Detailed Summit Review 1/12/13 San Juan Southern Caribbean

DH and I are 38, this was our fifth cruise, first on X after 4 on different sized ships on RCCL. My sister and B-I-L were with us for their first cruise. We booked ~14 months in advance and had Concierge Class aft cabins 9160 and 9162. We had an overall wonderful week and would definitely cruise X again. The Premium Alcohol Package was excellent, it made the trip very enjoyable and will be a huge factor in choosing X again in the future, as the benefits of it really outweighed the other minor negatives we experienced.

Spent one night pre-cruise in OSJ at Villa Herencia, lovely place and great location to tour all of OSJ on foot. The cathedral was especially beautiful with all the Christmas decorations still up.

Arrived to the port at noon, had a small line for baggage and then no line for Concierge Class check-in. Literally walked in and on the ship in 10 minutes. Really love that glass of champagne as you embark :)

Headed straight to the Maitre D to check our table reservation, beautiful 4-top right near the Captain's table, at the foot of the grand staircase. Perfect. Headed up to the buffet and sat outside at Sunset Grille for lunch. This was a nice spot, just one deck up from our own balconies/cabins.

In choosing X we were very excited for the reported "better food", and were very disappointed in the buffet choices. Fish & chips were soggy but tartar sauce was good. The salad choices were good, but the sandwich station was an absolute nightmare...everything behind glass and the servers not speaking English led to really long waits every day. I can understand keeping the panini press behind glass, but regular sandwiches should just be self serve.

Later we would have burgers and fries at the pool grill and they were excellent, but the availability of food and condiments would be an ongoing issue throughout the week. The offerings in the Aqua Spa cafe were excellent as well, but they had very limited hours each day, really wish they'd been open late afternoon when we were coming back aboard, your options were really only pizza (decent quality and the varieties were good) and burgers. NEVER sandwiches after 4:30...and with our late seating for dinner we were usually looking for a snack at that time and didn't want heavy burgers/pizza every day. Cafe Al Bacio only had sweets, no sandwiches at this time of day. This was all just a little surprising to us, as we can usually find what we are looking for on the RCCL buffet.

Sunbathed poolside while waiting for the cabin announcement to be made, they had drained and were painting the deep pool, it would be refilled by the next AM. Cabins were ready ~2:30 and we headed up. The overall impression of the ship is very clean, in great shape. Compared to RCCL there is absolutely no WOW factor, everything is interior corridors and not much glass, but the lounges and bars are nicely decorated and nothing looks worn or dated. Especially liked the color scheme in the staterooms, the carpeting was new and the beds very comfortable.

Room 9162 from the door:

Lovely fruit bowl and complimentary champagne with Concierge Class visible on the table

Our huge balcony (2 reclining chairs with ottomans, 4 regular chairs and large table)

And our bathroom (I thought that artwork was a nice little touch and was delighted to find that evening that it's a nightlight that stays on automatically at night, perfect! Also loved the cotton balls and Qtips along with the nice quality bath amenities)

Finally looking back towards the door from the room

Overall, the aft cabin room was smaller than what we've had on RCCL, but the bathroom was a bit larger so it kind of evened out. It was more than enough space for the two of us.

Thank you for posting this review! My wife and I leave in a week for our cruise! :)

Great start. I can't wait to read the rest. We are doing a B2B on Summit in Feb of 2014 for our first Celebrity cruise. We are Diamond on Royal so looking forward to your review and comparisons.

Thanks for your review...and info about the nightlight

Dh and i usually bring a battery operated candle for a night light....no need to pack it

Our room steward, Vithal, was excellent. This was the first trip we didn't ask to have the mini bar emptied out. Because the Sunset Bar was so close and having the beverage package we didn't really need to keep anything cold. Vithal gave us ice twice a day, and beach towels on the days we had ports of call. Because we were Concierge Class we also received canapes every afternoon. Some on this board have mentioned not liking them and requesting a cheese plate instead, but we really looked forward to them. Just a few savory bites to enjoy at sail a way. We loved how the fruit bowl got replenished as well, we had a mix of grapes, apples and bananas.

Several times Vithal would see us coming back and open our door for us. He always asked about our day and was just very sweet. We do go out of our way to keep the stateroom neat so hopefully that made his job easier as well, but everything was always perfect, he never missed a thing. We loved the turndown service with the different flavored chocolates every evening. We did miss our towel animals though, it seems silly but they were always a treat on RCCL.

One thing that surprised us, when ordering room service breakfast it was usually Vithal who delivered it to us. This was different from RCCL, where it was always a room service waiter. Felt badly because on port days we'd eat very early and I didn't expect Vithal to have to be "on" that early.

The room service itself was a real disappointment. The food was just not good. Omelets were cooked to death, powdered scrambled eggs, the most awful freezer burnt hashbrown potato triangles, ugh! We tried requesting special items, like eggs benedict, as others here have suggested but we would never receive them. We did try the breakfast buffet one morning but the food was the same, plus the crowds, it just wasn't a good scene. We finally settled on the breads/english muffins, poached eggs and grits as edible on the balcony. We often got wrong or missing items. This was just so out of sync with our RCCL experience that it was surprising and disappointing. We did do the big brunch in the MDR on the sea day, it was just okay as well, the food while beautiful just did not have much taste to it. Most things were over done. The fresh squeezed OJ at the brunch was good, but if you order it from room service be sure to request "no ice" as it always arrived very watered down and didn't taste good.

This was the view of the wake from our aft balcony, these shades were great for providing some cool and privacy from above:

We did 5 out of 7 dinners in the MDR and our service was outstanding. Vincent and Percy from India took care of our food, and Jelena from Serbia was our sommelier. They were all very knowledgeable about the food and wine and what to choose. Our wine glasses were never below half full. This was the most enjoyable MDR experience DH and I have had on any cruise. The food was much better here. Interestingly, on RCCL we never eat the meats, because they are typically overdone and we prefer seafood. But each night Vincent would steer us away from the fish...he said tiny portions and/or overdone and from seeing others plates I would guess he was correct. We always enjoyed his suggestions. Highlights were the roasted corn soup, the frog legs, the duck l'orange, the beef tornados, the cherries jubilee and the baked alaska.

Our table number 215 at late seating

I thought the formal nights here showed the least amount of truly formal dressing we've seen on any cruise. Very few tuxedos, very few ties even. Our gents wore suits/ties and our ladies cocktail dresses, both nights were festive but not much different from a "regular" night and that was fine by us.

The martini bar quickly became our very favorite pre-dinner drink spot. Sheldon and Jennifer were OUTSTANDING! There is a lot of entertainment built into the pouring of the drinks themselves, and just the sheer variety of vodkas and gins made for endless options to try. They gave you yummy little jars of snack mix here too. My personal highlight of the week was Sheldon letting me pour mine and DH's drinks one night:

Rendezvous was always a nice spot for a drink, it was odd though how few people were ever in there. Cellar Masters was always challenging, they never had what we ordered. One bartender made a run to try to find us our Tawny Port, but most times they'd just bring you something else. This was frustrating, especially as the space itself was lovely and comfortable. We didn't opt to try any of the enomatic machines, honestly there was nothing earth shattering there anyway so wasn't worth the extra cost. Michael's Pub is a great idea but it was NEVER open when we were looking for a craft brew. Pool bar and Sunset bar were your best options for OPEN when you needed something. The beer selection throughout the ship was the biggest we've seen, Grolsch was our favorite as it is resealable in its bottle.

I thought the formal nights here showed the least amount of truly formal dressing we've seen on any cruise. Very few tuxedos, very few ties even.

Thanks for your review!

We were on the same cruise, so some of my comments are not meant ot criticise in any way, but simply reflect a different perspective. You can read my review in the regular Cruise review section of CC.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=114121

Totally agree about food in the MDR. It was excellent, especially the beef dishes.

I was surprised to see the comments about dressing. I thought there were many more folks dressed up than normally on RCCL or Carnival. Few tuxes, true, but it seemed like suits were pretty much the standard on formal nights.

looking forward to reading more and seeing how we had similar experiences!

First day was at sea, and it was intermittently cloudy/showery, which produced amazing rainbows throughout the day. It was a great day, no chair hogging at all, you could find a seat anywhere you liked.

Which reminds me to comment that DH and I very much enjoyed the dynamic of the cruise group as a whole on this sailing. Very laid back and relaxed, a good variety of ages (median was ~50's, but we saw folks in their 20's, some young families, older couples). Many fewer large groups like we've encountered on RCCL, and we much preferred this. We did not miss any of the RCCL "activities" like rock wall, flow rider, belly flop contest. The pool area and bar service were outstanding, we worked our way through all the yummy frozen drinks :)

Next day was Barbados, where we took a city bus to Rockley Beach, with pink sand. Very easy, very nice day. The beach here is a bit rough, and there are some rocks getting in, but not much to deter you. The water was a bit chilly so we mostly soaked up some sun. Tiki Bar had flying fish sandwiches and Banks beer for lunch, perfect. Some beach pics:

This evening we dined in Qsine. We had made this reservation the first day on the ship, and booked 8 pm. We received cards on our stateroom door this morning which said our reservation was 7 pm. We arrived at 7, and were told that our reservation was for 8 but they could seat us then. Not a big deal but later in the week they would also goof our Normandie reservation time. Not sure what the issue was with their reservations desk.

Service, particularly the sommelier, was wonderful in Qsine. They do have a few different wines by the glass available here than elsewhere on the ship, had an excellent Gervurtzraminer. The decor is fun as well. While the presentations and ordering from the iPad were fun, the food was underwhelming. The two favorites were the first two courses, Disco Shrimp and Lava Crab. None of us cared for the lobster/escargot dish (greasy), and the M's favorites were beautifully presented but most of the items are dips/spreads, and there was nothing to eat them ON...not used to eating hummus with a fork and it was just odd. Sushi lollipops again beautiful, but ship sushi is just not great. By the time the spring rolls and tacos came we were really too full to enjoy them, and they were both heavily fried/greasy without any seasoning. The chocolate dipped strawberries were delicious for dessert, some members of our group also enjoyed the surprise dessert (bread pudding) and the gelatos. Overall very happy we ate there but wouldn't go back as we didn't feel the food quality justified the cover charge.

Disco Shrimp:

Escargot:

Sushi Lollipops:

M's Favorites:

We were on Summit twice last year (Southern and Bermuda) and I have to agree the buffet is lacking not only in choices but it seemed the drink stations were always out of something. The buffet moved slowly because of slow action by the servers, or people going in different directions through the line or others just ducking in to grab some special dish.

The ship and port's are great but there are some things that need to be brought up Celebrity standard's.

J.

Breakfast food was always good IMO on Celebrity. It isn't inspired but I really don't recall ever having a disappointing breakfast on Summit.

Bistro on Five is a great option for breakfast- they are open from 6AM-2AM. There is a $5 pp surcharge but I thought it was well worth it for the made to order crepes, paninis, soups, salads and desserts.

I've gone to Qsine 4 times now- mainly because my son (age 12) love it there. It's a fun experience. The best dish IMO was the Qsine Greens, which is a salad with a giant goat cheese crouton- it's light and delicious. The Persian Kabob was excellent too. If I go back again... I'd get those two dishes and the Chocolate Tombstone for dessert.

I'm really enjoying your review! It really pertains to me as I have the same itinerary on the Summit in November and YES I have an aft concierge cabin booked as well, just one deck lower!

It is nice to see the cabin. I've stayed in some larger and some smaller. Looks fine. The balcony looks AWESOME! I can't wait for that! Of course the balcony is the whole reason we booked this cabin type over an Aquaclass cabin. They balcony furnishings look really nice!

Looking forward to the rest of your review! It is really a great help to those of us that have yet to sail Celebrity!

We'll be there in March...hoping to read more, as I have not been on Celebrity, and not been to most of the ports we'll visit!

Our next day was spent on St. Lucia. So incredibly beautiful, one of our favorites. We did Cosol's tour, which we had done before. It is wonderful, we requested our same driver Baptiste and he gave us a great full day touring the island, eating and drinking local foods/drinks, swimming/snorkeling between the Pitons, visiting the volcano/banana plantation/waterfall. For only $65/person it is really a steal. Here is a pic of Summit from well, a nearby summit :)

Baptiste schooling us on bananas (with free fresh samples!)

Good bye for now St. Lucia

Here I must interject a brief word about "entertainment". On RCCL we've enjoyed the pool band and occasional live music in lounges/bars. We carefully researched these aft cabins on Summit and knew being on deck 9 we were right underneath the Sunset Bar and we would hear music from there at different times. Someone specifically mentioned a steel drum band, which we were all really looking forward to. On this cruise, there were two Latin acoustic guitar players. We seemed to run into one or both of them everywhere we went on the ship, and their music was just not enjoyable. It would have been nice to hear some Spanish love songs, or acoustic island music, but their sets were jarring renditions of the Beatles/Elvis/Frank Sinatra/Neil Diamond in heavily accented English. It was also SO LOUD, at all the locations, and it was really intrusive on our balconies, it detracted a lot from our sail-a-way sessions which are something we usually really enjoy. It really became the joke of the week, we'd try to read the dailies and avoid these gents (because they each played the same 45 minute set regardless of venue, complete with the same jokes/song introductions) but they kept finding us! Sat down to have a pre-dinner glass of wine in Cellar Masters, here comes a guitar player. Late afternoon coffee in Cafe Al Bacio, here comes a guitar player. The worst was the one gent who also kept trying to sell his CD's throughout the set, it was tacky and annoying. I would not book Deck 9 again, not only because of the music but being under the bar there was a lot of late night and early morning noise of chairs dragging, etc. both on the balcony and in our cabin. I think Deck 8 would be a huge improvement.

Another reason we loved the martini bar, they played canned techno music, which was loud enough to drown out the acoustic guitar coming from Cafe Al Bacio one deck below! All the martinis were good, they trend to the sweet side so do be aware. They will also give you samples of the many different vodkas/gins they have, it was a lot of fun

I believe this is the 20 year martini:

Next stop Antigua, another beautiful island and a great excursion with Adventure Antigua Xtreme Circumnav Tour. A speed boat takes you all the way around the island with stops at Stingray City, Nelson's Boat Yard, Gates of Hell and Pillars of Hercules for swimming/snorkeling. Sorry I have no pics from here, you do get wet on the speed boat! This was another excellent tour, the crew was great and gave us a running commentary of Antiguan culture and history as we went. Stopped for lunch at a beach with many kite boarders, they were fun to watch. Lunch was delicious bbq chicken/pasta salad/green salad and banana bread. The last stop of the day was at beautiful Rendezvous Beach (can only get to it by boat) for some homemade rum punch and swimming. Here is a view of RCCL's Adventure OTS and the NCL Pearl who were in port with us that day (sore spot: RCCL had a steel drum band playing outside the ship...can we trade one of our guitar players for these guys???)

Sailing away from Antigua

I've done a poor job of overall ship photos, but these were the comfy loungers in the Thalassotherapy pool area:

Next stop St. Martin, another favorite. We have previously done Maho/Mullet beaches on the Dutch side and while fun, traffic can be very difficult coming back to the ship so we wanted to stay to the East. We have also previously done Orient Beach and found it to be too crowded, it's worth seeing once but we wanted something quieter for this day. DH researched and found Dawn Beach, it's on the way to Orient and is only about a 15 minute taxi ride. The beach was beautiful, soft sand and just the right amount of waves. It was very quiet.

We went with Mr. Busby's, two chairs and an umbrella was $20 for the day, and they had $1 Amstel Brights all day long. Pizza was excellent as well. There were a few vendors on the beach throughout the day but none were very aggressive, a polite "No Thanks" was all you needed.

Headed back to town a bit early so we could do some shopping and of course could not miss our favorite, the Guavaberry shop. Purchased several bottles as gifts and had to take a Colada back with us. St. Martin is such a great port, easy to get around and just a lot of fun.

Our last day was St. Thomas, we got off the ship just to go for a run through town and then came back to enjoy the last day of our drink package. We had a great day on board. Final evening we ate at Normandie and it was excellent. They did goof our reservation time and we had to eat earlier than we wanted, but no matter. Everything food wise was perfect here, we had the risotto, the pork belly, the salmon/crab appetizer, the venison, the duck, the lobster prepared table side and we all had the amazing Grand Marnier souffle for dessert...SO GOOD!

We felt Normandie was well worth the $40/person charge. The service was great and this was simply the very best food we ate all week. Loved the cheese course before dessert. The restaurant is beautiful and elegant as well, just an overall first class experience which we would do again.

ETA: We realized that this final cruise night marked our 31st overall at sea...how lucky we are!

Thanks for the report!

Great photos and write up. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the thoughtful and well-written report, and the outstanding photos. We're on the Summit in October and it's nice to have an idea of what the cabin will be like, especially storage space. I wish every ship and hotel had a 24/7 light in the bathroom. We really appreciated it on the Equinox.

Kathy

Thanks for your nice review and photos.

Thank you. Great review.

Thanks for the information, and the wonderful photos. I am in a far aft inside cabin on 9...hope I won't hear much music from above! Of course, if that's the only thing that's not wonderful, it's no big deal!

As to the nightlight, I'm used to cruising on a line that has that, so I hadn't even thought about finding out if one would be useful. However, that reminded me that maybe I should ask about an alarm clock (gasp! yes, I sometimes use one on cruises! boo hiss!) Is there an alarm class in each cabin?

My husband has a weird question about the Summit: Was there an acupuncturist on board, as one review stated? Do you have any idea of how the prices ran?

There is no alarm clock in the cabin. We downloaded a free alarm clock app for our iphone which we used as a display at night. I'm not sure about the acupuncturist, but I do think that is something which is regularly offered, it might be listed on their website.

We were staying in San Juan after the cruise, so we opted to be in the last departure group. We ate breakfast in the MDR (this ran until 8 AM, I think buffet was until 8:30). We then camped out in four comfy armchairs at Cafe Al Bacio, packages were working until 9 AM when the computer system reset itself. We walked off ~10:15 AM and our bags were very easy to find.

When we travel solo/lightly we do the self-depart, but we had too many bags this time. Folks who have more than one bag each should really not opt for this, as the elevators get so clogged with folks rushing to be the first off, and then struggling with heavy/multiple bags on top of that, we actually saw a gentleman trip and fall over one of the four bags he was trying to manage.

We stayed two nights post-cruise at Tres Palmas Inn, a lovely low key B&B that sits between the Condado and Isla Verde parts of the area, the beach was literally 10 feet from the front door. It was walking distance to some good restaurants, and the B&B offered continental breakfast, use of beach chairs/towels/umbrellas and even bikes. A great way to round out the vacation. Here was the view from our balcony at Tres Palmas:

Some other random cruise thoughts:

The fitness center on Summit is small, but it was not very crowded, even on the sea day. The layout was frustrating, all the treadmills were at the very front of the room, almost against the large windows. With the curtains pulled all the way up you could not see out the window. I was excited to see the treadmills with tv's on them, but the touch screen features were mostly not functioning and they were hard to use.

I'm sorry I did not get a photo of the sauna, it was incredible with a HUGE round window looking out to sea. That was so relaxing soaking up some heat in there! The chilled towels were a great touch in the gym as well.

We felt more motion on this ship than any other we've been on. We were not in bad weather, and it didn't seem to matter where on the ship you were (aft/forward/middle), there was a lot of side to side rocking. I had to get off the treadmill on the sea day, I felt like I was going to fall off! The elliptical worked out better. Not sure if this ship doesn't have the lateral stabilizers that the other ships we've been on featured. We got used to the rocking after a day or so.

We really loved that all gratuities on X are pre-paid. We never felt like anyone was looking for or expecting anything "extra" throughout the week, and we had outstanding service everywhere we went. We did tip extra to our wait staff, room steward and bartenders at the end of the week.

We loved the perks of Concierge Class. We used the robes every day, enjoyed the fresh flowers and fruit, used the binoculars, looked forward to the canapés, and enjoyed the complimentary champagne. Priority boarding was very nice, and though we didn't end up using it it's nice that there is a separate departure lounge as well. Think we would eventually like to try Aqua Class as Blu sounds like it would suit us, although our highest priority is always the aft balcony cabin and not every ship has these in Aqua Class.

Though we were Captain's Club Select due to the RCCL reciprocity we did not attend any of the events, mostly because we had the beverage package. The beverage package was far and away the biggest highlight of our vacation. Did it cause us to drink more than we normally would have? I would say not more but different things. We got to try a bunch of scotches to see which we liked, tried so many things at the Martini Bar and this was really the highlight of "entertainment" for us, we just really enjoyed the atmosphere there.

We drank more mixed drinks than we would have, drank the same amount of wine as we normally would have with dinner, but it was nice being able to change with each course. We definitely drank more speciality coffees/bottled water than we would have. I LOVED the stands they have as you are getting off at each port, it was so nice to grab a water or vitamin water to take along with you. Not having to sign was a luxury, it just felt very pampering to us. We even talked about just paying ahead an OBC for ourselves for cruises that don't offer packages, but it's not the same...those slips get on your nerves after a while! We just liked this whole experience very much.

We are already researching cruises on Celebrity's newer/larger ships. Their rates are very competitive with RCCL, and they are offering some hard to resist promotions right now!

Thank you for sharing your experiences on the Summit. Your comments about your dining experiences are especially helpful. My husband and I will be taking our first Celebrity cruise on the Summit this April. After reading your review we will skip Qsine and dine at the Normandie. It is reassuring to hear that the MDR meals are good and disappointing to learn about issues with the breakfast buffet and late afternoon sandwiches. We have late traditional dining so we usually have something light to eat when we return to the ship after an excursion. Like you we really don't want hamburgers and pizza. Were you ever able to find a reasonable alternative to fast food?

Clearly, despite some negatives, you enjoyed your experience. We are looking forward to our cruise in April, and thanks to your review we will be better prepared.

Thank you so much for your detailed review. Like the previous poster, I too will be on the Summit for the first time this April (also our first Celebrity cruise). I see that you mentioned some of the Concierge cabin perks. I am curious to hear if you saw or used the pillow menu that I have seen others mention.

Thank you for sharing your experiences on the Summit. Your comments about your dining experiences are especially helpful. My husband and I will be taking our first Celebrity cruise on the Summit this April. After reading your review we will skip Qsine and dine at the Normandie. It is reassuring to hear that the MDR meals are good and disappointing to learn about issues with the breakfast buffet and late afternoon sandwiches. We have late traditional dining so we usually have something light to eat when we return to the ship after an excursion. Like you we really don't want hamburgers and pizza. Were you ever able to find a reasonable alternative to fast food?

 

Clearly, despite some negatives, you enjoyed your experience. We are looking forward to our cruise in April, and thanks to your review we will be better prepared.

From what others have said the quesadilla and club sandwich on the room service menu sound like good alternatives. We did not try Bistro on 5 but I believe there are sandwiches there too (for a $5 fee). We usually ended up with cookies from Cafe Al Bacio along with our canapes.

If you have a good rapport with your MDR staff they can give you a heads up on which night(s) might be good to try Normandie (the menu there is large enough to go twice if you're so inclined).

We did very much enjoy our experience, the food issues were just a surprise but honestly did not impact us much at all.