Summit 9/2/18 Sailing – Live Blog, Cat Blog, Vlogs!

Good Evening.

Once again (again) it is time to begin our latest cruise adventure and attempt to Live Blog the entire affair. Thus far, my record has…been terrible; I’m 1 for 5 (posted 1 Travel day from our Infinity Cruise, didn’t even post for the next one on the Summit, managed to get the entirety of the Reflection done 4 weeks late, then posted 1/3rd of the opening day from our last Summit trip and finally made it through 3 days of the Equinox Super bowl cruise until I was utterly disenchanted by Philadelphia winning anything beyond 28 years of consecutive awards for ‘Worst Sports Fans Ever and That Counts the Utter Lack of Imagination for Literally Naming a Sports Team After an Abbreviation for the Name of the City they Play In Award’ …kidding; we love you Phillie Fans…kinda. Also, you stole the ‘Phillie Phanatic’ from the Boston Red Sox Green Monster…just sayin’).

This time, however, we have some aces in the hole. XZ managed to Live Vlog our entire last cruise on our YouTube channel, PoshCruise and talked me in to giving it a shot as well. So, in theory, this go around we’ll have dual vlogs!

I’d like to give a big thank you and shout out to Arno, ChicagoPaul, DRJKRetired, Bo1953 and all the other frequent Celebrity posters who provide far more accurate commentary than I ever will.

DW (who I will refer to by her initials XZ just to circumvent convention) and I are mid 30’s/early 40’s with no kids and one cat (and our friend’s dog) who hates it when we go cruising. We were big Disney Park fans until their pricing structure got WAY out of whack and made the spontaneous experience entirely unenjoyable and, for my 40th, we decided to give cruising a try.

Our first trip was in an RS on the Infinity for Halloween in 2015. We came right back for more, booking a RS on the Summit for 2016, an SS guarantee on the Reflection and another SS on the Summit, both in 2017. Starting 2018 we did an SS Aft on the Equinox and are back for another SS on the Summit.

We booked this vacation a year ago on the Summit, where we had that sweet SS that is right next to the Penthouse and has all the finely appointed wood furnishings. Looking to try something new, we managed to secure one of the front-facing cut-out angled SS’s, Room 6131, to be exact, with a slightly larger and totally exposed balcony.

We had originally wanted to try the New England and Canada itinerary, if only for the random hilarity of tendering to Newport, RI and pretending to be confused Canadians, (it’s ok, I went to school in Nova Scotia so of the Great North I can joke freely) and harassing local tour guides (“Where’s the Road? Where’s the Island?”). Instead, the final Bermuda cruise of the season proved to be both affordable and not, you know, 14 days long, as we are both working professionals with a cat unforgiving of long absences.

Goals this go around include:

Our cat…hates it when we cruise. In recent years we have managed to partially pacify her by having the adorable neighborhood children cat-sit her; and we now come home to cardboard cat-castles and a thoroughly exhausted kitty. That said, she is still a frequent reader of Cruise Critic and especially loves the bad reviews. Each day or so, we will review one “Cat Complaint” about Cruising and see, in person, if it’s valid (hint: it’s not).

On the other paw, Cruise Critic has often times been accused of being too negative. To offset this and give a balanced perspective, we occasionally dog-sit our friend’s pupper, dress him up in formal-wear (sorry, Doggy Chic), and make him read Cruise Critic (but only the good reviews). Occasionally, he will offer up one ‘Dog Compliment” to see if it holds water (it always does).

As noted, we are going all in on the Vlogs this year.

We really enjoy the Celebrity guest and crew Vlogs, and they often get us through the 8 months between cruises. Our favorite passenger Vlog is:

Bill Raffel: https://www.youtube.com/user/billwi

Our favorite Performer Vlogs are:

Planet Jeroen (Jeoren Walraven): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyfzvV8yZKLGGVfLJwCjXIA

Overy Joy’d (Isaac Matthews): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm9zd-ZqvFtaV83qPKMu8iw

Alex Codd Choreography: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgPCPqYTj5pfqMJVVRdHQkQ

Duo Destiny (Goncalo and Kinga): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjZQneUlKSAsJvf1CjDp9Bw

One of the most enjoyable features of CC is answering questions for future cruisers. However, to add a wrinkle of unhelpfulness, I will endeavor to ask the least appropriate people I can find. Want to know if Sky Vodka is on the Premium Package? I’ll find one of the Celebrity Singers to pose that question to! Interested in Debarkation Times? Perhaps the Chief Engineer will have some insights. All kidding aside, I’ll do my best to respond quickly, but it will likely be in live video format, so you’ll have to wade through several minutes of pity comments to find out what the “Edge-ification” of the Summit coming in 2019 entails (what IS the deal with that, anyway?!?).

“But wait! Where are the menus? The dailies? All I see are pictures of your wife in funny hats…what gives?” This year, I have an Android (Tablet…not an actual Android – although how cool would that be? “I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate…”) and Tapatalk so I may be able to post dailies and menus in real time.

We continue to have our running debate about photographing meals. On one hand, we love to see pictures of plated meals, especially in Luminae. On the other hand, it feels…I don’t know…somehow a little weird to us to be photographing away instead of enjoying the dining experience. Which will win out? We’ll let you know!

And Here We Go, the luggage has been spotted…the cat suspects!

David: does this mean that your DW and you will NOT be on the October 27 sailing, celebrating Halloween on the 31st? The night will not be the same without both of you.

And so in begins...

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Thanks for your posts. Curious, who are the Michael’s Club concierge and bartender and who are the Luminae waiters, sommelier and Maitre de? We’re on the Oct 21st sailing. We loved Anastasia (concierge) and Alexandra (Bartender) in MC last April. Enjoy your Sailing!

Keep going. Our Dog and I are ready and reading. Cats have been confined to quarters and are not permitted to read this review.

Thanks

Ohiodoglover

Day 1 - On the road again

Previously, we had just returned from a trip to Pittsburgh to visit my grandparent's graves and make sure they were being properly up kept. While that's neither here nor there for cruise blog I mention it only because the 11+ hours out and back made the drive from RI to Bayonne (the city one "tte" of being actually interesting) seem like nothing.

I know this is the 'scroll down' part of any cruise, bereft of pictures and the like, but here are a few salient points:

A) CT has entirely redone their rest areas. They aren't Love's quite yet, but they are far better than the heroin murder stops they used to be. Well done CT, since the American Revolution you've now done one thing right.

B) Sunday morning at 5am there is absolutely no traffic. I made 43mph on the cross bronx expressway, which must be a new record. Corn doesn't make it through the lower intestine faster than we made it through NY and, yes, I know that is a gross little metaphor, but so is the cross bronx.

C) We hit the curb outside the terminal at....9:49am which is just absurd. I was surprised they were even open. But they were, and we were checked in and sitting in a way too comfy chair by 10:04am and that even takes in to account the surface parking because the garage was full.

Next Up: Reconnecting with our favorite staff, almost joining a wedding party, and finally making it on the ship!!

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Bon Voyage! Wishing you a wonderful cruise. We are on the Summit October 7-21 so tell me everything, lol. I am especially interested in wonderful live entertainment and how long they will be on board :). Also, daily drink specials as we are cruising without a drink package which is TRAGIC for us, lol. We will have the Elite breakfast cocktails and evening cocktail hour, but, there are many hours between these two events, LOL. THANK YOU SO MUCH for posting LIVE!

So excited you guys are back! ChicagoPaul ends his Live Blog sailing today and what perfect timing...I’m in need of my fix to hold me over until my October Equinox sailing. Bon Voyage looking forward to “sailing “ with you both again!

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Day 1 Part 2 - Em-BARK-ation

Previously, we had set up shop in the Embarkation Lounge in the Bayonne Port Terminal. A few notes about this facility:

1) Expect ground parking as the larger ships depart on Saturday and fill up the beautiful garage. The outdoor parking lot looks a bit like what used to happen at the former Meadowlands stadium after a Giants loss, cracked pavement, broken glass and all. However, the 182 parking lot attendants on hand are rather reassuring. While I wouldn't leave valuables in plain sight, the overall feel is very safe. If you have a mobility concern I would definitely suggest you get dropped off at the terminal itself.

2) The terminal itself blows away the 'underground fight club' feel of Miami (seriously Miami, the first rule of Cruise Fight Club is *everyone* talks about how crappy your terminals are) in terms of spaciousness and traffic flow. We love the Bayonne terminal. It has friendly staff and numerous, well appointed bathrooms. In fact, we ran in to last week's Summit Cruisers at the Vince Lombardi Rest Area (motto; 'You're almost out of the state that has made it literally illegal to handle the dangerous operation of pumping your own gas') at like 9:00am, so that's how efficiently they clear the ship on arrival.

3) There was a wedding party getting on the ship for a few hours to host the ceremony (like...75 people worth) and yet the terminal staff and the Summit managed to get us on board, drink in hand, before 10:45am.

Because Tapatalk inserts pictures oddly, here are the captions:

4) XZ asked Miguel, the GRM, what we could bring for the staff when we last saw him on the Equinox in January and he indicated they liked board games. I don't know if that was a clever piece of Celebrity Magic or not, but seeing as XZ literally works at, you know, a board game company, she has spent the last 7 months collecting the international versions of as many games as she could, wrapped them up, and delivered them to the Michael's Club Conceirge when we boarded. The amusing part was, since we walked on with wrapped gifts, everyone thought we were in the bridal party! Whoops! Didn't see that one coming.

5) Champagne and Whiskey - not quite wine spootie-otie but it will do.

6) Like waiting in lines? If you do, be sure to see Guest Relations immediately upon embarkation! Or you could, you know, wait a few (hint: there was no one at all in line by at 8pm).

7) We found the Shout Out Box!

Next Up: Old Friends and new acquaintences!

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Where is the Shout Out Box located? We are celebrating dh's 70th birthday while on board. Loving your review!!!! Thank you, thank you!

Looking forward to the rest of the review. Thanks for doing this. We board on 9/23. Who is the Michael's Club concierge?

Day 1 - Let's Get This Party Started and also Sign Up for Everything!

We. Are. On. Board.

We immediately go to Michael's Club. XZ loves her onboard champagne but I eschew that for Michael's Club, wherein I get to enjoy my Johnny Walker Black, neat. Anatasia, who we cruised with 1 year ago is back as the MCC, and she is a joy! As noted, we also see Miguel and Danuta and, even though the ship (not a boat!) has welcomed a new set of Captains, the heart of the Summit remains unchanged! In MC we run in to Les and Sam who attend the last Bermuda Cruise every year and are sure to become fast friends, if we ever see them again (funny story - on our first cruise we met another couple around our age in MC on the first day and....never saw them again. They were newlyweds so presumably they were doing other things - because this is a G-rated, Dog-monitored blog, let's all say they were playing hours of competitive Scabble and leave it at that). The bartender has a name that is unpronounceable in English or pretty much any other language, which is impressive coming from someone who speaks Spanish, some Mandarin and is learning Greek (to communicate better with the Staff of the ship - see, crusing can change your life for the better!). I'll try to video him saying it later, but, point is, he is top notch.

After a drink and a walk around we head to Luminae for lunch to begin to meet the waitstaff and our fellow cruisers. It is vitally important to attend both the lunch and dinner on the first day - it allows the staff to get to know you and it's a great way to make fast friends as everyone is generally new to the ship (except for Al, who lives here and is doing well). We meet Dennis and Amy (from Colorado, because, of course they are - XZ is from Leadville, the highest town in the country with a population of at least 2,000 people and yet we ALWAYS run in to people who have been there whereas I'm from outside of Albany, with a population of hundreds of thousannds, and everyone else thinks it's part of NYC...).

Fabien is the Somm, Jay Ar (spelled wrong) is our waiter, Ivan is on bread, and Yasim, the Specialty Restaurant Manager, were all serving the tables.

From there, we go to unpack and meet Das, the room attendant, and Judas, who is our butler for the 2nd time. We muster up thereafter and while it is not required to wear your safety vest to the drill, XZ and I are sorely tempted! Alas, we do not, and the drill is over rather quickly. We get a drink from MC and then get a surprise invite to the Helipad for a sailaway!! First time ever for that and we happily accept, especially to see the underside of the Verrazano Narrows bridge (of note, a very good friend of mine I haven't seen in years tells a great story of his grandfather who set the lights on that bridge in ages past. Also, I think that was the VN but I'm from Upstate, so if it was actually the Thaddeus Kozkosco bridge color me unconcerned. And also, no it isn't, because the TK is located on the Northway).

Next up: Evening Chic and Sexy Sax Machines!

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Thanks for the review. Enjoying it. If you have time, can you post a few cabin pics? We have that cabin booked for April. Also, if you happen to hear what changes the Summit will undergo during her revolution, please share. We will be on the 2nd sailing after the drydock.

Have a fabulous cruise.

Looking forward to your review. DW and I are also DINKS in our 30’s and love Disney! Our first Celebrity cruise will be next year on the Summit.

Have a great trip!

Day 1 - Part like 293

After the Helipad sailaway XZ and I went back to the room to change for dinner. (A note to those who haven't seen this blog before - when we started cruising all of 5 years ago there was, and likely still is, and ongoing debate on Formal Night/Evening Chic and what it means - look it up on the forum; it has like 3,902,012 million replies. Instead of getting mired in that discussion XZ and I decided that every night was now Formal Night and we dress accordingly. The point to this is that it takes us a solid hour to get ready for dinner, especially with this beard which is getting way out hand).

Despite some attractive 'first night' offers to Specialty Dining we have found that one must attend Luminae on the first night in order to meet the staff; we skipped it once on the Relfection and felt a bit adrift the rest of the Cruise - making a good first impression on sailaway is key, at least to us!

The Luminae staff has completely turned over - likely to the Edge, which means we get to meet a whole host of new folks. The outright superstar is, once again, the Sommelier! Fabien (hope that's spelled right) is personal, charming and elegant. He is extremely polite and very knowledgeable.

After dinner, we proceeded to MC and the Casino. This ship has the best penny slot machine. It's from like 1987 and, when you win, it plays a little sound. But if you manage to hit any larger payout the machine slowly counts up the amount (it is a penny slot afterall) and randomly starts playing what can only be described as a Sexy Sax Solo! It is so amazingly random. Plus, this machine is located on a slightly elevated cut own, which means you can sit at it and watch the entire Casino, including the bar, all at once.

After some Sexy Sax XZ and I decide to call it a night around 10pm. Pictures of the evening are below, and will be followed by the opening daily (I hope it doesn't display too small).

Next Up - Day 2, wherein XZ schedules me for 6 activities back to back and the Art Auction literally traps a guest!

Notes on the Below:

A) XZhas now gone through 2 room cards - she keeps demagnitizing them in adorably hilarious ways. However, this has given us the opportunity to spend time with the Guest Relations Staff and let me tell you. These. People. Are. Awesome. They might be in the running for best overall GR Staff. I credit Miguel here - he is the GRM and this might be his best staff yet.

B) XZ on the stairs - this is here because 1) I'm trying to figure out this tablet camera and 2) the ships photographers have been MIA. It's so weird. Usually, the photography studio staff are the people we see the most on the ship. I'm friends on FB with like 4 of them from previous cruises including Xao who said he was the only Chinese guy on the ship that didn't work in the laundry. From the time we board the ship we usually see them everywhere, all the time. I don't know if there's been turnover or they were told to back off on upselling or what, but we haven't been approached about a photo package once and we usually sign up the first night so the photographer gets the credit. How weird is that?

C) Sexy Sax Machine: Interesting note; we met the Casino Host on the helipad and he told us, no word of a lie, that they now allow photographs in the Casino! No video, but he encouraged us to take and share as many pictures as we want. How cool is that!

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Paperwork -

Invites, Elite (!!) Newsletter, Start of the Daily

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More Paper work - Dailies, Staff Listing + Random Casino Host Picture

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A Note on Personalization:

XZ enjoy decorating. A few attractive throws/tapestries** can transform the room furniture into a more familiar setting. And, of course, no room is complete without a door sign. Here is ours*!

*I think I told this before but, to recap, there is a piece of artwork on the Reflection that is literally a couch cushion spray painted silver. When XZ saw this she figured since that was the low bar of getting artwork on the ship we could just make and bring our own. So we took a picture of our cat, matted it, stuck magnets on it and included the same 'Celebrity Art' card that you find with the rest of the actual art and now we hang pictures of our cat in our stateroom and never occasionally in other hallways.

**XZ designed everything you see here, interestingly enough.

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No need to go to guest relations for new card. Anastasia will get one for you. My dh went thru 4 of them last week.[emoji38]

Fabien was awesome. Very knowledgeable and warm.

Kumar was our waiter for the entire cruise but we chatted with Gede who we met last year on Summit and Infinity in 2016.

The maitre d is leaving after this cruise for a month off before heading to the Edge to get luminae in order there.

Love your dinner attire!!!

Enjoy your cruise.

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Can you include some pics of the balcony? More importantly what you see above and below at the railing? Curious about privacy(or the lack of) from the balcony of that room.

I'd be interested to know if you hear the door on deck 4 slam every time someone enters or exits . It needs attention and we noticed it while in luminae.

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Also, when we returned to ship Thursday, our waiter from Tuscan grille was at deck 1 elevator trying to get people to book dinner that night and Friday night for $30 pp

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Following...

I am anxiously waiting for May, 2020, sailings to open up for booking. I am planning to sail Summit to Bermuda and can't wait to read about your adventures.

Susan

P.S. My macaw is equally upset when he sees my suitcase come up from the garage..."oh no, Mom is leaving me"........

Day 2 - Some thoughts about Day 1:

--Tapatalk is a way better tool for posting on the forums than the actual site. Before, I had to take pictures with my digital camera (yes, a camera that is only a camera! How revolutionary), go to the iLounge, connect it via cable, post the pictures to Flickr and then copy/paste the link in to the CC forum. It took...forever. Now I can just post from my room! And include pictures. SO much easier.

--Speaking of things that shouldn't be combined with other things...Park West has gotten into the Finance Market. Seriously. They are advertizing a Park Freaking West Freaking Credit Card! What to know how the next market collapse begins? Allowing people to buy even more worthless junk on credit. Dali would be pleased, at least.

--They have a buffet map! Whomever thought this one up deserves a promotion. People often are bothered by a somewhat unintuitive layout of the buffet on the M Class - no more! They now have the layout available for all to see and enjoy.

--The Sunset Bar on the M Class is easily the best of all the ships - the S classes have weird layouts, including the 'Harry Potter' bar under the stairs. The Summit, however, has the full two story layout. It's gorgeous. Hilariously, it also contains a row of 'Mr. Boston.' For those not in the know, Mr. Boston can be used to run most diesel engines, take the paint off most services and, in a pinch, embalm someone. Why the HECK does this bar have so much Mr. Boston???

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No need to go to guest relations for new card. Anastasia will get one for you. My dh went thru 4 of them last week.[emoji38]

 

Fabien was awesome. Very knowledgeable and warm.

 

Kumar was our waiter for the entire cruise but we chatted with Gede who we met last year on Summit and Infinity in 2016.

 

The maitre d is leaving after this cruise for a month off before heading to the Edge to get luminae in order there.

 

Love your dinner attire!!!

Enjoy your cruise.

 

 

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Was the maître d Charles? He was great back in May. Do you know who was taking over?