Live (sort of) from the Summit - 7/31 mid summer cruise

[abbydancer2003]

Hi all.

 

I'm on the Summit starting Saturday, and thought I'd do a live from this middle of St. Maarten summer set.  I'll try to answer questions, if any.

 

So my adventure is starting now.  I'm at SFO airport waiting to board my flight to New York.  I'll meet my sister (who will be know as Beth going forward, as that is her name), and we'll fly to St. Maarten early tomorrow morning.

 

Because we have a very early flight, we're staying at the airport.  We'll probably go over to the counter and check in tonight, since Jet Blue is recommending we get to the airport 3 hours early (5 am for us).

 

I do want to comment on the testing procedure.  Because I followed every roll call, I heard every problem people had.  So, we (my sister and my friends who are joining us) did a travel test on Tuesday, 72 hours before leaving for St. Maarten.  I drove to a site 20 minutes from home, and I had my result by the time I got home.  I did the EHAS form (selecting air as X recommended) and got my approval 3.5 hours later.  Yesterday morning, I did a free test at a site that I've used before that returns results usually in about 26 hours.  Hopefully that will be the case but it's a little nervewracking.  I've looked into a test when I get to Sint Maarten, but they don't seem to have a lot of quick turnaround options.

 

That's it for now ... of to watch NBC olympics website until it's time to board.

[prbffd28]

Hi @abbydancer, I appreciate the information as we are on the 8/14 sailing and looking for as much information as possible with everything. We are flying in a day early too just to be safe and planning on testing Wednesday in order to fall within the 72 hours requirement. Can I ask about your testing and why you took an additional test if you already received your results and approval for St Maarten? I am wondering if I missed something where just the one PCR test on Wednesday for us will not work for Celebrity as well. Thank you and have a great cruise!!

[DCPIV]

I hope to see you on board! 

 

We had our travel/boarding tests this morning. 

[TourDeCruise]

Have a wonderful cruise! Look forward to your report.

 

I have a question if not too much trouble to check. Tuscan Grille is on Deck 3 aft. I looked at the deck plan, and it looks like there might be two entrances into the Tuscan Grille. One possible entrance on the port side by going past cabins 3115 through 3127 but it also looks possible that it is a wall there and you cannot enter from mid-ship port side. The other possible entrance is by going to the starboard side and going down the hall with cabins 3112 through 3144 and then going through a door, passing the elevators, and then into Tuscan Grille. Are both entrances available or only the twist-and -turn entrance from the starboard side past cabins 3112 through 3144 and the nearby aft elevators? The reason I ask is because we have a cabin in that starboard hall on a Summit cruise next year. 

[abbydancer2003]

Hi,

Made it to St. Maarten and with much strum and drum, we, and our friends are good to go.

 

First on testing, i tend to overplan, and in reading every roll call, there were people who did miss the cruise because their form didn't come back, or had to resubmit.  72 hours isn't a long time, so I wanted to do the st. Maarten test as early as possible.  That wouldn't meet X's requirements, so we did a second free test 72 hours from tomorrow.  

 

In retrospect, that was completely unnecessary. All of us got our EHAS forms back with in a few hours, and the free tests took longer.  My sister got hers back Wednesday evening.  However, my usual 30 hours failed me.  They arrived while I was in flight to St. Maarten.  Our friends, Mike and Kath, did not have theirs from CVS when they arrived.  The CVS documentation said 2-4 days, and when we discussed a few days ago, we arranged for a just in case hotel test.  We arranged for a nurse to test them tomorrow AM, with a 3 hour turnaround, so they'd be good for their boarding group.   Of course as soon as it was arranged the first test came in, and about an hour ago the second one did.  

 

Anyway, we got to St. Maarten around noon.  We'd contacted a taxi/tour guide who we'd done a tour with 4 years ago, and he took us to our hotel, The Holland House.  That was smooth and uneventful.

 

The hotel is lovely, and the staff the friendliest I've ever seen.  Beth said maybe she'd just stay here for the week (I hope she was kidding).  

 

One of the more interesting things is the view from our window. Day and night:

 

Yes, those are  cruise ships, hanging out here.  One of the staff told me that it's helped the economy a bit, that the ships come in and get supplied, etc.  I think they are both RC ships.

 

So now one more sleep (which I have to do since I've been up at 5 am both of the last two mornings.  

Next post from the  Summit.

Edited July 31, 2021 by abbydancer

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

We board in 3 weeks!!!  Can’t wait to follow your cruise.

[lhsail]

We are also staying at the Holland House and they indicated they could arrange for a nurse to come to the hotel on Friday morning for $130pp. Was this the price they gave you for the 3 hour turnaround?  

[dazey]

Regarding question about entering Tuscan Grille, we stayed in Cabin 3125 and there is no access to the restaurant from that corridor.  It just ends.  You must pass by the stairs and enter down pass your cabin location.  There is a large meeting room to the right as you approach to enter to Tuscan Grille. We enjoyed that cabin and location and have reserved that Cabin 3127 for May 2022. 

 

 

[abbydancer2003]

Hello.  The internet appears to be working, so  here's a post.

 

First, as mentioned only one entrance to Tuscan.

 

The hotel quoted us 160.00 for the 3 hour - 130 for 24 hours.  By the way, all of us really liked the hotel.

 

We started with breakfast at the hotel.  They gave us a menu to check off 7 things for our "breakfast included" rate.  It included juices, hot drinks, eggs, pastry and fruit and yogurt and what they called "relish" ie bacon, tomato, cheese, etc.  It was good although we had to chase them down to get our orange juice.

 

After breakfast we packed up, and waited for our prearranged ride.  He arrived at 11:30 and by 11:50, we were pulling up to the cruise terminal.  We were greeted by the porters, and they took us over to a tent, where they made sure we were on the list.  When you check in online, you might want to make sure you like your picture, because they have it.  The porters then took our bags to put on the ship.

 

Next step was entering the big tent.  There were a couple of checkers there, who looked at your vaccine card and your test results.  They almost didn't pass Beth, because they couldn't find where her test indicated it was PCR.  They wanted to send her over to be tested there, which would have delayed us 30-60 minutes.  She took the paper back to scan a QR code, and found where it said PCR.  They marked the test paper and we were good to go.

 

We then headed to the Suite/Zenith check in area.  There were drinks (bottled water and soda) and ice water dispensers.  There were comfortable chairs and couches, and soon after we sat down, an agent came and took pictures of our passports, vaccine cards and test results.  She also gave us two 'tracelets" and scanned those to tie them to us.

 

A few minutes after that, Connie, the retreat concierge, came by introduced herself and told us to wait a few moments.  In the meantime, Mike and Kath were in another area, and had a couple of delays, so they weren't quite ready when Connie collected us to go through immigration with no line.  We handed our passports to the agent, they checked us off, and we got on a golf cart to get on the ship.

 

5 minutes later we were ushered onboard.  First was a crew member with hand sanitizer, then a security check and then a like of cheering crew members.  That was way cool.    We headed up to our room, dropped our stuff and went back down to wait for our friends to come through.  They were going through security when we arrived, so that was good.

 

We were in their room when the butler (Daisy) and room steward (Roman) came to introduce themselves.  They did their explanations, for all 4 of us at once.  We then watched the saftey video (how to put o a life jacket), played the horn, and located our muster station.

 

Next stop muster check in and lunch.  Went to the station, but it wasn't open yet, so we headed to lunch.   Tomorrow, or later i might try to post a lunch picture.  Most interesting thing about lunch was that my sister and I both order what the waiter called "butterflied" Luminae burgers - cut in half horizontally.  

 

After lunch we unpacked, followed by doing a full walking tour of the ship, including a stop for a coffee at Al Bacio.  We met a lot of crew members, and since there weren't that many guests on board at that time.  We talked to a lot of them.  Everyone seemed very happy to be back.

 

We went back to the room, got ready for dinner, and then headed to the Retreat lounge where we talked to a couple that came in soon after us.  We also learned that the internet was down.

 

At 8, we joined Mike and Kath at dinner, and had a lovely dinner.  The vanilla ice cream is very good, and I'm not really fan.  

 

Following dinner, we went to the shops, and then to the lounge for a drink.  We ended up spending an hour with Daniel, the bartender talking.  His wife works in Al Bacio, and served us earlier.  (Beth figured it out because when we talked to her about Portuguese speaking people - she's from Brazil), she mentioned her husband was Romanian.  He told us his wife worked in Al Bacio, so Beth put it together.

 

All in all a great day, and it is so good to be back on a ship.  (I told Daniel I didn't care where we went - pulling wheelies outside of St. Martin for 7 days was fine with me).

 

The crew is masked, but are able to pull their masks down to talk to us.  They're all vaccinated, and have different ones - some J&J, Pfizer and AZ.  We are not required to mask, and so we're not.  There are somewhere between 450 and 490 passengers.  So far, I've seen no children.

 

On to sea day 1. 

 

 

[BigAl94]

5 hours ago, abbydancer said:

The crew is masked, but are able to pull their masks down to talk to us.  

 

This is unbelievable! What is the point of wearing them?

[bandp407]

Following. … Have a great cruise!!

[portofrome]

Following. Bon Voyage and have a great cruise!

[cardiffman]

10 hours ago, abbydancer said:

Hello.  The internet appears to be working, so  here's a post.

 

First, as mentioned only one entrance to Tuscan.

 

The hotel quoted us 160.00 for the 3 hour - 130 for 24 hours.  By the way, all of us really liked the hotel.

 

We started with breakfast at the hotel.  They gave us a menu to check off 7 things for our "breakfast included" rate.  It included juices, hot drinks, eggs, pastry and fruit and yogurt and what they called "relish" ie bacon, tomato, cheese, etc.  It was good although we had to chase them down to get our orange juice.

 

After breakfast we packed up, and waited for our prearranged ride.  He arrived at 11:30 and by 11:50, we were pulling up to the cruise terminal.  We were greeted by the porters, and they took us over to a tent, where they made sure we were on the list.  When you check in online, you might want to make sure you like your picture, because they have it.  The porters then took our bags to put on the ship.

 

Next step was entering the big tent.  There were a couple of checkers there, who looked at your vaccine card and your test results.  They almost didn't pass Beth, because they couldn't find where her test indicated it was PCR.  They wanted to send her over to be tested there, which would have delayed us 30-60 minutes.  She took the paper back to scan a QR code, and found where it said PCR.  They marked the test paper and we were good to go.

 

We then headed to the Suite/Zenith check in area.  There were drinks (bottled water and soda) and ice water dispensers.  There were comfortable chairs and couches, and soon after we sat down, an agent came and took pictures of our passports, vaccine cards and test results.  She also gave us two 'tracelets" and scanned those to tie them to us.

 

A few minutes after that, Connie, the retreat concierge, came by introduced herself and told us to wait a few moments.  In the meantime, Mike and Kath were in another area, and had a couple of delays, so they weren't quite ready when Connie collected us to go through immigration with no line.  We handed our passports to the agent, they checked us off, and we got on a golf cart to get on the ship.

 

5 minutes later we were ushered onboard.  First was a crew member with hand sanitizer, then a security check and then a like of cheering crew members.  That was way cool.    We headed up to our room, dropped our stuff and went back down to wait for our friends to come through.  They were going through security when we arrived, so that was good.

 

We were in their room when the butler (Daisy) and room steward (Roman) came to introduce themselves.  They did their explanations, for all 4 of us at once.  We then watched the saftey video (how to put o a life jacket), played the horn, and located our muster station.

 

Next stop muster check in and lunch.  Went to the station, but it wasn't open yet, so we headed to lunch.   Tomorrow, or later i might try to post a lunch picture.  Most interesting thing about lunch was that my sister and I both order what the waiter called "butterflied" Luminae burgers - cut in half horizontally.  

 

After lunch we unpacked, followed by doing a full walking tour of the ship, including a stop for a coffee at Al Bacio.  We met a lot of crew members, and since there weren't that many guests on board at that time.  We talked to a lot of them.  Everyone seemed very happy to be back.

 

We went back to the room, got ready for dinner, and then headed to the Retreat lounge where we talked to a couple that came in soon after us.  We also learned that the internet was down.

 

At 8, we joined Mike and Kath at dinner, and had a lovely dinner.  The vanilla ice cream is very good, and I'm not really fan.  

 

Following dinner, we went to the shops, and then to the lounge for a drink.  We ended up spending an hour with Daniel, the bartender talking.  His wife works in Al Bacio, and served us earlier.  (Beth figured it out because when we talked to her about Portuguese speaking people - she's from Brazil), she mentioned her husband was Romanian.  He told us his wife worked in Al Bacio, so Beth put it together.

 

All in all a great day, and it is so good to be back on a ship.  (I told Daniel I didn't care where we went - pulling wheelies outside of St. Martin for 7 days was fine with me).

 

The crew is masked, but are able to pull their masks down to talk to us.  They're all vaccinated, and have different ones - some J&J, Pfizer and AZ.  We are not required to mask, and so we're not.  There are somewhere between 450 and 490 passengers.  So far, I've seen no children.

 

On to sea day 1. 

 

 

At the airport I put my passport in my jacket pocket. At the hotel I put my jacket in my checked suitcase. Obviously at the cruise checkin this situation was a challenge. I assisted by port people, bless them, who got my suitcase to me so I could recover from this. But something else must have gone wrong because it took until about an hour and a half to get my bag delivered to our cabin. Somehow the tag came off. It all worked out. 

[Jim_Iain]

Hope you have a wonderful trip.    Sounds like a fun adventure.   Curious as to where you went for the quick test.    When I looked yesterday it was San Bruno or San Francisco for Walgreen  and Burlingame or San Francisco.     With Burlingame there were no appointments available for the next 2 weeks.

 

 

 

[Projunior]

I was on the Summit July 17-24. The crew was not masked, which added to the happy vibe that permeated the whole ship. Disappointed that this might have changed as we will be back on the Summit on August 21.

[abbydancer2003]

8 hours ago, BigAl94 said:

This is unbelievable! What is the point of wearing them?

Contract tracing.  The crew is also wearing them.  If someone tests positive they can also test everyone who may have been exposed. 

[abbydancer2003]

1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said:

Hope you have a wonderful trip.    Sounds like a fun adventure.   Curious as to where you went for the quick test.    When I looked yesterday it was San Bruno or San Francisco for Walgreen  and Burlingame or San Francisco.     With Burlingame there were no appointments available for the next 2 weeks.

 

 

 

Thanks.  Carbon Health.  Generally the on at El Camino Urgent care (Shoreline and El Camino - I'm guessing you can walk) comes back in about 30 hours - it was just under 48 this time.  The also have a clinic in Santa Clara that for 165.00 will get it back in under two hours.  I think you have my email?  You can email me for more details.

[twoflyers]

Quick question and a favor please:  

My husband and I are booked on the Summit out of Miami on 09/06.  I have looked on several websites, including Celebrity's, to find the cruise, but no luck.  One website directed me to my travel agent as the cruise "was unavailable".  Mind you, they did not say "sold out" but "unavailable".

Husband dug a little further and it looks as though the Summit has been removed from service from 08/29-09/10. 

If you happen to have a coversation with one of the officers, could you ask what the plans for the Summit are following the August 21st cruise.

My suspician is the CDC is going to require a "certification cruise" before providing authorization for Miami departures and Celebrity is leaving a two week gap to get that accomplished.  In the meantime, I would like to be able to replace this cruise earlier rather than later!!

 

Thank you! 

 

[lv2cruisgrl]

13 minutes ago, twoflyers said:

Quick question and a favor please:  

My husband and I are booked on the Summit out of Miami on 09/06.  I have looked on several websites, including Celebrity's, to find the cruise, but no luck.  One website directed me to my travel agent as the cruise "was unavailable".  Mind you, they did not say "sold out" but "unavailable".

Husband dug a little further and it looks as though the Summit has been removed from service from 08/29-09/10. 

If you happen to have a coversation with one of the officers, could you ask what the plans for the Summit are following the August 21st cruise.

My suspician is the CDC is going to require a "certification cruise" before providing authorization for Miami departures and Celebrity is leaving a two week gap to get that accomplished.  In the meantime, I would like to be able to replace this cruise earlier rather than later!!

 

Thank you! 

 

I saw the same thing and wonder what's going on, we are to sail Sept 6

[TourDeCruise]

3 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

 

Sorry Jim and Ian - I don't know how to get rid of the quote.

 

To those who answered about Tuscan Grille. Thank you for the information about the Tuscan Grille entrance. I was hoping there would be two entrances and wouldn't be only by our cabin as usually that hall is very quiet. I can hope that most people will take the aft elevator or stairs up or down to Tuscan Grille versus coming down our hall to get there. Shouldn't be that many people going to the Tuscan Grille though and it does close early enough, so shouldn't be a problem. I of course like the convenience of our cabin in getting to the Tuscan Grille. lol.

 

 

Edited August 1, 2021 by TourDeCruise

[Jim_Iain]

1 hour ago, abbydancer said:

Thanks.  Carbon Health.  Generally the on at El Camino Urgent care (Shoreline and El Camino - I'm guessing you can walk) comes back in about 30 hours - it was just under 48 this time.  The also have a clinic in Santa Clara that for 165.00 will get it back in under two hours.  I think you have my email?  You can email me for more details.

I'll have to check them out as that's within walking distance for me. 

[lhsail]

Was there a hair dryer in the room at Holland House?  How are the ones on the ship?  I’d rather not pack one, but have a small one I can take if need be. 

[ekmmom]

2 hours ago, lovrccl said:

I saw the same thing and wonder what's going on, we are to sail Sept 6

Same for us, scheduled for the Summit on 9/6

[abbydancer2003]

I'll post my few details of today tomorrow, but want to answer some questions now.

 

First yes, Holland House has a built in blow dryer.

 

The answer to the other question is not so easy,  I asked but didn't get answer.  It could be that they are working things out, or it could be that the ship is at capacity.    They have sailing limits, plus some unavailable locations.  In our walk yesterday, we found the "Covid rooms" - rooms with little tables outside to put food on.  I was also told that crew are using the lover deck cabins - each crew member has their own cabin, unless they are a couple.  

 

I'll leave you know with one anecdote from yesterday.  I decided to use my OBC to buy Apple ear buds.  I was talking to the computer guy, and mentioned that on my next cruise I have enough OBC to buy an IPAD.  He told me the prices, and said that he'd let his counterpart on the Equinox know that someone on the 10/8 cruise wanted one - apparently it's his ex girlfriend.

[dazey]

As a follow-up regarding entrance and TourDeCruise recent comment, I do not believe the stairs or elevator drop you off by Tuscan Grille.  You still must pass down the corridor.  Believe me I tried.  As stated before we had Cabin 3125 and we had to walk past elevator and stairs and down corridor to get to the restaurant. It is kind of hidden if you have never been there before.  I will say that it was a quiet walk to the restaurant entrance and I think most people try to be polite when passing cabins.  Do not believe it will be a problem; however, try next time the cabins. Same category and no traffic.  

 

Cannot wait to be Cabin 3127 in May!