Review of Summit Panama Canal Eastbound 14-Night Cruise ~ 10-23-05 thru 11-6-05

[motherchic]

thank you for the two wonderful, long reviews. I will keep an eye out for Lindas. I lurked on your roll call and got allot of ideas for our trip. Hadnt planned to book soooo far in advance ( feb,3,07 ) I called my TA, just to get an idea of price and she had an aft CC cabin available. so...I bit......

Was on the Summit several years ago with Linda and Charlie-have many great memories and pics. So far the Summit has been my favorite ship of all.

Thank you again for taking the time to post.

Any suggestions from what you saw or comments from other travelers on some good tours and must dos or do nots. Have had several back surgeries so- arial rides or snorkeling are a no go ( DARN !! )

Heather- did i remember right ? did you do the aqupuncture ? i may do that on the ship...of course along with the martini tasting ( lol )

Nadine

[cruisinjudy]

Great review Heather, but I have to agree with the poster who didn't like the CC beds on Summit. On Constellation our CC bed was just a not too thick foam rubber pad. HAL's beds are so much nicer. However I have to agree with you on the Oosterdam regular verandah cabins. They are too small or something, the S class is so much better as is the Summit and her sister ships if you have the CC cabin.

[judyfssw]

Heather, I really enjoyed your review. I was on the Summit with Lois and will be doing your cruise one year from February. I now find myself reading anything that has to do with the Panama Canal cruise. Your review just made me want to go tomorrow

Thank you.

[Texed]

Thanks for the reviews. We will be on Summit (third time) to Hawaii for Christmas. Ya'll made us eager to go. :)

[HeatherInFlorida]

Helen, I meant to mention that on every dinner menu there was the following choice: a fish dish (everyone loved the fish), a pasta dish, a chicken dish, a beef dish, and often a veal or lamb dish. The lamb chops were fantastic (if you like lamb which I do). So clearly they fixed this problem. if I recall, it's a brand new Chef for all of Celebrity ... Master Chef Michel Roux.

 

The hamburgers were all being grilled as we watched ... nothing sitting in any liquids I promise you.

 

As to the beds, I'm stymied! I really think they've done something to the beds ... added a topper or something. I do know that the Concierge Class and above have better beds, but all of you (I think) said you were in that category or better. The bed was amazing! So maybe we're just lucky, but we talked to an awful lot of people sleeping on the ship and not one complained about the beds.

 

Judy, I hope they're doing something about the beds on Constellation since we're on her next December! For me, there's nothing worse than a bad bed on a cruise. I will say that our bed on the Millennium in 2003 was absolutely horrid and I went home in agony.

 

Nadine, yes I did the acupuncture and really liked it. What you have to decide is whether to have the martinis before or after;) ... I'd suggest after:)

[Andy]

Hi Heather & Steve !

 

Thanks for 2 excellent reviews. Summit is an incredible ship. I have been on her several times.

 

Heather : Glad to see you met Daniel Ilias, and John Howell. They are both outstanding members of the Celebrity family. I hope I get to sail with them on a future Cruise.

 

Again, thanks for the reviews !

[JRF]

Thanks for the wonderful reviews.

Speak about timing, we just booked Back to Back forr the Summit Panama Canal for November / December 2006.:cool:

Hoping we will have an active CC group as your group did.

[Socal404]

Thank you so much for the great reviews. My wife and I will be on the Summit in February. Our canal cruise will be from Ft. Lauderdale to LA. I want to get the plane ride out of the way first, and enjoy the cruise back home to southern California. We are in an SS suite, too. We can't wait!:)

[makethegrade]

If anyone is interested, I have close to 2000 pix of just about everything on the trip and ship. Let me know what you want (e.g. the Martini tasting) and I try to get it for you.

I posted a link to my pix site on the roll call board. I'll try to post it here to.

[makethegrade]

you're invited to view my photos!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oct 05 Cruise

112 photos

 

Steven says...

We are back from the cruise... here is a sample of the 1473 pictures that we took!

Looking forward to hearing from everyone soon.

 

 

 

New to Snapfish? Get 3 prints free!*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snapfish and the Snapfish logo are trademarks of the Hewlett-Packard Company. All rights reserved.

Snapfish, 303 Second Street, South Tower, Suite 500 San Francisco, CA 94107.

 

 

 

If the 'view my photos' button above does not work, copy and paste the link below into your browser

http://www.snapfish.com/share/p=25971131374928252/l=66501631/cobrandOid=1000131/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

 

*First-time customers only.

[makethegrade]

maybe this works... for the link to my first set of picx

 

http://www.snapfish.com/shareereg/p=25971131374928252/l=66501631/cobrandOid=1000131/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB/t_=0/pns/share/p=25971131374928252/l=66501631/cobrandOid=1000131/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB/t_=0

[cruisintogether]

Heather & Steve - thanks what a great job you both did with the reviews, its like being there again. What a GREAT CC group we had, and John Howell the very best X has to offer, Karl & I miss you all. We had such a great time with you all - we really bonded and as John stated "we all an extended family."

Ginny

[AFT_LOVER]

and we will be AFT CC on Summit LA-FLL. Been 15 months since we booked it & this is the LONGEST week! Snow is due for NE Ohio next week everyday, so we know it is time to get out of town!

 

Notice the review, which were all great & I thank each of you for posting them, all snorkeling was done on tours. We don't want to do that. We hate cattle calls & want to walk to a beach & jump in. No one kicking us in the head either.

 

So can we do this? I would think Acapulco, Aruba & Cabo would have plenty of beach space.

[makethegrade]

Regarding snorkel trips (and shore exc. in general).

 

We have found that the ships tours are generally better overall, and usually more convenien. I do know that there is a difference of opinion on this of course.

 

The thing is that everyone, the ship exc. and the private people all go to the same places (since the best places are well known) so the crowd is going to be there either way. The out of the way place, the snorkeling is more private but not as good. The ships exc. tend have much better amenities (food, snacks, drinks, etc) and are less 'risky'. At the same time, there is always the chance that a local guide will be great. Having just been there... there are no shortage of local freelancers who'll take you out. You just have to walk about 2 cm past the pier gate to find them....

[JNLROSE]

Brenda, there really isn't "good" snorkeling on the Mexican Riviera, certainly not like the Caribbean! Yes, Aruba has GREAT beaches & snorkeling, there are several within easy distance of the pier. I would try the "other side" of Los Arcos/Lover's Beach in Cabo---their beach I think is nice--we didn't snorkel there, so can't tell you for sure! Acapulco might be a place to pass on snorkeling UNLESS you are on a tour. We went to the Princess & have stayed at the Grand Mayan---both beaches are not snorkeler's places! Definitely stay away from thinking of doing any snorkeling in Acapulco Bay!

[JNLROSE]

Heather,

GREAT review---you had the same experience we did aboard Summit last year! :D

[makethegrade]

sorry, meant to add this to the last one.

 

Here's an example. In Huatulco, we did a shorex and the guides were tremendous. They actually swam along with us. Every few minutes they would dive down and pull up all sorts of sealife... sea cucumbers, star fish, an octopus, and an inflated blowfish! He held them so everyone could see them and (if you want to) touch them. He had the octopus stuck on everyones arm... it was neat. It is extremely unlikely that other tours would have had this, and i never would have found them on my own.

But, that's my opinion.

 

One thing I would say, the best snorkelling overall was Aruba... on the pacific side, it wasn't as good in general (although not bad) and got worse as you are more north (e.g. the worst in cabo, the best in huatulco).

[HeatherInFlorida]

Thanks for the wonderful reviews.

Speak about timing, we just booked Back to Back forr the Summit Panama Canal for November / December 2006.:cool:

Hoping we will have an active CC group as your group did.

 

I am dying of jealousy!!! So you're doing the 4 weeks! Awesome! We had several on our cruise who were returning to LA and I just wanted to hide in their cabins:) .

 

I've never come home and missed a cruise experience this much. This one raised the bar so high I don't know how it can be topped.

 

Socal, we agree. Fly to the port and sail back home. I said to DH it's taking 5 1/2 hours to get to CA and 2 weeks to get back home:D .

 

Andy, thanks for the compliment! So nice of you to comment about our reviews. What is good is they are so different in content so it gives a great overall view of the cruise. I "yelled" at Steve for posting his review on "my" thread;) , but it actually worked out well to read everything all together.

 

Rosie, good to see you! I agree about snorkelling (although we were forever spoiled by the Tahitian islands). Caribbean is much better.

 

About beaches and tours ... I've decided that I like going with ship's tours, but if you want to enjoy a beach I think you're better off on your own. We did Orient Beach on St. Maarten on our own and also the wonderful beach in Aruba. Whenever we've done beach tours with the cruiselines, they haven't turned out well. The only time I would vary that is on a "problem" island like Jamaica.

[Arubalisa]

I would think Acapulco, Aruba & Cabo would have plenty of beach space.

For Aruba snorkeling see Arashi Beach experience, June 28

[TechKnowBabble]

you're invited to view my photos!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oct 05 Cruise

112 photos

 

Steven says...

We are back from the cruise... here is a sample of the 1473 pictures that we took!

Looking forward to hearing from everyone soon.

 

 

Excellent EXCELLENT photos Steven, thank you for sharing. A few questions and comments...

 

What was the lemon cocktail for?

 

We will be in cabin 7131, which is approximately midship, which side of the ship I can't recall. Will it matter which side we are on for viewing the locks? I am hoping we can spend the day on our balcony (veranda).

 

I love the clever titling of the photo, More Melons, with peoples heads in the background.

 

I loooooove the sunset shots...breathtaking colors. You must be very proud of those.

 

Thanks again for all the information and beautiful photos!

[QQRZZA]

Heather and Steve -- Really quality reporting. Can't get your level of detail and honesty in the many paperback guide books that are subsidized by the cruise lines. We really love the new bedding on HAL, a quantum improvement for them. In September we were on X's Mercury for a 3 day PAC-NW cruise, balcony cabin, not CC. The mattresses were horrible. Everything else on the cruise (except the art) was first class. The mattresses looked like something out of a prison surplus store. We've booked CC on Summit for 14 nights trans-canal in February 06. Hope your positive observations on Summit's CC mattresses is correct. Am tempted to bring a mattress Nova-Foam topper with us if the X mattresses are like our experence on Mercury. Again, thanks for the superb detail and thoroughness of your work!

[makethegrade]

the lemon cocktail..

ah, the first night, I asked the asst. waiter Don for a lemon for my water... he brought back the lemons as shown, and it was promptly dubbed the lemon cocktail. Sure enough, every night, it was there on the table watiing for us.

[charlielinda]

Heather & Steve -- you've been busy beavers.

I will second their reviews and more descriptions but the crusie was AWESOME, the Summit was AWESOME, the crew and John Howell were AWESOME, new friends were INCREDIBLE.

What a wonderful two weeks!

[HeatherInFlorida]

Hey, BasketLady, what's a "crusie"??? Hehehe;)

 

Hope Steve reads this ... Steve, how was your mattress? I'm getting a lot of comments about the mattresses and I'm wondering if it's only CC and above who get the better bedding.

 

I also know I was told here on the cruise boards that if the bed isn't comfortable you can request a "topper". I'd love some comments from some of our other cruisers about the beds. I know ours was great and I was so relieved, but now I'm concerned about future cruising.

[makethegrade]

Heather & Steve -- you've been busy beavers.

 

I will second their reviews and more descriptions but the crusie was AWESOME, the Summit was AWESOME, the crew and John Howell were AWESOME, new friends were INCREDIBLE.

 

What a wonderful two weeks!

 

Hi Linda.

We miss you!