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

[WonderMan3]

On Saturday we were in Grenada. Tina, Mike and I started the day with our usual breakfast on our balcony. We left the ship around 9. This time it was just the three of us. Cindy and John had declined to join us on our visit to a local resort at the time I made the reservations. They wanted to spend time on the ship. They changed their mind when we decided to stay onboard in Barbados but when I tried to add two more reservations for our Grenada day they were sold out. So Tina, Mike and I grabbed a taxi outside the port terminal. It was about a 20 minute ride and cost us $20 each way. I had reserved the Mount Cinnamon Resort for us through Resort for a Day. It cost us $129pp. This included beach chairs and umbrellas, towels, access to their pool, WiFi, use of non-motorized watercraft, lawn games (croquet, giant chess, shuffleboard), lunch and unlimited drinks both alcoholic and non. The resort is located on Grand Anse beach which is the premier beach in Grenada. The resort is actually quite large and spread out. The reception, hotel rooms and pool are up on a hill overlooking the bay. You walk down a path to get to the beach where there is a bar and restaurant adjacent to the beach chairs area. The resort was beautiful and the staff was very friendly and accommodating. We didn’t feel treated any differently than regular hotel guests. The beach is fantastic with beautiful turquoise water and soft sand, although there were some waves. For lunch they had a great variety of items. We were able to select whatever we wanted. They had a grilled lobster special that day. The bartender said she had reserved 5 lobsters for the 5 people who had booked through Resort for a Day and asked if we wanted any. Tina and Mike went with that while I chose a salad and a chicken Caesar wrap. I liked my lunch but Tina and Mike weren’t thrilled with the lobster. It was a Caribbean lobster and they’re used to New England lobsters that are boiled or steamed, not grilled. We had a wonderful day at this resort staying until 4pm. The staff called us a taxi when we were ready to leave. It was so relaxing that we didn’t want to leave. I would highly, highly recommend this resort for a day pass.

[WonderMan3]

34 minutes ago, montgomeryfamily said:

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.

 

When are you cruising? Chip is leaving Summit and moving to Infinity once Summit goes in to drydock.

[CruisersTimesThree]

Isn’t Chip the best!?  When we sailed in the Summit PH in 2017 I had mentioned that the cruise was to celebrate our 35th anniversary.  When we came back from a day off the ship, Chip had decorated the foyer and the living room with balloons, streamers and a Happy Anniversary sign!  He truly made our trip one of our most memorable!  I hope we are that lucky with the butler we’ll have in March on the Silhouette.

[WonderMan3]

Continuing with Saturday’s updates...

 

After leaving the Mount Cinnamon Resort, Tina mentioned that she wanted to check out the spice markets which were not too far from the ship. As the taxi drove by them though we saw they were all closed. He said they only open a half day on Saturdays. So we headed back on to the ship. We relaxed in our cabin for a few hours. I contacted Chip to make a special request for the following day. Tina and John are big Patriots fans and they had a playoff game taking place on Sunday afternoon. We had an excursion coming back a little after 1pm with the game starting at 2:05pm. The Daily had shown the football playoffs being aired on channel 35 in the staterooms. I told Chip that we’d like to have a little get together in the room to watch the football game and put together a little list of snack foods like sliders, chicken wings, meatballs, etc. to see if it was possible for him to do something. He looked it over and said it seemed doable but he had to run it by the Suite Manager. We had to contact Chip again as we were running out the door at dinner time as we realized we still had our welcome aboard bottle of champagne in our refrigerator and asked him to send it down to Tuscan Grille where we were having dinner that night. It was Cindy and John’s 1 year wedding anniversary so we could have the champagne to celebrate.

 

When we arrived at Tuscan we found that they had seated us in the wine cellar room. This was not anything that any of us requested so we figured Chip must have arranged it. (He later told us he did not and said that the Tuscan maitre’d likely did. Cindy said she had noted the anniversary in her reservation so they likely saw it there.) We enjoyed the champagne to toast and the maitre’d came by at dessert time with a special cake for Cindy and John and best wishes for them. The meal was fine. I’d say we definitely have had better Tuscan experiences in both service and food quality but everyone enjoyed their entrees. After dinner it was on to the casino of course. John got to participate in a slot tournament this time but only placed 6th. After some ups and downs I managed to finish up for the evening by a few hundred.

[hcat]

Looks like a nice dinner in Tuscan...dh loves that huge meatball!

 

You really had some nice ports on this cruise!

The Grenada Mount Cinnamon  resort looks like a lovely place for the day and not overcrowded. We have never been to that Island but if we do go..I would book it..  How easy is it to use Resort for a Day...I assume it's pay ahead with a Credit Card?

 

Also, I plan to start a thread about suggested added activities on EDGE and would like to re- post. (.with credit to you..) the pics of the Connect 4 and large chess game...let me know if that would be okay?  Those would be easy for X to add....

Edited January 14, 2019 by hcat

[WonderMan3]

3 minutes ago, hcat said:

You really had some nice ports on this cruise!

The Grenada Mount Cinnamon  resort looks like a lovely place for the day and not overcrowded. We have never been to that Island but if we do go..I would book it..  How easy is it to use Resort for a Day...I assume it's pay ahead with a Credit Card?

 

Also, I plan to start a thread about suggested added activities on EDGE and would like to re- post. (.with credit to you..) the pics of the Connect 4 and large chess game...let me know if that would be okay?  Those would be easy for X to add....

 

It’s very easy to use. You pay a deposit in advance with a credit card. Amount varies by resort; some require full payment in advance. Then you pay the rest when you arrive. They are very accommodating with changes too. Our itinerary was changed by Celebrity a week before departure and I contacted Resort for a Day right away and they changed the dates of the two impacted resorts and sent me new confirmations.

 

And yes, you can use those photos for another post.

[WonderMan3]

Here is Sunday’s Daily

[hcat]

44 minutes ago, WonderMan3 said:

 

It’s very easy to use. You pay a deposit in advance with a credit card. Amount varies by resort; some require full payment in advance. Then you pay the rest when you arrive. They are very accommodating with changes too. Our itinerary was changed by Celebrity a week before departure and I contacted Resort for a Day right away and they changed the dates of the two impacted resorts and sent me new confirmations.

 

And yes, you can use those photos for another post.

Thanks for info  re Resort for the Day and ok  re photos!

[WonderMan3]

Sunday started off with our regular breakfast in the balcony (I am going to miss those so much in a few days!). We had to meet at the theater at 8:35 for our Celebrity excursion on Dominica. We signed up for the River Tubing and Hibiscus Falls excursion. This was our first visit to Dominica and I knew very little about the island so I signed us up for the excursion that sounded the most interesting. We were supposed to do this excursion last year on our Silhouette cruise but Dominica was removed from the itinerary after Hurricane Maria caused massive destruction. We met up with the drivers of the excursion vans at the end of the pier. The group was split up into several small vans. As with St. Vincent the driver guide had no intercom so those at the back of the van could not hear what he was saying. Luckily on this trip we were seated near the front so had no trouble hearing. The excursion started with a 50 minute drive up into the forested hills of Dominica along steep winding roads; if you are prone to motion sickness definitely pop a Dramamine before this one. Our first stop was Hibiscus Falls which was a beautiful but moderately sized waterfall. We were only there for about 15 minutes so it was really just a quick photo stop; no time to swim even though he said on the way that people could if they wanted to. Note that it’s about 60 steps down a stairway (and then back up) to get to the waterfall. The path nearer the falls was also very slippery and I nearly fell once. Tina and I were the only ones in our group who did the walk down to see the falls. 

 

We drove on for another 25 minutes to get to the river tubing. During the drives the guide would tell us about different things related to Dominican culture and history and also talked about all the damage from the hurricane which you could still see evidence of from many trees still recovering their greenery to missing roofs to all the light poles along the hill roads missing. Arriving at the tubing site we were instructed to put on life vests and helmets. Once on the river in a tube there were times where you floated on your own and then times where everyone had to link up to make it easier for the guides traveling along with us to pull us all through slow moving areas. Everyone at one time or another found themselves floating into a river bank and getting stuck on the side in brush which was annoying. It got dangerous sometimes too when you’d be spinning around over rapids and find someone’s feet flying at your head or almost getting knocked out by a large rock or branch sticking out from the river’s edge. Overall I found the float more frustrating than fun but my companions seemed to enjoy it. If you’ve never done tubing before then I suppose this is a nice way to try it in a relatively safe and controlled environment as the river never got too wild. They said our float was 90 minutes but it felt like less. I think they included the prep time before starting and the exit from the river in that overall time estimation. There is no food or drink included on this excursion save for a free water or fruit punch upon arriving at the tubing site. At the end of the tubing they did have sandwiches and drinks (alcoholic and non) available for sale. After the tubing we drove along the same winding hill roads back to the port which took about an hour. We arrived back a little after 1pm. So you will have time to get back to the ship in time for lunch at the buffet. Be warned that there were no restrooms offered at any point during the trip that I was aware of. I did not see any at the falls or at the tubing departure point and there was definitely not one at the end point (we asked) so be prepared.

 

The excursion ended on a negative note for us when, as we were exiting the tour van, Mike hit the top of his head on the van door frame and got a big bloody slice on his scalp. Luckily it was just a surface wound that looked worse than it was so no trip to the infirmary was needed.

[montgomeryfamily]

Oh no, I didn't realize that.    Our cruise is after the drydock. 

 

 

[WonderMan3]

Continuing our Sunday adventures...

After returning to the ship from our Dominica excursion, we showered and dressed quickly in order to be ready for the Patriots game at 2:05pm. Chip brought by the food spread for our get together. He and his team did a great job putting that together for us. We were very appreciative. The game ran for about 3.5 hours (Patriots won, so that made for a very happy room!) so it was almost 6pm by that time so John and Cindy stuck around for sailaway which was very lovely with pink clouds over the Dominican hills.

[WonderMan3]

Finishing off from Sunday...

 

After sailaway we dressed for dinner and then made our way down to Luminae. Once again there was no one to greet us; the maitre’d Charles was nowhere to be seen. After several minutes our regular server Fauzi came out and escorted us to our seats. We noticed Charles spending a lot of time in the kitchen through the night and then hurriedly scurrying through the dining room at different points to drop off menus to guests. Servers were seating guests. I’m wondering if they are having a staffing issue which is causing Charles to have to step in and deal with issues in the kitchen? It just seems so odd to not have a host/maitre’d regularly present to great and seat guests.

 

This was probably our least favorite meal of the cruise. We all ordered the pork except for Cindy and we were all disappointed with it. It just wasn’t as good as the other meats we’d had throughout the cruise. We felt like eating lighter so we skipped dessert. Photos show chef’s treat ratatouille, a greek salad from the MDR, guinea hen and the pork.

 

After dinner it was off to the casino for our nightly visit except for Tina who decided to stay in and use the soaking tub in our bathroom. Slots were not kind tonight and I finally started to eat into some of my own cash.

[WonderMan3]

Here is the Daily from Monday

[mn1111]

On 1/14/2019 at 7:48 AM, WonderMan3 said:

 

It’s very easy to use. You pay a deposit in advance with a credit card. Amount varies by resort; some require full payment in advance. Then you pay the rest when you arrive. They are very accommodating with changes too. Our itinerary was changed by Celebrity a week before departure and I contacted Resort for a Day right away and they changed the dates of the two impacted resorts and sent me new confirmations.

 

And yes, you can use those photos for another post.

Really enjoying this thread as I am contemplating a similar itinerary in the same cabin for 2020 (if one comes available after final payment as they are booked now).  FYI on Mount Cinnamon, I've used their day passes several times in the past and booked directly for a lot less money.  They used to have an all inclusive option exactly the same as you had for $60pp and would send a car to the ship to pick you up for I think $14.00 for the whole group, it also included breakfast if you got there early enough.  We tried it and it was a great change as the views were spectacular.  The last time I was there, they just charged $20 per person with no food or beverages, but did include towels and access to the facilities,  even with ordering lobster and a few drinks, it was still much less than the $129pp that resorts for a day charges.

 

I haven't been in a few years, so maybe things have changed, but I would definitely try the hotel directly.

[WonderMan3]

Catching up with Monday updates...

 

Our morning in Antigua started like normal with Chip delivering room service to our cabin. We decided to eat inside this time instead of out on the balcony as the sun was blazing down on it and it was too hot. Our plans for the day had us visiting the Jolly Beach Resort through a day pass I had ordered from Resort for a Day. We weren’t allowed to arrive at the resort until 10:30am so it was nice to have our morning starting a bit later. We caught a taxi a couple blocks from the ship. We shared with some people who were also going to Jolly Beach. Taxi cost $6pp. The drive took about 30 minutes as the driver had to take a lot of side roads to avoid traffic. The cost of our day pass was $85pp which included use of any of the resort’s facilities including several pools, unlimited food and drink (including alcohol), beach chairs and use of non-motorized watercraft. Umbrellas were not included though and cost $10pp. The resort has a whole series of wooden palapas for shade up and down the beach but since we arrived at 10:30 they were all taken so we had to rent umbrellas. The resort itself looked a bit dated. Staff was a bit slow and casual. There were activities going on by the pool all day like aerobics and bingo which they blasted loudly through an intercom. Drinks were all made with well liquor so quality was average. And the food was cafeteria grade. There were two dining options for us, a buffet and a poolside grill. Cindy and John tried the buffet which had more choices but they said it was mediocre. Mike, Tina and I tried the poolside grill which had a very long line for more mediocre food. The highlight of the resort is the beach itself which is absolutely beautiful with soft white sand and turquoise water. There are other places to rent chairs along this beach though so I would not recommend booking this day pass as it was not worth the money. We were able to catch a taxi right away out front and it was a faster drive going back to the port.

[hcat]

Omg...we stayed at Jolly Beach in 1984... looks much  the same.  We enjoyed the pool and beach ...but rooms were quite basic as was the food..staff had guaranteed jobs so did not go out of their way in service.  We ate many meals down aways  at a little beach shack .  Sorry you were disappointed

[hcat]

We also did a Pools and Falls excursion ( no tubing ) with X at Dominica before 2 of the storms. Involved  steep hiking up for the falls part,  and  then way down slippery paths for the pools.  Supposedly Pirates of Carib may have been filmed there,,???  We stopped at the  publuc gardens and there was s  bathroom stop for  spices and  small snacks  Could not get a burger to eat in the town.....just wild boar..it wasn't bad!

 

 Beautiful Island, unique and unspoiled....Love your photos...the greenery looks so lush ..glad island is coming back..it took a big hit

[WonderMan3]

Finishing off our Monday...

 

We returned to the port from our beach day and then enjoyed the sunset sail away from our balcony. Tina ducked out shortly before the sailaway in order to run down to the spa to enjoy a last minute massage from Lydia, the masseuse Mike had earlier in the cruise. She also reported back that Lydia was amazing and encouraged me to switch my sea day appointment so I could get Lydia too. Sunset was beautiful over St. Johns’ Harbor. We weren’t thrilled with the Luminae menu choices that evening so all five of us headed up to Oceanview for dinner. It was actually quite good. I enjoyed some nice pork chops, fresh pasta with Alfredo sauce and made my own Caesar salad. After dinner I had to run down to the I lounge in order to print out a resort confirmation from my phone for John and Cindy. Earlier that day they had confirmed that they wanted to join us after all at our resort visit on St. Kitts for Tuesday and I had managed to confirm two passes for them. I was not able to send to the I lounge printer directly from my phone so the staff member stationed in the lounge had to help me out. I passed the confirmation on to John and headed to the casino. It was not a good night on the slots and they got a chunk of money until the end of the night when one of my favorite machines started paying again and again and I recovered all my losses and now was up again for the cruise. Mike was not as lucky and finished down for the night.

[WonderMan3]

Here is the Daily from Tuesday

[WonderMan3]

Updating from yesterday...

 

We arrived in St. Kitts to find it quite overcast. Some brief sprinkles kept coming and going so I moved the dining table on the balcony back up under some cover so we could still enjoy breakfast out there. The sun made brief appearances enough to create a rainbow over the port area. After breakfast we exited the ship and met up with John and Cindy on the pier. We grabbed a taxi to take us to our destination for the day which was the Park Hyatt located all the way at the tip of the island. It was about a 20 minute ride in the taxi and cost $7pp for the 5 of us. I booked day passes through Resort For A Day. They cost $149pp which was expensive and I was very worried that the resort wouldn’t measure up. It was absolutely gorgeous though,  set right on the ocean with spectacular views of neighboring Nevis.

 

There were two pools, one adults only and one with a sandy beach area. There were tons of lounge chairs spread all over the property but only a few cushioned sunbeds which we managed to grab. There is also an ocean beach which we didn’t try as we were so in love with the pools. St. Kitts beaches aren’t that great anyway in comparison to the rest of the Caribbean. The day pass included use of all the facilities I mentioned as well as use of non-motorized water sports. It also included a two course lunch and non-alcoholic beverages with lunch. Then it was 20% off any other food and beverage or spa services. Lunch could be eaten at two different restaurants or the pool bar. Tina and I chose to eat at one of the restaurants with nice water views. The food was fantastic! I ordered a jerk chicken wrap with a coconut cream dessert while Tina had Mahi Mahi skewers with chips and salsa. We ordered alcoholic drinks as well but didn’t wind up getting charged for them. John, Cindy and Mike decided to order food from their lounge chairs and enjoyed what they had as well. As with us they saw no charges for any alcoholic drinks when settling our bill at the end of the day. We think their systems may have been delayed though and will have to watch our credit cards for any charges that come through.

 

Service at this property was overall very good. We got a bit of a snooty response at check in and at the restaurant but the staff at the pool area was very friendly and attentive, continually checking in on us, bringing complimentary ice waters to our chair, etc. Towels were also included with the day pass and they have complimentary sunscreen and aloe stations. Upon arriving at the property they even offer to drive you around in a golf cart to show you where everything at the property was located. It was not very busy while we were there so there was a totally serene atmosphere with little noise and just some nice chill out music playing. It was totally relaxing. If you are looking for a relaxed vibe like that on St. Kitts I would highly recommend this day pass. We liked it so much we’d like to come back to stay for a vacation. I found out also from the concierge that you can also come here and just use the beach including beach chairs and umbrellas, meaning no included food or use of the pool, and the charge is $50pp. For those prices though you may as well just go down the road to Cockleshell Beach and pay much less. Weather cooperated well with us. The sun had come out by the time we reached the hotel but then clouds moved in for the last couple hours. We started packing up at 3:30 due to rain approaching. We had arranged for our taxi driver to pick us up at 4pm. He was already there at 3:45 when we were ready to go. 

[goldsmip115]

Would it be possible for you to find out who the butler is for the other penthouse and whether or not he will be on the sailings after the “edgification.”  We sail for 8 nights in 6147 at the end of April/beginning of May and then again for 11 nights at the beginning of June.  We had Peter as our butler last sailing in the penthouse.

 

thank you so much for taking us along on your sailing.  I have enjoyed every moment.

[WonderMan3]

3 hours ago, goldsmip115 said:

Would it be possible for you to find out who the butler is for the other penthouse and whether or not he will be on the sailings after the “edgification.”  We sail for 8 nights in 6147 at the end of April/beginning of May and then again for 11 nights at the beginning of June.  We had Peter as our butler last sailing in the penthouse.

 

thank you so much for taking us along on your sailing.  I have enjoyed every moment.

 

Chip is the butler for both penthouses. He will be transferring to Infinity when Summit goes to drydock. I don’t know who the butlers will be after that.

[wrk2cruise]

Could you ask if Chip does the CS on Deck 6?  I sort of doubt it, if not I will track him down to say hi.  I believe we had him on Eclipse in 2014/15

[WonderMan3]

Finishing off Tuesday’s updates...

 

After returning from our beach day on St. Kitts and boarding the ship I immediately made a call to the spa to see if I could have my Wednesday morning appointment moved up to that afternoon and have Lydia as my masseuse since Mike and Tina has raves about her. They were able to have me come in at 5pm which was only 30 minutes away. So I had to rush through a shower, dress and head down for my appointment. I was disappointed that I would wind up missing our final sailaway of the cruise but I preferred having the massage then rather than the next morning. The massage was very good, much better than the one I had earlier in the cruise. It was not one of my best massages but it was good. She even added an extra 20 minutes at no charge so she could work on some really tight areas I had. I returned to the cabin close to 7 and hopped in the shower again quickly so we could head to

dinner by 7:30. It turns out I missed a beautiful sunset as well as some issues on the pier that delayed the sailaway by almost 20 minutes. We never found out what caused the delay.

 

We had our dinner at Luminae once again. It was only John, Tina, Mike and I this time. Photos below show chef’s treat shrimp, wedge salad, brown butter gnocchi, poached lobster, blue cheese soufflé and beef Wellington from the MDR menu, scallops with mushroom risotto, chocolate bar and baked alaska. After dinner we stopped back in the cabin to change into more casual clothes and found a nice birthday gift for Mike. His birthday is on Thursday, the day we debark, so our suite staff left some birthday wishes along with a bottle of wine which was nice. We closed out the night at the casino where my luck was down and they got back their winnings from the night before and ate into some of my own money. Alex, the casino host, reviewed our play and our accounts and said that he could only remove two spa charges from our account that totaled around $240. That was appreciated but we have seen our casino host comps declining over the past year even though our play remains relatively the same. Alex explained that the rules changed middle of last year as to how hosts calculate comps. Now they have to offset any comps they want to

give you against any casino discounts you may have applied to that cruise which reduces the amounts they can offer. This is a bit unfair since the casino discounts applied to reservations are based on your play from your prior cruise. It’s just yet another reason we have become more and more dissatisfied with Celebrity’s Blue Chip Club and in part why our next cruising is with MSC.

[WonderMan3]

40 minutes ago, wrk2cruise said:

Could you ask if Chip does the CS on Deck 6?  I sort of doubt it, if not I will track him down to say hi.  I believe we had him on Eclipse in 2014/15

 

No. He has 12 cabins, the 2 Penthouses, the 2 Sky Suites adjacent to them and the 8 Royal Suites in that same section.