funinthesun86 Posted March 25, 2015 #76 Share Posted March 25, 2015 This is "TA" from Cruise_Dancer's report. I just wanted to jump in and thank everyone for the kind comments about his review. In case anyone is wondering, I used a Canon S90 for most of the photos (best point and shoot I've ever owned), and a Fuji XP for the underwater pictures that CD will be getting to soon. Congratulations on your engagement! I wish you many happy years together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jwhite4304 Posted March 26, 2015 #77 Share Posted March 26, 2015 Thanks for the wonderful report and pictures. Congratulations on your engagement and wish both of you the very best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Compass Rose Monica Posted March 26, 2015 #78 Share Posted March 26, 2015 (edited) ... The new Bistro on 5 menu with the entrees and specials is just on the Summit at the moment. According to some of the other threads it will go fleet wide in April and according to others each ship gets it when they go into dry dock Thank you for the information. I will be on the Summit in May. Monica Edited March 26, 2015 by Compass Rose Monica Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiserone Posted March 27, 2015 #79 Share Posted March 27, 2015 What a wonderful review!!! We have been cruising for more than 25 years and we now travel with our grand children too! (not on Celebrity:) Your review was informative and interesting. Not all reviews are. We will be on the Summit in 4 weeks to Bermuda, our second on the Summit. You did not comment on the Captain. Did you have Capt. Demitrios? He is wonderful, funny and a real gentlemen. Congrats on your engagement and we both hope that you enjoy your life together as much as we have over 35 years. Life is good and it seems as if you both are enjoying it! Happy years!! and thanks for the review! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AprilRN Posted March 27, 2015 #80 Share Posted March 27, 2015 CONGRATULATIONS on your engagement! Thanks for your great review! It makes me even more excited to take my first Celebrity cruise in 30 days! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outoftowner Posted March 27, 2015 #81 Share Posted March 27, 2015 Excellent job. Thank you to you and to TA. And congratulations! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midwestchick Posted March 27, 2015 #82 Share Posted March 27, 2015 Thank you so much for taking time to do such a detailed report with all of your wonderful pictures. Sorry for your ordeal with the ship's pictures. Congratulations to you and TA on your engagement. I hope you have many happy, wonderful years together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuvibeJaiy Posted March 27, 2015 #83 Share Posted March 27, 2015 Thank you Cruise_Dancer and TA for sharing your cruise adventure and engagement with us. DH and I sail out on Sat via Summit. It's our first onboard the X, so your pictures and detailed explanations really help level set expectations and calm some of the packing anxiety. I've only sailed Carnival ships, so the more resort casual Nights and not knowing what the entertainment would has been nerve wreaking. Again thanks and Congrats! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser1122 Posted March 27, 2015 #84 Share Posted March 27, 2015 Thanks for this! Do you have any pictures of bar menus? I'm trying to get a feel for what kind of tasty cocktails they have in their arsenal! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthCarolinaBelle Posted March 28, 2015 #85 Share Posted March 28, 2015 Cruise_Dancer, yours is one of the best reviews I've ever read! Summit is our favorite ship, and my husband and I have sailed on her 5 times. TA's pictures are great reminders of our trips, too! Best wishes on your marriage, and I look forward to your next cruise and your review! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CruisinCrow Posted March 28, 2015 #86 Share Posted March 28, 2015 Well, finally the mystery of what night is Top Chef night has been solved. :) Thanks for posting the menus! What a bummer about the pictures, especially coming right at the end of the cruise so it's the last thing you remember. I hope they at least turned out great. Congrats again to you and TA and best wishes for your marriage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruise_Dancer Posted March 28, 2015 Author #87 Share Posted March 28, 2015 Thanks again for all the kind words everyone. I'm glad people enjoyed the report. Thanks for this! Do you have any pictures of bar menus? I'm trying to get a feel for what kind of tasty cocktails they have in their arsenal! We didn't get any pictures of the bar menus. I'd been assuming they were like the menus from the Presimans' trips but they were wildly different. I actually found the menus quite limited and not particularly innovative. There weren't any bars I'd go to to have something suggested to me, but they could make most anything I wanted by name or with a bit of direction. The one exception was the martini bar where I'd really wanted to try a Vesper (I love Lillet blanc but not vodka and I had't wanted to buy a bottle of vodka for home just to try one drink). The Vesper had been on the martini bar menu before according to the Presimans' pictures but it seems they removed it. The one night we went to the martini bar, the first bartender didn't know what I was asking about and didn't speak English well enough to specify, but Kadek, the flair bartender, remembered it and made it for me. He also provided a good recommendation to TA: This was a rainbow martini. Not quite sure what was in it, but TA loved it. And of course, being the flair bartender he also put on quite the show. Still, I'd recommend knowing what you want and ordering by name rather than looking at menus for recommendations. Most of the drinks I saw on the menus were rather uninspired. Well, finally the mystery of what night is Top Chef night has been solved. :) Thanks for posting the menus! What a bummer about the pictures, especially coming right at the end of the cruise so it's the last thing you remember. I hope they at least turned out great. Congrats again to you and TA and best wishes for your marriage. The pictures they took were very good. We were very happy with the quality, and don't object to paying for quality. My anger was purely at customer service and feeling like we were being taken advantage of Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monicajay Posted March 29, 2015 #88 Share Posted March 29, 2015 Thanks again for all the kind words everyone. I'm glad people enjoyed the report. We didn't get any pictures of the bar menus. I'd been assuming they were like the menus from the Presimans' trips but they were wildly different. I actually found the menus quite limited and not particularly innovative. There weren't any bars I'd go to to have something suggested to me, but they could make most anything I wanted by name or with a bit of direction. The one exception was the martini bar where I'd really wanted to try a Vesper (I love Lillet blanc but not vodka and I had't wanted to buy a bottle of vodka for home just to try one drink). The Vesper had been on the martini bar menu before according to the Presimans' pictures but it seems they removed it. The one night we went to the martini bar, the first bartender didn't know what I was asking about and didn't speak English well enough to specify, but Kadek, the flair bartender, remembered it and made it for me. He also provided a good recommendation to TA: This was a rainbow martini. Not quite sure what was in it, but TA loved it. And of course, being the flair bartender he also put on quite the show. Still, I'd recommend knowing what you want and ordering by name rather than looking at menus for recommendations. Most of the drinks I saw on the menus were rather uninspired. The pictures they took were very good. We were very happy with the quality, and don't object to paying for quality. My anger was purely at customer service and feeling like we were being taken advantage of Thanks so much for this Pic. So nice to see Kadek, not only was he the best bartender on the Summit, but the best bartender we have ever had. The girl who was working with him (he was teaching her tricks) was pretty good too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csfedyshyn Posted March 29, 2015 #89 Share Posted March 29, 2015 We are going on the same port intensive cruise on celebrity summit on April 18. I'm interested in going to Qsine (just me and the hubs) and trying to figure out which night is best. I first thought the day we arrive but not sure what time to book it since we set sail about 8pm. I want to go to the two formal nights and top chef night in the MDR. Based off of your cruise which night/time do you think would be best to book it? THANKS!!!!!!!! I can't wait to set sail!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruise_Dancer Posted March 30, 2015 Author #90 Share Posted March 30, 2015 We are going on the same port intensive cruise on celebrity summit on April 18. I'm interested in going to Qsine (just me and the hubs) and trying to figure out which night is best. I first thought the day we arrive but not sure what time to book it since we set sail about 8pm. I want to go to the two formal nights and top chef night in the MDR. Based off of your cruise which night/time do you think would be best to book it? THANKS!!!!!!!! I can't wait to set sail!!!!!!! In my own opinion, I was not impressed by the menu on day 1 (though we'd already booked Normandy that night, so that may be sour grapes on my part), and we weren't as impressed by the meal the last night of the cruise. That said, food is completely subjective; we posted all the menus on page 4 of the thread (link), so take a look and see what night works best for you. In truth, even the less impressive menus were still quite good in our estimation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csfedyshyn Posted March 30, 2015 #91 Share Posted March 30, 2015 In my own opinion, I was not impressed by the menu on day 1 (though we'd already booked Normandy that night, so that may be sour grapes on my part), and we weren't as impressed by the meal the last night of the cruise. That said, food is completely subjective; we posted all the menus on page 4 of the thread (link), so take a look and see what night works best for you. In truth, even the less impressive menus were still quite good in our estimation. When would you recommend having dinner the first night due to the late departure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruise_Dancer Posted March 31, 2015 Author #92 Share Posted March 31, 2015 When would you recommend having dinner the first night due to the late departure IIRC, muster drill was at 7:30, so I would say no earlier than 8:00 unless you want to eat quickly or have an interrupted meal. We had our Normandy dinner at 9:00 PM; I'd have preferred a bit earlier but that was the only reservation left that evening (though the restaurant was actually quite empty when we arrived). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jugalava Posted March 31, 2015 #93 Share Posted March 31, 2015 Thanks for the great review! It gives us the chance to relive the trip. (We were on the same cruise with you!) And interesting that you thought the same thing about the comedian. We LOVED his first show, then went back for the "adult" show. Terrible. Just seemed like something was off. Congrats on the engagement! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cherylroslyn Posted March 31, 2015 #94 Share Posted March 31, 2015 Embarkation Day (continued) We continued to explore the ship, including the Cafe al Bacio, Rendez-Vous Lounge, the Reflections Lounge, the Cosmopolitan Restaurant (main dining room), and Normandie, then headed up to Bistro on 5 for lunch. As I reported in the food section, this was a fantastic meal and was one of the highlights of the trip. After lunch we headed up to the spa/fitness center for a drawing. We didn't win anything but we weren't expecting to. Next we found baggage had already been delivered so we changed into swim suits and headed up to the solarium. After lounging in the hot tubs I read for a bit while TA napped. Eventually we headed back to the cabin to change for the evening. Normandie has a smart-casual dress code but I wanted to look good in pictures so I still put on a sports coat and tie. TA didn't know what was coming (though she suspected for reasons I'll get into later) but still wore a nice blouse and dress pants combination. We grabbed a drink at one of the bars, then headed up to our muster station for muster drill. Finally, it was sail away time. The sail away party was held out on the pool deck. We arrived a few minutes late while there were line dances going on and jumped in immediately to take part in the Cha Cha Slide and then the Cupid Shuffle. The Summit dancers were there and put on a good show with a bit of salsa; it was very easy to tell which ones were the ballroom dancers and which ones were the ballet/jazz/hip hop dancers who'd just learned some ballroom, but all of them were very good. As the party became a bit less structured we were able to do a bit of salsa, cha cha, and merengue, then it was time for our dinner at Normandie. As I said in the food section, the Normandie meal was fantastic. In fact, even just based on the food alone I would count it as one of the best meals of my life (other contenders: Morimoto in Philadelphia, Mohonk Mountain House in New York Hudson Valley, Ruth's Chris in Indianapolis). So having talked about the food, let's talk about the experience. TA and I had been talking about getting married for the past year or so, so this wasn't a complete surprise. Then there's the fact that when I asked her father's blessing he thought I'd already asked her and called her later that day to congratulate her. So this wasn't a complete surprise. The one thing that I thought I could do for her was make sure we got some good pictures. As you may be able to tell from this report, TA loves pictures and I wanted to make sure she had them. I'd e-mailed Celebrity before the trip and after going through a bunch of dead links and bad e-mail addresses, finally managed to get through with someone from the photography company. They wanted nearly as much as our cruise tickets were - and remember, it took us 18 months to save up for this trip - and for us to hire a photographer for an hour for staged photographs. Not only did I not have the money for something like that, it was the exact opposite of what I wanted: a few shots to document the moment as it happens, not an artificial recreation. We went back and forth and... well, I was not happy with the result. Fortunately, one of my other e-mails finally went through to the Normandie maitre'd who replied that whenever someone proposed in the restaurant, if they knew in advance, they always made sure to have one of the ship's photographers on hand and we'd be able to simply purchase the pictures from the onboard shop. Wonderful! I'd checked when we got onboard that everything was still set up. The maitre'd confirmed. I gave them the ring and the plan was that they'd bring the ring out on a covered tray during the cheese course. All I had to do was show up. And show up I did. We had a wonderful meal, at the end of which they brought out a covered dish and revealed an napkin folded into a flower with the ring box in the middle. I got down on my knee and told TA how my life was better and happier with her than it had ever been without her, how I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, and wanted to spend that life making her as happy as she made me. She said yes. The rest of the meal is a bit of a blur. We enjoyed cheese and dessert and tea. The sommelier had provided wine that was part of our beverage package that, well, I don't know it's objective quality but we both enjoyed it and now we could both feel it working. Shortly after dinner we retired for the night. We were well-fed. We were relaxed. And the woman I love had just promised to spend the rest of her life with me. Not a bad day. Your review cracks me up. I love the section about the smoke in the plane and then the section about TA's father calling to cngratulate her........it sounds like my life:) I'm wondering if my dad has another family out there??? lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csfedyshyn Posted March 31, 2015 #95 Share Posted March 31, 2015 One more question... :) ...if wanting to have bistro on 5 for lunch the day of embarkation, do we need to make reservations? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csfedyshyn Posted March 31, 2015 #96 Share Posted March 31, 2015 Does anyone know if there is a post about the dailies? I've been googling and searching in CC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthCarolinaBelle Posted March 31, 2015 #97 Share Posted March 31, 2015 One more question... :) ...if wanting to have bistro on 5 for lunch the day of embarkation, do we need to make reservations? You never need a reservation for Bistro on 5...in fact, we were the only people in there on embarkation day around noon! So nice to see pictures of the wonderful Flair Bartender, Kadek! His wife was working with him the two weeks we were on in February, I think her name was Katarina...she was a real sweetheart. Kadek loves to make up new martinis, so just ask him to create something for you! He made me a different chocolate martini every night. The Martini Bar was our last stop before bed! Tell him Leigh and Coleman said hello! (He probably won't remember us, but it's worth a try!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruise_Dancer Posted March 31, 2015 Author #98 Share Posted March 31, 2015 One more question... :) ...if wanting to have bistro on 5 for lunch the day of embarkation, do we need to make reservations? As NorthCarolinaBelle posted, you don't need reservations for Bo5. Just walk in. I don't think we ever saw more than a four tables occupied, let alone a full restaurant. We have dailies but I don't think we've scanned them; if you've got a question on something in particular I can look it up. Some of TA's work friends did a back-to-back on the Summit last year and saved the dailies on their website: http://www.sjajg.com/travel/cruise2013C/Celebrity%20Summit%20review.htm It's fairly similar as far as I can tell, but we did note they changed a number of activities based on feedback cards during the cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahc78 Posted April 2, 2015 #99 Share Posted April 2, 2015 Great review! Loved all the pictures! Congratulations :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kentucky816 Posted April 3, 2015 #100 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Great review and congratulations!! I was glad you gave your ages and monetary status because you both are what I have been saying that cruise lines and particularly Celebrity wants. They know they need to win over the younger not cruised much crowd. You are young and don't make as much now but someday you will. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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