SUMMIT Repositioning Cruise Journal with PICTURES!

[Newbcruiser1]

First off, for those who would like to check out my previous trip journals/reviews, you can read them here:

Liberty of the Seas, 2011: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1360146

 

Allure of the Seas, 2011:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1429127

Navigator of the Seas, 2012:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1564805

 

Background:

I am in my mid-20's and have cruised 5 times in the past, all with Royal Caribbean. This was my first Celebrity cruise, as well as my first repositioning cruise. I also happened to be cruising solo this time, having cruised solo only once before on the Allure of the Seas.

I chose this cruise in part due to the interesting itinerary - Tortola was a new port for me, and I was excited to have 2 days in Bermuda as I had been there for a day on a prior cruise and loved it. I also found excellent prices on direct flights which corresponded well with the cruise itinerary. I was also drawn in by the ship, as it had recently been Solsticized and I had heard good things about the "new and improved" Summit. As I was cruising solo this time, I made sure to check out the Cruise Critic Roll Call board prior to booking to make sure there were were people with whom I could meet up onboard, for excursions, etc. Fortunately, the board was very active with an excellent group of people who were very welcoming, so I went ahead and booked the trip approximately 2 months prior to sailing.

[Newbcruiser1]

Day 1: April 28, 2012 - Embarkation - San Juan, Puerto Rico

 

I woke up bright and early at 4:45am after only a few hours of sleep. I flew from Toronto to San Juan on WestJet, departing at 9:10am. We left right on schedule and the flight was good. The crew was the most hilarious I have ever seen, cracking jokes throughout the flight, including during the safety instructions prior to take-off (i.e. if you need to use your life-vest, it is yours to keep compliments of Westjet! LOL!). While meals weren’t served, they came around with beverages and snacks twice, and they had a selection of snacks and sandwiches for sale as well. The TV's in the seats were a great perk as well, but the satellite TV channels were all lost about an hour and a half after leaving Toronto as they are through a Canadian provider.

I was a bit nervous about flying in on the day of the cruise, so I booked the flight through Choice Air (only $15 more than booking on my own through the airline), and also purchased separate trip cancellation and interruption insurance. Fortunately I didn't need to use it as we arrived at 1:30pm as scheduled.

I thought with the smooth flight I’d be on the ship in no time... wishful thinking. There were only 3 customs agents open for “visitors” and the line was moving at turtle pace. Fortunately some nice people I had met in the airport in Toronto, the self-proclaimed “Cruise Virgins” who were also sailing on the Summit were right behind me in line so we chatted a little bit while we waited. They finally started moving groups of people over to the “US residents” line and it started moving a little bit faster, although I was still in line for over an hour. What a way to start a vacation.

 

Thanks to the long wait at customs, we didn’t have to wait for our luggage. In fact, the carousel which was full was turned off, so it was simply a matter of walking around it to find my suitcase. I once again ran into the other friendly Torontonians and we decided to share a taxi to the port. Fortunately there were no lines involved in getting one, although this luck didn’t continue. The traffic was horrendous and after some struggling to understand our very nice taxi driver who had a very heavy accent, we discovered it was due to bridge painting/construction up ahead. We finally arrived at the port around 3:15pm, and after about 15 minutes in line to check in, followed by a quick picture for my seapass, I was FINALLY onboard.

 

[Newbcruiser1]

I headed straight to my room, 3046, an interior room (and my first one ever, at that!) to check it out.

Fortunately it wasn’t as closet-like as I had expected. The renovations appeared to have worked wonders, and the room looked quite new. The bathroom was a bit larger than those on Royal Caribbean’s ships, and the shower was rectangular rather than the “time-capsule” style on RCI. The layout definitely took some getting used to though, as there was no vanity storage around the mirror - only 2 small cupboards which were too low to be practical for anything. There were 2 night-tables with 2 drawers each, a closet in which one side had a bunch of drawers, a shelf, and the safe, and the other had plenty of hanging space. Overall while the room was great for one person and I’m sure would be adequate for 2, the layout and storage spaces just took some getting used to over those on RCI’s ships.

My stateroom attendant, Joseph, came by while I was in the room to show me where everything was and to let me know he would be around if I needed anything.

 

After quickly changing into some cooler clothes I brought in my carry-on and storing my valuables in the safe, I headed on a mission to find my dining room table assignment. While RCI lists your table number on your seapass, I could not find this information anywhere on the Summit. I learned to look into my table assignment the last time I sailed solo on the Allure of the Seas and had wound up at a table for 4 with a group of 3 people travelling together - talk about awkward! Apparently I was supposed to have a card in my room with my table number (no table numbers printed on the seapass as with RCI), however I didn’t get one. I headed to the dining room where I thought I could sort it out, however I was offered an arm and walked over to Rendezvous longe on deck 4 where the Maitre-D had a makeshift office set up in the corner. I checked in with his assistant and spent the next 20 minutes or so waiting my turn while he dealt with other people’s requests. Once I was called up, he tried to find me a table with younger people at second seating as I had originally requested. He assigned me a table with 6 others, after stating he wasn’t going to put me at another table as the dinner conversations would be full of “WHAAAAAAT?” based on the ages of the other passengers! So nice of him to consider that!

It was already 4:00 and I missed the beginning of the Cruise Critic Sail-Away Get-Together, so I made my way up to the Sunset Bar on Deck 10, grabbed a name-tag, and walked around aimlessly for a little while until I found some people with familiar screen-names and we started talking. I didn’t stay for too long as I was starving after being fed only diet coke and Bits and Bites on the flight down, so I went to get a snack in the buffet. There wasn’t a huge variety as it was past the lunch rush, but I had a piece of pizza, some mushrooms, and a bit of Tuna Nicoise salad. Everything was pretty good, although I particularly liked the Papaya Passionfruit drink from the free beverage dispenser. It was a nice change from the usual iced tea and lemonade on past cruises. Just as I was taking my last bite, I was kicked out and sent to the Muster Drill.

My muster station was on deck 4 in the Celebrity Theatre. Everyone was seated from front to back in order of arrival, and after some announcements and demonstrations on donning a life-jacket, we were released, also from front to back. It was actually very well organized with no stampedes to be seen!

I decided to check if my luggage had arrived at my room, and sure enough, it had. I unpacked, trying to find practical places for everything with the different layout and then headed off to explore the ship and try to gain my bearings. I felt completely lost as I found the layout to be somewhat different from the RCI ships I’ve sailed. Perhaps it’s more similar to the Radiance class ships, however I have not sailed on one in 5 years (and that was my first cruise).

A few pictures from around the ship:

The casino was smaller than those on RCI but was layed out well:

Main Pool Area:

(I immediately noticed the lack of green turf around the pool - it appeared classier than those on RCI).

 

 

[Newbcruiser1]

Comfy seating by the pool:

Sports Court:

Ice Topped Martini Bar (a new addition during the recent drydock):

Sunset over San Juan:

[Newbcruiser1]

These beaded ladies were located along the stairwells - very cool if you look closely!

I grabbed a couple pieces of sushi at the buffet to help me last until dinner, and I also went to sign up for an internet package with my Captains Club coupon (25% off) which was in my room, The man in the iLounge was very helpful and I was in and out within 3 minutes.

After heading back to my room to change, it was dinner time - AKA time to nervously show up to the dining room and meet my table-mates for the first time. There was a huge line-up to get into the dining room, but once they started letting people in, it moved quickly. Oddly enough, Celebrity doesn’t have the table numbers displayed on the tables like RCI does. I was seated at a table for 8, along with a couple and 2 single ladies who are friends, having met on a cruise, and as we found out halfway into dinner, we are all cruise critic members! Anyway we had a good dinner together and had some good conversations, and no awkwardness! Phew!

Our table was centrally located on deck 4, right under the pretty ceiling:

Now onto the important stuff… I had the goat cheese tart (pretty good), followed by the Caesar salad (possibly the best Caesar salad I’ve ever had!), and the prime rib. I was reluctant to order the prime rib as I’ve always hated it on RCI but none of the other entrees appealed to me tonight. It was actually quite good as the quality of the meat was better than on RCI. Dessert was a difficult decision, but I took the advice of our waiter and ordered the dulce-de-leche crème brulee which was delicious.

After dinner, I headed to the show - it was the typical welcome-aboard type of show with a mix of everything from singing and dancing, to the orchestra, to acrobats, etc. Oddly enough the cruise director, Sue Denning was an older British lady. I thought I’d find her irritating but she was actually pretty funny and I ended up enjoying her.

 

[vickykay]

Enjoying yiur review and pictures! looking forward to reading more!

[Newbcruiser1]

I left about 45 minutes into the show because it was a loooooooong day and I knew it would be an early day in St. Maarten!

 

Back in my room I found some chocolates on my bed, the Celebrity Today newsletter which had been slipped under my door, no beach towel as promised by my room attendant, and no replenished ice. I left him a note for the following day politely asking him to leave me these things in the future.

The TV channel showing our current location was helpful, however as I learned later in the week, it wasn't always current:

 

 

 

Some Random observations/opinions from today:

 

- The hangers in the room are terrible - very awkward to hang things on due to the fact the whole hanger cannot be removed from the rod - only the bottom piece. Not a fan!

- The shower floor in my room had some black crud in the grout. Not so attractive on a white tiled floor. There was also a little bit of rust around the sink.

- The room was hot when I first arrived despite the A/C being set to the coldest setting, however it quickly cooled off within a few hours. I believe the ships try to conserve energy while in port.

- The buffet was a bit confusing to navigate at first - again, I got used to the Windjammer on RCI’s ships.

- The waiters always place the dinner plates with the X logo at the top

[Christine Frances]

Your room steward will bring you regular wire hangers if you need them:D

[DivasDare]

Enjoying your review and the food pics... (screen lick:eek:).

[Newbcruiser1]

Day 2: April 29 2012 - Philipsburg, St Maarten

 

After a great sleep that ended way too early, I woke up at 7am. Not having a window, I relied on the bridge-cam on the TV to see if we were in port yet, and what the weather looked like. Unfortunately the first thing I saw were the windshield wipers going - not a good sign. I got dressed in my bathing suit and sun-dress and applied sunscreen anyway in hopes the sun would come out, but I made sure to throw my umbrella in my bag just in case - getting stuck on the beach in a downpour is never fun!

 

I headed up to the buffet where I met another solo CC member for breakfast. Being 7:40am, it wasn’t busy which was nice. I had a waffle with strawberry sauce, some hash browns, bacon, and fruit. Overall I actually wasn’t very impressed with the food - I like the fact they serve you and only a few items are self-serve, however I didn’t think the food was as good as Royal Caribbean‘s breakfast. The bacon was mostly fat and was soggy, the potatoes were somewhat tasteless, etc. It wasn’t bad but it just wasn’t that great.

 

After breakfast, I took a quick walk around the deck to take some pictures and look for beach towels before we headed off the ship and on our mission to find Bernard for our pre-arranged tour.

We were docked beside HAL's Noordam:

 

[Newbcruiser1]

There was a mass exodus from the ships:

 

 

 

[Newbcruiser1]

Our tour left a bit late around 9:15am, and we were put in a van with 7 others and our driver/tour guide, “The Mailman”. I did a tour last year with him as well and this one was just as good. First we stopped to feed the iguanas, chickens, and ducks at a farm - oddly enough they all eat lettuce! Who knew?

Then we headed over to some nice observation points for photos, where I watched a bit of kite surfing!

 

 

 

 

[Newbcruiser1]

Our next stop was Orient Beach where we stayed for an hour and a half. Most of us rented chairs from “Ethnic”, I believe. $10 covered 2 chairs, an umbrella, and free washroom use. Unfortunately the washroom consisted of a toilet with NO running water and no sink. Needless to say we opted not to use it and instead used the one at the very first bar/restaurant for free on the advice of Mailman, - it had a toilet which you could not flush paper down, and a sink in a sketchy shed-type of place. Nothing luxurious but more functional than the other one! I took a walk along the beach and got my feet wet, but didn’t go completely in the water as it was quite rough today.

 

Next we headed over to Marigot where I made my obligatory stop at Sarafinas for some pastries. After looking at the beautiful cakes, pastries, and sandwiches for about 10 minutes, I settled on the biggest, heaviest chocolate-almond croissant I’ve ever had - I think it weighed about 2lbs!

My CC friend's snack:

 

They also have delicious-looking gelato:

 

[Newbcruiser1]

We then went to Maho Beach just in time to see 3 big planes come in - Air France and US Airways.

We had to run off the beach out of the way before another large plane took off, and it’s a good thing we did as everyone else on the beach got sandblasted. We spent about 40 minutes there before heading back to the port just before 3:00pm.

 

[Newbcruiser1]

Back onboard, I headed to my room to try to clean some of the remaining sand off my legs and re-apply some sunscreen, and then went to the pool where I got a delicious cheeseburger with sautéed mushrooms and onions, and some fries.

I sat and read for a little while by the pool, listened to some of Fusion, the band’s music (they were actually really good!), and then went up to deck 11 to watch us sail away from St. Maarten right on time at 5:00.

We waved goodbye to the somewhat empty looking Costa Luminosa.

Pulling away from the pier:

 

 

 

 

[nuekruizer]

Newbcruiser: Great review so far. Your pictures are terrific and show some different aspects of the ship than are usually posted. Keep up the good work!;)

[LexusJade]

This is awesome! Loving your review!!! My husband and I flew into St. Maarten last summer on our way to Anguilla and it was SO freaky flying what seemed so close to people. I can only imagine how it looked from the ground! Very cool!

[Newbcruiser1]

There was a beautiful rainbow:

It was time for a snack again, and I realized I hadn’t yet tried the ice cream in the buffet, so I went to check out the selection. I had the most delicious sherbet I’ve ever had - guava flavored! It was maybe a bit softer and semi-melted than it should have been (as were all of the ice cream flavors), but it was great.

 

Tonight was the first of 2 formal nights. Our remaining 2 mystery guests at our table showed up tonight and were a younger couple celebrating an anniversary. Dinner was good - I had the shrimp cocktail which was a little bit soggy but not bad, the French onion soup which was delicious, and the Mediterranean Chicken Pasta which was very good, however I was stuffed after the soup and only ate a bit of it.

I wasn’t hungry for dessert but couldn’t pass up the After Eight ice cream, so I had that as well. Yum!

A side note about the service in the MDR - it’s somewhat slow, and the assistant waiter was scarce - I had to order my iced tea from the waiter, and I was not offered another one once I finished it.

We finished dinner just in time for the show at 10:45 which was preceded by the captain’s toast and an introduction to the ship’s officers. The show tonight was Celebrity’s production show, Stars in their Eyes. It was okay, however the music was not my style (mostly older) and I left around 11:40. I stopped by Guest Services to inquire about my missing Cruise Critic Connections party invitation and was told they’d inform the event coordinator, and then headed back to my room.

 

 

[Newbcruiser1]

Turn down service tonight was interesting - I received 5 chocolates (ginger passion flower flavoured - perhaps nobody likes them and they’re trying to get rid of them?), however no ice despite having left a note for Joseph, my room attendant this morning requesting ice every evening. I also didn’t get any ice this morning. I guess I’ll be leaving yet another note tomorrow. Thanks to the missing ice, I had to go back out in search of the nearest bar in which to get a glass of cold water, and ended up at Michaels Club. I finally made it back to my room around midnight, sent some e-mails, and then went to bed for the night.

　

　

Random notes about today:

- The toilet was not cleaned in the morning and the garbage in the bathroom has not yet been emptied

- My room attendant saw me in the hallway in the afternoon and said Hi and asked how my day was - it was nice that he remembered my name, but I wish he was a little more thorough with his job.

- There are more stores than I expected onboard, being a smaller ship - the items are the same as on my previous RCI cruises.

- The water on the ship tasted awful and this was the last day I drank it. I normally enjoy the tap water on cruises, but due to the chlorine-like taste, I was forced to drink the iced tea, lemonade, etc instead. I would definitely recommend bringing a case of bottled water onboard for those who are not purchasing a beverage plan.

[carlyshenk]

Love your review so far. Great narrative and wonderful photos. Very informative. Thanks for taking the time.

[HockeyRules13]

Thanks for posting the review! I'm looking forward to the rest of it! I was on the same cruise and it's nice to get another perspective!

 

Oh...great pics too!

 

Robin

[JeweliM3]

Thank you so much for all your insights and beautiful pictures. Your hard work in posting is appreciated! I look forward to reading your thread tomorrow night.

 

Julia Ann

 

PS: I am on the July 8th cruise to Bermuda on the Summit- with 24 other family members. Until then, I can only dream and enjoy your posts.

[Newsbuff16]

Great review...love the pictures!

[librarylady19]

Thank you for posting those wonderful photos...look forward to seeing more. Boy, mediocre service from the cabin stewards is becoming a frequent issue on Summit it would seem. Hope it got better.

[merdon]

Love your review and pictures. Looking forward to hearing and seeing more.