Summit? Hawaii? Advice?

[Euphemus]

Hi all...I'm contemplating the 15 day Hawaii cruise out of San Diego for next Christmas/New Years.

 

I know that there are some possible changes in the implementation of cabotage laws (Thanks, NCL!) and that this cruise may be altered somehow, but I'm not too worried about that.

 

I've not sailed with Celebrity so I'm curious about two things:

 

1) How's the Summit? A brief look at the boards and I don't see too many posts about her. I can read the reviews, but I'm curious if there are any CCers who have sailed on her recently who can comment? Ship shape? Service? Entertainment?

 

2) Anyone done the circle Hawaii cruise out of CA on any ship (or line for that matter?) particularly in Dec? How's the weather at sea? What's it like having 3 sea days in a row?

 

Any comments, insights or advice are welcome. Thanks in advance!

[cereus]

We took the Summit to Hawaii from San Diego and back. Our first trip on the open seas with several sea days. It was a little chilly the first couple of day out but then warmed up. The Summit is due a refurb soon but it is a beautiful ship. The service is almost perfect. The ambiance of the ship is great and relaxing for the sea days. The thalassotherapy pool is wonderful and free. Just cruised HAL for the first time and loved it but the T pool is not free and not as big and nice. The food on the Summit was not quite as good as on the Zuiderdam but the dining room is much prettier. I think you will enjoy it! There are several reviews on the board if you want more info.

Barb

[Tisambas]

We took that cruise in Oct on the Summit and had a lovely time. Some folks complained about it looking a little worn, but we did not let that ruin our vacation. The days at see were great- so relaxing. Expect chilly weather for the first two days out of San Diego- it was cold in October, but nice around Hawaii.

 

Our only complaint was the smoking on board. The smoker from the balcony next to us really fouled up the air on our balcony as well as in the room when the door was open. Theyneedd to improve the circulation in the lounges also- but great crew!

[CaliforniaDreamin]

Great ship, great crew, great service, great food and great itinerary.

[Shirley and Les]

We were on the Infinity (sister ship to Summit) on a 14 night roundtrip SD to Hawaii in April, 2007. It was a great trip.

The back to back to back sea days seemed to fly by. They had a Hawaiian 'things to do' expert and two hula dancers on board. They had sight-seeing lectures, hula instrucions and lei making lessons to help with the time. There was also a naturalist on board having daily lectures. This coupled with the inevitable BINGO :rolleyes: and gambling lessons (like I need help on learning how to lose money ;) ) made the days go quickly.

A CC verandah cabin makes room service breakfast a real delight on those sea days.

The biggest drawback is that you don't get to see all that much of Hawaii due to the amount of time to get there and back. Looking back, an 11 or 12 day one way cruise would have given us a better mix of sea days and days in Hawaii.

Les

[TravelingT]

I think it is the Mercury sailing the circle cruise out of Hawaii next summer. I am booked on that sailing out of San Diego on December 19.

[goofysmom99]

The biggest drawback is that you don't get to see all that much of Hawaii due to the amount of time to get there and back. Looking back, an 11 or 12 day one way cruise would have given us a better mix of sea days and days in Hawaii.

Les

 

We thought the same thing and found a 11-day, 1-way cruise on the Millennium for Oct 6th. We switched from a 15-day round trip on the Mercury because the shorter one includes Kauai. Also, we love aft cabins on M-Class ships.;)

[LuLaLuvlee]

We did the trip you are looking at this past Christmas. We really enjoyed it. It was chilly in LA and on the first 2 days but after that the temp was fine except of course lol on top of the volcano where it was C O L D. I was told there were 400 kids aboard but only 2x in our 15 day trip did we really have a run in with kids. I had to use my teacher voice one aft when the kids were running to and fro in the aft hallway and they immediately stopped and apologised and once a big group of girls pushed into my DH in his wheelchair but that's it. We never had to wait more than a sec or 2 for the elevators and we always found somethng fun to do. The lei making is loads of fun. I would have preferred more time in Honolulu than in Maui but that's a personal opinion (my DH doesn't tender).

[judyfssw]

We were on the Summit Hawaii Circle in October. My very long review is posted. We enjoyed the sea days so enjoyed this cruise. As we are usually beach people on vacations, this was good for us.