Review; Celebrity Summit Back to Back - March 29 2014

[Freedom55]

Celebrity Summit – back to back

March 29 to April 12 2014

 

Pre Cruise

We flew in a day early and stayed at the ESJ towers in Carolina are of San Juan. It was close to the airport and right on the beach. The room we had was obviously an unsold timeshare because we had a kitchen and large balcony and living space. The hotel was a little tired looking but nice. We received two free drinks at the bar and a buffet breakfast complimentary with the room. I would stay there again next time in San Juan.

Embarkation

It was the best embarkation possible. We left our hotel at about 11:30 and arrived at the pier at noon. We handed our bags from the taxi to the attendants, walked to the concierge check in (there were no lines anywhere) and boarded the ship. However when we did get on the ship we were bombarded at the door with the loudest announcements! It actually hurt your ears. Instead of being handed champagne we were pointed to a tray sitting on the side. We went to Bistro on five to have lunch with our friends and waited till the rooms were ready. They made the announcement at about 1 p.m.

Cabin

We were in concierge cabin #8163. It is a larger, better designed cabin than the S Class. The balcony was quite small with two regular chairs and a table. Lots of storage room. Completely adequate.

The Ship

We love the M class ships. The layout is great and there are lots of great public spaces. The Summit is showing her age however, There are quite a few “soft” spots in the floors that make you wonder what’s under that carpet and can almost trip you at times. There were also signs of rust and worn railings but not enough to really put you off.

Our group met in the Rendezvous lounge for drinks each day and it gave us a wonderful spot for 10 people to gather and discuss the day (and other things!)

Café al Bacio is the prime spot on the ship for coffee and tea lovers, and of course, dessert lovers.

Oceanview Café (buffet) – is not as good as the S class design. You have to send out a scouting party to see all the selections but the food was good to excellent.

We did not go to any specialty restaurants other than Bistro on Five and for me I would rather have lunch in the Oceanview (but other in our group love the Bistro)

We did attend the Celebrity Theatre for the Comedian and Magician shows and enjoyed them very much. The cruise director Kyle Dodson gets my vote for the worst I have seen. He is a living “Saturday Night Live” skit. Note to Kyle: there are some cruisers that do back to back, so don’t tell the same bad jokes on the same days in consecutive weeks. Get 14 days! worth of bad jokes about stealing passengers watches! (Rant over)

Select Dining

Gabriella in select dining gets my vote for best cruise employee ever. She greeted us at the door to the MDR and made sure we got a table quickly and always with a genuine smile. This girl knows her stuff! This was our first try at Select as we have always been traditional in the past. Now 6 is too early and 8:30 is way too late. We ate at 7 – 7:15 almost every day, with no problem at all. Food in the MDR was good (the beef Wellington was way better than good!)

We will do Select again. I guess we are converts. We just need to pack Gabriella up with us and take her on the next cruise.

Staff

Good and bad. We found that a lot of areas seemed to be understaffed. Bar service was generally slow all over. Maybe with the 123 giving everyone free booze they didn't want to hand it out too quick? I saw my room attendant only two or three times the whole cruise (but the room was clean). Select dining room staff was good for the most part but sometimes very slow. The Captains Club host was new but efficient, however I don’t like the new trend of calling the room and leaving a message instead of getting "door mail". Staff at Cafe al Bacio is awesome and work extremely hard and fast.

Ports

St. Croix – we went to Renaissance Carambola resort by taxi. What a wonderful spot. They did not charge us for space or shade! The waves were crashing so no snorkeling but it was a great beach day.

St Kitts. – We went to a beach called Carambola again! There was some snorkeling there but nothing spectacular. The beach was decent; chairs and shade were $30 (a little pricey). Another nice beach day

Dominica – we stayed on the ship as we have been there 3 times before and this was a port intensive cruise.

Grenada – we had a beach day on a quiet beach that I only identify to close friends (because we want to KEEP the beach quiet, sorry!)

St. Thomas #1 – this was a shopping day to get Grandkids gifts and just hang out In Charlotte Amelie.

San Juan – turn around day was another stay on the ship days other than going off through customs and getting a new sea pass for week #2.

Barbados – We took a cab to Carlisle Bay, rented the chairs and Shade for $15 and had a beach day with some snorkeling. The tours come to this area, so you can simply watch them come in and then swim out yourself and snorkel away. We saw some turtles (for free!) but not much else.

St Lucia – again our 4th trip in, so we only got as far as the mall in the dock area.

Antigua – we paid $50 each plus an $8 cab ride to go to the Coconut Beach Club. The facilities are very nice and we had a fabulous lunch and drinks included in the price. There is also a nice infinity pool, however the beach chairs are scarce and the shade was hard to find and you are competing with the people who have paid to stay there for the week. If you are a beach person, I would not recommend this resort, If you like a pool, a bar and a nice lunch, it’s for you.

St Maarten – We went to Maho beach and got chairs beside the sunset bar ($15 for 2 + shade). Maho is a great experience with the planes arriving over your head but this is the first time we have made it a beach day and we had fun swimming while the planes flew overhead.

St Thomas #2 – we had planned a trip to St John by Taxi / Ferry but it was raining hard in the morning so we cancelled our plans.

Debarkation

A mess! We got off with the last group at about 10 a.m. and the lineups at customs were LARGE! Tip: if you get a porter you can go to the shortest line. We did just that and it improved things, but it was still quite a mess.

 

Overall comments

The cruise was fun with friends. We could probably have a good time on a row boat! As I said we love the M Class. I hope they build more small ships (but I am not holding my breath). If you want to cruise on the Summit I would book it now because I think this ship has maybe 4-5 more years in it and that’s it.

Everything was good but some of the greatness that we have seen on previous cruises seems to have gone away. I have a feeling that "greatness" has been shifted to the bigger, newer ships.

Tom Yates - April 2014

Edited April 17, 2014 by Freedom55

[ecslady]

Thanks for posting the review! :) I have visions of all of you in the Rendevous or on the beach with drinks in hand.

[Willman]

Thanks for the review Tom. We were on the 3-29 leg and agree with you on most points.

 

Overall we really enjoyed it. The itinerary is fantastic. The staff was extremely nice. They really hustled but at times seemed over worked.

 

About cruise director Kyle Dodson: He could be described as cheesy and insincere. You are right, It was like watching a skit of a 70's lounge singer. Though he did have a lot of energy and knew his stuff.

 

However, I must give him credit. I thought he was excellent when hosting the shows in Reflections, especially the newlywed/not so newlywed game. He was funny, witty and great at improv. Its just when he was doing repetitive canned jokes in the main theater that, well, to quote my wife "I don't like him."

[New Hampshire]

Hey there, Freedom55, we had the same cabin as you for the previous week, March 22-29. I prefer the S-class ships, but do agree that the cabin is comfortable with better storage than the S-class. Our cabin attendant, Julio,was the worst we have had on a Celebrity ship. We ran out of shampoo and body wash. I had to leave notes to him to replace these. There were no laundry bags in the cabin and again had to leave a note for these. The card for ordering canapés was left for us only three times during the week. When we came back from the beach each port day, our used beach towels were taken away, but not replaced. Every morning we had to search for him to get clean beach towels for the day.

 

I agree about Gabriella in Select Dining. She is amazing. I sailed Summit in May to Bermuda, and Gabriella remembered me from that cruise. She is the only staff member that we gave an an additional tip to.

 

We also went to Coconut Beach Club on Antigua and were extremely disappointed. There were six of us and we all found it to be run down, shabby and dirty. The pictures on it's website must have been taken years ago. The lunch was pretty bad with birds sitting in uncovered dishes in the buffet. The beach chairs were shabby with torn covers. The drinks were poor. I wrote a review afterwards on Trip Advisor and found others that seemed to agree with us. The day before we had been on St Lucia on a day pass at Rendezvous Resort. That was fabulous!!! Perfect in every way. I would rate that one a 10 and Coconut Beach a 1!!!!

 

All in all, we had a wonderful cruise.

[Freedom55]

Hey there, Freedom55, we had the same cabin as you for the previous week, March 22-29. I prefer the S-class ships, but do agree that the cabin is comfortable with better storage than the S-class. Our cabin attendant, Julio,was the worst we have had on a Celebrity ship. We ran out of shampoo and body wash. I had to leave notes to him to replace these. There were no laundry bags in the cabin and again had to leave a note for these. The card for ordering canapés was left for us only three times during the week. When we came back from the beach each port day, our used beach towels were taken away, but not replaced. Every morning we had to search for him to get clean beach towels for the day.

 

I agree about Gabriella in Select Dining. She is amazing. I sailed Summit in May to Bermuda, and Gabriella remembered me from that cruise. She is the only staff member that we gave an an additional tip to.

 

We also went to Coconut Beach Club on Antigua and were extremely disappointed. There were six of us and we all found it to be run down, shabby and dirty. The pictures on it's website must have been taken years ago. The lunch was pretty bad with birds sitting in uncovered dishes in the buffet. The beach chairs were shabby with torn covers. The drinks were poor. I wrote a review afterwards on Trip Advisor and found others that seemed to agree with us. The day before we had been on St Lucia on a day pass at Rendezvous Resort. That was fabulous!!! Perfect in every way. I would rate that one a 10 and Coconut Beach a 1!!!!

 

All in all, we had a wonderful cruise.

 

I am glad we agree - Mostly! lol

[Shirley C]

Great review Tom! Thanks for taking the time to post it.

 

Shirley

[Shirley C]

About cruise director Kyle Dodson: He could be described as cheesy and insincere. You are right, It was like watching a skit of a 70's lounge singer. Though he did have a lot of energy and knew his stuff.

 

However, I must give him credit. I thought he was excellent when hosting the shows in Reflections, especially the newlywed/not so newlywed game. He was funny, witty and great at improv. Its just when he was doing repetitive canned jokes in the main theater that, well, to quote my wife "I don't like him."

 

It was great to sail with you again. I wish we had gotten more time to chat with you. Just FYI - I watched both weeks of the Not So Newlywed Newlywed Game. The questions asked were the same each week, and Kyle used the same puns and jokes on each week.

 

Shirley

[Cruiser Susie]

Thanks for your balanced review. It sounds like you had a really nice time. The Summit was the first Celebrity ship we sailed on 10 years ago, and I have very fond memories of that trip and of the next 3 we took on her. Glad you enjoyed your cruise with friends. Sailing with friends always makes a cruise even more fun! Sorry that debarkation was a mess... but glad you found a porter to help move things along.

[kaleighsgram]

Almost missed this review. I agree, the Summit is showing her age. You really had to watch where you walked sometimes as the floor was spongey in spots. After a few days, you knew what places to avoid.

I also agree with your comment about having a good time in a row boat, provided friends are along. I'm not willing to try it however!

The food on the Eclipse was better.

I, too, wish that some of the ships being considered for building were of the smaller variety. There's something about that smaller ship atmosphere. Besides, not every island handles large ships well.

Getting off the ship late (to avoid a long wait at the airport) was a disaster. We got a porter which put us in the shorter line, but you had to wonder how long the others had to stand there. What a mess!

Till next time.

[Cruising89143]

Thanks for the review. We are cruising on the Summit next year on the repo cruise. I'm not a fan of the debarkation process in San Juan.

[Viva_la_Vida]

Freedom55, thanks for the review! DH and I are trying Select for the first time on our next cruise on Summit. I'm looking forward to meeting Gabrielle!

 

Two questions:

 

1. Did you make reservations in advance?

2. Was the temperature too hot on the upper level of the MDR?

 

Thanks!

[Freedom55]

Freedom55, thanks for the review! DH and I are trying Select for the first time on our next cruise on Summit. I'm looking forward to meeting Gabrielle!

 

Two questions:

 

1. Did you make reservations in advance?

2. Was the temperature too hot on the upper level of the MDR?

 

Thanks!

 

Gabriella!

Yes I made advanced reservations and no it was not hot.

 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S3

[ellasnan]

Thanks Tom for the review. Just came across it! It was a great cruise and looking forward to the next one on Eclipse with you. Just glad it's not on a rowing boat! Silver Moon would be good though for a day with friends!

Karen

 

 

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