Summit Review: April 4 sailing

[Terre]

We got back last weekend from a wonderful cruise on the Summit.

 

Celebrity Summit: April 4-11, 2009

This was our 18th cruise and third with Celebrity.

 

We left Charlotte around 8:20 and arrived in San Juan around 11:30. We grabbed a taxi and were on board and having lunch by 12:15.

 

The ship is nice, in good condition, and very clean. They were always working on it, painting, cleaning glass, etc. I did step on some of the soft spots others have mentioned in the dining room, but this was no big deal to me.

 

We had a pretty good roll call going and some of us met the first day outside the Mast Bar. It was great to meet people you’ve been “talking” to for the past six months. Celebrity also held our Cruise Critic Reception in Michael’s Club on Sunday morning and we met some others on the roll call and some who were not on the roll call. This was a very nice reception. The cruise director, as well as some of the ship’s officers, were there and it was nice to get to meet them personally.

 

We have been to all but one of the ports before and decided to make this a relaxation cruise, so we slept in most mornings and had naps every afternoon. It actually was nice to not have to get up early and rush off to a tour or excursion and I really needed the rest after a long school year.

 

St. Maarten

Our first stop was St. Maarten. We booked a tour with Bernard’s and this was a very nice tour. He offered soft drinks and water throughout the day as well as some very strong rum punch. Bernard’s son, Randy was with us. We stopped a small shop first and most of us bought something. We then toured through the Dutch side and over to the French side. The two are quite different. We had been here before, but just went to Orient Beach and didn’t have a tour.

 

Bernard dropped us off at Orient Beach for a while and we enjoyed that. Saw some topless people who quite frankly, shouldn’t have been, :eek: but… The French side is really beautiful and we had lunch in a little café in the marketplace there. We also went to Maho Beach for a while. This is really neat because it’s right beside the airport and airplanes fly right over your head when they come in for a landing! Both big jets and smaller twin engines. This is a must see if you are in St. Maarten.

 

Dominica

Our second day was Dominica and since we’d been here before we really didn’t get off the ship. It was a beautiful day, however, and I’m sure a tour would have been great. Got some much needed rest this day.

 

Grenada

We have been here before, too, and took a tour so this time we spent the day on the beach. We took a water taxi over to Grand Anse Beach and stayed several hours. Another beautiful day, just relaxing in the sun. I did buy three spice necklaces for $5; kept one to replace my old one and gave two away. My chair was under a tree and I saw something brown lying in the sand. I picked them up and a lady passing by who lives there saw my puzzeled look and told me they were almonds. I was under an almond tree! Still haven't been able to crack them open, but trust me, I will!

 

Tobago

Tobago is the only port we had not been to before and really wanted to see it. As Murphy’s Law would have it, this was the only day it rained! Once the rain stopped and the sun came out, we decided to head out and grab a taxi for a tour around the island. We drove through the streets and up to the fort. Got a few good shots in before the rain returned. It rained and rained and of course we weren’t able to see the beautiful island that I’m sure is there. A little disappointing, but you should always expect rain when you’re on one of these islands.

 

Barbados

Here we had booked a snorkeling excursion with Silver Moon II. This catamaran normally takes only 12 passengers, but because they were having to use the Silver Moon III which is normally used for 24 passengers for a ship excursion, the Silver Moon II took on 24. This was a very clean boat and our Captain, Ben, was nice, not very friendly, but he would answer questions when asked about something. It was a while before he offered any drinks, but no one seemed to mind. This was not your typical “party” catamaran where the drinks begin flowing as soon as you get on and the captain and crew are very entertaining and mingle with everyone. I think Ben was ready for the season to end.

 

We did stop at two places for snorkeling and since I don’t snorkel, I stayed on the boat and chatted with Ben and a few others who stayed on. He was very nice and friendly to me and I enjoyed the rather quietness and laziness of this time. My husband said he saw a large sea turtle with some small sharks under it and that was about all. We made another stop for snorkeling before our last stop and lunch. Lunch consisted of flying fish, BBQ chicken, salads, rice and rolls. I thought the lunch was very good. I did have a problem with one of the kids though who dropped the tongs to the fish on the floor, picked them up and put them back on top of the fish. She then stood at the salad bowl and picked lettuce out of the bowl with her hands and at one point got some with the tongs and put the tongs in her mouth. At this point her mother did take them from her, but placed them back in the salad bowl. Needless to say, lunch was over for me!:mad:

 

All in all we enjoyed this excursion very much. We saw some beautiful landscape and homes while on this excursion. I would book with Silver Moon again.

 

Food

We were disappointed in the buffet and the selections in the dining room. The deli was pretty good as well as the Aqua Spa Café, and of course it’s hard to mess up hamburgers (although Carnival’s hamburgers are hard to beat and are better) and hot dogs and pizza which were pretty much always available. I did enjoy the pasta station, but they gave me waaay too much spaghetti. I didn’t like the buffet breakfast and we stuck with the dining room for that. We tried the famous waffles, but were disappointed with those…they were weren’t hot,but looked pretty, though. They cook up a lot of them and put them in the heat pan, which is why mine weren’t hot. There is a very long line for this station so you’ll need to be patient.

 

I stuck with the beef dishes in the dining room for dinner and they were always good. The drunken shrimp linguini was too buttery and I couldn’t take much more of that after I ate the two drunken shrimp. One of our table mates had it, too, and couldn’t finish hers either. Another table mate ordered a fish dish on a different night and didn’t like it.

 

I had the marzipan cake and crème brulee and liked both. The other nights I stuck with ice cream. No French onion soup, which disappointed me. I’m used to that on formal nights. Our waiter said we could special order it, so I did through the maitre ‘d for the last formal night, but it never materialized. The lobster tail was small and had shrimp and scallops with it. It came with a sauce, so there was no hot butter. Didn’t like that.

 

And then, there’s the ice cream. It’s open in the buffet for a few hours each day and they have different selections every day. We never missed that!

 

I have to say that Carnival and Princess have much better quality of food and selections than we had on the Summit. Obviously we didn't go hungry, though...I gained 3 pounds and my husband gained 8.

 

Our service in the dining room was as good and in some cases better than on other lines. We had a great wait team: Mayhasa and Nana. They did an excellent job of serving us and remembering our likes and dislikes. They also had great personalities, which also adds to a great dining experience. Celebrity still has those nice touches like the palate cleanser before dessert on formal nights and scraping the crumbs off the table…we do miss that on other ships.

 

Cabin

We booked a Concierge Class cabin and enjoyed it. The balcony was a good size and we did spend quite a bit of time on it. We had fresh flowers on the dressing table as well as a rose in the bathroom all week. We had the small bottles of shampoo, conditioner, lotion and body wash, the “upgraded” bath mat, but those towels were definitely not what we expected. They were like sandpaper! I don’t think I’ve ever used towels so rough. After the first night, I showered in the spa every day. They have much bigger showers and very soft towels.

 

We could never get our cabin cold enough for us and the air did cut off during the night every night and it would get quite hot. We mentioned this to the housekeeping crew member who stopped by to make sure our steward, Sofyan was doing a good job. Within 5 minutes, someone from maintenance came by to check it, but never really did anything. We usually bring a small fan, but everyone talked about how cold their cabins were that we didn’t time…we will from now on.

 

Sofyan, our cabin steward and Marco, his assistant, did an excellent job of keeping our cabin cleaned up. With this class, we also got canapés every afternoon, which was great when coming back from an excursion and you’re starving! We asked for cheese and crackers on the first day and we had them every afternoon after that.

 

We couldn’t ask for a better cabin steward or assistant.

 

Entertainment

 

We went to all the shows and I have to say, we were not disappointed. The production shows were excellent and the singers and dancers were some of the best we’ve seen on any ship. The costumes were in very good condition and all were beautiful.

 

The comedian, Jeff Neese, was very funny. He came out into the audience to talk to the passengers and stopped at my husband. Asked him where he was from and Mike said Charlotte. Jeff talked a few minutes and then asked him his name. Mike said Charlotte. I looked at him and said your name’s not Charlotte and Jeff said, your name’s Charlotte? with a puzzled look on his face. Well, this got me laughing and when something is really funny, I tend to snort. Okay, I’m laughing and snorting so hard that I’m crying and have covered my face with my hand. I finally look up and Jeff has that dang mic right in my face! Then he sees my camera and takes it up on stage, tells the audience to lift their hands in the air, lean to the right and he turns the camera sideways takes the picture. Of course it looks like the ship's going down...He is really funny.

 

There was also a singing impressionist, Karen Granger. She was very good. She sang songs by Cher, The Bee Gees, Celine Dion, Tina Turner, Willie Nelson and others. She sounded just like them and everyone seemed to love her.

 

The Aerialists

The Aerialists, Roberto and Doeroto, are excellent. I’m amazed at the acrobatics they can do. You won’t want to miss them.

 

Port Authority

Port Authority is an a cappella quartet that is wonderful! They sing in one of the lounges on the ship.

 

Oak Island Quartet

Oak Island Quartet is a band in the Rendez-vous lounge and they are also very good. We usually waited here and enjoyed listening to them before dinner.

 

The pool band (can’t remember their name) is also very good. Robbie Dulop in the Waterfall Cafe Bar is also very good.

 

Captain’s Club

They place a letter on the dressing table telling you about the events for the Captain’s Club members. Of course this got covered up with all the other papers so be sure to look for this. We missed the Captain’s past guest reception and when we found out about it (we’re used to getting invitations) I talked to the person in charge. She gave me a letter for the next one which is for the next level up, and also for the back stage tour.

 

We took the back stage tour and I loved that! We got to see the dressing room and some of the costumes. We met Rodney Williams, one of the main singers, and Anne Marie, one of the dancers. Both were so nice and answered questions. I was talking to Anne Marie on the way out about the costumes and she asked if I’d like to go back and see more. She couldn’t take everyone, but I had my own personal tour of the closet with all of the costumes! She showed me their wigs and costumes and they are all so beautiful. I really enjoyed this. The dancers and singers have to take care of their own costumes, cleaning and maintaining them. They also have to keep their wigs clean.

 

Anne Marie is so sweet and very beautiful. I saw her that evening after the show and she remembered me and was very nice as I'm sure she talks to so many people throughout the week.

 

Embarkation & Debarkation

Both were quick and easy. No problems here. The quickest we’ve ever had (except when hurricane Wilma was on her way to Ft. Lauderdale) and most efficient.

 

Leaving the ship on port days was even easy…no long lines waiting in the staircases for hours to get off. You don’t have to go to the theatre and get a number to leave…so easy. Of course, this could have been because we didn’t try to leave at the first announcement.

 

The only complaint we really had was menu selection and quality of food, but that didn’t ruin a wonderful cruise for us.

[Solstice23]

the waffles are best in the buffet,

 

As for the burgers...Celebrity has the best ones IMO, and our family owns a high end butcher store in Toronto area

[frito58]

Very nice review Terre. We were also on this cruise. We were a little dissapointed in the ship itself but kind of figured that would be the case going in. Our last 3 cruises were on thr AOS twice and the Glory there was a lot more to do on those ships and lot more night life. We booked this one for the itinerary and the fact we were going to be in San Juan. Met some wonderful people and had a lot of fun. The staff by the pool was the best I have ever seen so friendly and attentive.

 

Would still like to know why people are so crazy about the waffles definitley not worth the wait. A couple of times we ate dinner in the buffet what a joke, you can have spaghetti with sauce or as stir fry that was it , and sushi. yuck. Kind of sad if you don't want to go to the MDR.

[nothriver]

Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences!

I'm new to cruising and recent reviews are extremely helpful as I try to soak in all the many details.

[Terre]

Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences!

I'm new to cruising and recent reviews are extremely helpful as I try to soak in all the many details.

Thank you, nothriver, and please know that after reading reviews you should still not form a definite opinion. The experiences vary from ship to ship and time to time. We've had bad experiences on all the lines we cruised and great ones on the same lines, and as for food...that's pretty much personal opinions, so you really need to form your own opinions. I don't let the "little" things some people complain about bother me...I'm on a cruise and I'm going to enjoy it no matter what!

 

Hey, Steve! Glad you feel the same way about the food AND the waffles! The best ones I've ever had were on our Hawaii cruise, but it may just have been that banana syrup! Hope your weather's been good to ya since you got back. We've been in the 60s with some rain this week and had 84 today. Miss the weather we had last week, though.:D I enjoyed meeting our roll call gang and I have to say you pulled a good one on Joby!

 

Toronto25, sorry, but we just didn't like the burgers. As I said, food is one of those personal things -- you either like something or you don't; we just didn't like them and our waffles just weren't good. I'm sure if we'd been able to get freshly cooked ones we would have enjoyed them; I was looking forward to them.

[boobuns]

Hi Terre,

My hubby and I will be on the Summit at the end of the month, 30th departure from Barcelona. This will be out 5th cruise with Celebrity, 15th overall. Did they have casual dining for dinner at the far side of the buffet? When we were on the Constellation a few years ago they set up a dinner option for those who missed the MDR times or wanted another venue. We found ourselves eating there a few nights, the specialty restaurant(the olympic) a few nights and the MDR. Absolutely loved the specialty restaurant, amazing meal and experience!!!! And enjoyed the dinner option at the buffet area, at least at that time the food was very good, service excellent and it was nice and quite. The Aqua Spa cafe was another great surprise, delicious food that is good for you!

Looking forward to meeting roll call members.

smiles,

boobuns

[Guest Host Cheryl]

We got back last weekend from a wonderful cruise on the Summit.

 

Celebrity Summit: April 4-11, 2009

This was our 18th cruise and third with Celebrity.

 

We left Charlotte around 8:20 and arrived in San Juan around 11:30. We grabbed a taxi and were on board and having lunch by 12:15.

 

The ship is nice, in good condition, and very clean. They were always working on it, painting, cleaning glass, etc. I did step on some of the soft spots others have mentioned in the dining room, but this was no big deal to me.

 

We had a pretty good roll call going and some of us met the first day outside the Mast Bar. It was great to meet people you’ve been “talking” to for the past six months. Celebrity also held our Cruise Critic Reception in Michael’s Club on Sunday morning and we met some others on the roll call and some who were not on the roll call. This was a very nice reception. The cruise director, as well as some of the ship’s officers, were there and it was nice to get to meet them personally.

 

We have been to all but one of the ports before and decided to make this a relaxation cruise, so we slept in most mornings and had naps every afternoon. It actually was nice to not have to get up early and rush off to a tour or excursion and I really needed the rest after a long school year.

 

St. Maarten

Our first stop was St. Maarten. We booked a tour with Bernard’s and this was a very nice tour. He offered soft drinks and water throughout the day as well as some very strong rum punch. Bernard’s son, Randy was with us. We stopped a small shop first and most of us bought something. We then toured through the Dutch side and over to the French side. The two are quite different. We had been here before, but just went to Orient Beach and didn’t have a tour.

 

Bernard dropped us off at Orient Beach for a while and we enjoyed that. Saw some topless people who quite frankly, shouldn’t have been, :eek: but… The French side is really beautiful and we had lunch in a little café in the marketplace there. We also went to Maho Beach for a while. This is really neat because it’s right beside the airport and airplanes fly right over your head when they come in for a landing! Both big jets and smaller twin engines. This is a must see if you are in St. Maarten.

 

Dominica

Our second day was Dominica and since we’d been here before we really didn’t get off the ship. It was a beautiful day, however, and I’m sure a tour would have been great. Got some much needed rest this day.

 

Grenada

We have been here before, too, and took a tour so this time we spent the day on the beach. We took a water taxi over to Grand Anse Beach and stayed several hours. Another beautiful day, just relaxing in the sun. I did buy three spice necklaces for $5; kept one to replace my old one and gave two away. My chair was under a tree and I saw something brown lying in the sand. I picked them up and a lady passing by who lives there saw my puzzeled look and told me they were almonds. I was under an almond tree! Still haven't been able to crack them open, but trust me, I will!

 

Tobago

Tobago is the only port we had not been to before and really wanted to see it. As Murphy’s Law would have it, this was the only day it rained! Once the rain stopped and the sun came out, we decided to head out and grab a taxi for a tour around the island. We drove through the streets and up to the fort. Got a few good shots in before the rain returned. It rained and rained and of course we weren’t able to see the beautiful island that I’m sure is there. A little disappointing, but you should always expect rain when you’re on one of these islands.

 

Barbados

Here we had booked a snorkeling excursion with Silver Moon II. This catamaran normally takes only 12 passengers, but because they were having to use the Silver Moon III which is normally used for 24 passengers for a ship excursion, the Silver Moon II took on 24. This was a very clean boat and our Captain, Ben, was nice, not very friendly, but he would answer questions when asked about something. It was a while before he offered any drinks, but no one seemed to mind. This was not your typical “party” catamaran where the drinks begin flowing as soon as you get on and the captain and crew are very entertaining and mingle with everyone. I think Ben was ready for the season to end.

 

We did stop at two places for snorkeling and since I don’t snorkel, I stayed on the boat and chatted with Ben and a few others who stayed on. He was very nice and friendly to me and I enjoyed the rather quietness and laziness of this time. My husband said he saw a large sea turtle with some small sharks under it and that was about all. We made another stop for snorkeling before our last stop and lunch. Lunch consisted of flying fish, BBQ chicken, salads, rice and rolls. I thought the lunch was very good. I did have a problem with one of the kids though who dropped the tongs to the fish on the floor, picked them up and put them back on top of the fish. She then stood at the salad bowl and picked lettuce out of the bowl with her hands and at one point got some with the tongs and put the tongs in her mouth. At this point her mother did take them from her, but placed them back in the salad bowl. Needless to say, lunch was over for me!:mad:

 

All in all we enjoyed this excursion very much. We saw some beautiful landscape and homes while on this excursion. I would book with Silver Moon again.

 

Food

We were disappointed in the buffet and the selections in the dining room. The deli was pretty good as well as the Aqua Spa Café, and of course it’s hard to mess up hamburgers (although Carnival’s hamburgers are hard to beat and are better) and hot dogs and pizza which were pretty much always available. I did enjoy the pasta station, but they gave me waaay too much spaghetti. I didn’t like the buffet breakfast and we stuck with the dining room for that. We tried the famous waffles, but were disappointed with those…they were weren’t hot,but looked pretty, though. They cook up a lot of them and put them in the heat pan, which is why mine weren’t hot. There is a very long line for this station so you’ll need to be patient.

 

I stuck with the beef dishes in the dining room for dinner and they were always good. The drunken shrimp linguini was too buttery and I couldn’t take much more of that after I ate the two drunken shrimp. One of our table mates had it, too, and couldn’t finish hers either. Another table mate ordered a fish dish on a different night and didn’t like it.

 

I had the marzipan cake and crème brulee and liked both. The other nights I stuck with ice cream. No French onion soup, which disappointed me. I’m used to that on formal nights. Our waiter said we could special order it, so I did through the maitre ‘d for the last formal night, but it never materialized. The lobster tail was small and had shrimp and scallops with it. It came with a sauce, so there was no hot butter. Didn’t like that.

 

And then, there’s the ice cream. It’s open in the buffet for a few hours each day and they have different selections every day. We never missed that!

 

I have to say that Carnival and Princess have much better quality of food and selections than we had on the Summit. Obviously we didn't go hungry, though...I gained 3 pounds and my husband gained 8.

 

Our service in the dining room was as good and in some cases better than on other lines. We had a great wait team: Mayhasa and Nana. They did an excellent job of serving us and remembering our likes and dislikes. They also had great personalities, which also adds to a great dining experience. Celebrity still has those nice touches like the palate cleanser before dessert on formal nights and scraping the crumbs off the table…we do miss that on other ships.

 

Cabin

We booked a Concierge Class cabin and enjoyed it. The balcony was a good size and we did spend quite a bit of time on it. We had fresh flowers on the dressing table as well as a rose in the bathroom all week. We had the small bottles of shampoo, conditioner, lotion and body wash, the “upgraded” bath mat, but those towels were definitely not what we expected. They were like sandpaper! I don’t think I’ve ever used towels so rough. After the first night, I showered in the spa every day. They have much bigger showers and very soft towels.

 

We could never get our cabin cold enough for us and the air did cut off during the night every night and it would get quite hot. We mentioned this to the housekeeping crew member who stopped by to make sure our steward, Sofyan was doing a good job. Within 5 minutes, someone from maintenance came by to check it, but never really did anything. We usually bring a small fan, but everyone talked about how cold their cabins were that we didn’t time…we will from now on.

 

Sofyan, our cabin steward and Marco, his assistant, did an excellent job of keeping our cabin cleaned up. With this class, we also got canapés every afternoon, which was great when coming back from an excursion and you’re starving! We asked for cheese and crackers on the first day and we had them every afternoon after that.

 

We couldn’t ask for a better cabin steward or assistant.

 

Entertainment

 

We went to all the shows and I have to say, we were not disappointed. The production shows were excellent and the singers and dancers were some of the best we’ve seen on any ship. The costumes were in very good condition and all were beautiful.

 

The comedian, Jeff Neese, was very funny. He came out into the audience to talk to the passengers and stopped at my husband. Asked him where he was from and Mike said Charlotte. Jeff talked a few minutes and then asked him his name. Mike said Charlotte. I looked at him and said your name’s not Charlotte and Jeff said, your name’s Charlotte? with a puzzled look on his face. Well, this got me laughing and when something is really funny, I tend to snort. Okay, I’m laughing and snorting so hard that I’m crying and have covered my face with my hand. I finally look up and Jeff has that dang mic right in my face! Then he sees my camera and takes it up on stage, tells the audience to lift their hands in the air, lean to the right and he turns the camera sideways takes the picture. Of course it looks like the ship's going down...He is really funny.

 

There was also a singing impressionist, Karen Granger. She was very good. She sang songs by Cher, The Bee Gees, Celine Dion, Tina Turner, Willie Nelson and others. She sounded just like them and everyone seemed to love her.

 

The Aerialists

The Aerialists, Roberto and Doeroto, are excellent. I’m amazed at the acrobatics they can do. You won’t want to miss them.

 

Port Authority

Port Authority is an a cappella quartet that is wonderful! They sing in one of the lounges on the ship.

 

Oak Island Quartet

Oak Island Quartet is a band in the Rendez-vous lounge and they are also very good. We usually waited here and enjoyed listening to them before dinner.

 

The pool band (can’t remember their name) is also very good. Robbie Dulop in the Waterfall Cafe Bar is also very good.

 

Captain’s Club

They place a letter on the dressing table telling you about the events for the Captain’s Club members. Of course this got covered up with all the other papers so be sure to look for this. We missed the Captain’s past guest reception and when we found out about it (we’re used to getting invitations) I talked to the person in charge. She gave me a letter for the next one which is for the next level up, and also for the back stage tour.

 

We took the back stage tour and I loved that! We got to see the dressing room and some of the costumes. We met Rodney Williams, one of the main singers, and Anne Marie, one of the dancers. Both were so nice and answered questions. I was talking to Anne Marie on the way out about the costumes and she asked if I’d like to go back and see more. She couldn’t take everyone, but I had my own personal tour of the closet with all of the costumes! She showed me their wigs and costumes and they are all so beautiful. I really enjoyed this. The dancers and singers have to take care of their own costumes, cleaning and maintaining them. They also have to keep their wigs clean.

 

Anne Marie is so sweet and very beautiful. I saw her that evening after the show and she remembered me and was very nice as I'm sure she talks to so many people throughout the week.

 

Embarkation & Debarkation

Both were quick and easy. No problems here. The quickest we’ve ever had (except when hurricane Wilma was on her way to Ft. Lauderdale) and most efficient.

 

Leaving the ship on port days was even easy…no long lines waiting in the staircases for hours to get off. You don’t have to go to the theatre and get a number to leave…so easy. Of course, this could have been because we didn’t try to leave at the first announcement.

 

The only complaint we really had was menu selection and quality of food, but that didn’t ruin a wonderful cruise for us.

 

Nice review and great photos. Thanks for sharing.

[liverpoollad]

Hi Terre.

 

Thanks for your well balanced review.

 

Re., entertainment,I hope it is as good as you found it, as I feel that although cruise lines advertise "Top quality shows" I usually find them too middle of the road for my liking,that said I never find them bad.

A question on wine at dinner. When paying the $25 corkage fee do they also add the 15% charge on top.

 

boobuns.

My wife & I also are on the Summit on the 30th,we are now just thinking of what to pack,and I am also going to finalise our itinerary for the port days.

Getting excited now. Cheers

[Solstice23]

Steve did you try dinner at the Bistro at the back of the ship, by calling and making a reservation?? because thats great food, the Sushi, pasta station and stirfry is for a snack. I eat sushi alot and I enjoyed the selection on the Summit.

 

Food is subjective. but we enjoy the food overall more on Celebrity over the other lines esp RCCL. But in the end its the service and the Ship Design that make us sail Celebrity not the food

[jetertorre]

Terre-

 

I was on the 4/4 sailing as well. Your review is spot on as far as our mutual experiences go.

 

The one thing that I would take a bit further was the question of the dining room food. It was HORRID! Tough steaks, smelly seafood that was mealy to the bite, bland/tasteless dishes. I kept waiting for it to get better but it never happened. By the time we hit Barbados, we had given up and decided to stick with the buffet where the food was better although I agree the chocies were limited and the times that certain things were available was puzzling.

 

Did you try the pizza and the stir fry stations? The two staffers who were typically running those stations were really cranky, no? We started calling them the pizza **** and the stir fry **** (like the Seinfeld soup ****). Overall the staff were very nice and helpful but those two guys were always PO'd. LOL.

 

We found the wait staff in the DR to be very good and it's not their fault that they have to serve horrid food. Our cabin steward was top shelf and we tipped extra.

 

Overall the ship has a very nice decor (much less garish than Carnival). It did seem like they were conserving on a/c in all of the public areas of the ship. In the theater, DR, shopping, bars etc it was always warm and a bit uncomfortable. Whenever we were in our cabin we would have to crank up the a/c to cool off.

[Solstice23]

On our sailing in March, there many reviews posted here from it from many people, The food was wonderful. the word "horrid" is a bit much LOL

 

Seafood was very good, and My group had 2 couples that always sailed Carnival prior and they loved the summit. not sure what changed in a month??? But everyone has an opinion .

 

BTW the pizza and stir-fry was also good for us much better for my mom on this sailing then her Carnival cruise in February.

[jetertorre]

OK. I'll upgrade from horrid to "brutal". I know food can be very subjective but there are certain things that are not up for debate. Good quality seafood should not have a fishy smell and should be somewhat firm to the bite. This was not the case at all. The two steaks that sampled had a decent taste but were tougher than and old shoe. Frankly, I've had better steaks at Applebee's.

 

I have quite a bit of experience with Carnival and I've had some bad meals there as well but I've also had some excellent meals in their DR's. Based on a small sampling, I can't say the same about Celebrity.

 

If I had to guess, I would say that the recent economy related fare cuts being instituted by the cruise lines may be part of the problem. From the time that we booked the Summit cruise at the end of last summer until Christmas, the price had dropped about $1,600 for our sky deck cabin. Those types of price drops have to me made up somewhere, nobody gets a free ride.

 

Please don't misunderstand me, we had a very good cruise overall. There are things about Celebrity that are better than Carnival for sure. When the fare's return to to their normal levels which means the typical Celebrity cruise being a premium price compared to Carnival, I don't really see any reason to pony up the additional bucks. All things being equal, one might as well flip a coin between the two.

[frito58]

Steve did you try dinner at the Bistro at the back of the ship, by calling and making a reservation?? because thats great food, the Sushi, pasta station and stirfry is for a snack. I eat sushi alot and I enjoyed the selection on the Summit.

 

Food is subjective. but we enjoy the food overall more on Celebrity over the other lines esp RCCL. But in the end its the service and the Ship Design that make us sail Celebrity not the food

 

The bistro was closed at least 3 nights. We did eat there one night is was OK. The MDR was good our waiters were great. Sometimes we just hate to be on such a schedule. We like to sit on deck an relax after a port and 8:30 is way to late to eat. I would like to see anytime dining on all cruise lines but hey thats just me.

[frito58]

Terre-

 

I was on the 4/4 sailing as well. Your review is spot on as far as our mutual experiences go.

 

The one thing that I would take a bit further was the question of the dining room food. It was HORRID! Tough steaks, smelly seafood that was mealy to the bite, bland/tasteless dishes. I kept waiting for it to get better but it never happened. By the time we hit Barbados, we had given up and decided to stick with the buffet where the food was better although I agree the chocies were limited and the times that certain things were available was puzzling.

 

Did you try the pizza and the stir fry stations? The two staffers who were typically running those stations were really cranky, no? We started calling them the pizza **** and the stir fry **** (like the Seinfeld soup ****). Overall the staff were very nice and helpful but those two guys were always PO'd. LOL.

 

We found the wait staff in the DR to be very good and it's not their fault that they have to serve horrid food. Our cabin steward was top shelf and we tipped extra.

 

Overall the ship has a very nice decor (much less garish than Carnival). It did seem like they were conserving on a/c in all of the public areas of the ship. In the theater, DR, shopping, bars etc it was always warm and a bit uncomfortable. Whenever we were in our cabin we would have to crank up the a/c to cool off.

 

LMAO, we so agree with you on the servers one of them yelled at my wife when she asked a question about the fact they had fajita meat and nothing to put it in . He said just meat no tortillas!!!!

 

It seems Celebrity is not for us but we still had a great time and will keep on cruising.

[Terre]

LOL!!! It seems the Summit must have gotten a new chef since Toronto25 sailed her. The food was not good. I didn't even like much from the buffets. We can argue over food until the cows come home; everyone will have their opinion.

 

I did forget to mention that the average age on this one was 50-60. Much better than our first X on the Century which was 80-90! That's what we wre excpecting and the Summit did have a little more night life than when we sailed the Century, but still nothing like Carnival or Princess. We still loved the cruised and enjoyed it very much. I guess now that we've reached our mid-50s, we don't stay up as late as we used to and don't need the all night partying.

 

Someone asked or mentioned they hoped the shows were as good as I thought, and I always love the production shows on the ships, but the Summit's were, in my opinion, better than some we've seen on Carnival and Princess. Anne Marie did say that they work for a company and not the cruise line so they are moving in and out as their contracts run out so they have to learn new routines as well as working with new people all the time. There's more to it than their just getting up there and learning a number.

 

They could possibly be without someone for a week and they have to make up for that...things I'd never thought of before.

 

Liverpoollad, we didn't order wine at dinner, just before in the lounge so I can't answer that question for you, hopefully someone else can.

 

Boobuns, there was a small area sectioned off at the buffet for evening dining that you had to make reservations for. We noticed the menu was different from the MDR. Someone said that this is where they trained the new wait staff...can't confirm that, though.

[Relayer4]

We just got off Summit yesterday and thought the food was very good. We ate in the Normandie once and the MDR the other six nights. The service was outstanding throughout the ship, but I'll somewhat agree about the pizza and stir fry stations. It appeared there was some confusion the few times we were there. Whether it was running out of plates or not being able to handle a crowd. The guys seemed lost at times. We found the whole scene to be very uncharacteristic of the Summit.

 

The performers (singers and dancers) on our cruise were professional and talented. In talking to some of the staff, they said a couple of the performers won't be doing cruise ships very much longer. Bigger and better things in their future. I found Dave Heenan (comedian), Karen Grainger (impersonator), and the aerialists Roberto and Dorota all entertaining. After reading some of the reviews from the past I wasn't expecting much. Sounds like they must get different performers for different cruises.

 

My only minor complaint with Summit was the lack of Rock and Roll music they offer. It seems that there was a heavy Latin theme every day on board in terms of the music they offer. At least Karen Grainger did some Neil Young :)

[MisterBill99]

They cook up a lot of them and put them in the heat pan, which is why mine weren’t hot. There is a very long line for this station so you’ll need to be patient.

Thanks for the review but you seem to be contradicting yourself here. The long wait for the waffle station is (or was on Galaxy last year) because they've run out and are making them fresh, and they immediately get taken. If they put them in the heat pan it would imply that there is no wait, so there should be no line.

 

Question: was there sushi every night or just every few days, as I have read in other recent reviews? On Galaxy last year they had it every night but I fear this has changed. We will be on Summit this summer and would be disappointed if sushi was not available every night.

[RickCanada]

 

As for the burgers...Celebrity has the best ones IMO, and our family owns a high end butcher store in Toronto area

 

I didn't know that! Which butcher store is it?

[Terre]

 

My only minor complaint with Summit was the lack of Rock and Roll music they offer. It seems that there was a heavy Latin theme every day on board in terms of the music they offer. At least Karen Grainger did some Neil Young :)

Every time we've sailed out of San Juan we've found that the ship does cater more toward the Latin flavor. Celebrity not as much as on Carnival. That was okay with me.

 

Mr. Bill, even though the wait was long, our waffles were still not hot and fresh. I guess they just make a bunch of them and put under the heat lamp...who knows, all I know is they weren't freshly made and we waited way too long for warm waffles.