Just back from the Summit, 12/7/2013 Southern Caribbean

[cyntil8ing]

PC080293 by rclewen, on Flickr.

Hey, that's me in the background! I'm still working on my review.

[Ron_L]

Hey, that's me in the background! I'm still working on my review.

 

:D

 

I don't remember why we ended up across from you instead of next to you that evening. I think all of the stools on that side were full :D

[spunke]

Thank you Ron for your review

 

We will be on the Summit Jan 4th

 

Can you speak about the entertainment? Specifically the music around the ship before and after dinner.

 

We were on the Summit Jan 2012 and the music wasn't very good that week??

 

thank you

Happy Holidays

[Ron_L]

Thank you Ron for your review

 

We will be on the Summit Jan 4th

 

Can you speak about the entertainment? Specifically the music around the ship before and after dinner.

 

We were on the Summit Jan 2012 and the music wasn't very good that week??

 

thank you

Happy Holidays

 

Each afternoon/evening the party band played at the pool and they had a different theme each day as I remember. Other than that the piano player, guitar player and the a capella group would either be in the cafe or Michael's Club for short sets before and after dinner. There was also music in the Rendez Vu lounge on a few evenings.

[raynvic]

Was the shampoo and conditioner replenished when it ran out?

[Ron_L]

Was the shampoo and conditioner replenished when it ran out?

 

We never ran out, so I don't know. I'm sure that if we had asked Andrew for more he would have taken care of it.

[Balconyaft]

Thanks for posting this great review and photos Ron L. My DH and I have enjoyed reading it thoroughly as we lounge around the house during this massive ice and snowstorm (3 days of it so far here in Atlantic Canada!). It's helping us to visualize our Cruise aboard the Summit Feb.15. Can't wait! Merry Christmas to you and your family, thanks for bringing some cheer to our storm stayed household. Cheers!

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[Ron_L]

Thanks for posting this great review and photos Ron L. My DH and I have enjoyed reading it thoroughly as we lounge around the house during this massive ice and snowstorm (3 days of it so far here in Atlantic Canada!). It's helping us to visualize our Cruise aboard the Summit Feb.15. Can't wait! Merry Christmas to you and your family, thanks for bringing some cheer to our storm stayed household. Cheers!

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

 

Sorry about the ice storm! Stay safe and have a Merry Christmas and a great cruise!

[Casanova02]

Hi Ron

 

 

Just came back from the cruise and as yours, it's was wonderful.... You did post a nice and complete review...

 

We found Andrew and Ketut very kind and helpful.... We ask them things a few times and they came back very fast.... On all our cruises, they were the best....

 

Cabin 3112 was very nice and the area is very very quiet....

 

In our case, we ate 5 nights at the Oceanview Cafe (we had steak, fish chicken, pork and italian food...) and took the dessert at the Café al Bacio (dessert are free there...)... To eat at moonlight and very quiet area (Oceanview Bar) was perfect.... we prefer by far to eat there instead of MDR....

 

Now we are preparing our next cruise... on the Summit for a B2B next december.....

 

Since, we didn't book the 2 cruises at the same times, we had two differents cabins (3116 for the first week and 3112 for our second week...). While aboard, we change cabin to be in the same for the 2 weeks. It's easier and we didn't have to pack our luggage ... Unfortunately, 3112 was occupied so we change to be in 3116 for both weeks... we did check and even if it's a bit smaller, it still a very good cabin....

 

 

I saw that you stay at the Hilton, was it good ?

 

Do you know if you can walk from the hotel to the pier ?

 

I think it's not that far... maybe a 40 minutes walk....

 

BTW, I got your note (Andrew told us...) and I did left a note to the next one with coupons from Captain's Club....

[Ron_L]

Hi Ron

 

 

Just came back from the cruise and as yours, it's was wonderful.... You did post a nice and complete review...

 

We found Andrew and Ketut very kind and helpful.... We ask them things a few times and they came back very fast.... On all our cruises, they were the best....

 

Cabin 3112 was very nice and the area is very very quiet....

 

In our case, we ate 5 nights at the Oceanview Cafe (we had steak, fish chicken, pork and italian food...) and took the dessert at the Café al Bacio (dessert are free there...)... To eat at moonlight and very quiet area (Oceanview Bar) was perfect.... we prefer by far to eat there instead of MDR....

 

Now we are preparing our next cruise... on the Summit for a B2B next december.....

 

Since, we didn't book the 2 cruises at the same times, we had two differents cabins (3116 for the first week and 3112 for our second week...). While aboard, we change cabin to be in the same for the 2 weeks. It's easier and we didn't have to pack our luggage ... Unfortunately, 3112 was occupied so we change to be in 3116 for both weeks... we did check and even if it's a bit smaller, it still a very good cabin....

 

 

I saw that you stay at the Hilton, was it good ?

 

Do you know if you can walk from the hotel to the pier ?

 

I think it's not that far... maybe a 40 minutes walk....

 

BTW, I got your note (Andrew told us...) and I did left a note to the next one with coupons from Captain's Club....

 

I'm glad that you had a great cruise!

 

I told Andrew about the plan to leave notes for each other just in case he came across it, so I'm glad that you found it. I looked for another hiding place but there really wasn't anything.

 

We enjoyed the Hilton Condado Plaza. The room was great and the whole property was clean and well maintained. The location is good with an easy walk to the more active section of Ashford Avenue and also access to the but into OSJ if you want to go that route. You probably could walk to the port, but with bags I'm not sure that I would want to. I didn't pay attention to the route that the taxi took to see if there was a sidewalk, but some of the roads were very busy.

[Ron_L]

OK... The Christmas craziness is over so I should be able to spend more time to work on this thread.

 

Where were we...

 

Oh yeah... St. Kitts!

 

In our roll call a few of us splits up the research and organization for group excursions and I took care of St. Kitts. A few of us wanted to do a catamaran snorkeling excursion in one of the ports and in my research I found Blue Water Safaris in St. Kitts. their reviews on here and Tripadvisor were excellent and the response when I contacted them was good so we decided to book. They want a deposit up fron so I didn't book for everyone, but I talked to Shauna at Blue Water and let her know how many people we were expecting so she could make sure that they had room for us on the cat and everyone booked independently. We ended up with 9 who were able to book in advance and two who had some issues getting a response from Blue Water via e-mail but were able to join us by signing up at the pier.

 

The instructions that we received from Shauna said that we should go through the port building and look for someone with a Blue Water Safaris sign.

 

PC090297 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

We came across two of our roll call group as we got off of the ship and went through the building looking for the sign and didn't see anything. After waiting for a while one of the folks looking to sell tours approached us and asked who we were looking for. It turned out that she acted as an agent for Blue Water and had Shauna's cell phone number so she called her for us. Apparently she had just walked over to the marina with another group so we walked that way. The marina is about a three or four minute walk to the left of the port and we found Shauna with no problem. She checked us in and was working on getting another group set to go out on one of their smaller boats so I volunteered to go back and look for the rest of our folks. I took her sign (the size of a sheet of letter-sized paper) and went back and found our group and brought them back. 10 minutes later we were boarding their catamaran.

 

PC090299 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

The boat is in great shape and the crew was fantastic. It was a very windy day and we were concerned about the conditions at the snorkeling spot but they reassured us and told us that is was well protected from the wind. We enjoyed about a 20 minute boat ride to S h i t t e n Bay (yeah, that's the name. I spaced it out so the word nanny didn't block the beginning part of it. As we were cruising I noticed that the captain had a unique way of steering the boat...

 

PC090304 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

When we got to the bay the water was beautiful and flat and there was a wrecked ship on the shore.

 

PC090412 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

Once everyone had their gear we were down in the water.

 

PC090407 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

The snorkeling spot was more rocky than reef to there wasn't a lot of coral, but there were a lot of fish and a nice variety.

 

PC090336 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

Continued...

Edited December 26, 2013 by Ron_L

[Ron_L]

More picture from the Blue Water Safaris excursion...

 

PC090318 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

PC090389 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

PC090401 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

Near the end of our time I came across this guy crawling along a rock...

 

PC090388 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

According to one of the guys on the boat it is a Bristle Worm, or Sea Centipede and has a venom that can be very irritating if touched.

 

I should mention that a couple of the ladies in our group had never been snorkeling. One of them is claustrophobic and had a problem putting on the mask. The crew was great and talked them both into getting in the water and holding the mask up to their face only when they wanted to look down into the water. this worked well for them and they both had a great time and both were snorkeling easily the next day!

 

After snorkeling the crew served a light lunch of curried chicken and potato salad, chips and a spiced banana bread. After lunch we got underway again and were given a nice view of Nevis.

 

PC090409 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

If you look at the top of the mountain you can make out what looks like a woman's face looking up at the sky.

 

We had a beautiful ride back to the marina with plenty of adult beverages available.

 

PC090408 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

Continued...

[Ron_L]

St. Kitts continued...

 

Once back at the marina we headed back to the port area and were set upon by one of several locals with monkeys. They will use your camera and take pictures of you with the monkeys and then ask for a crazy amount of money for doing this.

 

PC090427 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

The monkeys were cute and well behaved. I gave them a tip for the pictures but no where near the amount that they wanted. They were polite but I know they weren't happy that I didn't give in to their original amount. I'm sure that they start out high so folks will offer a lower amount and they can meet in the middle.

 

We shopped around the port area for a while so my wife could pick up her momento for the Christmas tree, a small stuffed monkey, and I found a couple of local hot sauces. Buying hot sauce on each island has become my traditional souvenir. After this we were hot and in need of a cold beverage so we came across this place...

 

PC090434 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

It's to the left of the port building as you are facing the building. How could we pass up $.99 beer? Besides Carib they also had Stag for $.99

 

PC090432 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

After a couple of beers it was time to get back on board! As we walked back to the ship I grabbed a couple of shots of another ship that was in port that day...

 

PC090437 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

PC090439 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

After a quick web search I found that she is run by Paul Gaugin cruises and holds 90 passengers. She does cruises around the Caribbean in the winter and the Mediterranean in the summer.

 

Back on board we dropped off our stuff and headed to the Solarium for a while then cleaned up for the evening and went to the martini bar for a bit before heading to the MDR for dinner. After dinner we stopped by the Martini Bar for a drink and headed back to the cabin. We were both pretty tired.

 

Tomorrow... Dominica.

[Kim in CA]

Ron, thank you for taking the time to post such an informative review! We are taking the same cruise in April (our first with Celebrity), and being a compulsive planner, I am loving your review and photos.

 

Do you happen to remember which nights were formal nights? I think we may want to make a reservation at one of the specialty restaurants but we don't want to miss formal night in the MDR.

 

Thanks again. Looking forward to more...

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Ron_L]

Ron, thank you for taking the time to post such an informative review! We are taking the same cruise in April (our first with Celebrity), and being a compulsive planner, I am loving your review and photos.

 

Do you happen to remember which nights were formal nights? I think we may want to make a reservation at one of the specialty restaurants but we don't want to miss formal night in the MDR.

 

Thanks again. Looking forward to more...

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Thank you!

 

The formal nights were Sunday (St. Croix) night and Thursday (sea day) night.

[cropping cruiser]

Great review and exactly what I was looking for. We are considering a Bermuda cruise on the Summit. Is there ample seating in the Solarium and is it fully enclosed ?

Thanks !

 

Anne

[Ron_L]

Great review and exactly what I was looking for. We are considering a Bermuda cruise on the Summit. Is there ample seating in the Solarium and is it fully enclosed ?

Thanks !

 

Anne

 

Yes, it is fully enclosed. There are two rows of loungers on either side of the pool and several more around the pool plus tables and chairs. We never had a problem finding loungers, even on our one sea day.

[A Sixth?]

Great continuing report Ron.

 

One quick question, was there a live pool / party band? There have been reports that there's no live music on "M" class ships anymore.

[katrocity1]

What were some of your favorite dishes in the MDR? I'm on the Summit in June 2014 and loving reading your details!

 

Also how do you sign up to be included in the CC party?

[A Sixth?]

What were some of your favorite dishes in the MDR? I'm on the Summit in June 2014 and loving reading your details!

 

Also how do you sign up to be included in the CC party?

 

To register for the connections party, Check the top of the connections page and there ya go.

 

[Ron_L]

Great continuing report Ron.

 

One quick question, was there a live pool / party band? There have been reports that there's no live music on "M" class ships anymore.

 

Thanks!

 

Yes, there was live music every day during sail away. Most of the time it was the party band but on a couple of days there was a band playing latin music. It was probably some of the same musicians but I didn't pay that close of attention :-D They were there for an hour or two.

 

 

What were some of your favorite dishes in the MDR? I'm on the Summit in June 2014 and loving reading your details!

 

Also how do you sign up to be included in the CC party?

 

The braised beef short ribs was the best dish of the week out of what we tried. I think that was on the menu on the last night. On one night they had a baked half-chicken that our table mates tried and they said it was very good.

 

Otherwise we were disappointed by the MDR food. My wife ordered steak three times, think that it would get better, but it didn't. The first time it was the Celebrity signature beef tournedo, which is a piece of beef tenderloin. It had the flavor and texture of pot roast. She also tried the sirloin steak and the ribeye and the cuts were so thin (between 1/4 and 1/2 inch) there was no way to get it anything less than medium well. We also found that everything was under seasoned.

 

To sign up for the Connections party there is a link in the Celebrity Roll Call section of the forum.

 

https://secure.celebritycruises.com/cruisecritic/home.do

 

You'll need your booking number and ship and sailing date.

[Ron_L]

For Dominica one of the ladies in our roll call researched island tours and we decided to take the Roseau Valley Treasures tour with Levi Baron of Bumpiing Tours. I was a little nervous about this tour because I'm a big guy and I wasn't sure if I would be able to do everything. It turned out that I was worrying about nothing! We had folks of all ages and physical abilities on our tour and everyone loved it! One of our friends refers to it as the day we tried to kill her, but she had a great time!

 

As I mentioned, I'm a big guy, and at times my balance can be off, but I was able to do everything except the climb down to the hot springs at Trafalgar Falls, and that was my decision to wait at the top. I'm not in the best of shape and I was concerned that the climb back up would be too strenuous for me.

 

To give you more details, we started at Champagne Reef. Parking is on the road and you walk down a concrete ramp for about 40 feet to the boardwalk. The boardwalk is 400-500 ft. long (estimate) and then you walk another 50 feet or so on packed dirt with some rocks. Shoes are needed for this part. At this point everyone took off their shoes, shorts, etc. and left them on the side of the path. I wouldn't leave any valuables there but the shoes, etc. are fine.

 

The rest of the way is over small to medium sized rocks (I think of pebbles as pea sized, there were baseball sized and bigger) for a few feet to the rubber mat and then along the mat into the water. I sat on a large rock and put on my fins and then backed the last few feet down the mat and into the water with Levi's help.

 

Once in the water we swam to an area where the bubbles were coming up and then Levi led a group to the outer reef. It's not a long swim and I recommend it since there were many more fish and a larger variety. Levi would swim down from time to time to show us things like tube works, a flounder and a moray eel. The reef was beautiful.

 

Getting out of the water was a bit more of a challenge for me. I took my fins off and walked up to the mat but my feet kept sinking into the rocks and the waves kept moving the mat. Levi was right there to help and I made it out with his help.

 

Here are some pictures from Champagne Reef. I thought I took some pictures of the walk to Champagne Reef and the entrance into the water, but I don't have them.

 

The champagne bubbles...

 

PC100460 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

This was cool to see, but the best part of the snorkel was the outer reef, so don't spend too much time looking at bubbles.

 

A moray eel that Levi point out for us. He took my camera and dove down for this picture...

 

PC100490 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

Some of the coral on the outer reef...

 

PC100539 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

Some of the fish/creatures that we saw...

 

PC100454 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

There is a feather worm on the right side in this picture...

 

PC100528 by rclewen, on Flickr

[Ron_L]

After Champagne Reef we went to Titou Gorge. At Titou Gorge you walk for about 10 minutes from the parking lot to the gorge. It is level ground but can be uneven with rocks. there is also one point where you walk for 75-100 feet across a bridge that is about 3 feet wide and has rails on both sides.

 

At the gorge itself you go down some rough rock steps to the water. the last step can be a long one but there is a small rock ledge to use an an intermediate step, and Levi is right there to help. Once in the water Levi recommended dunking right away. the water is cold, but once in everyone was fine. the first dunk takes your breath away for a bit so do it where you can stand. From there we followed Levi about 100 ft. to an opening in the gorge. There is a ledge there where you can stand and rest. From there it is another 75 feet to the falls. At the falls there is a hole where that we all climbed in to to get our of the current. It held 12 of us, but it was cozy :). We had a coupe of folks who were not strong swimmers. Levi carry's a life preserver ring with a rope attached to it and he had the non-swimmers hold on to it and he pulled them through the gorge. At the hole he tossed it to each of us and pulled us across the strong current. Two of our group climbed up the first waterfall and went back to the second fall and then jumped back into the pool.

 

The swim out is easy since the current pushes you all of the way.

 

We all had swim belts on as a precaution.

 

This is pretty typical of the path from the parking area to the gorge...

 

PC100550 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

At one point you walk along a wooden pipe that acts as a bridge. It has hand rails on both sides...

 

PC100554 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

This is the access into the gorge (the guy in the background is standing where the small hot spring is to warm up after the swim)

 

PC100559 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

This is our group coming into the water. Levi is right there helping everyone down...

 

PC100563 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

The entrance into the gorge itself...

 

PC100569 by rclewen, on Flickr

Edited December 27, 2013 by Ron_L

[Ron_L]

Once in the gorge the lighting was tricky for pictures. The walls were about 20 feet high and the width ranged from a few feet to about 20 feet. At the widest spot there is a ledge off to the side where you can sit or stand to rest.

 

Here are a few shots inside the gorge...

 

PC100572 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

PC100576 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

PC100580 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

PC100592 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

At the falls there is a hollow area in the rocks that we all climbed in to with Levi's help. A couple of the guys climbs the first fall and went back to the second fall and then jumped into the pool from the first fall. Levi was right there to help them...

 

PC100604 by rclewen, on Flickr

[Ron_L]

Now to Trafalgar Falls...

 

At Trafalgar Falls you walk from the parking lot for 10 - 15 minutes through the rain forest to the observation platform. The walk is downhill to start and then up hill to the platform. The path is earth with "steps" made of logs and the footing was good. At the platform most of our group went down to the hot springs and enjoyed it. As i mentioned I decided to wait at the platform because I felt the climb back up would be too much for me.

 

This is typical of the path to Trafalgar Falls. Is was groomed and hard packed and the steps were formed with logs. It is about a 10 minute walk and starts out down hill followed by an uphill stretch...

 

PC100638 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

PC100653 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

At the end of the path there is a wooden observation platform. From there you can see both falls...

 

PC100647 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

It's hard to tell from this picture, but the colored spots in the foliage is our group down at the hot springs. The walk down is now concrete, but my wife said that the last 20 feet or so was over rocks.

 

PC100652 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

After the falls we went through the Botanical Gardens and Levi showed us some unique plants that are grown there and we also saw this...

 

PC100666 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

According to Levi the tree crushed the bus during a hurricane. No one was hurt.

 

Then we went to a beautiful spot overlooking the town of Roseau and the harbor...

 

PC100681 by rclewen, on Flickr

 

This was our favorite island on our cruise and Levi made the day a great one for everyone. He was there to help when needed and he made sure that he was the first one to any difficult parts and the last one back to make sure everyone was there and safe.

 

Next is Grenada...

Edited December 27, 2013 by Ron_L