Summit review 10/24-10/30

[steeners81]

OK before I start this review let me give you a little background. My name is Christine, I am 29 and I was traveling with my mom. We are both seasoned cruisers, this was my 11th cruise (1 on RCCL, 1 on Carnival, 2 on NCL, 1 on the Big Red Boat, and 6 on Celebrity) and my moms 27th cruise (17 on Celebrity). I just got off the Carnival Liberty 3 weeks before so I might end up making comparisons between them. We are both elite ( I was grandfathered in many years ago) so I will def be talking about the elite benfits. We found this cruise in August and thought it was such a great deal but the problem was I was going on a cruise with my bf in Sept and he couldn’t take another week off of school and my parents are going on a cruise in Nov. so my dad couldn’t get off work so we decided to make it a mother-daughter cruise.

 

DAY 1

 

Since we live in NJ about an hour from the port we packed up the car and headed to the port a little after 10.

 

Self portrait as we headed to the pier.

 

We got there a little after 11 and once we pulled up everything went very quickly. The porter got out luggage and quickly put tags on (we had changed cabins only a week before) and we headed to wait on the short line to go through the scanners. Then through the elite line (which was also very quick there was maybe three families ahead of us). After that we went and took our embarkation photo and sat in the elite lounge.

 

 

If when looking at the picture of the lounge you think hey those chairs look really uncomfortable you would be right. Luckily we only had to sit for a few minutes before we boarded the bus for the 3 minute ride to the gangway. Headed aboard and grabbed our complimentary champagne. I took one sip and then remembered I hate champagne. We hopped on the elevator and headed up to the waterfall for lunch since we were told the rooms would not be ready until 1:30. Ok I do like my food so you will be getting a lot of food pics in this review. So for lunch I had

 

Shepards pie which I was all excited about until I realized it had peas in, scalloped poatoes, and paella (all of which was excellent)

 

For dessert I had the bread pudding. ( this was also excellent I think I had this every day I ate lunch there)

 

After this we headed up to the front of the boat to get some pictures of the NY skyline

[steeners81]

We looked at our watches and realized we could head down to our cabins. When we booked we had started in an inside on deck 2. Then the oceanview guarantees dropped so we moved to an ocean view on the same deck. About a week and half before the cruise the price dropped again so we were able to get cabin 7003. This in odd shaped oceanview room with a view over the front of the ship. This room was huge and the only issue with it during the whole week was you def. felt more movement.

 

This was our window which was probably about 4 feet across. There was an ote on the window stating we had to keep our curtains closed at night because the lights would affect the navigation.

Me in the window

 

 

The door right in front is the bathroom. If you turn to the right there is a little alcove area and the door to the hallway. We had three closets with the one having 6 drawers.

 

The bed and mirror area. ( we did get the beds separated)

 

View of the room from the mirror area

 

As I said this was a huge room and I would recommend it to anyone as long as seasickness is not a problem

[Vmalcolm]

Thanks so much for posting this so timely! I was worried I wouldn't get to read it before we leave on the 5th to head to Puerto Rico! Love your pictures! That really is a huge cabin...usually we have to squeeze around the bed to get to the other side. Looking forward to more!

 

Valerie

[steeners81]

Oh a little more about the room. The room wasn’t cleaned that well before we entered it. We went to throw something our in the trash in the bathroom and the trash was full from I am guessing the previous weeks passengers. There was other little things, it didn’t ruin the cruise for us but it was still surprising.

 

 

Then it was time for the sailaway party. I love the sailaway party, I love to dance, and I don’t care if I make a fool of myself I am most likely never going to see any of these people again.

 

Ok if you notice in this picture its just me and the cruise staff…yeah its not that other people were cut out it’s that there was noone else dancing. Finally a few people joined in but I was shocked I have always seen more people get involved in the sailaway party on celebrity.

After the dancing we headed to the spa to see if we had won any of the raffles. We only stayed for about half of it because we wanted to watch the ship go under the Verrazano- narrows bridge(Plus neither of us really cared we aren’t spa people). Pictures going under the bridge.

 

 

 

Directly under the bridge

 

And after we had gone under

[robtulipe]

Me in the window

 

If you set your camera's flash to always work for a shot like this you will get a better picture as the forced flash will light up the inside portion and this should eliminate the inside darkness caused by the brightness from the window affecting the camera's auto exposure feature.

[steeners81]

If you set your camera's flash to always work for a shot like this you will get a better picture as the forced flash will light up the inside portion and this should eliminate the inside darkness caused by the brightness from the window affecting the camera's auto exposure feature.

 

I know we were actually going to delete this picture but i realized it gave a decent perspective on how big the window is. Don't worry most of my pitures are not that bad.

[steeners81]

Wow its only been a week and I am already forgetting stuff. Right after we checked out our cabin we went to the muster drill. On carnival you actually had to go outside to your muster station while on celebrity we just had to meet in the theater. I do love that no line makes you take your life jackets anymore.

 

We left the top deck area and headed down to unpack our suitcases. This is one of my favorite parts because I love putting all my stuff away and shoving my suitcases away for a week ( well 6 days). We then got ready for dinner. I started cruising Celebrity in the 90’s and I still dress for dinner they way they wanted you to do back then. I still wear a dress every night but I am not one of those people who freak out if others don’t. I like getting dressed up because I don’t get an opportunity to do it often.

 

We headed down to dinner. We had selected to do Select dining. Never ever again will I do that. I will explain more as the days go on. We had made reservations at 6:30 and were seated right away at a table right off to the side of the main walkway in the front. Two complaints about this table, it was very noisy because everyone walking in or out of the restaurant walked right past you and also since you were near the entrance there was a door going out on deck near there and whenever someone opened it it got colder and windy. Sorry I didn’t take pictures of the menus but I know there are all over the boards.

 

Pics from dinner

I love the breadsticks.

 

Chilled San Francisco Crab Louis

 

Escargot ( I was so excited when I realized I could get this every day

 

Angus Beef consommé

Lobster Bisque

[steeners81]

For Entrees:

 

Lamb Shank “Tangine Style”

 

Grandmothers Style Coq Au Vin

 

Dessert:

 

Profiterole au Chocolate with Praline Ice Cream

 

Crème Brulee

 

Ice Cream

[steeners81]

After dinner we headed up to the emporiums because I wanted to buy a sweatshirt (which at about $30 it seemed very reasonable). They were raffling off prizes so we got a ticket and stayed there. I ended up winning a pair of earings.

 

They were nice but unfortunately my ears are not pierced so someone in my family just got a new pair of earrings. After that we headed to the variety show which was decent. At this point my mom was exhausted so I dropped her off at the cabin and headed up to revelations for the cruise celebration party and balloon drop. It was dead. I had a good time but I guess everyone was exhausted after traveling. I left around 11:30 because we had to set the clocks ahead an hour that night and I had to be up early to go to spin class.

One final thing for the day these two were playing all week and were fabulous I never got their name but if they are ever on your ship sit and listen you will not be disappointed

 

[Andy]

Hi Christine !

 

I wanted to say Thank You, for your outstanding Review and Photos. I look forward to reading/seeing more !

[steeners81]

Attached below is the Celebrity Today, In the spotlight paper, and info on the aqua spa, salon, and gym classes

Celebrity Today-1024.pdf

In the spotlight.pdf

[Spender Nui]

Thanks for posting. I'll be looking for more.

[deladane]

Thanks for writing this up so quickly! Looks like you had a good start to your cruise... I can't wait to see how the rest of the week went! It's getting me really excited for my Summit cruise at the end of next week :)

[librarylady19]

I've been anxiously awaiting new Summit reviews...and yours does not disappoint. Wonderful photos (esp. of the food) and great narrative. Look forward to hearing more soon.

[pmdc5696]

I am getting on her with my 16 yo DD on the 20th! I need more!:D

[Feelin' Nauti']

Thanks for sharing....Can't wait to board the Summit in April.

[steeners81]

Day 2 –Sea day

 

We had change the clocks the night before to Bermuda so we lost an hour so I was up bright and early. I was heading to spin class at 8 so I decided to get up and walk around. I somehow found myself down at the Cova Café staring at the pastries. Chocolate filled croissant was probably not the best choice for a before workout snack but it was very good. I really enjoyed the spin class I felt it was challenging and I only had one complaint it was so hot in the gym even the instructor was trying to see if they could turn up the AC. It was nice after the class as you were cooling down they came around with cups of cold water and a clean towel to use. I nice little touch I hadn’t seen on other ships.

After spin I headed down to grab a few croissants and tea for mom ( I am such a good daughter). We had a Bridge tour scheduled at 10 so I did have to rush to eat, shower and change but we made it up there in time. I have never done a bridge tour but my mom had and she said this was the best one yet. I felt it was very informative. It was also nice that the captains came up to the bridge during the tour and we got to take pictures with him.

After the tour we decided to head to brunch. I have heard a lot of discussions about brunch some people hated it and some love it….well I am in the love it category. I have heard that the food looked “picked through” well we got there around 11 and everything looked and tasted fresh.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite part. Everything tastes better when dipped in chocolate. They had strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, pineapples, and assorted fruit skewers you could dip in the fountain

[eaglescout77]

Christine,

 

Thanks for sharing! My wife and I will be on the Summit Nov. 13th........can't wait.

[steeners81]

After brunch we decided to head to the cha cha class. I was shocked how many people got up on stage to do it. It was fun to watch. This was taught by two of the dancers. From there we heading to musical trivia held in Michaels lounge. This was packed. We ended up tying for first place so they had a tiebreaker. We lost…no celebrity t-shirts for us. After that we headed up to pool games. I was going to go join but that had enough people so I just watched. I noticed many similarities between games played on Carnival and Celebrity (though there a few played on carnival that would NEVER be played on Celebrity). Afetr this we headed back down to Michaels club to play Visual games. This was a new one I had no idea what Visual games would be. For the first part the showed you a picture for 5 seconds then took it aay and asked you a question about it. It was hard and then the second part was random questions about pizza ( like what is the favorite topping of the Japanese).

 

At this point it was 4 pm. And there was nothing going on. I guess they figured people take 2 hours to get ready for dinner so had nothing really going on. So this is another complaint. There was no bingo. Some people cruise to drink, some cruise to gamble, some cruise to just cruise, yeah I cruise to play bingo. I will not play it on land but when I am on a ship I love palying Bingo. I will actually save up money just to play (yeah I know I have a slight problem but I’m ok with it. I asked one of the cruise staff (Katie –who was so nice) and found out that they were switching over Bingo companies and each ship had to be down for a week while they switched over. I would like to know who the brainiac was who picked the week of a transitional cruise. We had two days at sea. The next cruise which was a port intensive cruise with only one sea day to me would be a much logical choice. But anyway I wasn’t happy but what could I do. She did say they were trying to get the machines going to have one game at the end of the machine.

 

So we went and got ready for Formal night and headed up to have a cocktail in Revelations for the elite cocktail hour. I didn’t actually care for it I am very picky when it comes to drinks because I hate the taste of alcohol so there are very drinks I will drink. After this we headed up to dinner. We had made reservations for 6:45. When we arrived we had asked for a table for 2. We were told we could be sitted at a shared table immediately or we would have to wait 30 minutes for a table for 2…umm wait why did we make reservations if we were going to have to wait. We were both hungry so we decided to eat with other people. I have nothing against eating with other people but when it’s just my mom and I, I don’t need to worry about making conversation.

 

Pics from dinner

 

Buffalo Style Frog Legs

 

Fruit

 

Chilled Tangerine and Granny Smith Apple Soup

 

Caesar salad

 

Penne Poulet Aux Truffes

 

 

Roasted Colorado Rack of Lamb

 

No pictures from dessert tonight we both just got cocnut sorbet and after 8 ice cream ( my favorite ice cream onboard). The only weird thing was normally when I order two different ice creams I get them in 2 different dishes. The put the ice cream and the sorbet together and it was sort of gross. Other then that the dinner was delicious

[erin_cruisers]

Great review! :)

Thanks for posting all the info.

[steeners81]

After dinner we went and saw the show IBroadway. It was the first time we had seen it and we both thought it was excellent. After the show we headed to the Casino to catch the score of the game (Giants vs. Cowboys). It was a big game in our household my dad is a giants fan and my sister is a cowboys fan so we were glad we were on the ship for that game. When we got there it was 9:30 and we were surprised to see it just starting, we forgot about the time change. So I decided to get a drink ( the wonderful BBC if you have never had one you have to try it) and head back to the cabin to watch the game.

 

Below is the Celebrity Today for this day

 

(For those you who was asking about the stuff for kids to do I did pick up the kids activities starting on Wed.)

Celebrity Today-Monday.pdf

[lvz2cruz]

Thank you for the reviews and pics. I am enjoying them:)1

[librarylady19]

Great review and pics....can't wait for more!

You mentioned a Bridge Tour. Was this open to all passengers? I really hope they have this available on our cruise.

[GeneD]

We are taking the opposite repo cruise in April and your review is greatly appreciated. Keep up the daily reports.

[BroncosFan2010]

Enjoying your review! Keep it up!