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

[WonderMan3]

Here is a video of Tina and I (briefly) braving the waters of Dark Waterfall.

[WonderMan3]

And here’s a video of our catamaran sail.

[WonderMan3]

4 hours ago, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

Can you share the story of the stone statutes on Martinique?  That's one island I've never been to.  Thanks.  And it sounds very French--complete with a strike!

 

Here is an article that gives the history of the memorial. https://www.uncommoncaribbean.com/martinique/uncommon-attraction-anse-cafard-slave-memorial-martinique/

[WonderMan3]

After returning to the ship from our fun day in St. Vincent we found another array of delicious snacks waiting for us. The little jars of sorbet with lollipop spoons were so tasty! We enjoyed some snacks and then enjoyed another lovely sunset from our balcony.

[WonderMan3]

On Wednesday night we tried a special dinner option. A few nights prior, Charles the Luminae maitre’d, offered us a reservation at the Grill at the Pool. It’s basically a reworked version of the Lawn Club Grill menu. They remove the lounge chairs and rework the Mast Grill tables. They use the Mast Grill kitchen area to prepare the food and set up the salad bar. Charge is $45 per person. Charles advised us of the price when first telling us about it but we thought he was saying that because we had two non-Penthouse passengers in our party. Turns out that the charge applies to everyone

[wrk2cruise]

That's ridiculous.  They create a fake specialty restaurant from a burger grill and then charge the people in the Penthouse who are supposed to get all specialty dining complimentary.

 

I had a similar thing on Equinox when in a Royal Suite.  We enjoy Luminae service specifically since we have dietary issues and are handled effortlessly there so we don't use the specialty dining.  One sea day they had a "special" buffet in Tuscan which we were considering for a change of pace.  When I was confirming with MC that it was included as a RS perk I was told no since it was "special".  I thought that was really low especially since we hadn't used specialty dining at all.  I certainly make comment in my post cruise survey.

 

I think they treated you way worse.  I know you don't like to complain but I think you should make your disappointment known to Suite Manager at minimum.  In these upper level suites you are paying to not be nickel and dimed.

 

 

Edited January 12, 2019 by wrk2cruise

[WonderMan3]

Previous was posted before I finished. The dinner at the pool was good. Salad Bar was a bit limited in choice. The pizza was tasty but seemed like it was just like the buffet pizza but with different toppings. The meats were excellent; both the filet and rib eye were outstanding. The sides were all a bit bland and could’ve used more seasoning. Desserts were okay. I was disappointed in the chocolate chip cookie. It is supposed to be one large cookie that they bake in a dish so that it gets all melty and then topped with ice cream. With this one, they took three small chocolate chip cookies and dropped them in a dish with them barely melting; it just wasn’t the same. They had a live musical performer there but he didn’t start until maybe 30-45 minutes into the dinner and then wrapped it up before we had even had dessert which was odd. Outside of that it was just the loud dance music playing from the pool area, and while I like that music it didn’t really create a nice dinner atmosphere. Overall it was an interesting diversion from the standard dinner options but not sure if it was worth the price. And back to the price...as mentioned in my post further up, we did not realize that Penthouse guests would be charged a fee, so that was a surprise when we got a bill to sign at the end of the meal. We figured we would follow up with the Pavel the concierge later. 

 

 

[WonderMan3]

3 hours ago, wrk2cruise said:

That's ridiculous.  They create a fake specialty restaurant from a burger grill and then charge the people in the Penthouse who are supposed to get all specialty dining complimentary.

 

I had a similar thing on Equinox when in a Royal Suite.  We enjoy Luminae service specifically since we have dietary issues and are handled effortlessly there so we don't use the specialty dining.  One sea day they had a "special" buffet in Tuscan which we were considering for a change of pace.  When I was confirming with MC that it was included as a RS perk I was told no since it was "special".  I thought that was really low especially since we hadn't used specialty dining at all.  I certainly make comment in my post cruise survey.

 

I think they treated you way worse.  I know you don't like to complain but I think you should make your disappointment known to Suite Manager at minimum.  In these upper level suites you are paying to not be nickel and dimed.

 

 

 

Yeah, we were in a Royal on Silhouette last year and had to pay for the Tuscan brunch.

 

This issue has been resolved positively and I will detail in upcoming updates.

[jagoffee]

6 minutes ago, WonderMan3 said:

 

Yeah, we were in a Royal on Silhouette last year and had to pay for the Tuscan brunch.

 

This issue has been resolved positively and I will detail in upcoming updates.

I have previously had lunch in Tuscan without an extra charge (in a RS)

 

It must be interesting going from a brand new ship to one of the oldest,  but that balcony......

 

 

[WonderMan3]

Finishing off Wednesday’s activities. After dinner at the Pool Grill we made our nightly visit to the casino. Luck was finally on Mike’s and my side as we both hit jackpots, him for $1500 and me for $2400. 

[WonderMan3]

2 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

I have previously had lunch in Tuscan without an extra charge (in a RS)

 

It must be interesting going from a brand new ship to one of the oldest,  but that balcony......

 

 

 

It is a contrast but we are having a great time. This room, despite it being a bit worn in places is light years better than the Sky Suite we had on Edge. And after having gotten a tour of the Penthouse on Edge, I think I might rather be in this one. Mike actually said tonight he has been having a better time on this cruise than on Edge.  I’m inclined to agree with him. While service across the board was very good on Edge there were no superstars who really stood out for us. On this cruise our butler Chip has been absolutely fantastic, the concierge Pavel has been extremely attentive and connecting with us everyday (we’ve never had that level of attention from a concierge before even in prior Penthouse and Royal Suites), our server Fauzi in Luminae has been so friendly and accommodating and we’ve had probably the best casino host in years with Alex. We have just felt totally pampered on this cruise and have really thought about doing Summit again in the Penthouse, maybe in 2021. It’s just that prices are a bit scary.

[jagoffee]

1 minute ago, WonderMan3 said:

 

It is a contrast but we are having a great time. This room, despite it being a bit worn in places is light years better than the Sky Suite we had on Edge. And after having gotten a tour of the Penthouse on Edge, I think I might rather be in this one. Mike actually said tonight he has been having a better time on this cruise than on Edge.  I’m inclined to agree with him. While service across the board was very good on Edge there were no superstars who really stood out for us. On this cruise our butler Chip has been absolutely fantastic, the concierge Pavel has been extremely attentive and connecting with us everyday (we’ve never had that level of attention from a concierge before even in prior Penthouse and Royal Suites), our server Fauzi in Luminae has been so friendly and accommodating and we’ve had probably the best casino host in years with Alex. We have just felt totally pampered on this cruise and have really thought about doing Summit again in the Penthouse, maybe in 2021. It’s just that prices are a bit scary.

Adam, I am glad to hear that you are enjoying it so much.  We have cruise on the two times, years ago.  We love the Solstice Class ships a lot, so we are afraid to try the Summit again.

[WonderMan3]

Here is the Daily from Thursday.

[WonderMan3]

Catching up with Thursday...

For our day in Barbados four of us planned to go to one our favorite places, Boatyard beach club. We have gone there on every visit to Barbados. But on Wednesday, Mike and I were feeling a bit worn out from a busy itinerary and decided to stay on the ship. Cindy and John were disappointed and we told them to go on without us but they decided to stay onboard too. Tina had planned all along to have a relax day onboard as she needed a break in the itinerary. We wound up taking big advantage of this day off and didn’t leave the cabin until almost 1pm as Mike didn’t wake until 9, I slept until nearly 10 and Tina until 11:30. That extra sleep time was very much appreciated. Since Mike was up earlier he grabbed some breakfast with John at Oceanview. He reconnected with Tina and I later and we had lunch at Oceanview. The food was great that day with a nice Pork Milanese and grilled pork and some tasty fish and chips.

 

For the rest of the day we basically just relaxed in the cabin. I had wanted to go to the pool but was just feeling very lazy. We had thought about filling up the hot tub on the balcony with either hot or cold water and enjoying the bubbles but it was actually very windy out. It was so gusty that my sunglasses blew across the balcony at one point so we didn’t wind up spending much time out there.

 

In the afternoon, Chip dropped off some unique snacks that we hadn’t had delivered before, donuts. The wind calmed enough for us to enjoy our snacks out on the balcony for a sunset sailaway. I popped up quickly to the top deck to get some shots of the pretty sky. We ran into Chip again later when heading off for dinner at Luminae. We told him about our confusion over the pricing of the Pool Grill dinner. He confirmed that yes all passengers are charged for those “special events” but was concerned that the pricing was not made clear to us so he said he would follow up on that with Charles. We made a stop at the Martini Bar to grab some cocktails before heading to Luminae. Oddly enough Charles was nowhere to be seen at the host station when we arrived. We waited for several minutes but he did not appear. Then Pavel the concierge came by and we had a nice chat with him. He mentioned that he was leaving Summit soon to transfer to Constellation so he would not see any of the ship renovations. We probably chatted with him a good five minutes and Charles still never appeared. Fauzi our regular server came out and noticed us there so he wound up seating us. After 10 minutes or so at our table we noticed across the room that Charles finally emerged from the kitchen. It seemed a bit odd to not have the maitre’d present to seat guests for over 15 minutes.

 

Dinner was excellent once again. The chef for Luminae on this cruise has been doing a really great job. Mike and I were worried after having a disappointing Luminae experience on Constellation last year but this cruise the food has been consistently on point. Photos show the chef’s treat fish cake, fennel soup, pizzette, fettuccine with shrimp and calamari, roasted chicken, cauliflower fried rice, chocolate caramel custard and the apple pie and bananas foster from the MDR menu.

 

After dinner we hit the casino. Mike and I both broke even for the night. Alex, the casino host, came by and reminded me that we have a casino host benefit as part of our Blue Chip sapphire level. He offered us free dining at any specialty restaurant. I told him we already got free dining being in the Penthouse. I did mention to him the charge we received from the Pool Grill event. He said if there was something similar coming up we wanted to try he could offer that to us. There weren’t any special dining events we knew of so I asked if he could just take care of the Pool Grill charge. He said he’d check with his manager. I figured it was best to work from two ends to get that charge cleared in case one end didn’t work out.

 

[WonderMan3]

Here is the Daily from Friday

[WonderMan3]

Continuing with updates from Friday...

 

Mike, Tina and I woke at 7 and had our regular breakfast out on our balcony. When Chip delivered the food he advised that everything was taken care of with the charges from the Pool Grill. He had spoken to Pavel the concierge and they waived the charge for the three of us due to the confusion over the fee. It was a bit noisy on this day as we were not docked at the normal Celebrity location of Pointe Seraphine but rather at La Place Carenage which is at the center of Castries and also serves as a shipping port. That was disappointing as I always like to hit the shops at Pointe Seraphine on the way back onto the ship. I assume we lost that spot at Seraphine due to the last minute itinerary change to this cruise. Cindy and John met up with us a little before 9 and we exited the ship to meet our driver outside the terminal. We had booked a day pass at the Bay Gardens Resort through Resort for a Day. The cost was $95 per person which included transportation to and from the resort and the cruise terminal as well as lunch, 4 drinks alcoholic and non, towels/beach chairs/umbrellas, use of the pool, and 1 free bonus item (choice of a 20 minute back massage, half-day entrance to water float park or use of non-motorized water craft.) There were about 13 of us on the transport to the hotel. Once there we also saw several German passengers from the Mein Schiff ship in port so this hotel appears to be very popular for day passes.

 

The Resort is set on Reduit Beach which is about a 20 minute drive from the port. It is a brown sand beach unlike most of the beaches in St. Lucia. The sand was soft sand with no shells and a scattered rock here and there. Waves at shore were surprisingly intense at times even though the water overall was calm. The Resort is small but quite lovely and well-maintained. The staff were all very pleasant and helpful. Cindy and I each enjoyed the massage option at their spa which was relaxing, Mike and John tried the water float park and Tina got a sailing lesson on a sailboat around the harbor for 30 minutes for $25. She could’ve then taken the boat out by herself for another hour for free but she didn’t feel fully comfortable with it. The included lunch was from a separate menu for day pass guests. There were a variety of items including salads, burger, chicken and more. They had a whole variety of cocktails for the free 4 drinks that were pretty good. We looked at the pool which was very nice but we didn’t have time to try it. We arrived at the Resort around 9:45 and the transport van picked everyone up at 3, so we got a little over 5 hours of time there. The information from resort for a day said we would be picked up 90 minutes before ship sail time which meant that we should’ve been picked up at 4:30. Having that extra 90 minutes would've been appreciated. Overall we had a great day and I would definitely recommend this property for a beach day in St. Lucia.

[WonderMan3]

After the transport dropped us back at the port we checked out the shops in the terminal and Tina and I picked up some things at Cariloha, the bamboo products shop. Back on the ship we just relaxed in our cabins for the rest of the afternoon. Pavel, the concierge, called at one point to confirm that the Pool Grill charge had been waived which we already knew from Chip and I thanked him for his help. We were feeling a bit lazy after a day at the beach and didn’t want to dress for evening chic night so we decided to inquire with Chip about dining in our suite as we had not done that yet. Chip was off until 6 and I wasn’t sure if it would be too close in to make a dinner request. He said it was fine and brought the Luminae menu up for us to make our dinner selections. He also said it was okay for Cindy and John to dine with us in the suite. Mike was down smoking on 4 and stopped at Luminae to let Charles the maitre’d know that we would not be dining there that evening. Charles brought up the Pool Grill charges and reiterated to Mike that he told us the price. Mike was surprised that he was bringing this up and being a bit defensive. Mike agreed that he did tell us the price. The issue was that it was not clarified to us that all 5 of us would incur the charge and not just Cindy and John. With that resolved Mike requested from Charles to make a reservation for us at Tuscan Grille for the next night as we weren’t thrilled with the Luminae menu for that night. We requested 7pm and Charles said it was confirmed.

 

For our in-suite dining we ordered several courses and Chip asked if we wanted them brought all at once or by course. We preferred by course so that the entrees wouldn’t get cold sitting for too long. In order to avoid overburdening Chip, Mike and John ran out and got us cocktails from a bar. It was wonderful to be able to enjoy a full dinner service in our cabin and we felt really spoiled. Chip brought the dessert menu after dinner and even got coffee for those who wanted it. I can’t say enough good things about great Chip has been as our butler! Photos below show the charred carrot salad, smoked potato soup, pate de campagne, pastrami short rib ravioli, sea scallops, chocolate soufflé and macaron.

 

After dinner we headed down to the casino. Mike and I both played in a slot tournament for players who had earned over 500 points so far on the cruise. I finished 3rd and he finished 5th so no prizes for us. Slots were a bit tighter tonight and they got back a chunk of my winnings.

[WonderMan3]

Here is Saturday’s Daily

[hcat]

On 1/10/2019 at 5:48 PM, Zigster said:

Adam, love your Martinique photos!

 

Me too....gave us some ideas for a future visit. We really liked  Martiniwue and hope to return...

[Dr. Cocktail]

Thank you for your amazingly involved and time consuming review!

 

You have truly stoked my excitement (and relieved my trepidation!) for returning to Celebrity after a 6 year absence this year.

 

After about 250 days on board in 2013, we became "free agents" and vowed never to return.

 

Never say "never" ....

 

It will be interesting to see how a suite on Summit compares to The Haven and The Yacht Club!

[hcat]

On 1/11/2019 at 4:01 PM, WonderMan3 said:

 

Here is an article that gives the history of the memorial. https://www.uncommoncaribbean.com/martinique/uncommon-attraction-anse-cafard-slave-memorial-martinique/

Very interesting... thanks for posting this and also to Happy Cruiser for  asking about it...

[hcat]

So was that a giant Connect 4 game at the St Lucia resort or just decor?

If it is a game, would be fun on EDGE...better than laser tag!

 

Love all your photos.. I think you may have a few to submit for recognition from this cruise!

[WonderMan3]

1 hour ago, hcat said:

So was that a giant Connect 4 game at the St Lucia resort or just decor?

If it is a game, would be fun on EDGE...better than laser tag!

 

Love all your photos.. I think you may have a few to submit for recognition from this cruise!

 

Thank you! And yes, Giant connect 4. I really wanted to play it but we didn’t have time.

[lmklimmek]

Chip was our butler when we were in a Royal Suite right before christmas.  He truly made our trip extra special! Glad to here he is doing the same for you!!!

[montgomeryfamily]

Chip is the best!  You are very fortunate to have him.  That is why we wanted to find out if he still also has the wheelchair accessible skysuites on deck 9 or, if not, then on deck 8 (because we would change skysuites).  If you have a chance, please ask him.  Thanks.