soccermommy

I was on the Summit in August and found the MDR menu a little limited, but I can say I did not lose any weight on that cruise. We’ll be on Millennium next month, and I expect I’ll be fine. And no lighter.

In the past year, we sailed Princess, RCI and NCL, and we were not thrilled with the food on any of them. Cutbacks in food are plaguing many mainstream lines. We actually thought Celebrity was the best for food, but that’s just our own subjective opinion. 

Since your reviews inspired us to follow in your footsteps, I.e. Iceland-Greenland on Summit, and soon Japan on Millenium, I am excited about your trip on the Great Lakes. I grew up on the other side of Lake Ontario, Rochester NY, and the Lakes are special. Safe travels, and have a wonderful time!

I know food is subjective…DH and I had major differences on some of our meals! For someone who will try anything, he was definitely pickier than I was.  No one will starve on the Summit.  It’s more likely  you come home pounds heavier. I speak from experience.

I saw vegan and gluten free choices in the buffet and MDR, and as I am a diabetic, I found the MDR would modify meals and desserts for me with a little bit of notice to our waiters and hostess. I guess my main problem is the number of choices available on the daily menu, but maybe this being a 12 day cruise had something to do with it. 
i can’t comment on Luminae or Blu but I’m sure others who have eaten in these can chime in.

I definitely would do this itinerary again. We sort of saw Northern Lights, but clouds obscured most sights. We do have pictures of green clouds though.

This won’t be a long or detailed thread, but I wanted to give some impressions of this cruise, our first on Celebrity in 2 years.

DH and I are in our youngish 70’s, from the Boston area. We are longtime NCL cruisers but got hooked on Celebrity. We would have sailed them more but family constraints had us on Princess, Royal and NCL last year, which did give us a base for comparing cruise lines.

We really looked forward to visiting Iceland, since Covid took care of the previous two attempts.

ITINERARY 

We flew to Reykjavík from Boston on Iceland Air. We used Celebrity Air, decent price. Only issue was after final payment, they forgot to tell the airline we had paid, but a call took care of that. 
We stayed at the Hotel Von, very close to downtown, and within walking distance to several landmarks, which we did while waiting for our room.Small room, but very clean and perfect for the two of us. A restaurant shares the lobby, but technically not part of the hotel. We ate there quite a bit and enjoyed it. Be advised that food in Iceland is very expensive.

We did a small group Golden Circle tour with Gateway to Iceland, booked through Trip Advisor. We would use them again.

We used Celebrity for shore excursions in Isafjordur and Akureyri, mostly because there just wasn’t much to book. Both had stupendous scenery, lovely people. Several trips would not cover the sights Iceland has to offer.

Greenland. The trip through Prinz Christian Sund was probably the highlight of this cruise. Even the rainy, chilly weather couldn’t affect the glorious scenery. Mountains, glaciers and some narrow waterways. We even entered a small inlet where the Summit did a full 360 turnaround so the glacier could be viewed from everywhere on the ship. I am not sure the Eclipse next year will be able to duplicate this since spaces were tight!

Nanotorlik. A tiny little town which might have had more to offer if the rain, wind, and 40 degree temps hadn’t interfered. Our tour, a small boat tour of the fjord was cancelled. I think the locals were a bit bemused at the sight of so many crazy tourists who didn’t have the sense to get out of the rain.
St. John’s, Newfoundland. A neat, colorful city with an even more colorful history. We booked a walking tour through Viatour, which DH  enjoyed. I didn’t make it, more on that later.

Halifax, booked a small group Lunenberg tour through Viatour. We had been to Halifax before and wanted to see more of the province. We did get Peggy’s Cove again, I think almost every tour does it, but there have have been improvements. Walking is much safer and is now accessible. It’s still as pretty as ever. We did manage to beat the large tour busses, always a major plus. Lunenberg is a very small lovely city. We also got some great coastal views of both Mahone’s and St. Margaret’s bays. 

Boston. Disembarking was simple. We walked a block and got a much cheaper Uber home.

SUMMIT

The ship may be getting older, but you’d have to look for evidence. Immaculately clean and maintained. A couple of times restrooms needed attention, generally near the theater or Sky Club, but they were near the crowds.

Service was what I expect from Celebrity, crew friendly, helpful and seemed grateful to have us onboard. I found only one instance of not quite rude disinterest, and that was at Customer Service. But, having seen and heard some of the things they deal with, it could be considered understandable.

Room. We booked somewhat late and the only rooms available were inside and ocean view. We were in 2074, a deluxe ocean view, and enjoyed it. We felt no need to have a balcony crossing the Atlantic so far north and didn’t miss it. Our room attendant, Akhmead, was great.

Entertainment was fine, we aren’t huge show people and the music in the lounges was pretty good.

Food.  
The buffet was good, a lot of choices and generally were well prepared. My major problem was the  prepared scrambled eggs. I suspect eating them was the reason I missed the walking tour. I didn’t keep them down very long.

Specialty dining. We ate at both Tuscan and Sushi on Five. Food quality was excellent, and service excellent. Easily the best food we had on this cruise, but not something we’d want to do everyday.

MDR. A major disappointment. DH will eat anything, literally, but he couldn’t finish the NY strip steak. Tough and overcooked. Beef was often not cooked to order. The appetizers were fine, but choices are limited and repetitive. Desserts were ok, except one night we and our dinner companions all rejected the apple pie, and DH actually complained. It did get better, but I am now under orders to bake a “real” apple pie.

Celebrity simply has to increase the choices and quality of the food served. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

Our last cruise on Celebrity was September 2021 on our private yacht, the Summit. Nothing will ever equal the attention all 300 of us received, but there was nothing to complain about for service this time. There is still much to appreciate about the Summit.

You can always find something to eat, but there are areas that need work. In Celebrity’s defense, and we don’t consider ourselves cheerleaders, the MDRs on the other three lines we sailed were at best mediocre.

From reading various threads, I think Celebrity has done a lousy job with longtime cruisers who no longer feel appreciated or wanted, which is a really dumb marketing move. We don’t sail suites except for a  one time lovely Sky Suite upgrade, but I understand if you pay (a lot!) for something, you should get what was advertised. And even though the cruise lines are desperate to shed the crushing debt they incurred, I don’t think some of their cutbacks are beneficial, or smart.

But Celebrity is doing a lot right. We have 2 cruises coming up and will book again when the 2025 schedule comes out.

If anyone has specific questions, I will do my best to answer.

I’m on Summit right now and haven’t seen the sign or the supposedly hot, fresh cookies. I have seen and eaten far too many free ones at Al Bacio, though. If there is a test on another ship, I haven’t heard of it, but if this is  another cockamamie idea, Celebrity flunked the test.

Thank you for your fantastic pictures and trip blog! I haven’t been to Bermuda since before my marriage in 1975(!) and DH, the native New Yorker,  has never been interested. But your  pictures and commentary are making him reconsider,  especially since we live in the Boston area and can cruise out of either port. But I have to say, sailing out of Cape Liberty on Celebrity is the clear winner!

We are boarding the Summit in Reykjavík in 3 weeks and can’t wait, and your review is making me even more excited. Thanks again!

So looking forward to following your adventures. I always learn something new and interesting from your travels. I haven’t made it to Amsterdam yet, Covid messed up 2 cruises, but I did want you to know, your wonderful blog about the Cape Liberty/Iceland/Boston Summit b2b inspired us to book the Summit this August, though we will be doing the Iceland/Boston portion only. Thanks so much for all time you put into doing this!

In less than 2 weeks, I will be on the Breakaway with DH, DD, SIL and a very active 22 month old toddler. I shudder to think about attending a muster drill as disorganized as shown on  that La Lido Loca video. 
BUT….should anything happen on this cruise, I will be very happy to know exactly where to muster and where my family’s  lifeboat is located. Let’s face it, under the Covid rules, how many people actually took the muster seriously, much less checking out where things were located. Sure, it’s on the shipcard, but in a real emergency, for many of us, logic, clear thinking  and maybe reading directions are the first things to go overboard. The crew better be more prepared than the passengers, and I think that’s the whole point. 

I think (hope) that the crew will be better able to handle things and there will be less confusion for them as well as us. Do I prefer the e muster? Of course I do since it’s so much easier, and generally, DH and I  ( who usually cruise by ourselves) always check out our muster and lifeboat locations anyway. We’ll be on two Celebrity cruises later this year. I will be curious to see how muster drills will be handled by them later this year.

All of this reminds me of a story I heard, I forget where, of a woman who didn’t want to have her card scanned, didn’t want to waste her time with a safety briefing and just wanted someone to take her to the lifeboat. I presume she had no plans to actually muster, but  just wanted to be first on the lifeboat.
I suspect she wasn’t alone in her attitude. Is NCL overreacting, being chintzy, or just stupid? Time will tell. 

I just got a similar email for my  Japan October 26 cruise on the Solstice. There is a slight problem, though, that cruise isn’t going to happen.
Maybe I’ll get the same offer for the 2023 cruise, though. 

I have to say being able to follow you on your travels is a real joy. Thank you so much for sharing. But I have to ask, is anyone else putting on weight viewing your wonderful food pictures? Food porn at its finest. 
As for your internet problems, I can commiserate. I just completed  a TA on the Sky Princess, and we had no internet at all for almost the entire 16 days! I will never ridicule Celebrity’s again, I hope! 

 And I had to laugh that my so sensible dining idea of separate restaurants were the norm, pre Covid. I think most people would agree that traditional dining is same restaurant, same time, same table, same serving staff. It can’t be that hard if other cruise lines offer it, and especially if Princess used to do the same. You know what they say, if it ain’t broke….

I got the impression that if I wanted same restaurant, same time, etc, I had to request it for each day on the App. Which might be okay if the App worked, but isn’t it easier to request it once for the entire cruise.

You can tell I still don’t have the complete idea of what the Medallion app is supposed to do since my exposure to having one work continuously was limited. Oh, well, maybe next time.

I was on the same cruise, and I can actually understand why the OP was disappointed. I just came to a different conclusion. 
As a first time Princess cruiser I went on this cruise with no real preconceived notions of what to expect…. except to enjoy myself. And for the most part, I did.

Food is subjective. DH wasn’t a  big fan but I found much to enjoy, and I thought the buffet food was actually pretty good. That is, when I found what I was looking for, the layout is confusing for a newbie. We both really enjoyed the Crown Grill. 
I don’t think Princess has mastered the anytime dining style. It was hard to make reservations, but we never actually needed them. I think if Princess wants to accommodate the set time diners as well as people like me who prefer to wing it, they might try using one dining room for traditional dining, and the other one for anytime dining. 
I think a lot of the problems on this cruise had to do with the internet and Medallion. I just don’t get the hype with the Medallion. It didn’t work, except to open our cabin door, and even that failed when we got locked out of our room the last night! When taking orders, servers sometimes could identify us, many times they couldn’t and just wrote down our cabin number.
The internet was just bad. When it was available, it worked fine, it just wasn’t available much.

The crew was fantastic. But I think sometimes they had less information  than we did, and Princess wasn’t exactly volunteering any. 

I don’t think it’s fair to judge a cruise line on the basis of one cruise, but that is just my opinion, no more valid than anyone else’s. I would cruise Princess again, and might sooner than I thought. My Celebrity Japan cruise just got canceled and put back a year. 

My TA got the official notice today and after talking it over with her, we decided to lift and shift to  a C2 on the 10/24/23 sailing. It took a while but we are booked!  Anyone who wants to pursue this option might want to do it sooner than later since Celebrity was very busy today, and Millenium has fewer rooms than Solstice. We’re happy, all things considered.

19 minutes ago, micruiser2002 said:

No if you look at the post with the email you will be able to rebook with Lift & Shift and keep your current promotions and I believe rates.  Only issue is the only ship is Millennium.  

Thanks! My TA hasn’t got the notice yet, but will be checking tomorrow. Looks like the equivalent cruise will be on 10/24/23. I prefer S class, but I can certainly enjoy the Millenium.
It just seems like deja vu all over again!  

We were scheduled to be on the 10/26 Best of Southern Japan cruise which was covered by FCC from two canceled cruises.  The website shows only 2023/2024 cruises for Japan on the Millenium, even though I still have the Solstice cruise listed as upcoming.
And it looks like prices have gone up. I think I have a headache coming on.

Mine was in my inbox Monday when I finally had internet to check…at Heathrow.

This cruise was my first time on Princess, having sailed mostly on NCL and Celebrity. This was, in many ways, an odd cruise, maybe because it was our first transatlantic. 

We were over 3 hours late leaving Ft. Lauderdale because we were waiting for so many delayed passengers. The weather in the South had been horrendous, with many flights to Florida outright canceled. I don’t know the numbers, but more than a few passengers never made it to the ship. 
The weather the first two days at sea was pretty dismal, and the sea was rocking. I wasn’t bothered much since I never get seasick and this is, after all, the Atlantic in March, but no one could really enjoy the  outside and pool and as a result, there weren’t many places on board to sit and relax. Things got better weather wise, but the internet got worse. We had gotten a letter saying the internet could get spotty and Princess would refund$10/day, then offered free access for multiple devices, but , imo, 4x0 is still zero.  Spotty would have been an improvement! Even the Medallion app didn’t work, but my personal medallion did open my door ( at least to the final night, we got locked out of our room and had to get the night manager to let us in).

Ponte Delgada got cancelled due to weather, again, not much of a surprise in March on the Atlantic. However, that meant an extra sea day with no internet. I think most of us spent more time catching up with messages and work than viewing the beautiful scenery of Funchal. Then we lost internet again leaving Cadiz.

Casablanca got cancelled, I never heard exactly why. Either Morocco didn’t feel ready to reopen to the first ship to visit in 2 years, or Covid was more of a problem than we knew. But we were able to go to Gibraltar, which is a port I had hoped to visit on a cruise that never happened.

We also enjoyed Cadiz, even with the cold rain, and didn’t want to leave Lisbon. Apparently the ship didn’t either. We left around midnight, either because of bunkering or cleaning the ship of all that lovely Sahara dirt.

I think the internet problems began to overshadow much of what was great about this cruise.  The Sky is gorgeous, and the crew is one of the hardest working and downright  nice crew I have seen. We thought the food was very good, even the buffet was better than we expected. We even enjoyed the ship shore excursions, and of course, there was the joy of being at sea again.

Covid reared its ugly head toward the end of the cruise, I would guess 30-40% masked up on the ship. It was optional and we didn’t, except when visiting ports. Princess took care of the test we needed to renter the US. We only masked up on the ship the last day, Saturday, when cases started to become more noticeable. Other than that, I never felt the need to worry.

Princess has a major problem with the internet/Medallion issues on the Sky, and from what I’m reading, it’s an issue on the present cruise. I have to ask, why? 
 

Would I book Princess again? Yes, most of the issues we saw can happen on any cruise. We  choose cruises based on itinerary and value(to us). We have four cruises coming up on other lines, but are looking at late 2023 and 2024. It’s a great line and tries very hard to stay one.

I was on this cruise as well. I have to agree with the OP, the internet was a disaster. But, imo, Princess was very good about testing. At the beginning of the cruise, there was a questionnaire about needing Covid tests to return home. We needed them and got another letter giving us a time to get tested at Soleil. Passengers only got a call if there was a positive result. We got the printed results around 2am Monday, the day we left the ship, which was a little stressful, but not too awful either. 
As far as Covid case numbers, I never heard a number, but the Captain did say there were a number of positives found from Sunday’s tests. We had earlier noticed there were a few quiet removes from rooms, and we were required to wear masks the last full day of the cruise, but I found very little was impacting the ship or passengers otherwise.

Greetings from a born and raised Rochesterian, even if I have spent the last 40+ years in New England, which I also love.

We are Platinum on NCL, like the experience, love their itineraries.  We have sailed the smaller ships, Spirit, Dawn and Jewel class, but have no experience with the Haven. And we have loved each cruise, which have tended to be port intensive

We discovered Celebrity  3 years ago, and have continued to book them as our line of choice.

Why? The service, the food, and the ambiance. We tend to book Concierge, (which may or may not be worth it but we like it). You can sometimes book Concierge for less than a balcony when prices stop dropping and get more points and a few extra perks But on one cruise to Australia, we got upgraded to a sky suite.  We were worried about the dreaded class snobs, but there were none. People just don’t care about your status, they do care about your friendliness and politeness. And that’s everywhere on the ship in our experience. No one cares what you are wearing, either, but most will dress up a bit on “Chic” nights.

If NCL ever gets back to Europe, we hope to get a Transatlantic this year,  a Med cruise next year, so we haven’t stopped enjoying NCL. The two lines have a lot in common, IMO. It just depends on what you are looking for.

I think you are going to have a wonderful time on Celebrity. You certainly have the right attitude!

OP, I am really happy Canada is doing so well with vaccinations. I grew up near the Canadian border in NY and now live in New England. I love visiting Canada, and have missed it. 
So, I am not interested in getting into a discussion about which country is doing better. You are playing catch up, we are in neutral gear, it seems. 

I wish I could wave a magic wand and have everyone vaccinated, but I have given up trying to talk people unvaccinated by choice into getting one. It’s frustrating that some people are truly scared, others don’t want be told what to do, and some think they are being injected with tracking chips or alien technology, though why they think the government is that organized is beyond me. Massachusetts has done a pretty good job getting shots into arms, but we are still trying to vaccinate people in areas that have lower rates.As for Florida’s  stand on cruising and it’s governor, you’ll have to ask a Floridian. I have no idea.

The point is, none of this has anything to do with cruise or travel planning. If I wish to do so, and if I am wasting my time, it’s my choice. The only person I am affecting is my husband, and he’s as anxious to travel as I am. Okay, my pocket book could suffer a bit, but not much. I’m still trying to reschedule my third attempt on Celebrity to see Iceland, and I used my last FCC to book the Getaway next year. 
I believe cruising will return sooner than you think. It’s going to be a different experience for a bit, but after the last year,  I don’t mind a slow, careful restart. I’m having a lot of fun planning.

I wish you the best and hope for a reopening between our countries soon! 

Thank, thank you, thank you for doing this review! You are a natural, and I love your humor!

I was supposed to be on the Reflection in May out of Dublin to Iceland,  which of course has been canceled, so I think I have been in mourning. I have had so much fun reading this!

DH and I have are part of this age group. We are both turning 71 this year, in good health even though DH does take blood pressure medication. Do I think this is age discrimination? No. Age discrimination, imo, is if we couldn’t sail at all simply because of our ages. 
I’m more annoyed than anything else. I to have to get a doctor’s note (like we were going on a school trip) that says we’re are healthy...which really only applies to the time the note was issued. Besides, I don’t like to consider myself elderly, unless there is some discount involved! I do feel bad for people who won’t be allowed to board due to some underlying condition. What about the people under 70 with the same conditions? But, much as I hate to admit it, the overwhelming danger of getting Covid-19 applies to my age group. 
We are still scheduled to sail on the Reflection in May. We haven’t canceled,  but we think it’s probable Celebrity will. Would I go on the cruise if it still sails? I don’t know...it depends on a lot of things improving. And of course, there is the question of Americans actually being allowed to enter the EU or UK if things get worse over here.
 

DH and I both are 70 and in good health. We have a cruise on the Reflection in May, still far enough in the future to delay any decision. Right now, we have no plans to cancel unless Celebrity does. Not all 70+ are the same, and for us, age is not a consideration.
We all know the genie is out of the bottle, and it may be a matter of time before this disease is everywhere. I think the possibility of getting sick on land will eventually be roughly the same as any traveling. It’s the fear of being quarantined either on the ship or in a place far from home that, for me, is more scary than the actual disease, and that why we could consider cancelling.

We are technically both retired, but both have part time jobs where we interact with the public, and that could be more of a risk than our ages. We just found out several officials in the next town from us have apparently been exposed to the coronavirus, and will be self isolated for the next 2 weeks. It’s possible it will spread, and we could be exposed before we get to cruise!

Everyone has to make the best decision for themselves, and what they are comfortable doing. I’m hoping that the situation is much clearer in a few weeks. But if this epidemic doesn’t slow down by May, not cruising will be the least of our worries.

I have been following this thread closely because we are nearing final payment on our cruise to Iceland in May. Yes, I know, Europe isn’t near China, but who knows what the situation will be in May? I am, truthfully, not worried and I am not going to cancel, but the idea remains, this is a truly scary situation.

The funny thing is, there are loads of threads on CC about coronavirus, and every board has at least one discussion about how badly Cruise Line X, Y or Z is handling it. Nobody seems to be doing a good job it seems,  and I would say that’s because no one knows what the best thing to do is (outside of shutting down all cruise operations in Asia....which is the worst thing they could do as a company with many thousands of employees affected, as well as shareholders, suppliers, etc.).

I will say, if this virus turns into a true pandemic, corporate profits will be the least of our worries. But, mercifully, it doesn’t look like we are anywhere close to that scenario. Given that, it is hard to decide what the best option is, for passengers and the cruise lines.

I really do feel for the OP, there are no good results to be had, especially since there is no cruise insurance. But I really feel worse for those people  currently quarantined on the Diamond Princess, and for those other cruise ships at sea looking for a port.

Good luck, OP, I hope there is a resolution you can accept. 

We stayed at the Hampton Inn Waterloo three years ago because we planned to take the train to Southampton from Waterloo station. At that time, it had been recently remodeled/reopened, and the rates were very reasonable for London. The hotel was great, clean and comfortable, and a five minute walk from Waterloo station. It’s also about 10-15 minutes to the river. The London Eye was very close, as well as the pedestrian bride over the Thames. At that time, the closest stop on the Hop onHop Off bus stop was at Westminster Bridge, also about a 15 minute walk from the hotel. We walked everywhere, but you can easily get the tube from Waterloo. We weren’t right in the middle of the London sites, but we weren’t that far away, either. We’d happily stay there again.