heavier. I speak from experience. I saw vegan and gluten free choices in the buffet and MDR, and as I am a diabetic, I found the MDR would modify meals and desserts for me with a little bit of notice to our waiters and hostess. I guess my main problem is the number of choices available on the daily menu, but maybe this being a 12 day cruise had something to do with it. i can’t comment on Luminae or Blu but I’m sure others who have eaten in these can chime in. I definitely would do this itinerary again. We sort of saw Northern Lights, but clouds obscured most sights. We do have pictures of green clouds though.

This won’t be a long or detailed thread, but I wanted to give some impressions of this cruise, our first on Celebrity in 2 years. DH and I are in our youngish 70’s, from the Boston area. We are longtime NCL cruisers but got hooked on Celebrity. We would have sailed them more but family constraints had us on Princess, Royal and NCL last year, which did give us a base for comparing cruise lines. We really looked forward to visiting Iceland, since Covid took care of the previous two attempts. ITINERARY We flew to Reykjavík from Boston on Iceland Air. We used Celebrity Air, decent price. Only issue was after final payment, they forgot to tell the airline we had paid, but a call took care of that. We stayed at the Hotel Von, very close to downtown, and within walking distance to several landmarks, which we did while waiting for our room.Small room, but very clean and perfect for the two of us. A restaurant shares the lobby, but technically not part of the hotel. We ate there quite a bit and enjoyed it. Be advised that food in Iceland is very expensive. We did a small group Golden Circle tour with Gateway to Iceland, booked through Trip Advisor. We would use them again. We used Celebrity for shore excursions in Isafjordur and Akureyri, mostly because there just wasn’t much to book. Both had stupendous scenery, lovely people. Several trips would not cover the sights Iceland has to offer. Greenland. The trip through Prinz Christian Sund was probably the highlight of this cruise. Even the rainy, chilly weather couldn’t affect the glorious scenery. Mountains, glaciers and some narrow waterways. We even entered a small inlet where the Summit did a full 360 turnaround so the glacier could be viewed from everywhere on the ship. I am not sure the Eclipse next year will be able to duplicate this since spaces were tight! Nanotorlik. A tiny little town which might have had more to offer if the rain, wind, and 40 degree temps hadn’t interfered. Our tour, a small boat tour of the fjord was cancelled. I think the locals were a bit bemused at the sight of so many crazy tourists who didn’t have the sense to get out of the rain. St. John’s, Newfoundland. A neat, colorful city with an even more colorful history. We booked a walking tour through Viatour, which DH enjoyed. I didn’t make it, more on that later. Halifax, booked a small group Lunenberg tour through Viatour. We had been to Halifax before and wanted to see more of the province. We did get Peggy’s Cove again, I think almost every tour does it, but there have have been improvements. Walking is much safer and is now accessible. It’s still as pretty as ever. We did manage to beat the large tour busses, always a major plus. Lunenberg is a very small lovely city. We also got some great coastal views of both Mahone’s and St. Margaret’s bays. Boston. Disembarking was simple. We walked a block and got a much cheaper Uber home. SUMMIT The ship may be getting older, but you’d have to look for evidence. Immaculately clean and maintained. A couple of times restrooms needed attention, generally near the theater or Sky Club, but they were near the crowds. Service was what I expect from Celebrity, crew friendly, helpful and seemed grateful to have us onboard. I found only one instance of not quite rude disinterest, and that was at Customer Service. But, having seen and heard some of the things they deal with, it could be considered understandable. Room. We booked somewhat late and the only rooms available were inside and ocean view. We were in 2074, a deluxe ocean view, and enjoyed it. We felt no need to have a balcony crossing the Atlantic so far north and didn’t miss it. Our room attendant, Akhmead, was great. Entertainment was fine, we aren’t huge show people and the music in the lounges was pretty good. Food. The buffet was good, a lot of choices and generally were well prepared. My major problem was the prepared scrambled eggs. I suspect eating them was the reason I missed the walking tour. I didn’t keep them down very long. Specialty dining. We ate at both Tuscan and Sushi on Five. Food quality was excellent, and service excellent. Easily the best food we had on this cruise, but not something we’d want to do everyday. MDR. A major disappointment. DH will eat anything, literally, but he couldn’t finish the NY strip steak. Tough and overcooked. Beef was often not cooked to order. The appetizers were fine, but choices are limited and repetitive. Desserts were ok, except one night we and our dinner companions all rejected the apple pie, and DH actually complained. It did get better, but I am now under orders to bake a “real” apple pie. Celebrity simply has to increase the choices and quality of the food served. FINAL THOUGHTS Our last cruise on Celebrity was September 2021 on our private yacht, the Summit. Nothing will ever equal the attention all 300 of us received, but there was nothing to complain about for service this time. There is still much to appreciate about the Summit. You can always find something to eat, but there are areas that need work. In Celebrity’s defense, and we don’t consider ourselves cheerleaders, the MDRs on the other three lines we sailed were at best mediocre. From reading various threads, I think Celebrity has done a lousy job with longtime cruisers who no longer feel appreciated or wanted, which is a really dumb marketing move. We don’t sail suites except for a one time lovely Sky Suite upgrade, but I understand if you pay (a lot!) for something, you should get what was advertised. And even though the cruise lines are desperate to shed the crushing debt they incurred, I don’t think some of their cutbacks are beneficial, or smart. But Celebrity is doing a lot right. We have 2 cruises coming up and will book again when the 2025 schedule comes out. If anyone has specific questions, I will do my best to answer.