Celebrity Summit - February 27-March 4th, Flower Power Cruise

[niborHS]

We just returned from the Summit, although this was a charter by Star Vista because of the theme cruise. We have been sailing with Celebrity since 1996, the first year the Century was sailing the Caribbean, and after 8 cruises with Celebrity, comparing it to all the other lines we have sailed, it was our favorite. Although it's possible that all lines have declined in quality, we definitely felt that Celebrity has, and from what we heard, it was not because of the charter.

 

Check in was a breeze, and although they were not using our Celebrity Elite status for check-in, we did have priority because we were in Concierge Class. When we checked in, the cabin areas were closed off, so we could not drop our carry on bags in the room. We headed for the buffet lunch, which wasn't crowded at all. The ship, upon arrival, seemed to be in decent shape. The buffet had numerous stations, and plenty of offerings. After 5 days however, they became quite repetitive.

 

We were not able to book a Sky Suite, as they were all taken when we booked, and our Concierge Class cabin with veranda was fine, although definitely not as nice as the sky suite. We also could not book aqua class when we first booked, and did not realize that we would not be able to eat in either Luminae or Blu, as they were reserved for suite or aqua class guests. We had a mix up with our reserved table, so ate on deck 4 the first night. The 2nd night our original assigned table was given to someone else, but we were happy with the one we were given. We had an excellent waiter and assistant, and a roomy round table for the 6 of us. The menu is divided into starters and main courses, with much more limited offering than they used to have. However, we found that although there were not 3 categories, we had no problem ordering a salad plus another appetizer or soup. We also learned that they could be extremely accommodating. If we wanted the vegetarian entree with a piece of fish on the side, no problem. One person wanted french fries for each meal, and even though they were not on the menu, that was no problem. A change with dessert was also easily accommodated. The first night, one person snagged a waiter to get a glass of wine, but the waiter did not ask anyone else, which was kind of annoying. After that, we had great service from the sommelier. The 3 men all had the beverage package, the women did not. When they ordered wine, they were charged the small difference between what was covered by their package, and the price. After the 1st night, they didn't charge extra. We tipped the sommelier after the 2nd night, and had even better service after that.

 

As far as cabin service goes, the cabin attendant no longer has an assistant, and although the cabin was kept clean, the attendant was not very pleasant. As mentioned by others, there was some wear and tear in the cabin. Although there initially was an odor in the cabin, it seemed to have abated after the first day. I cannot say the same thing about the restrooms around the ship, and that was where I had the biggest issues. Some of the restrooms had a terrible odor, even when an attendant was in them. They were not crowded, so that was a plus, but the odor did bother me.

 

Because this was a theme cruise, the regular price of $45 applied to the specialty restaurants, and that, to me, is just not worth it, especially when there is a surcharge for the better steaks in the Tuscan Grille. Towards the end of the cruise, they had a hard sell to get people to book the restaurants by offering discounts, but by then we were so happy with our dining room service, we decided not to bother.

 

I can't say too much about the bar service, and there were plenty of servers in the theater and other venues, however the size of the drinks were small. Good thing my husband had the premium drink package. On the day when they had all drinks by the pool at $5, we noticed that they used very cheap vodka for those drinks, while they used better vodka when they charged $7.50. Made no sense really.

 

I'll add more comments later.