Just off Summit 3/27 - 4/3

[AnneinSand]

Hey everyone! I got back late last night from my amazing honeymoon cruise on the Summit. Here's my little review.

 

To start with, we got to Puerto Rico on Thursday about noon and rented a car from Charlie Cars. We were staying about 40 minutes from San Juan and wanted to be able to explore on our own and cabs aren't abundant out where we were. We checked into the Rio Mar Resort which is amazing. Right on the beach and at the foot of the rain forest, it was really breath taking. We booked through priceline for $90 night and were upgraded to a suite when they found out we were on our honeymoon. The resort was beautiful and well equipped, but meals are expensive. We didn't end up needing the car since we never left the resort for our short stay. Oh well.

 

We got to the port about 11:15 on Saturday morning and figured we would be waiting a bit before boarding. We hopped right on though! We were having champagne and lunch by 11:45. Cabins were ready at 1:00pm. We were in CC cabin 6143 back in suite territory. We loved the cabin and the huge balcony. Our stateroom attendant was Seby and we were very surprised that we didn't see him at all until a few days into the cruise. He never came by to introduce himself or anything. The room was well kept and cleaned and he did a good job, but we thought it was odd that we didn't see him for so long. He was good with providing us with fresh ice in the champagne bucket every day though!

 

Food:

We had breakfast on our balcony every morning, delivered by someone other than Seby. There was a definite learning curve on the order form. We often received 2 or 3 of everything we ordered even with written in instructions. So instead of my husband having an omlette and me getting a bagel with smoked salmon, we would get two bagels and two omlettes. They were good with drinks though. He ordered a smoothie every morning and we always only received the one requested.

We had buffet breakfast once and it was fine. The scrambled eggs were inedible though, same with room service. Stick to the omlettes.

We usually had lunch at the buffet, sometimes at the grill by the pool. Lunch had interesting selections, often some indian or asian offering along with the pizza and pasta and baked fish we were expecting. The aqua spa lunches didn't look that great except one day they had amazing salmon sandwiched. We loved having a plate of chili cheese fried in the late afternoon from the pool grill. Such bad behavior!! :)

Dinners were great. We ate in the MDR most nights and the Normandy twice. We didnt have a meal we didn't enjoy in the MDR but I wasn't totally blown away as I was before. The first course portions are smaller than in the past, especially the shrimp cocktail which is now 4 small shrimp. Order 2.

The Normandy was lovely. We loved the champagne service at the beginning of the meal and the food was good. A step up from the MDR. We were offered the cheese trolley before dessert but we were too stuffed. The diver sea scallop wellington was my favorite there.

 

Our waiter in the Normandy told us they are going to turn half of the waterfall cafe into another specialty restaurant, a steak house, during the next dry dock next year sometime.

 

We loved the time on the ship and spend lots of time in the thalassotherapy pool area. The air was nice and cool in there and there were fewer kids and no loud band. Great for napping! We also spend a considerable amount of time in the casino. We missed almost all the shows though... just didn't fit with our agenda. We did go to the Newleywed game (didn't play though) and really enjoyed that.

 

Ports:

St Thomas- we took the ship's excursions Champagne Catamaran 1/2 day Sail. It was great! We took an open air taxi/bus/trolley thing for about a 20 minute ride to a marina on the other side of the island and then got on the catamaran. We motor sailed for about an hour to Honeymoon Beach on St John and dropped anchor. My husband went snorkeling off the boat and I got a lift from the dinghy to shore and spent about an hour or so on the beach enjoying the amazing view. Then we sailed back to the dock and had all the beer/champagne/rum punch we could drink on the trip. The Rolex Regatta was going on that day too so we got to see some racing action. We were back on the boat by about 1 or 2... after the drinks, I don't remember.

St Croix- we took a $6 shuttle to Sandcastle beach fairly close to the port. The beach was beautiful and there was a small pool and beach bar available there too. We had a great view of the ship from the beach too. Chairs were $5 and umbrellas were $10.

St Kitts- I don't think we went to the beach at St Kitts. We wandered around the port a bit and my husband was wearing a Fire Dept shirt and ran into one of the local firemen who took us to the firehouse to meet everyone and get a tour. It was really nice and we got to see more of the town than we otherwise would have. It's hard to see some of the most naturally beautiful places in the world taken care of so poorly. Lots of litter and garbage.

Antigua - LOVED this day. We took a cab to Valley Church Beach and loved it. The cab ride was long but we got to see lots of the island and country side. The beach was truly stunning. I couldn't believe the view and white coral sand and amazing water. The water was warm and there was a slight drop off (about a foot) very close to the where the waves were breaking and it was entertaining to watch people wipe out. There was a cute beach bar/restaurant there. We got the coconut shrimp, fries, conch fritters and two sodas and it was about $30. Chair rents were $5 and umbrellas $10. WONDERFUL day. By far my favorite beach ever.

Guadalupe- terrible. I watched us pull into port from the balcony and was immediately disappointed. It was a very run down and dirty town. It looked like the projects and there were empty abandoned and overgrown lots and building everywhere. Lots of very shabby shanties as well. We decided to stay on the boat and were very glad we did once we heard from people. Most people we talked to got off the boat for about 10 minutes and got right back on. Lots of people complained about not feeling safe and being sized up while walking down the streets. Some women said they had their arms grabbed by vendors trying to pull them to their stores.

 

Sea Day - wow. the behavior on the boat was not good on the sea day. I don't know if it was because it was spring break and there were so many families with kids or what... but it seemed like no one was in charge. Kids were in the adult pool, running all over the decks, jumping into the regular pools on top of people swimming, screaming and yelling and running free around the ship at all times. It was really inappropriate and sad. Its not Celebrity's job to parent but they should have at least enforced some of the rules that THEY set! Chair hogs were terrible! However there was some GREAT vigilante action to counter it. We got to the adult pool area about 7am on the sea day and got the last two seats. There were only about 3 other people there! Just saved chairs. We did see some people come up to chairs that had only towels on them and just move then and sit. They obviously knew the drill. There were four chairs saved next to us from 7am and the 'owners' of the chairs didn't come by until 12:30!!! It was appalling. Fortunately, people moved the towels and free celebrity magazines saving the chairs and when the people came back 4 hours later, they actually had the nerve to be mad! Sadly the people in the chairs gave them two back, which they left their bags on and left for another two hours. What jerks.

 

Anyway, we had a ball! Great week and we had lots of fun and food and LOTS of drinks :) We booked on board for the Solstice next year. Cannot wait!!!!!

 

 

This was a lot longer than I meant it to be... sorry! Let me know if you have any questions.

[Texed]

Sand,

Thanks for posting. :)

[satchiesmom]

Thanks for the review, it's nice to hear some good things about the Summit for a change.;)

[hollyinmd]

Thanks so m,uch for posting. we will be sailing Summit in room 6045 and I'm happy to hear that things are pretty great!

[AnneinSand]

Yeah, we had nothing bad to say about the boat's condition. It was clearly not brand new but there was nothing that made it seem dingy to us. Some rust on the balcony (hello, salt water???) and some tarnish on the signs by the pool are really all I can remember seeing that I thought wasn't just perfect.

[librarylady19]

So glad you enjoyed your honeymoon trip.

Sounds like a nightmare on the sea day though. That's a good reason not to sail during spring break, I guess. Fortunately, I no longer have school age kids so can avoid that time period. We deliberately choose dates when kids are in school.

[mason525]

Hi-

Wonderful, fun- to -read, review. Have been on Summit before (4X) but not since 6/08. We'll be on 5/30 w/many family members. Thanks for fueling our excitement!

Meg

[JEDIKNIGHT]

I also don't cruise, or even vacation when kids are off school, as parenting is out of style in some people's minds.

 

I am very close to booking a June Infinity Alaska for someone....and I'm really wondering if that's a good idea. But don't know how else to do it.