LIVE! Review from Celebrity Summit - January 6, 2018

[levramosis]

Can't wait to hear about the champagne tasting. That sounds awesome

 

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[oskarNZ]

Thanks so much for taking the time to write this report. I’ve just read the whole report in one sitting and thoroughly enjoyed it. You write in a way that is very easy to read.

[mit429]

Hey everyone - sorry I fell off the face of the Earth, I am still alive and will continue my "live" (aka ~2 weeks behind) review shortly.

 

 

Thanks for reading!

[cltnccruisers]

Hey everyone - sorry I fell off the face of the Earth, I am still alive and will continue my "live" (aka ~2 weeks behind) review shortly.

 

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Need a vacation after your vacation?

[mit429]

Need a vacation after your vacation?

 

100% yes!

LOL ... and yes, I'm quite aware how ridiculous that sounds

[cltnccruisers]

100% yes!

LOL ... and yes, I'm quite aware how ridiculous that sounds

 

Not at all. We're on Silhouette for a week in March then 3 days in St Augustine on the way home. After that 3 more days to do nothing before going back to work - the wind down vacation. :)

[mit429]

When we left off, Chad, Cole, and I had just rushed upstairs to Cellar Masters for our Champagne Tasting. Maggie had mentioned it to us on the first evening, after discovering our affinity (really Chad and Cole’s; I just drink what I’m told) for Champagne. We had never heard of Celebrity offering such an event, and it was at night, rather than during the day, so we decided to go for it. It always drives me crazy that they do the wine seminars during the day, I might go to them if they weren’t right in the middle of the day. The cost was $50, which is definitely a little steep, but there were some good Champagnes and it was a very nice time.

 

We got to Cellar Masters and the event was being held at the large high top table. We were the first to arrive, but eventually there were 10 of us. The Cellar Master, Mauricio, and one of the ship’s sommeliers were pouring the Champagne into the glasses. I thought this was a little odd, as I was under the impression sparkling wines should really be served cold and fresh. I know it’s a bit of a time-saver, but I’d imagine they could’ve done the talking while walking around and pouring to each of us - not a huge deal though. The only other thing that really bothered me was a lack of consistency in the glassware, Chad, Cole, and I were all lucky enough to end up with Riedel flutes, but some people had quite the variety in glassware. As this is a new event, I assume Celebrity just hasn’t properly stocked/planned for it.

 

 

The tasting consisted of a non-vintage GH Mumm, a non-vintage Perrier-Jouet Rose, a 2007 Colin, and a 2008 Perrier-Jouet Belle Époque. Mauricio also led us through a little history of Champagne as a region and as a product. Most of it was fairly entry-level and if you’ve done a tour at a winery specializing in sparklingly wines, you probably heard everything. That said, he was very engaging and there were some interesting tidbits I wasn’t aware of. Everyone had a really good time, Mauricio was a great host and obviously was very knowledgeable. At the end the conversation went in the direction of Cava and Mauricio offered to bring out a special bottle of Cava if we agreed to meet him tomorrow night at 10pm. (We we’re unable to, but I hope others went - Mauricio sounded very passionate about it)

 

 

As for me, I liked the Mumm and the 2008 PJ the best. The Colin was so oaky I could barely drink it, and the rose was a little sweet for my tastes. But, as Mauricio said, Champagne is what your palette tells it to be, there’s no “perfect” Champagne that everyone agrees on. (Though I don’t know if anyone could dislike Tattinger, but that’s just me :P)

 

After the champagne tasting we went off to meet Mike and Jeff in the casino. We hung around there for a bit, then went up to Revelations. It was a fairly wild night up there, almost too crazy. Like it was a partyyyyyyy and not really my favorite music. We got some drinks from Marlon, went back and gambled a bit more, then called it a night. I feel like the casino was closing super early on this sailing. Maybe due to lack of sea days people weren’t staying up til all hours gambling, who knows.

 

On that note, this is the perfect example as to why this should’ve been a live review, I can barely remember how the night went after the Champagne tasting.

 

 

 

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[mit429]

Day 6: St. Thomas

 

OUR LAST DAY :(((((

 

As I had previously mentioned, when we decided to go to the Park Hyatt in St. Kitts, we decided we wouldn’t get off the ship in St. Thomas, to save money. So... we had a very relaxing day. Mike and Jeff had booked a couples massage for that morning (aka noon), and the rest of us slept in LATE! When I got up I made my way up to the Oceanview and had a nice lunch outside in the sun. I was really surprised as to how much of the destruction from the hurricanes you could still see in St. Thomas. I had a Turkey Panini and a slice of pizza, I know - it was indulgent, but I can’t resist the bacon and bleu cheese pizza. I also had an amazing pina colada, which seemed to be the drink of choice for this trip, and ran into Maggie, who was working as a server for lunch.

 

 

 

 

 

We were docked at Crown Bay, I was amazed as to how much destruction from the hurricanes could still be seen. We were docked next to a boat that looked like a former cruise ship, that was still maybe being used as a cruise ship. I couldn’t quite figure it out, and my internet problems didn’t help. Thankfully Chad eventually discovered it was being leased by FEMA to house relief workers and national guard personnel assisting with the hurricane recovery - what a great use for it!

 

 

When I woke up, I noticed the WiFi was being extremely slow and spotty. Cole and Mike said they were also having issues, but it didn’t sound as bad as mine. Throughout the morning and afternoon, my WiFi was just not working, maybe a minute here and there. I had honestly planned on getting caught up to *LIVE* during the day, but that was thwarted by Xcelerate High Speed WiFi.

 

Eventually, after everyone else said theres was working and I restarted my phone twenty times, I decided to reset my network settings. I didn’t want to do that because then you lose all known WiFi networks and passwords, but ... gotta do what you gotta do. Anyway, that worked and fixed the problem, IDK why, but whatever. By that point I had wasted most of the day not writing, which kind of was a bummer.

 

After lunch, I sat in the Solarium reading and was eventually joined by Chad, Cole, and Mike. Mike and I went in the thalassotherapy pool for a bit, then an outdoor hot tub, and I even made it in an outdoor pool for a second (had to check that box). We stayed up at the pool until about 345 or so, then I went to shower and change before tea!

 

I’m going to have to backtrack a bit here ... you’ll remember our power issue on the first day, and how we met the suites manager, Maya, due to that. We saw Maya almost every day we were aboard and she was always super friendly, at one point she stopped us and told us she’d love to do something extra special for us due to the trouble we encountered. She specifically mentioned an in-room sail-away party and that she could make sure it was definitely more special than the usual sail-away, with some extra food and/or alcohol. We all thought that was extremely nice of her to offer, because we really didn’t expect anything. A few days ago we had decided we should do it on the last day and made plans to invite some of our friends we had made during the sailing. We mentioned it to Anastasia and got it all set up for St. Thomas evening.

 

For those of you unaware (though if you’re on CruiseCritic, you’re likely aware), one of the more unofficial perks of sailing in a suite is that your Butler can organize a sail-away party for you. Generally that means the butler will bring a fruit and cheese platter and maybe some water or non-alcoholic beverages. Obviously you’re welcome to order more food or alcohol, but that comes with a price.

 

Back to our day ... we all met in Michael’s and enjoyed our last tea together. Additionally, we were able to confirm with Anastasia that we were all set for the party at 4:45pm - so excited!

 

 

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[Keith1010]

Really enjoyed this thread.

Keith

[mit429]

After tea we headed up to our stateroom and discovered the amazing spread that Maya, Anastasia, Pavel, and the rest of the suites team put out for us! We had told them we’d probably have 8-10 people stopping by, you could’ve easily fed 20-30 with the amount of food they brought - it was so nice! While the food spread was amazing, one or two of our other requests seemed to get lost.

 

We may come across as a tad snobbish, but we know what we like and what we don’t like! We knew going into the planning of this party that we might have to pay for some of the things we wanted, but it never hurts to ask. One thing I’ve always noticed on ships is that staff is very quick to tell you yes for things they’re likely incapable of providing. Personally, I’d rather be told no, and be able to work from there - but I know a lot of people don’t like “no.” Our two requests were that we have the Champagne flutes from

Luminae and that if we are provided with alcohol, that it be any sparklingly wine that isn’t Celebrity Vintages - preferably Chandon or Montaudon.

 

A quick side note on Montaudon that I neglected to mention on the first day. When we sat down for lunch on the first day, Chad and Cole noted that it was on the menu by the glass within the Premium Beverage Package. This was a treat (and a change) as any of the times we’ve been on Celebrity, there has not been a proper Champagne within the package. They were delighted (I stuck with Chandon, which I enjoyed a bit more) and Ilya always made sure that there were bottles available in Michael’s Club for them.

 

Back to the sail-away, with both those requests, we were told “yes, of course, no problem!” Everything showed up and there were several bottles of Celebrity Vintages and the regular cheap champagne flutes you find everywhere on the ship. Those flutes are fine if you’re ordering a glass of Vintages in Revelations at 2am, but in all honestly, they’re kind of low quality. They remind me of a glass you’d get at any bar or club, or free at a cocktail reception. Here are the two glasses side-by-side, which really helps to illustrate our point.

 

 

 

Instead of calling Anastasia, Chad went down to Michael’s Club to try to grab a bottle from Ilya. And Cole informed Pavel of our request for the glassware and he said he would see what he could do. I thought there was no way that we’d ever get the glasses, as Luminae is very strict about their glassware, but I was quite let down about the sparkling wine. We would’ve gladly paid for the Chandon had it been explained to ya upfront that it was not possible to provide it. Well, low and behold, Pavel walked in a bit later as if he had just robbed a bank, and had 12 Luminae flutes on a tray (more on this later). When I say how much I loved Pavel, I’m not exaggerating, he was an amazing employee and a great steward of the Celebrity brand. Chad was also successful, he came back with a bottle of Montaudon from Ilya and also informed us that 2 bottles of Chandon were on their way.

 

Yay, party time!

 

 

 

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[trucker den]

Holy Crow!! Thats a great spread!!

[Silkroad]

Great review. Thanks so much for making the time for it. Lovely photos too. And that spread is making me hungry:)

 

BTW Taittinger yes yes yes:D Or Veuve Clicquot :D

[mit429]

I'm about to start another review, so realize I need to finish this one first ... and I left off at the best part! 

 

More to come - stay tuned!

[mit429]

Our sail-away ended up being the 5 of us, a couple from Ohio we had met at the LGBT Happy Hour, and 2 couples from Wales that we had sat next to at dinner almost every night. In case you are wondering, I’d say 11-12 is probably the maximum that can fit comfortably on a Celebrity Suite balcony - so it worked out perfectly. We could not have asked for a more perfect day, it was 100% the best sail-away we had had the entire cruise, and we were situated on the best side! It worked out so amazingly, we were all quite happy.

We all had a fabulous time, spending most of it out on the balcony until the sun went down. The pictures really don’t do it justice, it was really great. We ended up having more than enough food, as you’ve probably guessed, and just enough sparkling wine and Champagne.

I’m sure those of you following along are aware that Captain Kate is somewhat instagram-famous. If you don’t you can check her out at, @captainkatemccue. I’d link you, but you know the rules . We had been following along with her throughout the sailing, and would comment on things - like “oh we saw that too!, etc.” Well, the afternoon of our sail- away, Jeff commented that he knew she was busy steering the ship away, but we were having a sail-away party in our room and she should stop-by. By this point, for better or worse, she knew who we were - aka those obnoxious Millennials who won’t stop talking to me - haha.

Well, sometime before sunset, Captain Kate commented back - “of course! What room?!” We all laughed and thought Jeff was completely making it up, we’ll sure enough about 20 minutes later there is a knock at the door. I kid you not when I tell you that I was speechless - I honestly had no idea what to say. Captain Kate was at our door with a bottle of Champagne in her hand! She came right in, and I think everyone was just as surprised to see her as I was. She immediately pointed out that we had a bottle of Fre sparkling “wine” (non-alcoholic) and told us that’s what she drinks aboard, if necessary. We poured her a glass of the Fre, chatted for a bit, and took some pictures. It was amazing, as I type this I’m still getting goosebumps thinking about it. A bit after she arrived, Pavel showed up with a lovely tray with two glasses of ice, both with limes, and a can each of club soda and ginger ale - clearly he had been notified!

Captain Kate asked us how we were enjoying ourselves, we of course went on and on about the amazing staff on the Summit (which is 100% true) and we chatted a bit about our time at the Park Hyatt. This was the first cruise for the 2 Welsh couples, so they we’re really impressed and shocked - haha! She mentioned that on New Year’s Eve she had been walking along our deck and someone was coming out of our room and invited her in to celebrate a bit before midnight - so clearly our room was the party suite. I suggested to her that perhaps we write Lisa Lutoff-Perlo **** and suggest that this particular Celebrity Suite be named in honor of Captain Kate, now she she’s leaving the ship. They could even hang her picture. (I think she thought I was insane, which I sort of am!)

Captain Kate also took the time to specifically mention this review, and call out a few specific things. I’m still not sure how she found it, but it shows that the staff of the ship really is listening when we write these things - so be HONEST and positive! (I suppose if I was running a ship, I’d be following along with live reviews as well.) After she said that she had read the live review, I basically lost all ability to create full sentences. We took some pictures — I still can not believe the Captain was in our stateroom, what?! Maya showed up after about 15 minutes to escort Captain Kate out. We were sure to point out to Captain Kate what an amazing job Maya and her team had done from the second we walked on the ship.

 

IMG_2851.HEIC

IMG_2845.HEIC

 

[mit429]

This is the last I had written down, and in all honesty, I forgot everything else I was going to say. 

 

I'm sorry for not finishing this review and I promise that I'll do better next time 🙂 

[mit429]