March 26th Hawaii Cruise On The Summit

[Keith1010]

I have updated this review from one I posted earlier.

 

Keith

 

My wife and I sailed on the March 26 Hawaii cruise on-board the Celebrity Summit. After having sailed with Celebrity six times starting in 1993, this was our first cruise on Celebrity since 1998. My wife and I have wonderful memories of all of our Celebrity cruises and over the years have recommended Celebrity to friends. We always found Celebrity to have excellent ships, service and food.

 

I wanted to briefly provide our comments about the cruise.

 

In terms of accommodations we did stay in the Penthouse Suite and I would have to say that there is probably no better suite on the high seas in terms of size, décor and overall beauty.

 

We were very pleased with the level of service throughout the ship. We had an outstanding waiter and assistant waiter in the dining room. The cabin steward was good and the butler was exceptional. We found the other staff who we talked with from those at the reception desk, to the Captain’s Club Hostess to the bar staff to the Hotel Manager to those in the stores, etc. to be very helpful and very pleasant. Special kudos to the sports acitivities person who we would see daily up at the basketball court. He was very polite and again very helpful. We had some wonderful basketball games throughout the cruise.

 

I also want to mention how nice the Captain was. He was both the youngest captain we have ever sailed with and also the most out-going Captain with a wonderful sense of humor. And, he is the first captain who played in a basketball game with crew members against the passenger's, including myself. He sets an excellent example for others to follow.

 

We were pleased with the on-board entertainment and with the other activities offered not only at sea days but when the ship was in port. We also enjoyed the on-board exercise facilities along with the various exercise classes offered throughout the cruise. In short, Celebrity provides a nice diverse set of activities.

 

We also enjoyed the ship itself. It probably is in need of some updating at this point though given wear and tear.

 

The itinerary was wonderful from all of the sea days to and from Hawaii to the five Hawaiian Islands that we visited. We were fortunate to have very nice weather in Hawaii.

 

We met some very nice people, especially those from Cruise Critic.

 

Disembarkation was very organized and very timely. There was plenty of staff available as we left the ship and in the passenger terminal. The luggage was well organized.

 

A few passenger's had the Norwalk Virus. Celebrity did an excellent job keeping the ship clean. I remember one morning while I was excercising and during a one hour period teams of three people cleaned all of the exercise equipment three times each.

 

There are a couple of areas that Celebrity needs to improve in my opinion.

 

Embarkation, at least in Los Angeles needs improving. There was confusion as to where to stand to first enter the security area. For those who arrived early, many of us ended up standing on three different lines. While some of the blame for this goes to those who operate the port, I do think it would have been helpful if Celebrity had a few representatives outside to ensure that the passenger’s were on the correct line and given some guidance to the passenger’s in terms of boarding times and the boarding procedure. With that said, once we got through security there were plenty of Celebrity personnel available for check-in and getting on the ship at that point was a breeze.

 

The other area of improvement is with the food, particularly at lunch and in the dining room at dinner. We always thought this was strength of Celebrity, which clearly placed them ahead of their competitors in these areas. However, this appears no longer to be the case. We thought the lunches were disappointing from the limited choices in the restaurant to the small portions and were also disappointed with some of the meals at dinner. The salads are way too small and lack the quality that we used to come to expect from Celebrit and the entrees were disappointing in terms of quality and presentation. Our experience with Celebrity in the 1990’s was that presentation and the quality of ingredients were areas in which they really emphasized. This appears to not be the case today.

 

With that said, we ate in the Normandy restaurant on two evenings and greatly enjoyed dining in this restaurant. The décor of the restaurant, the service and the food is the best on any cruise line that we have sailed to date, including those that are found on the luxury cruise lines.

 

After a few days, we also found a place where we could enjoy lunch. This is the aqua spa where they served both healthy breakfasts and healthy lunches. We wish we would have discovered this area from the beginning of the cruise.

 

The final area in which some improvement would be nice is in the area of room amenities. To our surprise, slippers, and a small sewing kit are no longer provided, nor even a shoehorn. These are items that one expects to find in a premium hotel and therefore one should expect to find on a premium cruise line such as Celebrity.

 

In summary, we enjoyed our cruise a great deal. We sailed with many nice passengers, visited wonderful ports of call in Hawaii, and greatly enjoyed our accommodations along with the entertainment and the wonderful service provided by the Celebrity staff throughout the ship. Again, the area that Celebrity disappointed related to the overall food quality in both the main restaurant and in their buffets.

 

Keith

[Nancynurse]

Keith,

 

Nice review! We pretty much ditto your sentiments. Nice meeting you and your wife. Glad you made it home safely.

 

Nancy

[BEAV]

Keith,

 

As always, a very well written review. If, by chance, you were in 6147, we were fortunate to sail Summit through the Panama Canal with friends who occupied that Penthouse. In fact, Gary enjoyed his surprise 50th birthday party in 6147! By any chance was your butler named Jonathan?

 

Our first Celebrity cruise was on Mercury in February 2000, shortly before the takeover from RCCL, I believe. Food quality and presentation was very good on that cruise, but we've never found it to be the same on subsequent cruises since the M-class entered the picture. The exception, of course, being the specialty restaurants.

 

We are sailing Constellation in a few weeks on a Transatlantic voyage and are keeping our hopes up for as many nights in the specialty restaurant as possible!

 

Thanks again for sharing such a thorough review.

[Keith1010]

Thanks, Nancy. It was great to meet you, your husband and your two boys. Glad you had a safe trip home as well.

 

Keith

[Keith1010]

Beav, thank you very much for the very nice comments.

 

As it turned out we were in 6148. We had Rikki as our butler. He was truly exceptional.

 

Your upcoming cruise on the Constellation sounds great along with your plans to dine in the specialty restaurant. On the two nights we ate in the specialty restaurant there were very few people dining. I would say around six to eight table had guests dining. We were told that most nights there were very few guests dining in it, except for one of the sea days during the portion of the trip from Long Beach to Hawaii when it was full. Not sure why it wasn't very full as it was wonderful.

 

Keith

[gkm]

Keith, Bob and I enjoyed meeting you on the cruise.

 

Garry

[Keith1010]

Garry, it was a pleasure meeting both you and Bob on the cruise as well. Thanks to both of you for having brought together so many wonderful fellow passenger's from Cruise Critic on our cruise. We enjoyed the two parties on board.

 

Keith