Celebrity Summit Southern Caribbean Review 1/10/15

[suwasaba]

We ill be on the same cruise 2/7. This is our first cruise, but I have done my homework in prep for the trip. I loook forward to more information:)

[Deval]

What pier does the Summit dock at? We booked a room at OSJ Sheraton but are thinking maybe Hyatt House if ship docks at Pan American pier.

 

 

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[shell15]

Summit docks at Pan American.

[mahdnc]

Chris, we were on the Jan 4 2015 Eclipse cruise. As you recall, both ships were together at Barbados (Jan 12) and St. Maarten (Jan 15). Here is a photo I took of Summit when Eclipse pulled out of Barbados:

 

Edited January 26, 2015 by mahdnc

[suwasaba]

I believe it is the Pan Am Pier.

[daingean]

Thanks for the review....we board a week from Saturday (Feb 7)....so looking forward

[chrismakris]

I'm back!!! Sorry for the delay. I'm still trying to figure what happened in the Super Bowl. What were my Seahawks thinking? Here are a couple of pictures that my wife took.

 

 

[chrismakris]

So the review continued:

 

Day 3: Barbados

 

So being our first port we decided to get ready for the day by having breakfast in our room. Our butler(who I forgot to mention earlier in this post. Sorry Judas) brought us our breakfast and we enjoyed while looking out of our balcony. We finished breakfast and headed downstairs for our excursion. We picked the Harrison Cave tour. It seems to be a theme with my wife and I that we end up on a tour in a cave.

 

We boarded our bus and took a 25 minute tour before we got to the caves. We got to the caves and joined our tour down into the caves. Very interesting if you enjoy these kind of tours. What surprised me was how the tour was run. We were in a tram on paved roads. I was under the impression that it would be some sort of rail system. While we were on the tour we saw some people coming out for deep inside the caves. It urns out you can do some Spelunking. If I had known that we probably would have done that. Overall, not a disappointment. Oh by the way, Spelunking is $100/pp if that's what you want to do.

 

We got back to the ship and headed upstairs to the pool deck and headed for the pool for a burger and a little sun. We missed a huge rain shower while down in the caves so it was starting to clear up as we got to the ship. Unfortunately it clouded over and started to rain again. We headed back inside and got ready for dinner. We ate, had some drinks at the casino bar and then retired to bed to get ready for our next port.

 

 

Day 4: St. Lucia

 

We didn't really decide on a tour for St. Lucia. It was the only port that we didn't seem to be interested in any of the tours. We ended up deciding to walk into town for the day. As we left the ship we found the that the taxi drivers were the most aggressive out of the whole trip. As we got to the intersection to go to town, my wife stopped, which means only one thing. She's changed her mind. We ended up going the other way toward the airport.

 

We walked along the road up to the other side of the runway. We walked past a hotel and through a cemetery to get to this beach that was almost empty. There were huge waves breaking along the shore. We laid out on the beach and hung out for a couple of hours. After that we walked down to the airport to grab a taxi back. As we walked down there were four little huts that were selling food. I couldn't resist. I ordered some pan fried fish and it was so good.

 

After eating our fish we headed back to the ship and hung out at the pool some more Vitamin D. When we were done we headed back to our room for sail away and started to get ready for our dinner at Normandie.

 

 

Normandie

 

Do it. Spend the money and enjoy the dinner that you will be served here. My wife started off with the salmon and crab parfait and I had the seared pork belly. We then had the tomato and mozzarella salad. Dinner was the Chateaubriand. Carved tableside. Delicious. You could cut the tenderloin with just a fork. We enjoyed a small cheese course after dinner and then had dessert which was a crepe for my wife and a chocolate cake for me. This meal was well worth the $45 per person they were charging. I figure if you went to a high end restaurant to have this dinner you're looking at $300-$400.

[Single_dreamer]

Loved this itinerary. Interesting that Chateaubriand was only available in Normandie. (if I recall correctly). On other cruise lines, it is available in the MDR.

[chrismakris]

I never noticed chateaubriand on the MDR menu. I would find it tough to do it in there though as it was such a production with the carving and the pouting of the sauces.

 

I found it to be a more enjoyable experience at Normandie because we got to talk to and know the waiter while he was preparing it in front of us.

 

 

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[chrismakris]

Day 5: Antigua

 

Day 5 started with a breakfast at the buffet. We booked the Stingray City excursion. This was something we had been planning on doing on our first cruise but because of some miscommunication between the ship and the excursion company 20 people were at the dock waiting for a bus that never showed up.

 

We met up with the bus and took a 25 minute tour of the island finally reaching the destination where we would take our boat to. We went off into 2 different boats and took a short five minute boat ride to where the stingrays are. When we got there I was amazed at how shallow the water was and there was probably half a mile between us and any shoreline.

 

The stingrays were more enjoyable than what we expected. They are very tame. We got to hold and feed them for the 30-45 minutes we were able to interact with them. After our time was up we headed back and caught our bus back to the ship. We got back to the ship and relaxed by the pool. When we were finished we headed back to the room and had dinner in the MDR and drinks at the casino bar when we were done.

 

 

Day 6: Sint Maarten

 

We were really excited for Sint Maarten. This was the only stop where we pre-booked an excursion. I had noticed there was the America's Cup sailing at this stop and we really wanted to make sure we booked this before it sold out. We decided to sleep in this morning as our excursion wasn't until after 10. We had breakfast at the buffet again and then headed out for our excursion.

 

We met up for our excursion and we're divided up into teams, given a small safety briefing and then headed out to our boats. We were picked to be on Stars & Stripes. A little disappointing considering we are Canadian. I had to swallow my Canadian pride cause I really wanted to win. The race took 45 minutes and was a blast. You are asked beforehand if you want to be active in race or not. We chose to be active and were made to be primary grinders. We ended up winning so it made the excursion just a little better.

 

We headed back to the ship where my wife went to the pool and I actually went back into town and explored a little while. Before heading back to the ship the happened to be a guy who was selling these amazing chicken, beef and cheese pies. I actually snuck some back on the boat they were so good.

 

After getting back on the boat I got ready for dinner and we headed to the MDR for another amazing dinner. We finished dinner and headed down to the Future Cruise sales and booked a Mediterrannean cruise for our 10 year anniversary. We then had some drinks at the casino bar(again) and then headed to bed for our last day.

[chrismakris]

Day 7: St. Thomas

 

We opted for a private tour today. We used the same company that we did before a private sail. The company was called Simplicity Charters. These guys are great. They take you on a private sail around St Thomas with snorkelling, lunch and more snorkelling. They take you to places that aren't as crowded.

 

Their website is: http://www.simplicitycharters.com/

 

We stopped off at Christmas Cove which was a real neat place to snorkel. The neat part about the area was that there was a sailboat anchored there that two people converted into a takeout pizza parlor.

 

When we got to the ship we experienced the worst part of cruise. The packing to go home.

 

We packed up our clothes(which was quick) and got ready for dinner, which was in the MDR with some friends of ours that joined us on the cruise. Everything was amazing for dinner that night. After having an after dinner drink with our favorite bartenders we retired for the evening for our trip back home.

[chrismakris]

Day 8: Going Home

 

Disembarking

 

This was a breeze. We just walked off when we were ready. We headed to the luggage area. To everyone who hasn't done this, take the porter service. Yes it's $10, but the fact there is a dedicated line through customs makes this process so much easier.

 

From Revelations Lounge to check-in at the airport: 35 minutes.

 

Flight Home

 

We booked the same flight as the year previous. SJU-JFK-SEA. There was a 3.5 hr layover at JFK where we had dinner. Nothing too exciting about the flights home.

 

Overall Impression

 

Pros

 

Great Ship. Smaller size but even though the ship was almost sold out we never felt crowded.

 

Food was amazing. No bad meals at all

 

Staff. Everyone we dealt with was awesome. Extra kudos to Judas our butler, Muriel our stateroom attendant and Dan and Anatoly in the Casino bar.

 

Stateroom was perfect.

 

Great stops on this itinerary with good excursions

 

Cons

 

Going home.

 

So-so entertainment.

 

 

IF you have any questions please feel free to ask!!!!