Summit Photo Review - June 29, 2014 to Bermuda in Aqua Class

[prim8keeper]

I also happen to live in Georgia, too!

 

Maybe we should all form a support group? :rolleyes:

[gsu_paintballer]

Maybe we should all form a support group? :rolleyes:

 

I think the non-travelling people are the ones that need the support group :cool:

[travellerin1984]

We enjoy Celebrity too, I turn to 30 in couple of weeks and my boyfriend is 37. No kids and double income make our holiday plans possible.. We live in Nothern Europe and have 5 weeks holiday every year! I really like that Celebrity is making changes and trying new entertainment. We have been considering other cruise lines (Rccl, Oceania and Azamara) but still sticking to Celebrity, mostly because of drink package and the price. I even enjoy the younger crowd... I think it is too early to try O and A. We like good food and start to get a bit bored of the restaurants on Celebrity.

[prim8keeper]

Shortly after sailing out of Bermuda we decided to change and get ready for dinner. This was the second formal night however we were not participating and just dressing in smart casual. Tonight we were going to Normandie and our reservation was for 6 pm. We were able to get 20% off by calling earlier in the week and asking if they were running any specials.

 

Since we had some time to kill we decided to stop by the shops on deck 5 and purchase some liquor. We still had quit a bit of OBC that we needed to spend or we would loose. We ended up buying a bottle of Goslings Black Rum and a bottle of their gold rum which I had never seen before. I later learned its new. Now I can enjoy Dark 'n stormy's at home! The prices on the ship were much better than anything we saw in Bermuda.

 

The area right outside of Normandie is really interesting. It has all sorts of information on the original SS Normandie which was a French ocean liner. It began sailing in 1935. For those who are unaware they used the original paneling from the SS Normandie inside the Normandie restaurant on Summit.

 

The area leading to Normandie.

 

 

Any original table setting and menu from the SS Normandie.

 

 

The only reason we decided to visit Normandie was because of the discount. On our previous cruises we had dined in Murano and were never overly impressed. It always just came across as stuffy to us. The menu for Normanide was the same so I honestly just expected the same. I was wrong. Murano on the S-class ships is a rather small and dark space. On Summit Normandie was open and bright. It was like night and day. I also liked that in Normandie we could actually look out the windows which you can't do in Murano unless you want to stare at the life boat. There was also a glass window looking into the kitchen which I thought was interesting to watch.

 

I was determined to order something different this time around since on all our previous trips to Murano I had ordered the same thing - the diver scallop wellington and the Murano lobster. This time I started with the creamy Maine Lobster bisque and ordered the off the menu filet mignon with Bearnaise sauce. The filet was probably the best steak I have had in a very long time either on land or at sea. I was actually really sad we had not come here sooner because I would have come back. I honestly don't remember what my DH had. Whatever it was he did enjoy it. I was just in my own world with my filet. For dessert we did a valrhona chocolate cake and some type of strawberry crepe. Both were fantastic. All around the meal was just wonderful and I would not hesitate to go here again. If I had to choose between the specialty restaurants I thought Normandie was much better than Q-sine.

 

After dinner we went up to Revelations to attend the Senior Officers party. This was actually the first captain's club event we decided to attend, EVER! It started at 7:45 pm and we probably showed up just before 8 pm. When we walked in we were warmly greeted by Ashley and some of the officers including the captain. The party band was playing, people were dancing and they were waiters carrying around h'orderves. I didn't really pay much attention to these since we were just coming from dinner. They had a rather long list of drinks we could get for free, but we just ordered something else since we had the premium drink package. I think all in all there were maybe 100 people there, but it could have been closer to 80. For obvious reasons I don't think there were a lot of select, elite and higher on this cruise. We spent most of our time there talking to a couple we had met earlier in the cruise. All in all it was a nice event. We have heard some less than flattering stories about these events from friends, but I think the low number of captain's club members kept this event intimate and low key.

 

Following the senior officers party we hung out in Revelations until it was time to go see the show. Another first for us. That's right, this was our fourth cruise and we had not gone to see any of the shows on our previous sailings. We decided to give the headlining comedian Michele Balan a try. She is billed as a brash New Yorker and the way she was described it reminded me a lot of Lisa Lampenilli or Kathy Griffin both of whom we like. Overall neither one of us were impressed. Some of what she said was actually really funny, but I had one big problem. I really enjoy that style of comedy, however when you are going to go that honest and in your face you actually need to know what you are talking about and have your facts straight. There were a couple of things she said which I knew just were not true or based on really bad or outdated information. Most people in the audience didn't seem to notice, but I did see people walking out so at least a few others did.

 

After the show we went to hang out at our usual place, Cellar Master's. We ended up staying here until about 2 am and closed the place down. We ended up talking to a really interesting woman from NYC who was cruising with her family. Her name was Carrie and I feel so bad because the entire time we were talking to her all I could think of was Sex & the City. With that we decided to head to bed since tomorrow was the saddest day ever, packing day.

 

Also, sometime in here we were warned about hurricane Arthur. Because of the hurricane we were altering our route back to NYC so we could stay on the outer edge of the storm. They told us to prepare for some heavy movement overnight and into Saturday morning. YAY! Some people seemed rather freaked out but I wasn't too worried.

[dodger1964]

Great review. Thanks for taking the time to post.

 

The pic of summit with the palm trees in front...it looks like the palm trees are painted on the hull....I kind of like that look!!

[prim8keeper]

Saturday morning we woke up to a decent amount of movement. Showering was fun! To say I made a mess was an understatement. I took the photo below from our balcony and you can see how disturbed the wake is. For those who are really observant you also may notice that they removed the awning from the sunset view bar. They did this because while we were in Bermuda they were out there working on the frame as well as doing some work on our balconies. We received a note on our cabin door about the work and how to opt out if we wished on our first day in Bermuda. We didn't opt out and from what I could tell all they did was do some minor painting on our balcony and add a new coat of stain on the railing. They always did the work during the day while we were gone.

 

 

We went to breakfast in Blu and enjoyed a quiet ship. There were not a ton of people around. I think between the movement and having spent the last three days in Bermuda everyone was tired. After breakfast we went up on deck to look around and they were busy securing all the deck chairs on the upper levels. Between the movement and wind there was no way anyone was going to be using these today. It was a great day to use the track. There were no chairs in your way and depending on which way you were going you either got a ton of wind resistance or a boost.

 

 

 

Another random photo I took up on deck.

 

 

I felt obligated as prim8keeper to take a photo of this gorilla statue. Although I'm not sure why he is holding a fish. In all my professional experience I've never seen a gorilla holding a fish.

 

 

 

By lunch time the seas had calmed down considerably and the ride was once again pretty smooth. Since we had not made it to the waterfall grill or the aquaspa cafe yet we decided we would have lunch at one of these restaurants. 7 days just isn't long enough to eat everywhere. Since we eat pretty healthy in our everyday home life we went with the waterfall grill. X makes a pretty good cheese burger. There were a lot of people on the pool deck and we had to wait about 10 minutes for our food. They are also pre-portioning out the food here into baskets. It was both good and bad. It was bad because it was taking a long time, but good because it made the food really easy to carry since the basket had a handle. Once we had our cheese burgers we decided to go up and eat on our balcony. I really like the new fries they are doing. It was a truffle pepper or something. Really tasty. We stopped by the sunset view bar to pick up some drinks on the way to our cabin.

 

After enjoying a relaxing lunch on the balcony we decided we should probably begin the depressing task of packing.

[prim8keeper]

After packing for a while having had enough of that unpleasantness we went to Cafe al Bacio to get some coffee and then over to gelateria to get our free scoop of gelato. I was only planning on getting gelato, but they had a strawberry pie that looked too good to pass up at cafe al bacio so I got the pie to eat with my coffee and then the gelato. I'm pretty sure you aren't allowed to call it a cruise if you don't eat two desserts at some point.

 

Remember earlier in the review when I said I sometimes take random photos? This is a perfect example of that. I really liked the chairs so I decided to take a photo of them. Why I also decided I should hold the camera at that angle I'm not sure. When I showed my DH he said it looked like we were on the Titanic as it was going down.

 

 

Since we still had some OBC to spend we decided to go wander the shops, again looking for something to purchase. I know, such a hard task, being forced to shop. We settled on getting my DH some more cologne since he had been out for some time. Usually if we have a lot of OBC left over we will take it out at the casino. However, since there were things we could actually use we decided to go that route so we didn't have to pay the 5% cash withdraw fee.

 

While we were wandering around the shops I also decided it would be a good idea to check out the future cruise flyers one last time. I picked up a few just to take back to the cabin to discuss. The one flyer that caught my eye was the new 15 day Galapagos and Machu Picchu vacation. It included two nights in Quito prior to the your cruise, the cruise and then six days after the cruise visiting Lima, the Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu and Cuzco. Having majored in anthropology and zoology I spent a lot of time studying the Galapagos islands. I never dreamed though that I may one day get to go there. After some more packing and discussing my DH decided it was ok to book this cruise since under the new system we had nothing to loose. So we ventured back down to the future cruise office to book the most expensive ocean view cabin known to cruisers for November 2016 over my birthday. :eek: My DH's condition to booking this cruise was that we may have to change or cancel it when we got home and he ran the numbers. Fair enough. In the mean time I could dream. You'll have to wait until later to find out what the final verdict was on this cruise!

 

Since it was our last night on the ship we wanted to make sure we got all our packing done before dinner. It just makes the last evening so much more enjoyable if you don't have to worry about it. Prior to going to dinner we did 90% of our packing. We were mostly just waiting for them to deliver our alcohol purchase so we could finish packing the bag we were going to check.

 

With that we were off to dinner in Blu and then it was on to Cellar Master's to hang out with Dimitri. We spent the rest of the evening in Cellar Master's talking to various couples, Dimitri and listening to the jazz trio. It was a really nice way to end the cruise. Around 10:30 pm we decided to call it an early night. I also wanted to get back to the room before 11 pm so we could put the bags out. By this time it seemed like most people had already gone to bed or were in their cabins packing.

[prim8keeper]

Disembarkation morning came all too soon. We were group 25 out of 30 since we had no where to be. Our flight out of LGA wasn't leaving until almost 3 pm. Since we had to be out of the cabins by 8 am around 7:30 am we decided to go have breakfast in Blu. I really like being able to go here for breakfast on disembarkation day. It is so quiet compared to the buffet. We sat there until we were one of only three couples left. After that we decided to go up to Revelations which was the dedicated Aqua and Concierge disembarkation lounge. This was really nice and our first cruise where we had this. By now they had called numbers 1 - 15 or so. There were not many people on the ship or in the lounge. I suspect that since it seems like many people drive to Bayonne most people want to just get off the ship.

 

I took this photo in Revelations. They had a table with coffee, tea and assorted pastries set up for everyone to enjoy while we waited. We just sat and talked to our friends who were in group 30 since their flight wasn't leaving out of JFK until 5 pm.

 

 

Since we were not in a rush we were going to wait with our friends until the called the last group, however, by that point so many people were already off the ship they just called all remaining groups at number 25. As we made our way to deck 1 to get off the ship we could once again hear what had now become a dreaded sound, "DING," "DING..." Just like that we were off the ship. Disembarkation was supposed to go until around 10 or 10:30 am but I think it was a little after 9:30 am when we got off. As we exited off the ship there was a bus waiting to take us back to the terminal to collect our luggage.

 

 

Collecting our luggage in the terminal and getting through customs was really easy. Maybe the people in Bayonne could go down and talk to the people in Ft. Lauderdale about how to do this more efficiently? We didn't have any plans for how we were going to get from the cruise ship terminal to LGA. So we just walked outside and walked towards the shared vans line. As we approached a guy asked us where we were going. We were then put in a van with others going to either Manhattan or LGA. It was $26 per person. It was great. First we dropped off the couple who was going to their hotel in Manhattan. While we were doing this we also got a free tour of NYC. It was a great way to kill time and I would much rather being driving around Manhattan than sitting in LGA. We then dropped off the woman who lived in the city and headed towards LGA. We arrived at LGA around noon. My biggest concern was arriving at the airport too early to check-in, but this didn't end up being an issue. We checked in and then headed off to find something to eat. You know, because the first thing you want to do when you get off a cruise is find something to eat. Since we were flying UsAirways we were in the new terminal that they share with Delta so we had plenty of options.

 

After lunch we decided to go and sit at one of Delta's charging stations where you can charge you various electronic devices. We both decided to start checking our emails as well. The view from my seat...

 

 

Time seemed to fly by and before I knew it they were boarding our flight. We were actually so distracted that we didn't hear they call our flight until they were calling for final boarding. Needless to say by now I may have been a little too relaxed. Everything just went so smoothly. Our flight from LGA to Charlotte arrived early and then our flight from Charlotte to Atlanta was also ahead of schedule. Back in Atlanta we took the skytrain to the hotel where our car was parked and headed home.

 

It was a smooth ending to our cruise. Stay tuned! Tomorrow I'll do my wrap up talking about various things that didn't fit in with the picture overview including service on the ship, food quality, odd things I noticed, a few issues we had, etc. I'll also share whether or not we are going on that dream Galapagos cruise...

[CruisingGatorGirl]

Thanks! We were that age as well when we started sailing X. Out of four cruises two have been 10 nights and two 7 nights. We also have two more 7 night cruises booked, a 14 night, a 9 night and an 11 night. I think that's all of them. I would need to check my signature. LOL! I have a problem. :D I prefer to think of X as my kid that way spending such obscene amounts of money on cruises doesn't seem so bad.

 

Maybe we should all form a support group? :rolleyes:

 

Haha! I told my husband about this and he likes your thinking ;) he could have a few Celebrity "children"

[coconut1]

I really enjoyed reading this review. If you have them, could you please post the Blu menus. We are trying to decide which nights to do specialty restaurants. Thank you.

[prim8keeper]

I really enjoyed reading this review. If you have them, could you please post the Blu menus. We are trying to decide which nights to do specialty restaurants. Thank you.

 

I do not have the Blu menus. That is honestly the one thing I am really bad at photographing. I blame it on the premium drink package! That said hands down I've always found the first night to be the best. The others are generally hit and miss for me depending on the menu. Also always avoid the gnocchi in Blu, its terrible. Soups are almost always excellent. The second formal night is also a night we usually skip in Blu because they have decided to do this terrible orange sauce on the lobster. I'm not sure how others feel about it but we, along with our friends, find that it doesn't work. This is one thing I really wish they would change. Sometimes preparing things the classic way is the best. It became a classic for a reason!

[Laney219]

 

While we were wandering around the shops I also decided it would be a good idea to check out the future cruise flyers one last time. I picked up a few just to take back to the cabin to discuss. The one flyer that caught my eye was the new 15 day Galapagos and Machu Picchu vacation. It included two nights in Quito prior to the your cruise, the cruise and then six days after the cruise visiting Lima, the Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu and Cuzco. Having majored in anthropology and zoology I spent a lot of time studying the Galapagos islands. I never dreamed though that I may one day get to go there. After some more packing and discussing my DH decided it was ok to book this cruise since under the new system we had nothing to loose. So we ventured back down to the future cruise office to book the most expensive ocean view cabin known to cruisers for November 2016 over my birthday. :eek: My DH's condition to booking this cruise was that we may have to change or cancel it when we got home and he ran the numbers. Fair enough. In the mean time I could dream. You'll have to wait until later to find out what the final verdict was on this cruise!

 

Short hi-jack:

 

Over a summer in college, I was lucky enough to take a 3 week course that included 1/2 the time on a small boat (~200 pp) cruising the Galapagos. BEST EXPERIENCE EVER!!! I so hope the numbers came out in the positive for you. If not, go FUDGE THEM!!! It was a once in a lifetime experience that I hope you get to have too!

[Hollywood Traveler]

We have many, many friends who we now cruise with that we have met on CC and they are all many, many years older than us and its always a great time! This was our first cruise without some of them and it just wasn't the same. Still fun, but I missed their special brand of insanity. The crowd on this cruise was actually younger than most X ships we have been on so we hung out with a lot of people our own age.

 

Thank you, Tom, for being so polite. I know that you really wanted to say "and they are all many, many, many, many, many, many years older than us."

 

Seriously, again, great review. I can't believe you went to all the trouble to post so many, many, many photos. They are all beautiful.

 

Larry

[awhfy]

I didn't really care about going to Bermuda until I read your review. I think this'll be the next cruise that we book. Appreciate all of your hard work.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[prim8keeper]

Short hi-jack:

 

Over a summer in college, I was lucky enough to take a 3 week course that included 1/2 the time on a small boat (~200 pp) cruising the Galapagos. BEST EXPERIENCE EVER!!! I so hope the numbers came out in the positive for you. If not, go FUDGE THEM!!! It was a once in a lifetime experience that I hope you get to have too!

 

I love your logic. Sounds like you had an awesome experience.

[prim8keeper]

Thank you, Tom, for being so polite. I know that you really wanted to say "and they are all many, many, many, many, many, many years older than us."

 

Seriously, again, great review. I can't believe you went to all the trouble to post so many, many, many photos. They are all beautiful.

 

Larry

 

You are only as old as you feel Larry. I would say on a good day I feel about 10. You are up to what, 12 now? :p This is only a small fraction of the 740 something I took. I can't imagine how many I'll take on Eclipse!

 

I didn't really care about going to Bermuda until I read your review. I think this'll be the next cruise that we book. Appreciate all of your hard work.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

If you have sailed the Caribbean and enjoyed that I would recommend a visit to Bermuda. I guess the only complaint, if I had to come up with one, is that Bermuda isn't cheap. However, with some planning and eating on the ship you can easily control the cost.

[Cruise a holic]

Hi everyone! I did a photo review a few years ago of our Equinox Caribbean cruise and thought I would do it once again for our recent Bermuda cruise.

 

We have sailed with X previously three times, all on the S-class (Solstice & Equinox) and all in the Caribbean over the winter out of Ft. Lauderdale. We choose Bermuda because we wanted a quick summer getaway. We booked this cruise aboard our last cruise on Equinox and were able to take advantage of the on board booking promotions (one category upgrade, OBC, low deposit) and the 123Go promo. For the 123Go promo we choose the drink package. :D

 

It was just me and my DH on this cruise. We are the "target" market right now for X (more on that later). I am 31 and my DH is 28.

 

As an FYI - yes I do have all the dailies, the Blu brunch menu and the new Bistro on Five menu. I'll also be happy to answer questions along the way however keep in mind I'm just one person and these are only my opinions/experiences.

 

Thanks for the pictorial. Sailing in a few weeks on the Summit. It appears that Cafe al Baccio, no longer serves small sandwiches. Not that you do not get enough to eat on board. Just a change I guess.

Edited July 14, 2014 by Cruise a holic

[prim8keeper]

Thanks for the pictorial. Sailing in a few weeks on the Summit. It appears that Cafe Baccio, no longer serves small sandwiches. Not that you do not get enough to eat on board. Just a change I guess.

 

That is correct. No more small sandwiches. However, the other things they are offering, such as the cakes, pies, etc. are a lot better than the used to be and they have a bigger variety. I personally feel they have continued to up the buffet food quality (and at least on Summit they had a station where you could get a custom made sandwich. They also had pre-made sandwiches there as well that looked a lot better than what cafe al bacio used to have. I think its a trade off. I'm not a huge buffet person but even I have been impressed with what X offers at the buffet on their ships.

[Cruise a holic]

That is correct. No more small sandwiches. However, the other things they are offering, such as the cakes, pies, etc. are a lot better than the used to be and they have a bigger variety. I personally feel they have continued to up the buffet food quality (and at least on Summit they had a station where you could get a custom made sandwich. They also had pre-made sandwiches there as well that looked a lot better than what cafe al bacio used to have. I think its a trade off. I'm not a huge buffet person but even I have been impressed with what X offers at the buffet on their ships.

 

You also described a special function that you paid for that only 75 guests attended. How much was it pp? I didn't notice in your post. We have enjoyed special functions on RC and hope that this is just as much fun and worthwhile.

[prim8keeper]

You also described a special function that you paid for that only 75 guests attended. How much was it pp? I didn't notice in your post. We have enjoyed special functions on RC and hope that this is just as much fun and worthwhile.

 

It was $39 pp. It was for their new entertainment concept "Indulgence." It is definitely interesting and it's obvious they are trying to work the kinks out, so its a little rough around the edges. However, you can easily get your money's worth in food and beverages if you want too. My only advice is to go really hungry. We ate dinner early and it was still hard to eat anything since it was all very rich. Probably why they call in indulgence. One side benefit to going to this is you'll be able to give feedback and help shape what it may become if it goes fleet wide. If you are a people watcher and have some OBC spend do it here! Its not for everyone, but most people who attended it seemed to be enjoying it.

Edited July 14, 2014 by prim8keeper

[Spf12]

Excellent photos and review.May I ask what camera/lenses did you use?

[prim8keeper]

Excellent photos and review.May I ask what camera/lenses did you use?

 

Thank you! In the final summary I post tonight I'm going to include all my camera info and what I used to process the images. :)

[ILgirl]

Thanks for the great review and pictures! We are leaving for Bermuda on Saturday for a "land based" vacation and your pictures are getting me more excited! I won the trip otherwise my preference would have been to sail on the Summit as you did. Just an FYI, we have been on the Summit in the Caribbean twice. My husband is also not a fan of the orange sauce on the lobster. He was able to get it prepared the traditional way in Blu and served with drawn butter - no problem at all. Thanks again for all of the time you put into your review.

[prim8keeper]

Thanks for the great review and pictures! We are leaving for Bermuda on Saturday for a "land based" vacation and your pictures are getting me more excited! I won the trip otherwise my preference would have been to sail on the Summit as you did. Just an FYI, we have been on the Summit in the Caribbean twice. My husband is also not a fan of the orange sauce on the lobster. He was able to get it prepared the traditional way in Blu and served with drawn butter - no problem at all. Thanks again for all of the time you put into your review.

 

You know, it never crossed my mind to just ask for them to prepare it another way. I guess I'm just not that big of lobster fan.

 

We have talked about doing a land vacation there but it is expensive, as you said. I looked up hotels and just that would cost as much as the cruise if we wanted to stay at one of the nicer ones for a week.

[Spf12]

Thank you! In the final summary I post tonight I'm going to include all my camera info and what I used to process the images. :)

Thank you.I'm looking forward to the info.