mit429

January 16, 2018

We stepped out of the van to two Bellhops and this view ... we immediately knew we had made the correct choice. Cole snapped these two amazing pictures of the lobby and entryway.

We were walked by one of the bellmen through this amazing entryway/lobby to the reception area at the end of the hallway. I had called from the ship that morning to make a reservation for the day passes, but I assume you could just show up and if they had space they’d let you buy one on the spot. They set you up with a “room” for the day to apply charges to, but you don’t actually have a room. After we had put our credit card down and gotten all checked in, a bellhop came in and offered to take us on a golf cart ride of the property - yay!

I grabbed a screenshot of Google Maps satellite view and took the liberty of identifying some of the highlights of the property. I wish I had taken more pictures while walking around, and sadly I didn’t get any images of the menu.

Right off the lobby there is a store, typical of a hotel, with sundries, beach items, etc. Off of the store is a dock which has a boat available for fishing or day trips, we didn’t inquire as to the cost.

There are two pools, the Rampart Pool, which is adults-only, and the Lagoon Pool, which is right along the beach (with an infinity edge overlooking) and has its own sandy lounging area, as well as a sloped walk-in, similar to an actual beach.

There are three restaurants, The Great House, Fisherman’s Village, and The Stone Barn. The Great House and Fisherman’s Village are open for lunch and that is where we were able to do our 2-course lunch. The pool bar also has an extensive food menu.

I wish I had gotten a picture of the drink menus, but it doesn’t seem like I did. The cocktails were all $15, they had mocktails for $9, and beers were $9, I believe. The cocktails were all deliciously crafted with fresh ingredients, so while expensive.

I also forgot to mention, WiFi is included with your day pass.

We decided to set up camp on the sandy area leading into the Lagoon Pool, introduced ourselves to the bartender, Julian, and started enjoying our day. Overall the resort seemed fairly empty, and that was confirmed with the staff.

The Lagoon Pool

Me taking a quick dip in the Lagoon Pool, drink in hand, hat on head.

Neither the Rampart Pool nor the Lagoon Pool are heated, which probably isn’t a problem on most days. It happened to be extremely windy and fairly overcast the morning we were there, so a heated pool would’ve been nice. There is no hot tub, but there is a plunge pool in the spa, which also is unheated, but definitely warmer.

We lounged by the Lagoon Pool for a while, Mike and I swam around it, and explored the different areas (it’s a big pool!). Throughout our swimming and lounging, Julian was extremely attentive and watching our drinks from afar making sure they didn’t stay empty long. There didn’t seem to be any other waiters, which I thought was odd, but maybe that’s because the resort was so empty. There were a few additional pool butlers around to help with chairs, umbrellas, and towels. Additionally, sporadically around both pools there were tables equipped with iced citrus water, cups, sunscreen, towels, eye glass cleaner and an eye glass cleaner cloth (I thought the cleaner and cloth were a really nice touch!).

Mike had wanted to check out the spa, so I went up there with him to see what that was all about.

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January 15, 2018

Again sorry for the delay, I was exhausted getting off the ship, and then the jarring reality of cold NYC hit me like a ton of bricks! I know I sound like a broken record!

Day 6: St. Kitts

You may remember that Cole and I had chatted with Captain Kate about the Park Hyatt St. Kitts, as we had seen she had just been there on her Instagram and we had sort of considered it. You’ll remember that we were quoted a $250pp price which included transportation, full access to the resort, and a 2-course lunch; which we felt was just too much. Well, last night after our day on the beach in Antigua we discussed doing something really nice for the next day and decided to call the PHSK again to inquire about pricing. We were then given a price of $150pp which included full access to the resort and a 2-course lunch, but not transportation.

We decided to discuss it over dinner leaving Antigua, which we did and decided why not! We knew it would be about 80-100 roundtrip for the 5 of us to get there, so there was no reason to use their transportation. We “justified” it to ourselves by saying that we’d stay on the ship on the last day, St. Thomas, and save some cash. Plus, it would be nice to end the cruise with a “sea day” of our own. I should have included all this background in last nights post, but I felt it more pertained to this day.

As you may have noticed, getting up early isn’t exactly our forte in this group, but when you’re spending that much money on a beach day that helps to motivate people. We had agreed to try to be off the ship by 930am, which seemed early, but reasonable. Yes, I know the more logical thing would’ve been to go to bed right after dinner, but where’s the fun in that - haha!

I actually got up super early, at like 730am, and after lying in bed for a bit and thinking about going back to sleep, I decided that I’d hit up Luminae for breakfast. I like to try to get breakfast in Luminae or Blu (that table side muesli can’t be beat), at least once per cruise. It’s usually easiest on a sea day when I can get up eat, and head back to bed for a nap a few hours later.

I sent a picture of myself at Luminae to the rest of the group because no one believed I made it!

I digress ... I got to Luminae around 845am after showering and getting all my things ready for our day in St. Kitts. Denis and JP were shocked to see me, as by this point I’m sure they knew we weren’t early risers, lol. I sat at a lovely table along the banquet, which is my favorite spot in Luminae in the M-Class ships. I ordered a smoothie, my iced tea, some ice water, and a glass of fresh OJ to start with. I love the fresh juices in Luminae and Blu, I know a long time ago they used to have a station in the Oceanview for fresh OJ, but I haven’t seen it since 2013, or so. I much prefer the table-side muesli in Blu, but I ordered Luminae’s version and it was quite good. I also ordered the heuvos rancheros, which I’ve had before and find to be quite tasty, albeit a little confusing to eat (I just ended up using my hands). Overall the service was lovely, I thanked JP for his great and attentive service and headed back to check the status of the rest of the group.

As you might have guessed, 930am didn’t happen, but we were off by 10! We headed up to the taxi area, and asked for a cab. I’m not really sure what ensued, but there was a lot of arguing about our ride, I’m not really sure why, but eventually we were assigned a driver and off we went. I know some people feel that St. Maarten has a bit of a mess of a taxi line, but I actually prefer it, the drivers and their vans come to you, and the staff on the ground just tells you to line up in a different place, it’s so much more organized.

It took us about 20-25 minutes to get to the PHSK, which is right next to Cockleshell Beach, for those of you who are familiar. We passed by the Marriott and the Carambola Beach Club, which ChicagoPaul mentioned a few weeks ago, on our way. Both of those were our original plans before we had this YOLO moment and went to the PHSK. I always love the drive to Cockleshell, it’s such beautiful scenery, and the roads in St. Kitts are soooooo smooth. Our all-aboard time was 430pm and we had originally requested a 330pm pick-up, but our driver was insistent there would be bad traffic and that we do 3pm - we eventually settled on 315pm.

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January 13, 2018

Oh I forgot I had a picture of the dessert, it’s a fairly bad picture, but it was quite good. The pretzel ice cream was delicious (despite me being a skeptic beforehand)

After dinner we stopped by Michael’s, gave the casino some more money, and stopped by Revelations. The scene in Revelations didn’t seem all that fun, though the people there were definitely having fun, lol, so we called it an early night. I wanted to mention one of the casino bartenders, Keisha ... she was awesome. Always extremely attentive and going out of her way to make sure you got what you needed.

Off to bed, tomorrow is St. Kitts!

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January 13, 2018

I got a few pictures of our beautiful sail-away from Antigua. We did a complete 180 while leaving the harbor, which Captain Kate described as a “donut,” I believe. It was really cool to watch from the promenade, and then beautiful from our balcony as well.

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January 13, 2018

Update: Sorry for the delay and lack of posts over the past few days. We just got off the ship and had a bit of a whirlwind of a last day (and my WiFi wasn’t working for half the day). I’ll hopefully be able to get the review wrapped up in the next day or so.

So yes, back from the beach in Antigua, we headed down to tea. Pavel was there to greet us, along with another Butler, and of course Ilya. I always loved seeing Pavel at tea, he was always so kind and attentive, it just made the experience that much better. Also today one of the tea sandwiches was a BLT, I’m not kidding you when I tell you that I had 8 of them, lol. They were so good. I was consistently really wowed with the quality of the tea service in Michael’s. My only complaint (or suggestion I suppose is a better term) is that they don’t have Fields & Select in Michael’s Club. I know Tea Forte is the “better” tea, but F&S really does make a better iced tea, but I digress.

I never thought to take pictures during tea, but maybe I should have. Then again I imagine the tea sandwiches photograph poorly, so maybe it’s best - they’re delicious!

I know this next paragraph won’t be the most popular, as people have differing opinions as to what you should or shouldn’t ask for... Last night I had heard some people talking about a helipad sail-away, and that was curious as I hadn’t heard of one. I’m not yet Elite Plus, so my only chance of being invited would be because we were in a suite. So, during tea I asked Anastasia if there was going to be a sail-away on the helipad, to which she said she wasn’t organizing one, but would check with Captain’s Club. She went on to explain that a guest had been on the helipad a few weeks ago, tripped while holding a champagne glass, and quite severely cut himself, so she didn’t think there would be any this sailing.

As she was saying that, I turned to the TV in Michael’s which had the bridge cam on, and sure enough ... there was a sail-away going on. I had a little chuckle to myself.

After tea we went up to the Solarium for a bit in hopes that it would be less crowded than it had been the previous days - it wasn’t. That said, we managed to find ourselves a hot tub, had a drink, and enjoyed a few minutes of total relaxation. We then slowly started getting changed for our evening. We planned to stop by the Captain’s Club Officer’s Social in Revelations, then head to Michael’s Club before dinner.

The CC Officer’s Social was very well attended and as always a lot of fun. It was only my second time seeing the cruise director, as I hadn’t been to any shows. He seemed like a lot of fun and the entire team jived very well. Captain Kate pointed out that the Summit was the only ship that has a majority female senior officers - awesome!!

And, of course, it was great to see Marlon and Connor up at the bar, during daylight hours for a change! Marlon saw me coming up to the bar and had my drink waiting for me by the time I got there - I love this guy!

After the Officer’s Party we stopped into Michael’s for a drink. Anastasia said she has heard back from the Captain’s Club Host and we would be welcome to join the helipad sail-away tomorrow evening, leaving St. Kitts. YAY!

I was really looking forward to dinner tonight, as Dennis had a special treat in store for us. Every night he would come to the table and plead as to if there is anything else we would like, etc, to please let him know. Last night I asked whether there was any possibility of getting some Indian food one night. He said - of course and told us he’d make it happen tonight. I always love Indian on cruise ships, especially on Celebrity, as I think it’s top notch. A lot of the chefs and sous chefs are from India - and this was the case with Luminae’s chef, so I knew we were in for a real treat! I wish more menus around the ship featured Indian dishes, though it is usually available in the Oceanview, which is nice!

The pizzette, which was delicious and very rich. (I removed the arugula)

The Chicken Tikka Masala!! So amazingly good. Dennis and the Luminae team prepared a plate for each of us, and it was delicious. Spicy, but the right amount of spice. My mouth is watering thinking about it.

Maybe I’ll have started a trend and we can get something like this on the menu at least once a cruise! Or I’ll never be allowed to make a special request again - haha.

I also had some of the half chicken, which was also quite delicious, but the tikka masala couldn’t be topped! It also helped turn my frown upside down a bit - it had been a long day, I was exhausted, and the table next to us was being exceptionally loud.

Which brings me to another point, I believe Luminae on the M-Class ships is slightly too small. I feel as though it’s definitely smaller, and therefore louder than the S-Class Luminae. Dennis wasn’t able to seat us tonight until about 9pm due to most of the Luminae guests attending the CC Officer’s Social and then coming to dinner. I understand that Celebrity wouldn’t want to build out unnecessary excess capacity in the restaurant, but there shouldn’t be an issue with getting everyone seated. Dennis was super nice and super apologetic about the delay, which wasn’t a big deal to us, there was a great guitarist in Rendezvous across the hall who we listened to while we waited. Not a big deal at all, just a minor observation. That and that others should be more respectful of those dining around them, we all don’t want to hear your entire conversation.

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January 13, 2018

Joel dropped us off and put us in the care of a lovely woman whose name I forgot. She took us right over to Mike and Jeff, she remembered them from when they arrived. We ended up in front of Sandra’s Beach Shack, which was a little barebones, but pretty good. They took credit cards for tabs over USD$20, but they seemed very confused each time we used one.

When we first arrived the beach looked extremely crowded and I was a little nervous that it would be overwhelming. It was totally fine, people were just relaxing and not really making that much of a scene or noise. There were a few people coming around inquiring as to our desire to ride a jet ski, which was also annoying - I always dislike that.

I got a dark and stormy, 2 cans of Club Soda, and a chicken & avocado wrap from Sandra’s, I think it was just over $20, which satisfied the credit card minimum. In the future, I’d probably just use cash, credit cards did not seem to be their forte.

There were showers and decent toilet facilities available, which is always nice! We were told that they are sometimes free and sometimes cost $2, today they seemed to be free. 🤷🏻*♀️

The nice thing about castaways/Sandra’s is that they keep track of who you are, when your pick up time is, and who your driver is. I’ve never had an issue with a taxi not coming back, but this definitely seemed quite organized, which I appreciated.

We got back to the ship around 330pm for a 430pm all-aboard. We quickly changed out of our beach clothes and headed down to tea!

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January 12, 2018

I see the several requests for a video of the balcony - I will take a video tomorrow, I promise!

Day 5: Antigua

We were docked this morning next to the MS Konigsdam, which was a beautiful ship. I’d love to try HAL at some point, but I’ve always heard that perhaps it’s a slightly older crowd than I might like (which was confirmed by some friends we made at the beach). Maybe one day, as I keep getting older, haha.

We had asked around for some advice as to where to go in Antigua, both on TripAdvisor and friends on the ship. We had also asked Anastasia and she recommended Jolly Beach and told us there were a few places around there to eat and drink.

Mike and Jeff got an early start and headed off to Castaways at Jolly to secure us some chaises and umbrellas. Cole, Chad, and I got off a little later and had no problem getting a taxi, without much hassle. Our driver’s name was Joel and he drove a fairly large bus, but it was only us aboard, so it was a nice treat!

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January 11, 2018

The fact that I forgot a period at the end of the last sentence is driving me insane ... and of course I can't edit it - so annoying!

Anyway, we went to get changed for dinner and headed to Michael's Club beforehand for a quick glass of sparkling wine. We did dinner in Luminae tonight, though I was feeling a little off. I'm not sure if I had eaten too much at lunch, drank too much, or was getting a little seasick, but I was definitely not feeling 100%.

[i just tried uploading a picture via the web interface and boy is that quite painful, so I'm switching to my phone to continue this]

I didn’t get any pictures of the entrees, sorry! I did get a copy of the menu, and I recall I ordered a butternut squash soup off the MDR menu which was quite nice.

I know the sugar snap peas, the tuna tartare, and the crab cake were also ordered. All of which received rave reviews. I had the chestnut tortellini for dinner, along with a few others - it was delicious, quite rich, probably thanks to the black truffle butter sauce - ha! One note is that the chestnuts were extremely moist and kind of had a weird texture, which I wasn’t expecting.

We ended the night with our usual - casino and Revelations, nothing crazy. But here is Mike sad that quarters were dropping after he had already stopped playing.

I also managed to get a picture of the room service order tonight, we had some people over for a late night snack!

And I now realize it looks doubled with the table in the background lol.

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January 11, 2018

Since we weren’t going to be getting off the ship in St. Lucia we decided it would be a good day to check out Sushi on 5. I sorely miss Bistro on 5, and I know I’m not alone in that, but Sushi on 5 is delicious and I’m glad we have that option.

This was the Kobe beef ramen slider, it was absolutely delicious, though it was over cooked. I didn’t eat the ramen, but it looked tasty.

I ordered a spicy tuna roll and a ... something lol (I’m thinking it was tuna or salmon), both were delicious.

I also had an edamame and Cole had a miso soup, both of which were delicious. I also had the Japanese red ale which was quite nice.

After Sushi we took a stroll around the ship and headed to Michael’s Club. We relaxed there for a while went on another walk and then came back for tea. Mike and Jeff joined us for tea and we did another Taro card reading - this time for my casino luck ... odds weren’t looking good!

Another pic of us departing St. Lucia, what a beautiful view.

After tea and Taro (or maybe it should be Taro and tea) we went to change and then headed up to the Solarium. As per usual it was absolutely packed, which was driving me crazy, but we were able to secure a corner of the pool and then eventually a hot tub. After lounging there for a bit, we headed up to change for dinner

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January 11, 2018

Day 4: St. Lucia

If it sounds like I may have had a bit of a crazy night, you’d be right; and you have no idea how I’d get up to get off the ship, you’d also clearly know me quite well.

St. Lucia looked beautiful, absolutely beautiful and I really wish I had had the energy to get off the ship, alas... it was going to be a “sea day” for me.

There is a pic of St. Lucia as we sailed away, the entire island looked like this!

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January 11, 2018

So Cole does not have any pictures of the food at Tuscan, so the limp lettuce Ceasar will have to do. On that note, we ran into the guy who complained about the salad last night and he said it’s gotten a lot better.

After being mesmerized by Captain Kate, we relaxed in Michael’s for a little bit longer. I never listed off who we met, and I don’t have my list with me as I’m writing this, so I’ll have to give you their names later. The hotel director, the F&B manager, and the staff captain all came by to chat.

After Michael’s we were heading to dinner, as I was finally getting around to reading through my thread on here and came across a gem. JJ6961 mentioned the infusion bar that is a pop-up at the Gelateria during the evening hours; I think it’s 5-11p, but I’ll double check. The bartender is Filipe and he makes a great cocktail, and is extremely friendly.

It is a concept very similar to the World Class Bar on the S-Class ships that Celebrity is currently testing on the Summit and the Infinity. There is no paper menu, just a TV scrolling through about 20 different menu items - all delicious craft cocktails. Everything is about 15$, so you’ll have to pay a little up-charge over the premium package, but it’s well worth it. Filipe reminded me of the bartenders who used to work at the Molecular Bar, who I always loved.

If you’re on the Summit or Infinity, pop by the Gelateria after-hours and prepare to be wowed!

For dinner this evening we headed back to Luminae. I didn’t get a picture of the menu, sorry! But I did get a picture of my favorite dish, the veal cannelloni, which I could eat all day, every day!

I also have one other picture, some chicken dish which was also tasty.

After dinner we did our usual circuit of casino and Revelations. The one thing I always notice on Celebrity is that the casino tends to close fairly early in comparison with other lines, but maybe that’s a good thing - haha. I stayed out a little later than Chad and Cole and when I got back they had already ordered some room service, which was a great idea! They also had thought to order a grilled cheese, which I’ve never seen on the room service menu, but what a great idea! And they made a delicious one!

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January 11, 2018

I made the mistake and forgot to post the pics of the Ceasar in Tuscan and you can’t edit posts once you post again - whoops sorry

I also have some pics from Barbados...

Champers is the awning off in the distance on the left side of the photo.

My Ceasar from Champers

The aft of the Summit from the pier

Ship of the Quarter! Congrats Summit!

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January 11, 2018

Well, just as I finished typing that, Pavel stopped by with a copy of pictures from the Officer’s Social party from Michael’s Club.

And here’s a picture we took on our phone with Captain Kate while in Michael’s Club.

We chatted with her a bit, and wished her a happy birthday again, as it was her birthday on embarkation day! I also had noticed on her Instagram that she had been to the Park Hyatt in St. Kitts a few days before. We had discussed the Park Hyatt as an option while in St. Kitts; it just opened in November after several years of construction. I had emailed with them a few weeks ago about a day pass and they told me it was $250pp, which included lunch and transportation. We had decided that was way too much for a day at the beach.

I asked Captain Kate what she thought of it and the price, and she informed me that she had paid less, and felt like it was definitely a special treat, but probably not worth that price. Her husband was on the cruise and it was just after the holidays, so they decided to have a YOLO moment. But, she did say it was truly a great hotel and would be a great vacation spot, if you were going for a few days.

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January 10, 2018

I'm slowly catching up, I also realize I should be including headers to sort of give people an idea of where we are, so here we go.

Day 3: Barbados

This is officially the furthest south I have been in the Caribbean, but I've been to Brazil, so I have been more south that this in general, not that that really matters to any of you, but it's just cool to note! We arrived around 8am, not that I'd know it, I was fast asleep, and all aboard was at 5pm.

Cole had made lunch reservations for us at a restaurant called Champers, which was about a 20 minutes drive from the ship. It is the #1 rated restaurant on TripAdvisor in Barbados (and a 9.2 on Foursquare, which is my preferred rating system) and well worth it, IMO. Definitely a little pricey, but the experience was unmatched. I didn't take any pictures at the table, but we had a table right at the edge of the deck, which extends over the ocean ... just WOW. I had a Ceasar salad, which was delicious, and an amazing chicken curry, and we all shared a bottle of Whispering Angel rose after some cocktails.

On our ride through town our taxi driver mentioned that the Governor-General was to be installed that afternoon, so traffic might be quite bad coming back to the pier. He pointed out several government buildings and interesting sights. I was impressed at the infrastructure in Bridgetown, it was definitely more of a large city than a lot of the other island towns I have been to. The roads were definitely in worse shape, but overall there was a lot more going on, it seemed. Just a casual observation of someone interested in urban planning/policies.

After lunch we walked (I hobbled) over to the beach next door, where there was a tiki bar, aptly named The Tiki Bar! They had a large drink selection, but their power was out, so no WiFi and no credit cards, sadly. We had one cocktail and relaxed on the beach for a bit before deciding we should head back to the ship early. We were unsure of how long it would take with the threat of road closures and I really hope to never be that group of people RUNNING onto the ship. The Tiki Bar staff was able to order us a taxi which promptly showed up and we started our journey back to the ship. Our driver took the back roads and it took about 30-35 minutes to get back, so not at all as bad as we had originally feared, but there was definitely a significant amount of traffic.

We got back on the ship in time for some tea - yay - so we promptly ran off to change into more proper clothing and popped off to Michael's Club. After tea I went with Mike and Jeff to the Solarium, which was once again packed. (I had typed this whole long passage about the Solarium being packed at odd times on this sailing and I'm now realizing it was one of the many paragraphs that didn't survive one of my phone's failures.) In the past we have found the solarium to be one of the most tranquil places on the ship, especially any time after 5pm. It usually seems that by 5pm most people have cleared out of the upper deck areas to go shower and get ready for dinner, however that is not the case on this sailing of the Summit. The Solarium is quite crowded well until 630-7pm, which is generally when I leave to get changed. I also feel like the crowd on this sailing is a little bit louder than I'm used to - whatever - we found a hot tub and enjoyed ourself plenty.

The show tonight was "Hard Days Night," a Beatles tribute band. I think Mike and Jeff may have gone, but I'm not 100% sure.

I was especailly excited for tonight as there was a Senior Officer's Party at 730pm in Michael's Club. Cole got dressed early and went down to secure us some good seats in Michael's around 645pm! The officer's party was a real treat, we met most of the senior staff officers of the ship, who were all extremely friendly, and we made sure to pass our compliments on about the staff we had interacted with so far. I really think it is a special treat that Celebrity does this, it really gives us as guests one additional touch-point with people you otherwise don't have to interact with. And, of course, the belle of the ball herself, Captain Kate, stopped in. I know people have their differing opinions on the somewhat cult-like following of Captain Kate, but I'm definitely a part of the cult and fully support it - :).

I have to get ready for dinner now ... but I'll be back in a bit. (Look at me, trying to be live, lol)

January 10, 2018

I just lost another really long post and just about through my phone into the ocean, so I may start typing these in Google Docs or something and then transferring them over here. Or ... if I wasn't three days behind on my posts, I could be doing them live - lol.

After getting my ankle brace, I headed back up to Michael's Club where I joined Mike, Cole, and Chad for the remainder of tea. I had only made it to tea once before on previous sailings and honestly didn't think much of it - it just seemed like an inconvenience to my day. However, I really enjoyed tea today and made a promise to myself that I would try to come every day - and everyone else seemed to agree. The staff in Michael's Club was so warm and welcoming to us that we really didn't want to be anywhere else throughout the day.

Anastasia is the MC Concierge, who we met on the first day, and is always extremely warm and friendly. The MC Bartender, Ilya, is also extremely warm and friendly, and omnipresent. He is always ready to anticipate your next need and make sure he has what you want. Additionally, all of the butlers are extremely helpful and kind during tea - it's really just a special treat!

After tea we lounged around a bit more and then went off to go get changed for dinner and the show, as it was a formal Evening Chic night it would take us a bit longer to get ready. I had a little laugh with our Shoreside Concierge, Jamie, before the cruise about EC night, as we all still refer to them as formal, but she is required to refer to them as EC. We still get dressed to the nines in our formalwear and think its disappointing when people can't even be bothered to put on a tie. Not everyone needs to be in a tux and gown, but at least a tie! LOL. Anyway ... enough for that rant - we got changed and looked quite dapper, if I do say so myself. And as I say that, I realized that I didn't have a picture of us, but we will probably purchase one.

Let me just sidebar to quickly mention our Shoreside Concierge, Jamie. I had talked to her a few times before we got aboard about various things and we had a very long conversation about how awesome Captain Kate is and how she was one of the reasons we were sailing on the Summit this time around. We had booked ourselves into different rooms than we were actually going to sail in and Jamie was extremely helpful in making sure Anastasia knew this and was ready for our request to move around when we got aboard. Definitely 100% awesome!

I decided that I didn't want to go to the show, which was 'Life,' and I just went to relax in Michael's Club. Everyone else went to the show and I told them I would meet them afterwards and hold a place in line for pictures with Captain Kate! I got to pictures with Captain Kate super early and was able to take one of just myself and her, and then got back in line to save a spot for the rest of the group. If you haven't sailed with Captain Kate, get on it - she's amazing.

I chatted with her a bit and got confirmation that she is going to the Equinox this spring/summer. I asked if that was considered an upgrade for her and she didn't really say yes or no, but made a point to tell me how much she loves the Summit and the staff on the Summit. I have to say, having cruised on this ship before, I am inclined to agree. I love the Solstice Class ships and definitely prefer them to the Millenium Class, but the staff on the Summit really has a good thing going. She also made mention of the fact that because the Summit was a slightly older ship it was a little less sophisticated in terms of navigation systems and she liked the fact that it was a tad more work. I thought that was really awesome, she never ceases to amaze me.

After photos we went back to Michael's Club to lounge before dinner, we had decided to dine in Tuscan for the first formal night. Tuscan is always such a great time, but we usually do Murano (on the S-Class ships) for formal night, as its a more formal occasion. We had asked the matire'd, whose name I didn't get, for a specific table, a large round one in the back of the restuarant when we made the reservation. He was thankfully able to honor our request, which was awesome as I think it was one of the best tables in the house. I had never dined in Tuscan on a M-Class ship and was surprised as to how large it was. It also made me lament the loss of the Ocean Liners restaurants, the Summit's was the Normandie, though I'm glad they still saved some of the historic pieces and have them in the lobbies around the ship.

I took one picture at dinner and it was of the Ceasar salad, which was exceptionally bad, but I thought the plate was cute. I'll have to check with Cole to see if he took any other pics and, if so, I'll post them. Our server's name was Agus, but told us we could call him June, July, or September - haha. And our sommolier was Tatiana, whom Maggie told us to be on the look out for as she was exceptional. We didn't really have many questions for Tatiana, as we knew exactly what we wanted - the montepulciano! (If you haven't had it, you need to get to Tuscan and order a glass, it's excellent).

We ordered pretty much the entire menu, and ate it all - everything is so good, and I love their fresh pastas. The standout dishes were definitely the meatballs, carbonera, and gnocci; I usually really like the chicken parmesean, but thought it fell flat this evening. Back to the Ceasar salad - normally I wouldn't be one to complain, but the lettuce was limp and it was terribly over dressed. I wouldn't have bothered to mention it in the review except for the fact that about halfway through our meal the gentleman at the table next to us was complaining to Agus and the matire'd about it. He then asked us what we thought, and we admitted that we felt it definitely fell short of our previous expereinces. He felt he needed to say something as he had planned to dine in Tuscan every night of the cruise, and was also doing a B2B, not sure if he's also dining in Tuscan next week though!

Overall the meal in Tuscan was delicious and we left completely stuffed. After dinner we went to the casino, so I could continue my seemingly endless losing streak of Roulette (and also lost some money at Blackjack)! We had originally planned on stopping by the silent disco at the Martini bar, but it looked extremely crowded when we passed by, so we decided it would be better to lose some money! We then went up to Revelations to check out the party there, which was a live band until about 1215am, at which point it became a standard DJ. With my sprained foot I wasn't able to join in on much dancing, but we had a very fun night none the less.

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January 10, 2018

I can't wait for more details, I want to see more pics!

All blocks are currently on the ship and float out is soon!

January 10, 2018

After lunch we headed over to Michael’s Club to hang out and play some card games. We had thought about going up to the pool, but with my sprained foot I kind of wanted to just be inside. My friend Mike recently learned how to read Taro Cards, so as fun he gave me a Taro reading, which was interesting.

At 4pm, I went down to the Medical Bay as they were opening. I had gone down earlier, around 1115am, only to discover they were closed from 11-4. I went to guest relations and while waiting in line ran into Maya, who offered to check to see if they had anything up there - they didn’t. She told me if it was an emergency, they could page the nurse, but I assured her I would wait.

Anyway, went down at 4pm and told the nurse what happened and asked if they had an ace bandage wrap. She instead offered me a cloth ankle brace - it was 20$ - telling me that would be a lot better.

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January 10, 2018

Apologies for the slow going, it’s harder than I thought to keep up with this while also trying to enjoy my vacation - haha. Those of you who have written a review before, I give you a lot of credit!

Here are some pictures from the first night ...

I was dressed a tad casually in my giraffe short sleeve and they have this sign outside Michael’s Club, so it seemed like an appropriate time for a picture.

Some people were up watching a football game in the evening!

I mentioned that we partied a tad hard, well ... when we got back to our room we decided it was time to order some room service to help soak up the drinks. While I waiting on hold I managed to roll my foot and gave myself a light sprain. So... that was a fun start to the week!

The next day was our first, and only, sea day. We skipped breakfast (930am is just too early to be dressed and sitting at a table), slept in, and just went right to lunch in Luminae. Denis escorted us to a lovely table along the banquet and we settled in for a great meal. I didn’t get a copy of the menu, but I recall we ate a short rib dish, which was quite good, and a chicken and avocado flatbread, which was also delicious.

I’ve noticed that arugula seems to make a constant appearance on dishes in Luminae, I’m not a fan, so I just pick it off.

We also got a delicious chocolate cake-like dish for dessert - I could’ve eaten like 10 of them, it was so good. Additionally, I thought I’d show you what I like to do for iced tea. In my experience, if you ask for Iced Tea on Celebrity, you’re going to get the tea from a Nestle Vitali-tea machine, which isn’t very good. So I like to order 3 bags of tea in a kettle, with two glasses of ice to make my own iced tea. I also prefer the Fields & Select tea, which is the MDR tea, rather than the more premium Tea Forte.

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January 10, 2018

Well, I made a lovely long post about dinner and my phone restarted and now it’s gone -_-

But we’ll try it again, here is the Luminae menu

We also got two items from the MDR menu, the Thai beef spring rolls and the Thai coconut curry soup. The spring rolls were delicious, the soup was not our favorite.

Off the Luminae menu we ordered the buffalo mozzarella, the pork belly, the tomato soup, and the cold salmon. The pork belly was exceptional, so definitely get a few of those if you’re a fan.

For our entrees we had 3 spaghettis and 2 filets. Both of which were delicious - I really loved the spaghetti, it had the perfect amount of spice.

I can’t remember what we had for dessert, but I think like a ganache or something.

As always Maggie, Juan Pablo, and Alex were amazing - they really made for a special evening.

After dinner we headed to the casino to lose some money and off to Revelations. The main bartender at Revelations is Marlon, and he’s assisted by Connor. We definitely partied hard and met a lot of people!

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January 8, 2018

Here are some pictures of the CS!

(Sorry for the delay)

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January 8, 2018

Love your comments so far....the "extreme entry" to the tub in the celebrity suite led us to the upgrade to a "normal" shower in the royal suite! Thanks for you ongoing commentary...keep the news coming and have a great cruise!!!

Yea, the tub drives me insane.

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January 8, 2018

Now it’s time for the big reveal - the Celebrity Suite!

After lunch we headed up to our room, as we were looking the Suite we ran into our butler, Pavel. He escorted us to our room and went over all the suite amenities and what he does. He is very efficient and super friendly! As Pavel was leaving, our stateroom attendant, Gerardo stopped in to introduce himself. He also seems extremely friendly and seems to be omnipresent.

We started unpacking and couldn’t find a US outlet in the room, they all seemed to be European. I had thought about bringing my adapter, but am so used to the S-Class, where most outlets are US. So, we had a minor freak-out and asked Gerardo if he had any adapters. He very quickly brought us one, which I plugged in to an outlet and some sparks came out, and then the power went out in our room - fun!

We called Pavel to advise him of the situation, he immediately came by and confirmed it wasn’t working and called the electrician. And so began our hour and a half ordeal of not having power or A/C. We thought about leaving, but wanted to get ourselves unpacked, which we did by the light of our iPhones.

We called Pavel twice more to ask what was going on, and called guest relations a few times to inquire as to what the delay was. Eventually guest relations called the suites manager - Maya, who immediately came up. She was in shock that it had taken so long to get to our room. She had a few heated phone calls about the situation, it turns out someone had come, but only flipped one fuse and was waiting on someone else to do a second task, but never called that person. Maya had Pavel bring us some water and sparkling wine while the situation was sorted out - which was extremely nice.

Maya was super nice and very apologetic about the entire situation, despite it being completely out of her control.

Eventually two electricians showed up and tested everything, including taking apart our circuit breaker in the hall. He then took the converters that Gerardo had provided us saying there was something wrong with them!

I should mention during our long pause without power we did discover several US outlets, so don’t fret!

After we got the power back we decided we needed a drink, met up with Mike and Jeff and headed back off to Michael’s Club! Sat there for a bit, chatted with Anastasia and met the bartender, Ilya.

After having a glass of Chandon, we headed back up to get changed for dinner before muster. The late departure really threw me off, it was so strange getting ready for dinner before even doing muster!

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January 8, 2018

Maggie is awesome, Dennis always had my table waiting.

The reason I'm commenting, I wanted to suggest a bar that is very under advertised, It's called Infusion, it's very similar to the World Class bar on S ships, real craft cocktails. It's hidden on deck 5 and is part of the Gelateria across from Cafe Bacio. Open 5:30-10:30, there was one bartender in December Filippe.

Enjoy your cruise and if you see Captain Kate wish her a happy birthday.

We love Maggie!!

Also thank you for pointing out Infusion, I read this and we headed right up there before dinner tonight. It was lovely, and the bartender there, Filipe, was a real treat!

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January 8, 2018