Summit Review Panama Canal 2/26-3/12

[Socal404]

Here is my review of our Feb. 26 – Mar. 12, Panama Canal cruise on the Summit. These are my views, which are obviously open for interpretation.

We flew from Los Angeles into Ft. Lauderdale a day early. The trip was really very uneventful. We arrived at 7:30pm, and were dropped off at the Holiday Inn Express by 8:30pm. The hotel is very clean and quite adequate for a one night stay. Thanks to TrentS for his input. The only negative thing that I can say about the hotel is that they have a very small shuttle van, and there were many more people to be picked up than room in the van. The driver told people he couldn’t take them, so to just take a cab, and the hotel would pick up the tab. We made a shuttle reservation that night to be picked up the next morning at 11:30, to be taken to the port. The price is $6 per person, which can be added to you hotel bill.

 

We were picked up at 11:00, actually, on Sunday morning by the shuttle and taken to the cruise port. The hotel is literally only about ½ mile from the port. There were about 12 cruise ships in port that Sunday. We arrived at the terminal by about 11:30, since we had to drop off some people at another terminal. Check in was extremely easy. Granted, we were suite passengers, but we were checked in and in the waiting room by about 11:45. We did have a 45 minute wait because the rumored Coast Guard inspection was indeed happening. But, by 12:30 we started boarding and were on the ship and sipping our champagne by 12:40. We dropped off our carry-on stuff to our cabin, but were asked to visit the buffet since the cabin wasn’t ready yet. We went to the Waterfall Grill, but had to find a table and wait for the buffet to open. Everything was pushed back because of the inspection. I believe they started serving about 1:10. We didn't actually leave Ft. Lauderdale until 7:30pm, because there were some late arriving passengers, who were arriving from Miami Airport. Here are my observations of the cruise:

 

CABIN: We had an SS suite on deck 6 (Penthouse deck). The size was very adequate, but note totally worth the extra money. I would compare to a mini-suite on Princess. We had a butler, although that was not why we chose this category. Nelson was our butler. He was terrific! We asked him to bring breakfast to our cabin at 8:00 every morning, which he did without fail. We’re not big breakfast eaters, so we just asked for milk, hot chocolate and some pastries from the Cova Cove. As others have mentioned, the almond and chocolate croissants are very good. He brought little snacks around 4:00, too. On the first day we asked him to bring us 2 shrimp cocktails (12 shrimp total) every afternoon at around 5:00. There was never any question about having shrimp cocktails brought to the cabin, and there was never an extra charge. They were there every afternoon.

 

 

DINING ROOM: We had main seating in the Cosmopolitan Restaurant. Main seating is at 6:00. We will not do early seating again. It’s just too early, especially if you have a late excursion, which we did on 2 different occasions. Early seating prevents you from hitting the pools in the late afternoon, or participating in the late afternoon activities. If we had late seating, the shrimp cocktail would have held us over until dinner. Now they were like an appitizer. The reason we didn’t do late seating was it didn’t start until 8:30. The “anytime seating”, ala Princess sounds like the way to go. We sat at a table for 8. The other six people were all together. They were from Texas, and they were wonderful table mates. If it wasn’t for the fact that we liked sitting with them, we would have changed to late seating. The food was very good. They usually had 4 appetizers, 3 soups, 2 salads, and about 5 entrees. They don’t put the fact that they have some things like steak and Caesar salad everynight. I was always reading about the shrimp cocktail for an appetizer question. Yes, you can get it any and every night if you want it, for FREE! Lobster night was the last formal night. Contrary to other reviews, I’m told that the lobster was very good. I didn’t have one as I don’t like it. Our waiter took orders and told everyone that after she delivered the entrée she would ask if anyone wanted more lobster. Everyone at our table, except for me asked for 2 more to be brought. No questions asked. She was a sweetheart. Her name is Edina, and she is from Hungary. Our assistant waiter was James. He was very good, too.

 

WATERFALL GRILL: The buffet was your standard fare. We ate there everyday at lunch and a couple of times for breakfast. I tried an omelet once, and the highly recommended waffles. They were good, but not great. Breakfast is served 7:30-10:30, lunch 11:30-2:30. They had a specialty lunch buffet on the port side almost every day. The pasta and pizza station is open all day, until midnight. The only problem I have with the buffet was that it was not open in the evening, except for once. The buffet was open on the evening we were in Acapulco, because there were quite a few excursions that returned after dinner was served. If you want informal dining, you have to make a reservation for the Waterfall Grill. We thought of doing this, but didn’t. The grill by the pool has hamburgers, hot dogs, a special of the day, and french fries. The desserts are good, but always seemed to be somewhat soggy. They had homemade ice cream daily from noon to about 9pm. It was very good, but since it was homemade, it was usually very soft.

 

ENTERTAINMENT: The entertainment was good. We didn’t go to the show every night, but what we did see was good. We tried going to the lounge show in the Rendezvous Lounge every evening. The entertainers played for an hour before each dining seating. They would then pick up again around 9:45. I heard that this was the entertainer’s last cruise. Changes were made in LA at the end of this cruise. There was BINGO each and everyday, but we never heard any annoying announcements. As a matter of fact there were never any announcements, except for the daily noontime one given by the captain and cruise director. One negative comment was that I hated the Edge of the Earth lounge at the top of the ship on deck 11. They converted it for the Cirque ‘dSoleil (sorry about the spelling). The “Edge of the Earth” lounge needs to be reverted back to the way it was. I've seen pictures of it from the Infinity. They need to get rid of the beds at the front of the room and put back chairs. That would be a great viewing spot. The few chairs they did have up front were grabbed up on the day were passed through the Panama Canal for a great view of the locks.

 

CRUISE DIRECTOR: John Howell started off just OK, but he really grew on us. By the end of the cruise, I thought he was great. He interacted with the guests to where he seemed like your friend. His background includes show business, so he was good on the deck parties where he would teach the guests the different dances. He impressed me when he invited an elderly female guest, who was alone, to get up on the dance floor for a dance. I’ve never seen another cruise director do that. He also made it a point to join both Cruise Critic parties for about an hour to chat with us.

 

STAFF: We found the staff on the Summit to be excellent. Our waiter, Edina, and assistant waiter, James, were extremely friendly. Nelson, our butler, was great, too. The only objection I had was that the cocktail waiters were too pushy, always coming by asking if you wanted a drink.

 

POOLS: There are 2 pools both on deck 10. One is outside and the other is the T-Pool. The T-Pool is in an enclosed area by the spa. It is like a large salt water Jacuzzi. The lounge chairs at the outdoor pool are your standard plastic loungers with a cushion. The loungers in the T-Pool area were much nicer. They are wood framed with a nice thicker cushion. The only problem is that there are not enough of them. I was able to find one around 9:30am the first few days. But, as soon as people discovered them, they were impossible to find as early as 9:00am. They could use many more of them.

 

PORTS OF CALL: We stopped in Aruba for about 18 hours. We took a snorkeling catamaran. My wife’s only comment was that there wasn’t enough snorkeling time. That evening we went on a bar hopping excursion. We hit 5 bars in 4 hours. It got to be too loud for me, but we tried it. Our Panama Canal trip took us about 8 hours from Atlantic to Pacific. The locks were very fascinating. I grew up in upstate New York, where the Erie Canal once existed. So, I’ve gone through locks before, but not like this. The ship was just long and narrow enough to go through it. You could touch the walls of the lock from the railing. Our stop in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, was interesting. We took the Arial Tram excursion, through the rain forest. Again, interesting, but too expensive for what you get. It was $118 for the 4 hour tour, which included a 1½ hour bus ride each way to get there. The roads were terrible, to say the least. The next stop was Hualtuco, Mexico. It is a small fishing town, which in a few years will be like Cabo. Again, took a catamaran trip around the area. It was OK. Did some shopping there, too. Acapulco was the next port of call. From the ship it looks beautiful. We did the Cliff Diver/City Tour excursion. The cliff divers’ show was done especially for excursions at that time of day. It was good. The bus trip though the city was very informative. It was better than I thought it would be. We actually had a nice, air conditioned bus. Our final stop was Cabo San Lucas. Boy has this area changed since the last time we were there about 8 years ago. The marina was huge compared to before. We did a whale watching boat trip. It was suppose to be 2½ hours, but ended up only 2, because we had to get back to the ship, which was leaving at 4pm. The ship actually had to wait for us since this was a ship sponsored excursion. My only gripe was that the excursions were too expensive for what you got.

 

 

 

WEATHER: All in all the weather was pleasantly nice. It was hot and very humid, but I think cooler than it might have been, say in April or May, probably because it was usually partly sunny. I’m use to the humidity, being from the northeast, but not my wife who is from northern California. We had very bad weather on the Cabo to LA leg of the trip. Seas were about 25 feet, with winds 15-30 knots. This was due to the storm that was in southern California that weekend. My wife, amongst others got sick. She and many others never made it to dinner the final night.

 

DISEMBARKATION: After reading the horror stories from others about getting off the ship in Los Angeles, I didn’t know what to expect. It was actually very good. We were off the ship by 10:15am. Something new for us, everyone had to go through immigration. You were given a time to go to the Celebrity Theatre to meet with the immigration people. You then waited in the public areas until your color was called.

 

Don’t hesitate to ask any questions. We’ve kept the daily Celebrity Todays, so can answer many questions.

[Andy]

Hi Socal !

 

I am glad you had a great time on Summit. We thought John Howell was excellent as well. Thanks for your review !

[Sailingseas]

We too were on your cruise. I wrote a review shortly after our return (while my memory held.) I too felt that, with the exception of Aculpulco, the excursions on this itinerary weren't great. However, it was still a wonderful cruise, wasn't it? We have enjoyed being home and eating fresh fish again, however :)

[stebul]

Thank you very much for the thorough review. We planned on taking Summit on same itinerary November 25, but last week Celebrity changed the embarkation port from Fort Lauderdale to San Juan. They also are stopping at Curacao the day before Aruba.

[Sailingseas]

We went to Curacao several years ago and loved it. Personally, I think one more port day improves this cruise. Eight sea days was a bit much for me, although you find many people who love that many sea days.

[music]

Thanks for the review. I'm booked to go to the Panama canal, and hopefully my next cruise will be on the Summit to Alaska.

You mentioned upstate NY. I used to live in Rochester.

thanks again!