My first celebrity cruise

[Cruisin 4 Ever]

My husband and I recently returned from our first Celebrity cruise.   We have taken over a dozen cruises with Disney, NCL and Carnival so we are seasoned cruisers. 

 

We got a great deal on the Summit out of San Juan leaving November 30th to Dec 7th with great ports.  We got a balcony cabin as we always do. the price was excellent especially considering we got three perks as well.

 

As soon as we entered the terminal, things went very smoothly and quickly.  We were checked in in about 5 minutes and although it was only 11:00 we were able to walk right on the ship.  We've never had this happen before.

 

We were handed a glass of champagne as we boarded - a nice little welcome.  The ship is beautiful.  We went straight to our room to drop off our stuff.  The room was a bit smaller than we are used to but really beautiful.  The bathroom was gorgeous, great TV, super comfy bed and a nice balcony.  Couldn't be happier with the cabin.

 

Everywhere we went the service was excellent.

 

There was only the buffet open for lunches.  I loved that the buffet was broken up into many stations.  This really seemed to help with lineups.  I didn't love that although it appeared that there was tons of variety, there really wasn't.  Of course I always found something to eat, I was just a bit surprised the food didn't wow me - at lunch that is.

 

We did anytime dining and we never waited in line for more than 5 minutes.  We loved our servers and were able to get the same table every night.  The servers were probably the best we've ever had. They were friendly and always recommended meals and sincerely wanted us to have a great meal. All the meals came out really hot and everything was delicious.  One thing I would have like to see is an option each day from whatever port we just visited.

 

Our stateroom was kept very clean the whole time we were there.  Our steward was always available and cleaned twice a day.  We really didn't have to ask for anything as everything we needed was already there!!

 

The entertainment was really good.  We went to a couple of shows.  One of the most fun things was the silent disco.  They had it 2 nights and it's so much fun they ran out of headphones even though they had at east a couple of hundred.

 

Another really nice touch is that the captain greeted us at every port, I've never seen this before.  He and is crew would line up and greet everyone getting off at each port.

 

The pools on this ship were really great. Not as tiny as I've seen on other ships and there were three pools. 

 

Debarkation was super organized and easy.  We had a late flight so we waited on the ship until about 9:30, grabbed our luggage, waited about 5 minutes to get through customs and we were off.

 

All in all it was one of the best cruises we've ever been on.  We had booked the cruise in January 2019 for November and as I look at the cruises now, I don't see any prices that are similar to what we paid.  I will keep searching since Celebrity has a couple of new fans!!

[bikerunner]

Always great to get a fresh take from new cruisers on celebrity. I been sailing them since the early 2000’s and never been disappointed. Been on others but didn’t enjoy them as much, nothing wrong with them celebrity is just more my style. Glad you had a great cruise with celebrity. 

[mdpa]

Thanks, appreciate the great review. We did the same cruise as you the year prior and also enjoyed the itinerary. 

 

We will be on on 2nd Celebrity cruise in 6 days to SE Asia and looking forward to it.

[wrk2cruise]

We were on the same sailing with you and agree about the crew from the Captain on down.  I agree it's always nice to hear people new to Celebrity evaluate the product.

[Georgia_Peaches]

Have been on several Celebrity sailings beginning in 2015 and have never had the Captain and senior crew standing at the port to greet passengers as they left the ship.  What a nice touch and a great way to make the passenger (aka the customer) feel appreciated!  Thank you for taking the time to report on your experience.  

 

Regarding price, I would advise that you check often.  They do fluctuate and often one can snag up a good deal, especially closer to the sail date.  I dragged my feet on a sailing last week and now that same itinerary is $500 more 😩  but I'm going to keep watching.

 

Welcome to Celebrity!

[aml3679]

Thank you for your great review.  We love Celebrity and would not even think of straying.

[Cruisin 4 Ever]

thanks everyone. I have a couple of cruises booked with another cruiseline.  One is just over a month from now so we'll definitely take that one, but the other isn't until September.  We are seriously considering cancelling and going with Celebrity instead.  

[TeeRick]

Thanks for the review and glad you enjoyed your cruise!

[clskinsfan]

We had our first Celeb cruise back in May after roughly a dozen on other lines as well. And we agree that Celebrity is the best cruise we have ever been on. Everything was a step above RCL, NCL, HAL and obviously Carnival. We have another Celeb cruise booked in October. But we will still use other lines if the itinerary is favorable for us.

[cruznjan]

Thank you for your review. We haven't sailed with Celebrity for a while, and it's great to hear it's like we remember (except the Captain's greetings).

[Jim_Iain]

Really enjoyed reading your review and view of Summit.  

[Luvcrusn]

Nice to hear a perspective from a set of new eyes. Glad you had a great time and thanks for taking the time to post your review. We haven't sailed Summit for quite a few years but remember that her crew seemed to take extra special pride in pleasing their passengers.

Edited December 29, 2019 by Luvcrusn

[Langley Cruisers]

Yea! Glad you had a great time and great first impression of Celebrity. I see you are mostly loyal to Carnival, so it's always interesting to read a good review. We have been mostly loyal to Royal, but love Celebrity and the restrictive smoking policy - game changer. 😊

[nunuc2000]

Love the Summit and Celebrity on the whole - thanks for your very positive review, and glad to hear you enjoyed yourselves so much! :)   We'll be boarding the Summit in 2 weeks and can hardly wait - Celebrity has become our favorite line, though we didn't try Celebrity out until over 30 cruises on other lines. The little touches are nice :)

 

Celine

[maggieq]

We were on the same cruise and we booked it in Jan 2019.  It was a phenomenal deal for sure.  Highlights were amazing weather, dining staff, martini bar staff and the entertainment was pretty good too. We did this same cruise, same week a few years ago on the summit.  We are loyal to royal but celebrity offers a very good experience.  I love less kids and smoke too.  Our next cruise is on RCCL in Feb because we had a FCC due to the hurricane in September but always looking at Celebrity for future cruises.  

[Silkroad]

Thanks for posted your fresh perspective on Celebrity and Summit. We took our first cruise on Celebrity Summit’s sister, Millennium, 13 years ago. Thus far, we’ve found that the many positive attributes of each of our cruises have far outweighed the few negatives, so we’ve not explored other lines. We sailed on Summit in 2017, and we’re very much looking forward to returning to her next autumn. We’re just off Reflection, and we’re booked on Edge in May (second time on both ships) and we find things to love about each of them.  I hope your future cruises on Celebrity will be just as lovely as your first one🌺

[printingchick]

Would love to hear some compare and contrast information from those who frequent other lines. I've been cruising with Royal for years, but will be on Celebrity Summit on February 1. Thanks for your review.

[cruise47]

Thanks for sharing your review and insights on your first Celebrity Cruise.

Edited December 30, 2019 by cruise47

[meechee341]

Glad to hear you had a good time!  It's nice to hear someone discuss how much they enjoyed trying a new ship and a new cruise line.  Nothing is perfect, but the few less than stellar issues didn't outweigh your ability to enjoy your vacation! 😀

[pattyj 1204]

Glad to hear you had a good time with Celebrity and the Summit. She was the first cruise we ever took back in 2002. We went to Alaska, then we took another one on the Summit but haven't been on her since. We are excited to see what the Revolutionized Summit looks like. We only had one cruise on NCL in Hawaii and it didn't compare with all we have experienced on Celebrity. Can't wait for Sept.