Just back from Summit . . .

[jode]

Just back from a b2b on Summit . . .happy to answer any questions. I do intend to do a review once I get my thoughts together. Conflicting feelings about Celebrity and want to do a fair review.

[FlorenceItaly]

Jode,

 

I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

 

 

 

 

Marie

[Floating_view]

Never cruised Celebrity, will be on the Summit December 3rd. Looking forward to read what you think of the ship.

[chrisaulbach]

Jode, I enjoy live music. What are your impressions/experience of what the Summit has to offer?

Thanks in advance for your input.

[rushedmom]

Cruising on Summit in January. Can you tell me what venues you liked at night? We are not big on going to production shows so wondering what other options are available.

[rushedmom]

Oh just thought of another question for you... Did you try any of the specialty restaurants? If so which did you like best.

[easyboy]

How was your port visit?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Payd]

Never cruised Celebrity, will be on the Summit December 3rd. Looking forward to read what you think of the ship.

Hi...

Have you joined our roll call?

 

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Forums mobile app

[TeeRick]

Just back from a b2b on Summit . . .happy to answer any questions. I do intend to do a review once I get my thoughts together. Conflicting feelings about Celebrity and want to do a fair review.

 

Were you on the Canada/NE itinerary? We are doing this on Summit next October.

[tybeelucy2]

We're on the Summit 12/10. Is the Oceanview Bar like the Sunset Bar on the S class ships?

[Floating_view]

Hi...

Have you joined our roll call?

 

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Forums mobile app

 

I have joined the roll call and signed up for the connections get together.:)

Really need a vacation, the next 30 days will go too slow.

[txjim09]

Hi, Wife and I will be on our first X cruise in December, looking forward to the Summit! I do have a few questions:

 

1) I would also like to know about live music and other bands/singers appearing throughout the ship

 

2) Did you attend the Taste of Film event? Impressions?

 

3) Did you leave my room clean? I'm pretty particular :)

[jode]

I will try to answer these few questions in between laundry ! Will do a more complete review in a day or so.

 

1. Live entertainment is not what it used to be - mostly "DJ" or canned music by pool. There was a group (3 I believe) who were very good and it seemed that they played around 4pm by the pool and then later on at night. On port days however there was just canned music for most of the time.

 

There was a cello/violinist duo by Cafe Bacio around 5pm and again at 8 pm most nights. Also a newly engaged couple - he played guitar I think and she sang and they were very good - we mostly caught them at Sunset Bar at night.

 

We did enjoy the "dance" music at Revelations Lounge. Also - not sure where but at night they did have a "dance to your own headset" event that a lot of people were talking about in the pool one day. I guess you get your own headset and only you can hear your music and you dance to your music but others don't know what your music is and it sounded like a lot of fun. So you basically have a dance floor with people with their own headsets dancing to their own "beat" !

 

We miss the steel bands of years ago - I know we are dating ourselves ! !

 

 

The ports were mostly good - -St. Thomas however was a surprise as we did not dock at Havensight as we had expected. We have been to St. Thomas many many times and always docked at Havensight and were anticipating the same. But Celebrity docks at Crown Bay dock which has considerably fewer shops right there. To go into town it was $4 pp one way in an open side taxi/mini van - which is a reasonable alternative - but my husband hurt his back the week prior to our leaving and we didn't want to chance a bumpy taxi ride so we just visited the few stores right there. I did manage to spend money so it wasn't a total loss ! !

 

St. Martaan - again we just stayed close to the shopping by the ship - the usual t-shirts, hats - I did get a lovely table runner at a linen store for $10 which seemed very reasonable.

 

St. Croix - again no excursions due to hubby's back - just walked a little and the usual t-shirt/hat purchase and used it as a ship day

 

Martinique - oh dear - I hope I don't offend anyone but it was by far the worst port we have EVER been to. Just awful and I question why it is included - they had about 10 tents right by the ship selling hats, shirts etc. - we decided to walk into town a bit - I had read that being a very French island you can purchase purfume at a discount as well as French beauty products. The walk from the ship to the center was about 10 min - but it was so dirty, broken sidewaks, and very very depressed area. "Town" was not much better. I did go to three "pharmacies" where I had read is the place to get French creams, perfume, etc. but all three were the same - very very little stock - I am talking shelves bare for the most part. They had none of the items I was looking for - which were not that unusual - just some flowery shower gel, moisturizing cream etc. I don't know how the beaches were as we were unable to go to them (again hubby's back) but I didn't hear of anyone raving about them that night at dinner.

 

We did enjoy St. Kitts - nice big open center right by the ship - lots of shopping/eating/casino opportunities.

 

Dominica was also good - I know it is a pretty island and full of falls, pools, etc. which unfortunately we did not do (hubby's back) but we did walk to the Gardens - it was very hot and uphill a bit and once we got there it was more of an open green space than true "gardens". But we enjoyed seeing something other than a crowded center full of t-shirts and hats. There were some interesting trees/shurbs there but very few flowers. Thankfully the walk back was downhill !

 

I did stop in the "indoor market" - most stalls were very similar - and bought some whole nutmeg and vanilla.

 

This was a b2b Caribbean cruise that left from Newark - more of a repositioning for the first week and then sailed from San Juan. Again - San Juan we were not at the close pier to the center but at the one further out.

 

As for leaving "your" room clean (the last poster's comment) - we did leave it clean and had a wonderful cabin steward "Roberto" from Costa Rica. But be aware that the drawers in the closet stick something terrible - you have to yank them open and practically kick them shut for them to close! The Summit is showing her years (as many of us do !). And unfortunately we did have people on either side smoking on their balcony - usually very late at night after we had gone to bed (after midnight) and while their smoke did come into our cabin (our slider was open a few inches for the ocean sound) we were just too tired to protest to guest services. Lesson learned and next time we will not suffer in silence.

 

Hope I have answered these questions. Happy to answer more and do intend a better review of the good and not so good points of this cruise line.

[jode]

Oh just thought of another question for you... Did you try any of the specialty restaurants? If so which did you like best.

 

Forgot to address this in my previous post. We had so much credit we did try Qsine - we are just not used to the fact that people pay a LOT of money for dinner at an alternate restaurant after paying good money for a cuise that includes all meals. But we did try Qsine the first night of our second week. They had a special of 20% off but we mentioned that we were on a b2b and they instantly upped the discount to 50% off. So for $45 for the two of us we ate there. It was very different - you order on a laptop and while there is a lot of food offered the portions are very very small so you can taste a variety of items easily. I did find the offerings a bit confusing at first - for example for one "group" there were six items listed and we wanted the corn souffle - we ordered that but got all six items - which ended up to be fine as they were truly "one bite" items. We had three different souffles paired with three different soups - the soups were served in glass tubes - again very different and a good way to try different tastes. We would never have paid $90 for that experience however which is the "normal" charge for two people.

 

Worth mentioning is the new Sushi on Five - total empty space every night. We saw one couple there - maybe two at the most on every night for two weeks. We were thinking of trying it but I don't like sushi and they had a very few other options of "cooked" seafood and the cost is "per item ordered" and would have been very expensive we thought. We are able to get excellent sushi at home for hubby at a fraction of what they were charging.

 

Hope this helps.

[tartan cruiser]

Regarding docking at Crown Bay vs Havensight. I read where RCL has signed a 10 year contract to dock at Crown Bay. Summit and Silhoutte cruises show Crown Bay on VINOW web site. Looks like CCL and NCL will dock at Havensight. Might be a few exceptions but generally this is the docking pattern from all reports. Contract took effect 10/1/2016 according to the article. Helps in planning excursions.

[txjim09]

Jode, appreciate the information!

[CruiserN1]

Regarding docking at Crown Bay vs Havensight. I read where RCL has signed a 10 year contract to dock at Crown Bay. Summit and Silhoutte cruises show Crown Bay on VINOW web site. Looks like CCL and NCL will dock at Havensight. Might be a few exceptions but generally this is the docking pattern from all reports. Contract took effect 10/1/2016 according to the article. Helps in planning excursions.

 

Good to know as we are cruising Summit in a few weeks. We are planning to go to Coral World on our own. Anyone know how long it will take to get there from Crown Bay? We are scheduled for Sea Trek at 11am.

[Payd]

I have joined the roll call and signed up for the connections get together.:)

Really need a vacation, the next 30 days will go too slow.

 

See you in a month!

[Payd]

I will try to answer these few questions in between laundry ! Will do a more complete review in a day or so.

 

1. Live entertainment is not what it used to be - mostly "DJ" or canned music by pool. There was a group (3 I believe) who were very good and it seemed that they played around 4pm by the pool and then later on at night. On port days however there was just canned music for most of the time.

 

There was a cello/violinist duo by Cafe Bacio around 5pm and again at 8 pm most nights. Also a newly engaged couple - he played guitar I think and she sang and they were very good - we mostly caught them at Sunset Bar at night.

 

We did enjoy the "dance" music at Revelations Lounge. Also - not sure where but at night they did have a "dance to your own headset" event that a lot of people were talking about in the pool one day. I guess you get your own headset and only you can hear your music and you dance to your music but others don't know what your music is and it sounded like a lot of fun. So you basically have a dance floor with people with their own headsets dancing to their own "beat" !

 

We miss the steel bands of years ago - I know we are dating ourselves ! !

 

 

The ports were mostly good - -St. Thomas however was a surprise as we did not dock at Havensight as we had expected. We have been to St. Thomas many many times and always docked at Havensight and were anticipating the same. But Celebrity docks at Crown Bay dock which has considerably fewer shops right there. To go into town it was $4 pp one way in an open side taxi/mini van - which is a reasonable alternative - but my husband hurt his back the week prior to our leaving and we didn't want to chance a bumpy taxi ride so we just visited the few stores right there. I did manage to spend money so it wasn't a total loss ! !

 

St. Martaan - again we just stayed close to the shopping by the ship - the usual t-shirts, hats - I did get a lovely table runner at a linen store for $10 which seemed very reasonable.

 

St. Croix - again no excursions due to hubby's back - just walked a little and the usual t-shirt/hat purchase and used it as a ship day

 

Martinique - oh dear - I hope I don't offend anyone but it was by far the worst port we have EVER been to. Just awful and I question why it is included - they had about 10 tents right by the ship selling hats, shirts etc. - we decided to walk into town a bit - I had read that being a very French island you can purchase purfume at a discount as well as French beauty products. The walk from the ship to the center was about 10 min - but it was so dirty, broken sidewaks, and very very depressed area. "Town" was not much better. I did go to three "pharmacies" where I had read is the place to get French creams, perfume, etc. but all three were the same - very very little stock - I am talking shelves bare for the most part. They had none of the items I was looking for - which were not that unusual - just some flowery shower gel, moisturizing cream etc. I don't know how the beaches were as we were unable to go to them (again hubby's back) but I didn't hear of anyone raving about them that night at dinner.

 

We did enjoy St. Kitts - nice big open center right by the ship - lots of shopping/eating/casino opportunities.

 

Dominica was also good - I know it is a pretty island and full of falls, pools, etc. which unfortunately we did not do (hubby's back) but we did walk to the Gardens - it was very hot and uphill a bit and once we got there it was more of an open green space than true "gardens". But we enjoyed seeing something other than a crowded center full of t-shirts and hats. There were some interesting trees/shurbs there but very few flowers. Thankfully the walk back was downhill !

 

I did stop in the "indoor market" - most stalls were very similar - and bought some whole nutmeg and vanilla.

 

This was a b2b Caribbean cruise that left from Newark - more of a repositioning for the first week and then sailed from San Juan. Again - San Juan we were not at the close pier to the center but at the one further out.

 

As for leaving "your" room clean (the last poster's comment) - we did leave it clean and had a wonderful cabin steward "Roberto" from Costa Rica. But be aware that the drawers in the closet stick something terrible - you have to yank them open and practically kick them shut for them to close! The Summit is showing her years (as many of us do !). And unfortunately we did have people on either side smoking on their balcony - usually very late at night after we had gone to bed (after midnight) and while their smoke did come into our cabin (our slider was open a few inches for the ocean sound) we were just too tired to protest to guest services. Lesson learned and next time we will not suffer in silence.

 

Hope I have answered these questions. Happy to answer more and do intend a better review of the good and not so good points of this cruise line.

 

Thanks for the information you provided. Very helpful!

 

Also appreciate your review of Qsine. I really want to try it, but might wait until our April cruise when we celebrate our 25th.

[ChucktownSteve]

Here's a tip if you're in concierge, aqua class or higher when you embark. Since you board before the other classes, as you pass the specialty restaurant table near the buffet, they'll offer you 30% off the first night. When we did Summit in August, they offered that.

 

I told the staff person that on our previous cruise they offered me 50% off because I was in aqua. He immediately said, I can do that.

 

Try it. What do you have to lose? We did Tuscon. It was worth half price but we agreed we wouldn't do it at full cover.

[jode]

Here's a tip if you're in concierge, aqua class or higher when you embark. Since you board before the other classes, as you pass the specialty restaurant table near the buffet, they'll offer you 30% off the first night. When we did Summit in August, they offered that.

 

I told the staff person that on our previous cruise they offered me 50% off because I was in aqua. He immediately said, I can do that.

 

Try it. What do you have to lose? We did Tuscon. It was worth half price but we agreed we wouldn't do it at full cover.

 

I agree with this post - we were offered a small discount originally . . .when I checked out our table in the MDR I mentioned to the head at the desk that we were thinking of trying Qsine one night and if so do we tell him we will not be using our table, etc. He said he is notified when that happens so we don't have to do anything and did I know which night, etc. I said that we were offered 20% discount and I wanted to check with hubby before committing and he quickly said with a wink - see me before booking and I will give you a very good discount . . . hmmm. As it turned out when we passed by Qsine and decided to book we were given the 50% discount which we took. I definitely felt that they are trying to fill up these specialty restaurants and if you push a little (nicely) they may give you more of a discount that originally thought. I would absolutely try to work out the best discount before booking - - and if you are one on one with the person taking the booking you have a better chance I think because there are not a lot of people behind you listening and then wanting the same perk. I got the impression that they didn't want to lose a possible booking once you showed some interest.

[sheilb4]

Just back from a b2b on Summit . . .happy to answer any questions. I do intend to do a review once I get my thoughts together. Conflicting feelings about Celebrity and want to do a fair review.

 

Hi Jode, I just got off same cruise and have to say I was not overly impressed at all, quite disappointed in several areas unfortunately.....2nd time on Summit in a few months and don't think I will be going back on her......

Not giving up on Celebrity as had Excellent experience on Silhouette earlier this year.... going to stick with newer ships for a while.... 👍

[ChucktownSteve]

Hi Jode, I just got off same cruise and have to say I was not overly impressed at all, quite disappointed in several areas unfortunately.....2nd time on Summit in a few months and don't think I will be going back on her......

Not giving up on Celebrity as had Excellent experience on Silhouette earlier this year.... going to stick with newer ships for a while.... 👍

 

I agree after my second Summit cruise this past August. Did they ever fix the mid-ship elevators? They were also malfunctioning in September 2015 and apparently weren't fixed during their refurb.

[jmfdr]

Were you on the Canada/NE itinerary? We are doing this on Summit next October.

 

We were on the October 2 Canada/NE itinerary this year. Loved the cruise so much we plan to book it again in a couple years. All port were great. Sailing down and back the St. Lawrence waterway was a feast for the eyes with brilliant fall colors and small villages. Quebec City is welcoming and walkable.

 

We were very lucky with the weather, sun and mild temps most days except for running into the remains of hurricane Matthew on the second week. The ship had to slow down to avoid most of the storm so that we did miss Bar Harbor.

 

The Summit was just fine for us. We had read some negative reviews before boarding about how run down it was with poor service. We did not find this to be true. Yes, the ship is older and may have some worn carpet but it was kept clean and in good repair when we were on it. Service in all areas was perfect. We found the food in Blu excellent. The Tuscan Grill was a disappointment----pretentious and unauthentic Italian cuisine. We have enjoyed the Tuscan Grill on other ships, but our meal on the Summit was disappointing.

 

I'm not sure if Captain Kate is still on the Summit, but what a delight. Her daily updates were anticipated by all because of her humor, practical port information and trivia she shared. Preceding our hurricane Matthew day, she presented a tv video with maps and charts to explain our slow down and strategy for avoiding the storm. Captain Kate was very visible around the ship and accessible for greetings and conversation.

 

You will love your Canadian/NE cruise next year!

[TeeRick]

We were on the October 2 Canada/NE itinerary this year. Loved the cruise so much we plan to book it again in a couple years. All port were great. Sailing down and back the St. Lawrence waterway was a feast for the eyes with brilliant fall colors and small villages. Quebec City is welcoming and walkable.

 

We were very lucky with the weather, sun and mild temps most days except for running into the remains of hurricane Matthew on the second week. The ship had to slow down to avoid most of the storm so that we did miss Bar Harbor.

 

The Summit was just fine for us. We had read some negative reviews before boarding about how run down it was with poor service. We did not find this to be true. Yes, the ship is older and may have some worn carpet but it was kept clean and in good repair when we were on it. Service in all areas was perfect. We found the food in Blu excellent. The Tuscan Grill was a disappointment----pretentious and unauthentic Italian cuisine. We have enjoyed the Tuscan Grill on other ships, but our meal on the Summit was disappointing.

 

I'm not sure if Captain Kate is still on the Summit, but what a delight. Her daily updates were anticipated by all because of her humor, practical port information and trivia she shared. Preceding our hurricane Matthew day, she presented a tv video with maps and charts to explain our slow down and strategy for avoiding the storm. Captain Kate was very visible around the ship and accessible for greetings and conversation.

 

You will love your Canadian/NE cruise next year!

 

Thanks Jan we are looking forward to Summit and Captain Kate next October.