LIVE from Summit - 1/5/19 - 12nt Lesser Antilles Caribbean - Penthouse

[MarLieb]

Thank you so much for posting your review!  I am enjoying following along.  We were just on the Summit over Christmas in a RS and had a great time.  We also used The Limo People for all of our transfers and they were FANTASTIC!  Enjoy your cruise!

[montgomeryfamily]

Thank you for your review!  We had Chip last year on our Bermuda sailing and he was absolutely fantastic!  We actually just booked and have booked the same SS as last year in the hopes that he would be our butler this year too.  However, we are in an accessible SS which is on the 9th deck.  I realize that it is possible for a butler to have cabins on more than one deck.  Would you mind checking with Chip to see if he has any of the accessible SS (Deck 8 and 9 is the location for these)?

[WonderMan3]

Just to finish off Saturday’s events...

 

After dinner at Luminae we headed back to our cabin in order to enjoy sailaway from San Juan which was at 8:30pm. It’s so rare that we’ve experienced a night sailaway so it was nice especially out on that large balcony. Our room attendant was just finishing up turndown when we arrived to the room. He was adding the extra layer of cushioning to Tina’s pull out bed. She sat on it and it seemed comfortable to her. Chip arrived and advised that he had refreshed our refrigerator with all the requests we had made which was great.

 

After sailaway, four of us headed down to the casino while Tina decided to turn in for the night. Mike and I collected our Blue Chip free play and we all played for a couple hours but did not have much luck. The casino host Alex came and found both Mike and I so he could introduce himself and make sure we had collected our free play. This was another positive as our past three Celebrity cruises the hosts never introduced themselves to us until the final few days of the cruise. 

[WonderMan3]

Here is today’s Daily.

[WonderMan3]

We woke today around 7:30am with an order from room service scheduled to arrive at 8am. Mike and I slept pretty okay but felt that our mattress was a bit on the firm side. Tina had the  opposite problem with her having a poor night’s sleep due to the pull out sofa being too soft for her. When Chip came by to drop off our breakfast we explained the bedding issues and he said he’d work with the room attendant to update both beds for tonight. We had a lovely breakfast out on our balcony with views out to the ocean while we docked in St. Croix. Our breakfast order was mostly complete but they missed one of our bacon orders and the Eggs Benedict that both Tina and I ordered were missing the potatoes that were described on the room service menu. The food tasted good though. After breakfast, Tina and I changed into our bathing suits in order to go to the pool while Mike planned to stay in the cabin in order to unpack. When I came out from changing I saw that a rain shower had just passed and gave us a pretty rainbow off our balcony.

[WonderMan3]

Tina and I arrived at the pool around 10am. We had decided to stay onboard today as Mike and I had visited St. Croix last year and weren’t overly impressed and there were no tours I was interested in. Tina just wanted to spend her first full cruise day relaxing. John and Cindy booked an excursion to do snorkeling at Buck Island. At 10am we find the pool area uncrowded with plenty of loungers available including many in shade. We grabbed a couple of those and relaxed for awhile, taking a dip in both of the two pools at different points. They were refreshing and the larger pool was bigger and deeper than I expected. Cocktail service was pretty scarce when we first arrived so we had to go over to the pool bar for our first couple of drinks. Mike joined us around 11. We had a few annoyances during our pool time. First was that we found it difficult to get one of our favorite drinks made, a French Caribbean. The bartenders at the pool bar didn’t seem familiar with it even though it was something we had no issue ordering on our recent Edge cruise. Annoyance number two was the gruff service at the Mast Grill where we grabbed hot dogs and burgers for lunch; the food was great though and my double cheeseburger was tasty! Annoyance number three was the noise level around the pool. The music was playing at levels that were too loud. Now they were playing dance pop music which I love and was enjoying but I still think it was at a volume that was not appropriate. At around 2pm a live band started playing and was even louder so that’s when we left.

 

Our final poolside annoyance was an interaction with two different staff members. The three of us had ordered cocktails from a drink server who was passing by. We each gave him our seapasses and he walked away. He came back a short time later and said that Tina would be charged for her drink because she didn’t have a drink package. She was confused by this and said she did have a package. He pointed to her card and said it didn’t have the PALL code that prints on the seapass for the Premium Beverage Package. We looked at it and saw that was true but told him that she had been ordering drinks since she boarded and did indeed have a Premium Package. He started arguing and I explained to him that she did not have a drink plan through Go Best or some other promotion but through being an occupant of the Penthouse. He didn’t seem to understand what I was saying. I then pointed out to him that we had just been at the pool bar within the past hour and she had ordered a drink with no issue and that he should check with the bartenders at the pool bar or with his supervisor. He left again and returned a short time later with only drinks for Mike and I. He said he had talked to the bartenders and reiterated that Tina did not have a package and said he would only take the order if she agreed to pay for the drink. I was irritated at this point and asked to speak to a manager. Tina decided to just pay for the drink and we would sort out the charge later. He got her drink and she signed the receipt and he said a manager would stop by which happened about 5 minutes later. Didn’t catch the staff member’s name but he was some F&B operations manager. As with the server he was very argumentative and defensive. When I told him that Tina had no issues for an entire day and had been ordering drinks all over the ship he dismissed that and said that it doesn’t matter if we ordered a drink in Michael’s Club as Suite guests don’t need a beverage plan to get a free drink there. I told him I wasn’t talking about Michael’s and referenced the pool bar where she had ordered a drink an hour before with no problem. His reply was that employee was “more experienced” and “knew what to do” so she wouldn’t be charged. This answer made no sense to me. If some employees are able to see in the system that a guest is in a Penthouse and has a free beverage package regardless of what is printed on the seapass then why do all employees not have this information? When I asked him this he ignored my question and just kept going back to what was missing on the sea pass and saying over and over that the server was “only doing his job”. I advised him that if there was an error on the seapass then it was an error on their part not ours. He took the seapass and said he would have it fixed. He went to guest relations I assume and had a new pass issued for Tina and had the drink charge removed from her account. It was a totally unnecessary confrontation and the first time I’d ever had an issue like this with a Celebrity staff member. The proper response from the server should have been “I am not seeing a Premium Drink Package Code on your card but since you say you are staying in a Penthouse and do have a drink package included in your room you should visit guest services or the Concierge to have this fixed on your seapass.”  

[WonderMan3]

5 hours ago, wrk2cruise said:

Interesting to see the differences in the  Captains Club cocktail hour.  On another thread this week the letter stated unlimited drinks in the sky lounge.  This letter specifically states only the 3 drinks on your card and NOT in the MDR, lounges only.

 

Corporate really needs to get a handle on this and get all the ships consistent.

 

I think it depends on how many Elites are on any given cruise. If it’s under a certain number then I think the drinks are in Sky Lounge.

[WonderMan3]

15 hours ago, danalea1980 said:

Wow, what a beautiful room. Can you tell me around how much you paid for the week? I am curious with the new refurb what the price difference will be.

Love the review, we will be on the summit in April after the refurb!

 

Our original price was $10,249pp plus $1299 for the third person. We didn’t actually pay that amount though due to discounts through the casino.

[aquidneck1]

Your posts are wonderful.  We are following you to board the Summit on the 17th.   Since we will be eating in Luminae and have just had a call from the concierge about dining times, I am wondering how your doing with the waitstaff.  We hope to have a waiter with some experience with recommendations etc.  Also interested in the wine service as we have struggled with that in the past.  Thanks so much for taking the time.  

[lola2013]

Looking forward to another of your reviews.  I was looking forward to a Bermuda cruise on Summit in 2020; but the itineraries have changed so I won't be sailing on her after all.  But I still enjoy your comments and pictures.

Susan

[mocruzer]

Enjoying your review and pictures.  Disappointing about your service issues though.     

[LisaLeone]

Hi Adam, I'm enjoying your review. My mother, sister and I were on the Independence Day Cruise. While on it, I won this bear whom I promptly named Charles because I think it looks a lot like him! We are schedule to be on the Summit again is 2020...excited for Charleston and looking forward to seeing all the updates.

 

Thanks for taking the time to write your reviews....I always enjoy following along!

[MarLieb]

13 hours ago, WonderMan3 said:

Tina and I arrived at the pool around 10am. We had decided to stay onboard today as Mike and I had visited St. Croix last year and weren’t overly impressed and there were no tours I was interested in. Tina just wanted to spend her first full cruise day relaxing. John and Cindy booked an excursion to do snorkeling at Buck Island. At 10am we find the pool area uncrowded with plenty of loungers available including many in shade. We grabbed a couple of those and relaxed for awhile, taking a dip in both of the two pools at different points. They were refreshing and the larger pool was bigger and deeper than I expected. Cocktail service was pretty scarce when we first arrived so we had to go over to the pool bar for our first couple of drinks. Mike joined us around 11. We had a few annoyances during our pool time. First was that we found it difficult to get one of our favorite drinks made, a French Caribbean. The bartenders at the pool bar didn’t seem familiar with it even though it was something we had no issue ordering on our recent Edge cruise. Annoyance number two was the gruff service at the Mast Grill where we grabbed hot dogs and burgers for lunch; the food was great though and my double cheeseburger was tasty! Annoyance number three was the noise level around the pool. The music was playing at levels that were too loud. Now they were playing dance pop music which I love and was enjoying but I still think it was at a volume that was not appropriate. At around 2pm a live band started playing and was even louder so that’s when we left.

 

Our final poolside annoyance was an interaction with two different staff members. The three of us had ordered cocktails from a drink server who was passing by. We each gave him our seapasses and he walked away. He came back a short time later and said that Tina would be charged for her drink because she didn’t have a drink package. She was confused by this and said she did have a package. He pointed to her card and said it didn’t have the PALL code that prints on the seapass for the Premium Beverage Package. We looked at it and saw that was true but told him that she had been ordering drinks since she boarded and did indeed have a Premium Package. He started arguing and I explained to him that she did not have a drink plan through Go Best or some other promotion but through being an occupant of the Penthouse. He didn’t seem to understand what I was saying. I then pointed out to him that we had just been at the pool bar within the past hour and she had ordered a drink with no issue and that he should check with the bartenders at the pool bar or with his supervisor. He left again and returned a short time later with only drinks for Mike and I. He said he had talked to the bartenders and reiterated that Tina did not have a package and said he would only take the order if she agreed to pay for the drink. I was irritated at this point and asked to speak to a manager. Tina decided to just pay for the drink and we would sort out the charge later. He got her drink and she signed the receipt and he said a manager would stop by which happened about 5 minutes later. Didn’t catch the staff member’s name but he was some F&B operations manager. As with the server he was very argumentative and defensive. When I told him that Tina had no issues for an entire day and had been ordering drinks all over the ship he dismissed that and said that it doesn’t matter if we ordered a drink in Michael’s Club as Suite guests don’t need a beverage plan to get a free drink there. I told him I wasn’t talking about Michael’s and referenced the pool bar where she had ordered a drink an hour before with no problem. His reply was that employee was “more experienced” and “knew what to do” so she wouldn’t be charged. This answer made no sense to me. If some employees are able to see in the system that a guest is in a Penthouse and has a free beverage package regardless of what is printed on the seapass then why do all employees not have this information? When I asked him this he ignored my question and just kept going back to what was missing on the sea pass and saying over and over that the server was “only doing his job”. I advised him that if there was an error on the seapass then it was an error on their part not ours. He took the seapass and said he would have it fixed. He went to guest relations I assume and had a new pass issued for Tina and had the drink charge removed from her account. It was a totally unnecessary confrontation and the first time I’d ever had an issue like this with a Celebrity staff member. The proper response from the server should have been “I am not seeing a Premium Drink Package Code on your card but since you say you are staying in a Penthouse and do have a drink package included in your room you should visit guest services or the Concierge to have this fixed on your seapass.”  

Oh my gosh, yes, the pool music is too loud!  We had the same reaction on the Summit just a few weeks ago.  I actually didn't like the music selection either.  I remember sitting in Luminae saying I wish they used the Luminae music for the pool - it was quieter, more relaxing.  I feel like most people in the pool and on the pool deck are there to relax not have a dance party?  I should have mentioned this in my guest survey.

 

I'm so sorry you had that experience regarding your beverage package, but I'm not surprised.  We had an RS suite booked over Christmas with the connecting CS for our 11-year old.  When I booked the configuration, I was told my two phone representatives that my son would still get the suite perks as he was a minor occupying a stateroom connected to the RS.  When we boarded, there was so much confusion regarding charging him for Luminae, beverages, specialty dining, etc.  Pavel worked it out by our second afternoon because he had e-mailed shoreside to get confirmation, but I was really dismayed the first two days thinking what I had been told and confirmed on the phone was incorrect.  My thought was this should have been communicated prior to our sailing so I wouldn't have had to go through the hassle and constantly explain the policy as it had been relayed to me.  In your case, you would think they would have seen your sister's suite number when ringing up the beverage and would know that's a PH?  Or, the manager could have apologized to you and offered to fix her card so there wouldn't be persistent issues.  I hope things go smoother from here on out.

[Julie Jean]

Great live review - 6148 on M Class ships is our favourite. Our kids hid secret messages in this PH last year....!

have a great cruise.

 

Julie Jean

[WonderMan3]

Continuing with Sunday’s updates...

 

Mike, Tina and I left the pool area around 2pm as Mike and I had spa appointments at 3pm to get ready for. We showered and arrived at the spa a little before 3. We both had reserved hot stone massages. Mike had a messeuse named Lydia who he said gave him one of the best massages he ever had. I was not so lucky. My masseuse, whose name I cannot recall, was not talkative at all. She read the consultation form I had filled out but did not ask me any questions in order to prepare for the treatment like they normally do. The treatment room was uncomfortably hot so I had to ask her to turn the temperature down a bit. There was no chill out background music playing in the room like I am normally used to. As the massage began she was doing a standard massage with her hands and without the stones. After several minutes I asked her if I was still getting a hot stone massage. She said yes and then suddenly switched over to using the stones. Not too long after my face started feeling uncomfortable and she had to come over and fix the towel around the head rest as it had not been placed correctly and was pressing into my face. Later one of the hot stones she had placed in my hand and went clanging to the floor. The massage itself was mediocre. It seemed like every time she was getting into a groove with a muscle she would leave it and move elsewhere. And some of the areas I asked her to focus on in my treatment form were barely touched like my calves. When the massage finished I sat up and my elbow was in pain. She noticed me rubbing it and asked if it hurt and I said yes but she offered no solution to that problem. One of the few positives of this experience was that since she was so limited on interacting with me she did not even bother with trying to sell me in products. When she brought the bill for me to sign I asked her if there was an in-port price since we were docked in St. Croix at the moment, but she said the no longer did the reduced in-port pricing. I did advise her that I was Elite Plus and that there should be a 15% discount for that so she made the adjustment. It was very awkward on the way out as I met up with Mike who was with his masseuse Lydia at the reception desk. He was raving about her services and asked to have her again for his next massage on the sea day. The receptionist then turned to me (while my masseuse was sitting there) and asked if I wanted the same masseuse but I had to be honest and just said I preferred to switch it up. Overall this was probably my worst massage experience on any cruise. Mike and I had to laugh about it a bit though as it never fails that we both cannot have a great massage at the same time. When his is good mine is not and vice versa. The laughing stopped for me though when at dinner time my shoulder area on the right side started throbbing in pain, so much so that I had to leave dinner briefly and go back to the room to take a Tylenol. The pain went away after a couple hours but then returned again today. My muscles are actually worse off and more tense than they were before the massage.

 

After the massages we headed back to the cabin for sailaway. There was a lovely spread of items for us to snack on that Chip had delivered. Enjoying this out on the balcony as the ship pulled away made up a bit for the lousy massage.

[PhoenixCruiser]

Those snacks look really good!

 

Can you see if Valet Luggage is offered on the Summit out of San Juan?

[Bimmer09]

Adam, as always, a great read. Thanks for the generous use of your excellent photos to propel the narrative along. 

That pool drinks issue must have been a buzz-kill. Sounds like they wanted to say NO rather than YES which runs contrary to providing good service.

Hopefully the last bump in the road.

Cheers!

Norris

[hcat]

 

Sorry some of the staff are not very willing  to please..some retraining  may be needed.

 

Curious if John and Cindy liked the Buck Island snorkel excursion...We took that awhile ago...Long  bus ride and rough water conditions.  Hope water was calmer for them and they enjoyed it.

 

Overall St Croix for us was a one and done..we would also stay on board  in that port,

[WonderMan3]

8 minutes ago, hcat said:

 

Sorry some of the staff are not very willing  to please..some retraining  may be needed.

 

Curious if John and Cindy liked the Buck Island snorkel excursion...We took that awhile ago...Long  bus ride and rough water conditions.  Hope water was calmer for them and they enjoyed it.

 

Overall St Croix for us was a one and done..we would also stay on board  in that port,

 

You summed up that excursion exactly as Cindy described it. It was too rough for her and she went back to the boat pretty quickly. John said he stayed in though and saw lots of fish and coral.

[hcat]

11 minutes ago, WonderMan3 said:

 

You summed up that excursion exactly as Cindy described it. It was too rough for her and she went back to the boat pretty quickly. John said he stayed in though and saw lots of fish and coral.

Water was rough  and the snorkel trail very narrow.. I drifted into coral...dh came to my rescue but was scratched too...learned about his allergy the hard way.. Crew on board took good care of him but rash lingered sev weeks.

 

Much prefer Trunk Bay, St Thomas

 

Hope they have more fun at the next port!

[WonderMan3]

Finishing up from Sunday...

 

Cindy and John joined us towards the end of  sailaway. We were surprised to see them as they were invited to go to a helipad sail away. They said they skipped it and figured they would tag along on the one we were invited to for Monday in St. Maarten if they were allowed. Once sailaway finished, we dressed for dinner and headed down to the Martini Bar for some cocktails first. We ate dinner at Luminae again. Unlike our first night, tonight was very busy, perhaps because it was evening chic night. There were several couples waiting for tables when we arrived. The maitre’d Charles seemed in a frenzy and a bit annoyed at us. He had called us around 6:30 in the cabin wondering if we were coming as they were holding a table for us. We had explained the day before that we would eat at 6pm the first night but then at 7pm every night after. While we said we wanted to have Fauzi as our waiter and preferred the table we had the first night in the corner, we understood if they could not hold the table. I reiterated that when Charles called the room that evening. I told him if he needed to give the table away then so be it, but he still held it. Dinner was excellent once again with the highlight being the Cote de Boeuf, which was tender and delicious. Photos attached show the creme fraiche and caviar chef’s treat, pear and cheese in pastry, Caesar salad and shrimp cocktail from MDR menu, Lobster Salad, Beef Tartar, Cote de Boeuf and Cauliflower Steak. We all passed on dessert but I have attached the menu here. After dinner we headed to the casino where Mike finished up a few hundred dollars but I was down again. 

[WonderMan3]

14 hours ago, aquidneck1 said:

Your posts are wonderful.  We are following you to board the Summit on the 17th.   Since we will be eating in Luminae and have just had a call from the concierge about dining times, I am wondering how your doing with the waitstaff.  We hope to have a waiter with some experience with recommendations etc.  Also interested in the wine service as we have struggled with that in the past.  Thanks so much for taking the time.  

 

The staff have all been great at Luminae, but we have been enjoying our service from Fauzi. He makes good recommendations and gets to know your likes and dislikes immediately.

[WonderMan3]

Here is today’s Daily and port shipping info. Will report tomorrow on our activities from today as it’s time for bed...

 

[jagoffee]

On 1/6/2019 at 5:03 PM, wrk2cruise said:

Interesting to see the differences in the  Captains Club cocktail hour.  On another thread this week the letter stated unlimited drinks in the sky lounge.  This letter specifically states only the 3 drinks on your card and NOT in the MDR, lounges only.

 

Corporate really needs to get a handle on this and get all the ships consistent.

You should go back and reread what Adam posted.  The letter outlining the Elite cocktail menu and lounge clearly states the drinks in the Lounge are unlimited from the menu.  You are correct that the drinks loaded on the card are not good in the dining venues.  Unless I am the one that is not correctly understanding what it is stating.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 8, 2019 by jagoffee

[varoo]

On 1/5/2019 at 2:15 PM, WonderMan3 said:

............  We entered the line marked suites but then were told to go back the other way to some other undefined area. We wandered a bit with our bags totally unsure of where to go. Finally two staff members appeared and started setting up the sign that we had been looking for initially for the suites baggage drop off. I posted a photo below so others know what to look out for. I guess they just weren’t ready yet when we showed up. They apologized and said it was something new they were trying out. They took our bags and we headed back to the line marked suites we had originally gotten into. ......

Enjoying your review and photos.  The suites baggage drop off area was certainly not "something new they were trying out" as we used it when we embarked there a few months earlier.

They immediately tagged our bags, took them away, and we proceeded directly to the entrance for security, inside the terminal.  I don't recall whether or not they had a sign for the suite baggage area as we just asked where to drop off suite luggage and were pointed right to it.

 

Some parts of the Summit were looking a little shabby at that time, so we are glad they will be doing the "revolution" on it soon as we really love that ship and look forward to cruising on it again soon. 

We expect that it will look like a brand new ship, but we are just hoping the addition of still more cabins does not ruin the public spaces even more.  We thought they already did too much damage to the M-class ships by taking public space away to add more cabins when they "solsticized" them.

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review of one of our favorite ships.