A Small Summit Review 4/5/14

[kannna]

After being a CC member for eons, this is my very first review. After reading some other reviews of people on the exact same cruise, I wanted you to hear about our time and that it wasn’t all bad on the Summit 4/5/14.

 

Background: This was my fourth time on Summit 2 pre-refurb 1 post. Husband and I cruise at least once and if we can swing it, twice a year usually on X. This time we were a family group of nine for a wedding on ship (check out sister JenGTravels review for further on the wedding) with 5 different cabins in varying categories and varying cruise experience.

 

Precruise: Most of us arrived the day before and stayed at a lovely hotel in the Old Town call La Terraza de San Juan. We were welcomed with beverages at the bar and an introduction to the area with maps and locations of various things noted for our convenience. Our rooms were new and beds comfortable. The elevator was incredibly slow, but that is part of staying in any small hotel that has been shimmied into an antique building. When the place we had planned for dinner was closed, we decided on a second floor bar lounge called Mezzanine. The bartender made every drink with athletic finesse and the mojitos and tapas were fabulous. It was a great find. In the morning, continental breakfast was included, which we enjoyed on the roof top terrace where there was a lovely breeze and view of the harbor and old town. We left our luggage at the hotel and explored town in small groups.

 

Embarkation: Was pretty easy. The only thing I found odd was that there is someone to check your seapass every five feet on your way through the terminal. There’s someone inside the door. There’s someone at the bottom of the stairs. At the top of the stairs and on the gangway before you cross to the ship. So don’t put it away, whatever you do. Upon entering the ship we were immediately offered some bubbly and welcomed by a group of staff.

 

Cabin: We originally had a C1 but there was a price drop a couple of months out and we upgraded to an S1. Then on one of my random cabin availability checks 6145 came up and we grabbed it. What a lovely cabin! The bathroom alone is 4 times bigger than the one at home! Dark wood paneling and accents. Lots of room to move. The closet was smaller than it should be for such a room, but after removing the bathrobes there was plenty of room for a one week cruise. Two weeks would have taken a little creativity. The veranda was covered and very nice with a table and two chairs and also two loungers. We had a neighbor that was a chain smoker for the first couple of days and then I am assuming someone asked her to stop. I was on the verge. Our butler Jose was wonderful. Our breakfast rolls and cappuccinos were always hot. We saw Jose and our room attendant Jen several times a day, they were both always friendly with a hello or good morning. We were very well taken care of.

 

Ship: I really do like the Summit and the M class. It’s the perfect hike from one end to the other not too long. Everything is easy to find and get around. They’ve moved future cruise sales to the little raised area in the shops that had the art auctions and chairs. Which is nice for cruise sales to have the room, but makes the journey from Café al Bacio to the shops seem squeezed. I also miss the card room, but like the Café that replaced it. Michael’s is a private lounge. No one was ever in there when I passed by, except a concierge at a desk that I never saw assisting anyone. The sinky spots entering the Rendevous are still there. They’ve always been there as far as I know. I know to be careful in the heels. It’s not new, but sometime it should be fixed. Someone is going to twist an ankle.

[kannna]

Entertainment: We enjoyed the salsa band they had in Rendevous each night. They were very good and personable with the audience. I enjoyed watching the people that know how to dance well. We also spent some time in the casino. We did not go to any shows. There was an odd dj duo in the martini bar that had a lot of percussion instruments. I never quite got it. There was also a second band, a guitarist, and a piano player that all played separately in venues throughout the ship.

 

Staff: Throughout the cruise, every staff member we saw always said good morning or hello and smiled from the ship cleaners to Captain Leo. And there were ship cleaners everywhere. We spent a couple of days on ship and throughout the day they were cleaning cleaning cleaning. The ship maintenance guys (excuse me I don’t know their title) were also maintaining the outside of the ship, I saw lots of window cleaning and painting. Some banging one day.

 

Bar staffing was never hard to find for me. I paid attention because everyone was saying how horrible it was. I would sit down and someone would be there sometimes before I even had gotten settled. We attended the morning and evening Elite Lounges. There were cold and hot nibbles passed at evening cocktails that were very good. I especially enjoyed the little spring rolls and the meat balls. Breakfast was the usual spread with someone always nearby willing to get you a cappuccino.

 

The only person I didn’t enjoy was a man on the activity staff that gave trivia the first sea day. He was a bit too too what’s the word? Rude? Mean? He made that trivia game not fun and I’m afraid we lost a few trivia players that day for the rest of the cruise. The rest of the activity staff was very nice and friendly. It seemed a few of them were leaving at the end of our cruise.

 

Dining: Because of our large group we had a table to ourselves at early seating. Our waiter Tuncay and his assistant Zaira were great. Zaira caught on quickly to our party’s love of lemons for the water and extra butter for the bread. She always made the extra effort in her appearance of some king of different sparkly hair accessory every day. Tuncay always had good suggestions and patience with our table. He seemed to only have three tables that I could tell. The kitchen special made two large carrot cakes for two birthdays at our table. They were delicious.

 

We dined in Normandy one night and it was a lovely evening. We also enjoyed Bistro on Five on embarkation day and I got my favorite Cowboy crepe and it did not disappoint.

[kannna]

Port Highlights: In Barbados, Husband and I went on a day sail on Silver Moon while everyone else did other things. We had a wonderful time with only 13 guests on the large catamaran. The crew of three were very friendly and accommodating. We snorkeled at two different locations and then had some lunch and beach time at a lovely location. Lunch was delicious and filling with options of fried flying fish or chicken and rice with several side dishes. It was a very laid back nice day.

 

In Antigua we all went to the Coconut Beach Club at the Yepton Beach on day passes. Our taxi driver Nikki tried to talk us into somewhere else, but we were happy we stuck to our guns and she returned at three as promised. Our day passes included full use of the facilities, chair, palapa, towels, beverages, and lunch. The people staying there seemed to be mostly French and German and were quite friendly and helpful in suggestions for gathering beach chairs for our large group. Once settled, we enjoyed the day. The sand was soft and white and the hotel seemed to be the only one in the cove. The rest of the beach was quite deserted. There were no hawkers or peddlers except for one friendly lady selling jewelry passively sitting by the beach stairs who left at lunchtime. I am a seaglass gatherer at home and away and was not disappointed in my walk to the other end of the cove and back. Lunch was delicious. The ladies that worked there set us up a large table so we could all sit together. On the way back everyone remarked what a lovely day it was.

 

 

Disembarkation: I had heard about the lines at immigration, but I truly didn’t appreciate them until I saw them. Five of us were heading to the airport together, Husband and I were renting a car for the day from Budget and the other three had a noon time flight. We had a leisurely breakfast in the buffet area and left when the last number in our group had been called. The porter fast lane was truly an amazing thing and we had our luggage and were outside in a taxi in 5-7 minutes. The taxi dropped us first at Budget which was right at the airport right off the main entrance. The people there were very nice, the woman at the counter had run out of maps, but the young man in the booth lent us his as long as we promised to return it. We drove along the beach road out through the Isla Verde section and beyond through small towns past lots of barbecue places starting their fires and prepping for a busy Saturday. The smell was wonderful. There were lots of families spending the day at the beach or just arriving and staking their spots. We headed to the El Yunque Rainforest where we spent a good portion of the day. The ride back was easy and we left time for any issues. Driving into the airport and drop off took two minutes and the bus was there waiting for us to drive us to the terminal.

 

Overall we had a lovely time. Too short as usual.

 

I had some lovely photos in this review, but my brain is having a hard time wrapping around how to include them at this point.

Edited April 19, 2014 by kannna

[davekathy]

Entertainment: We enjoyed the salsa band they had in Rendevous each night. They were very good and personable with the audience. I enjoyed watching the people that know how to dance well. We also spent some time in the casino. We did not go to any shows. There was an odd dj duo in the martini bar that had a lot of percussion instruments. I never quite got it. There was also a second band, a guitarist, and a piano player that all played separately in venues throughout the ship.

 

Staff: Throughout the cruise, every staff member we saw always said good morning or hello and smiled from the ship cleaners to Captain Leo. And there were ship cleaners everywhere. We spent a couple of days on ship and throughout the day they were cleaning cleaning cleaning. The ship maintenance guys (excuse me I don’t know their title) were also maintaining the outside of the ship, I saw lots of window cleaning and painting. Some banging one day.

 

Bar staffing was never hard to find for me. I paid attention because everyone was saying how horrible it was. I would sit down and someone would be there sometimes before I even had gotten settled. We attended the morning and evening Elite Lounges. There were cold and hot nibbles passed at evening cocktails that were very good. I especially enjoyed the little spring rolls and the meat balls. Breakfast was the usual spread with someone always nearby willing to get you a cappuccino.

 

The only person I didn’t enjoy was a man on the activity staff that gave trivia the first sea day. He was a bit too too what’s the word? Rude? Mean? He made that trivia game not fun and I’m afraid we lost a few trivia players that day for the rest of the cruise. The rest of the activity staff was very nice and friendly. It seemed a few of them were leaving at the end of our cruise.

 

Dining: Because of our large group we had a table to ourselves at early seating. Our waiter Tuncay and his assistant Zaira were great. Zaira caught on quickly to our party’s love of lemons for the water and extra butter for the bread. She always made the extra effort in her appearance of some king of different sparkly hair accessory every day. Tuncay always had good suggestions and patience with our table. He seemed to only have three tables that I could tell. The kitchen special made two large carrot cakes for two birthdays at our table. They were delicious.

 

We dined in Normandy one night and it was a lovely evening. We also enjoyed Bistro on Five on embarkation day and I got my favorite Cowboy crepe and it did not disappoint.

 

We did a B2B on the Summit and was on the same 5 April sailing as you for our second leg of the Cruise. We had a table for two in the MDR and Zaira was our assistant waitress for the first leg of our Cruise. Agree 100% with your comments about Zaira. She was fantastic. She would sneak away from your table to stop by to say hi and see how we were doing.

[poffles]

Thanks for sharing. Always great to hear Summit reviews, especially good ones. November can't come fast enough :o

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review.