Glorious Summit

[Hawkstar33]

I'm gonna just write about the ship. Just off BTB 4 and 10, Miami, Key West, Nassau, ABC's,  moving to Bayonne. Pretty full first trip, half full for second. No complaints about that for sure.  Probably one of the best I've been on, as far as no lines, plenty of great deck seating, minimal chair savers, etc.  Although towel clips, and other towel holding devices, books, and beach bags, did appear once our ports of call were done. Got chilly coming up the east coast of USA, so in turn, every solarium lounger was full of blanket covered sleepers.  Gotta get up early to beat them. So anyway, there are many reasons for the continued success of this ship. Number one, is obviously Captain Nikolaos, and his crew.  Very visual, friendly, hard working all day long. 98% said hello, good day, etc. While the ship itself could use some paint, and some continued refurbishing, it's overall shape was good. It's OLD. But the crew makes up for that and keeps it up. Harder to keep an older ship going I'm sure. I must say that the Oceanview was really good. I heard a few gripes, and am surprised at some nitpicking about the buffet.  It is a large scale buffet. The food may not always be 500 degrees by the time you look at everything, make a choice, fill your plate, walk all the way around, and sit down. Freshly grilled chicken, thin pork chops, steak, several fish choices, were great. Indian cuisine was top notch. Stir fry was always busy, pizza was a bit floppy.  Nonetheless, Bravo to the Chefs. Absolutely no cutbacks on anything. So put an end to that question. Some may not agree, but I think it was great.  Seemed to be some training going on of new staff in there. It takes time.  They will learn fast enough. Give them a chance.  All ships are back now, so staffing may still be a bit of an issue.  As usual, the mast grill was cranking out burgers, dogs, and fries, nonstop from open till close. Mr Bakir, and his staff in Tuscan, are excellent. Food was awesome, did 4nt specialty package, never a complaint. Did not dine at all in MDR.  Never do, just our choice.  Jerome and Zin at pool bar were awesome. AGUNG at Mast bar should have a Fitbit to track his steps. Making, serving, and delivering drinks all day long on Deck 11.  Every ship needs these 3 guys.  Overall great bar service, whether full or half capacity. Was pretty funny watching these Carribean, warm weather boys, wearing jackets when the temperature dipped.  We had some good fun with that. Welcome to the Northeast.  Shows were pretty good. DJ Music or band, The Seagulls, played on open decks, and others played or sung, around ship at certain times.  Piano player in Al Bacio kept audience entertained. Edward our room attendant was fast, and great. Long hours for all that work on these ships.  They are all grateful to be back working for sure.  So what I'm really saying is, A ship is only as good as its Captain and crew, makes it. SUMMIT IS GREAT.   Gonna miss her when she moves to Alaska..

[Georgia_Peaches]

Great review and summation. You make me long for my next cruise so I too, can recognize all those who work so hard to make a memorable vacation. 

[RichYak]

Thanks for the review. Can you just confirm that your description of the buffet is accurate for dinner hours. I’m sailing Summit in August and plan on having some evening meals in OVC. 

[SPacificbound]

Thank you for the great review!  We also never dine in MDR.

 

We will be on Summit August 6-30, can't wait!

[karmamule]

So good to read this before our 11 day Canada/New England this fall. We were a little nervous because this will be the smallest and oldest ship we’ve ever been on, but a top notch crew will make almost any cruise excellent.

[tonyd285]

We were on this cruise as well.  I can't say enough positive things about the wonderful staff on the Summit.  Our cabin attendants, we had two, one experienced and one newby, LaLaine and Victor, both  were great.  The Maitre D" in Blu, Serkan, and his entire staff were fantastic.  The food was very good.  I was not as happy with the lunches in the MDR.  Maybe I should have ordered the hotdogs or burgers.  The servers in Cellar Master's were ready every day with my Manhattan and my wife's Kir Royale as soon as we sat down for our pre-dinner cocktail.  I thought they had the sound cranked up a little too loud for some of the shows and left early.  It was kind of a lazy voyage for us but just what we needed.  One thing that bothered us, the whirlpool hot tubs in the Solarium were not working properly.  Overall, the Summit is in great shape for an older ship and sailing aboard will be a treat for those looking ahead.

[Hawkstar33]

10 hours ago, RichYak said:

Thanks for the review. Can you just confirm that your description of the buffet is accurate for dinner hours. I’m sailing Summit in August and plan on having some evening meals in OVC. 

6:00 was dinner in the buffet.  If you are hungry earlier, there is always pizza, salad, and fruit available.  Honestly, multiple choices are the way to go.  They changed the menu theme every lunch and dinner, as well as keeping the make your own nachos station open. Another fan favorite, just like the burgers.  Try the Oxtail, awesome.  Mussels, shrimp, scallops, in a mild light red sauce, was great...Enjoy

[mahdnc]

Good to read and thanks for posting. We will be on her next year for a canal cruise. 

[1Virgo]

Totally agree with Hawkstar33.  We just got home from the 10 dayer on the Summit, and so impressed by the staff and crew.  Food was back to what it used to be.  No meatloaf in the Blu. LOL.     

The Blu……. the manager, host, to servers and sommelier, bent over backwards to make sure everyone was happy and pleased.  I have a serious allergy, and they really took care.

MDR only did a few lunches towards the end but the MDR manager understood, assigned the same waiter to our area and that what I ate, was safe for me

 

The ship was renovated in 2019. Love what they did

 

Totally understand why the Summit was voted #1. It may be 20 years old, but this ship has soul.  Can’t wait to book her again

[Laurab23]

So happy to read all the positives. We love the Summit and will be boarding her May 15. I will miss being on her next years. After so many cruises, she feels like home to me.

 

Laura

[rodndonna]

Really happy to read this thread as well.

 

We booked Summit after coming off our first X cruise on the Millennium in April. We liked it so much, we booked a very similar itinerary (southern carib out of San Juan) on the Summit which I believe is similar to Millennium.

[SSAtlantic]

We got off yesterday also. We love the Summit and ease of sailing from Bayonne. We also thought food  quality was greatly improved from our Reflection cruise in January. Several items were back on the MDR menus, quality was better and Ocean View looked good for dinner. There was not a carving station that I saw for dinner, but the back  grill was open for cook to order with chicken, steak and a fish-salmon or red snapper that I saw. The crew everywhere were super. Wish we had booked the Bermuda  cruise following too, but one of us still works.😢

[AF-1]

Thank you for the nice honest review

[DISFANS3]

Thanks for info on Summit, we will be on her Oct 2024 for the Southern out of San Juan...

[horseymike]

We were on the first 4 night segment of this b to b mentioned by Hawkstar 33.

The positive comments about the crew are all spot on . To say they do a fantastic job 

would be an understatement.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Summit is my favorite ship.  The crew is awesome.  I also like her size.

[cruise wizard]

Our first Summit cruises will be B2B's starting on 9/10 & 21 doing the Canada & New England itineraries. So looking forward to some cooler weather, great seafood and possibly some Fall foliage. 

[marieps]

Linda (Post #16) and I met on Summit's repositioning last year.  It was a fabulous cruise and I totally agree with the OP about the staff.  M class still has its charms.  I hope =X= keeps them sailing.

[davekathy]

4 minutes ago, cruise wizard said:

Our first Summit cruises will be B2B's starting on 9/10 & 21 doing the Canada & New England itineraries. So looking forward to some cooler weather, great seafood and possibly some Fall foliage. 

If you have the opportunity to go out on the helipad (by invitation) when cruiseing up the Saint Lawrence river I would suggest doing it. Great views and lots of fall colors along the way. Lots of great Kodak moments. Champagne (sparkling wine), mimosas and OJ was flowing.  We did the NE/Canada cruise on the Summit September 2019 and September 2022. Agree with others about the post revolutionized Summit. 

[Julie Jean]

Great review - we were on Summit in April and loved it.

[cruise wizard]

33 minutes ago, davekathy said:

If you have the opportunity to go out on the helipad (by invitation) when cruiseing up the Saint Lawrence river I would suggest doing it. Great views and lots of fall colors along the way. Lots of great Kodak moments. Champagne (sparkling wine), mimosas and OJ was flowing.  We did the NE/Canada cruise on the Summit September 2019 and September 2022. Agree with others about the post revolutionized Summit. 

 

Thanks for the suggestion. We do overnights in Quebec which is a big plus.

[davekathy]

15 minutes ago, cruise wizard said:

 

Thanks for the suggestion. We do overnights in Quebec which is a big plus.

Agree. In 2019 I believe (?) we were docked at Terminal 30 which required a free shuttle ride into downtown Quebec. In 2022 we were docked at Terminal 21/22. Walk off and walk on. Much nicer terminal and very convenient to downtown Quebec. On the 2019 and 2022 Summit NE/Canada cruises we had one kid on each cruise. Anyway enjoy the Summit. 

Edited May 7, 2023 by davekathy

[Carried_Away]

Thanks for your review. I'll be embarking on the Summit four weeks from today, and you gave me some things to look forward to.

[George C]

We did summit in March only thing I would like to add is we were extremely disappointed in Tuscan speciality but totally loved Le Petit Chef and we did both multiple times.

[jelayne]

7 minutes ago, George C said:

We did summit in March only thing I would like to add is we were extremely disappointed in Tuscan speciality but totally loved Le Petit Chef and we did both multiple times.

We were on the 4/22 and 4/26 sailings and were also very disappointed in Tuscan, food was served barely warm and extremely over salted. 
I won a free dinner in a specialty restaurant so we booked LPC.  The day of our reservation they called at 3:30 to see if we would move from the 8:15 time to  5:45 due to a lack of booking.  We regularly eat at 8 so 5:45 was a no go, so they cancelled our booking.  We had the Retreat Concierge checked on other nights and rebook on a night that we were told they would offer the 2nd seating.  Same thing happened, with them calling to ask to move to 5:45 and we declined. They called back a short time later and said to come at 8:15 as the others booked did not want to move.   We went and there were only 12 guests including 2 crew.  Food was very good.  In talking with staff they had not had sufficient booking any  night to support 2 seatings.  It struck us that they could have tried moving to 1 seating at 7 and may have had success with combing the 5:45 and 8:15. 
 

Other than Tuscan the food and service in the MDR, OV, Blu and Luminae was excellent.