Summit to Bermuda, 9-2-12 ** LONG **with photos

[librarylady19]

Thanks for your kind comments everyone!

 

Day One - continued:

 

This time, we remembered to put our swimsuits into our carry-on bag so were able to change and take a quick dip in the T-Pool before muster at 3:30 p.m. The T-pool was pretty much unchanged from what I could tell, maybe a couple of new pictures were hung. Unfortunately, age is taking its toll and the glass ceiling and framework was looking a little worse for the wear. I do prefer the Solarium on the S class ships (though others may disagree of course) as I like the nice padded chairs and the ambiance of that area - other than the smoke drifting in from the pool :-( .

 

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Fusion was playing at the outdoor pool area.

 

They were a great party band; the female vocalist had a great voice and a lot of personality - she really got people dancing, including this adorable little couple!!

 

 

We were assigned to the Theatre for the Muster drill which was scheduled for 3:30 p.m. so returned to our cabin for a quick change and headed down to Deck 4. The Theatre is in good shape, as you can see from these photos. We only attended a few events here during the week (none of the production shows) but didn’t find the sound overly loud as some have reported. My only complaint was the scarcity of bar service in the Theatre. Luckily Michaels Club was close by so Scott resorted to popping over there for beers a couple of times.

 

[librarylady19]

Sailaway was delayed due to maintenance on the lifeboats (don’t put that off I say!) so the party for our Roll Call didn’t work out as we had hoped. We headed to the Sunset Bar after Muster (around 4:30 p.m.) and did meet a few of our fellow Cruise Critic members including Diane Rose, Ottogranny and Mom, and caught up with Don (dkjretired) and his wife Jeanne who we had first met on the Eclipse in 2009.

 

The steel drum player was performing at the Sunset Bar and was quite enjoyable.

 

 

We did not spend much time at the Sunset Bar this cruise. I did not care for the fact that half the bar area was devoted to smokers, the furniture was a bit ratty, and the entertainment was not that appealing. Again, S Class wins out in this area for me!

Here are the drinks menus, for those interested....I was disappointed that they did not have cider, decent beer or my favorite the Solstice drink (ok, I know it's the Summit!!):

 

 

 

 

Obligatory picture of sunset over the water....nothing like it!!

[librarylady19]

We had 6:30 p.m. reservations for Scott’s birthday dinner at Qsine which we had been looking forward to for some time! Rob and Deirdre joined us and it was a party! They were Qsine virgins so we delighted in sharing our recommendations from the vast menu of options (we had dined in Qsine on Eclipse last year).

 

Entrance to Qsine:

 

 

Love the variety of lighting!

 

Wine collection in Qsine:

 

Table for Two with a view (sort of):

[sbt518]

We took the subway and then had a pleasant 20 minute walk through Brooklyn Heights to our destination, Grimaldis. We saw the library with an interesting art deco facade but were dismayed it was closed on a Saturday.

 

 

 

We arrived at Grimaldis a few minutes before noon and already a lined had formed outside. Luckily it was mostly in the shade (it was 85 degrees at that point) and we only had to wait a half hour. Now, being from Chicago, we are quite particular about our pizza (btw most Chicagoans do not eat deep dish pizza) and found this tasty, but not as good as thin crust pizza at home in my opinion.

 

We opted not to walk across the bridge given the heat and the fact that Scott wanted to visit Brooklyn Brewery so I had to settle for the view from afar.

 

We met Deirdre and Rob at a nearby pub for a beer before taking a cab to Brooklyn Brewery. I must be getting old as the place was far too crowded and noisy for my taste. You had to wait in line to get in, another line to buy tokens and a third line to get your beer.

 

 

OK, if you walked from the Library to Grimaldi's you walked RIGHT BY MY HOUSE!!!!!!! I must know what pub you went to after your pizza.

 

Now, I'll read the rest of the review which I'm sure is excellent if you chose to spend a day in Brooklyn. Even if you didn't like Grimaldi's which is just plain wrong ;)

[stellarose]

So based on the menu of drinks.. The classic package works. Right??

[librarylady19]

OK, if you walked from the Library to Grimaldi's you walked RIGHT BY MY HOUSE!!!!!!! I must know what pub you went to after your pizza.

 

Now, I'll read the rest of the review which I'm sure is excellent if you chose to spend a day in Brooklyn. Even if you didn't like Grimaldi's which is just plain wrong ;)

 

Now, I didn't say I didn't like the pizza, just that we prefer the thin-cruise Chicago style pizza (it's crispier and more seasoned I would say). We went to the Henry St. Ale House where Rob & Deirdre had eaten lunch (they got to Grimaldis too late to get into the first seating). It was a very cool bar with a tin ceiling, and a good beer selection on tap.

[librarylady19]

So based on the menu of drinks.. The classic package works. Right??

Yes, except for the carafes of wine. Any drink up to $8 is included in that package. We had the premium packages as Scott wanted to try a variety of beers at Michaels.

[swtp596]

 

...

 

 

There is quite a bit of storage under the vanity, as well as some on the counter.[/color]

 

...

 

The desk area is well laid out, with cupboards below:

 

...

 

The closet has lots of storage, with a bank of drawers on one side and a hanging closet on the other. This is one area where I will say that the M Class cabins are vastly superior to the S Class. We never felt cramped for space and there was always somewhere to put things away, even all my shoes![/color]

 

Do you know if the penthouse deck balcony cabins have the same storage spaces? I'm particularly interested in the drawers in the closet and in the bathroom. I would love to not bring along my own hanging organizers if I don't need them.

 

Thanks for all of your posts. I'm looking forward to reading the rest!

[librarylady19]

I was very impressed the decor, service and food quality and presentation at Qsine on Summit. As you can see, the room is whimsical, bright and well laid out. All of the window tables are 2-tops, so we sat in the middle of the room but were still able to see outside (we were still docked in Bayonne at that point, as sailaway was still delayed).

 

We found this experience at Qsine to equal our experience on Eclipse, but had more fun dining with another couple. We had no issues last time trying a variety of items as a couple (9 items) but this time we tried a few new items, as well as a few that we wanted to repeat as they were so good. I tried the White Sangria that others had recommended and it was pretty good but somewhat filling (needed room for all the food!). It was included in the Premium Drink package tho!!

 

We had a total of 10 courses - plus dessert. Hey, it's vacation!! To the best of my recollection they were:

- Salad with fried goat cheese (skip the greens, eat the goat cheese)]-- Spring rolls (my favorite item)

-- Fried munchies (ok)

-- Lava Crab (pretty tasty but filling)

-- Tres Ceviche

-- M’s Favorites - with extra lamb chops (another must-try)

-- Painters Filet Mignon (very good)

-- Lobster Escargot Fritters (garlicky and yummy)

-- Fish and Chips (“chips” are not good - more like hush puppies)

-- Taj Mahal (Scott loved the spicy shrimp vindaloo and Rob liked the chicken tika masala)

PLUS - dessert courses....

 

We were not offered the chocolate strawberries so I asked the waiter for them (he probably thought we didn’t need them at that point!). Very tasty. Scott had fond memories of the chocolate tombstone so he ordered that again and it was as good as he remembered....definitely Qsine’s best dessert. I tried the silver bullet of gelato, Rob had beignets and Deirdre tried the sorbet (I think).

The wonderful experience was capped by a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday to Scott delivered by the Qsine waitstaff and accompanied by another dessert …..a cupcake.

 

First dessert!!

 

 

Another view of Qsine:

 

 

Whimsical light fixtures:

 

 

Wine selection:

[Still Dreaming]

Posting to follow your review!!!! Sailing on the summit in Feb.

[Newsbuff16]

Love your review and pictures! They bring back great memories of our cruise.

Thank you for posting!

[DanAnna]

Thanks for the review! Looking forward to hearing and seeing more. We're looking forward to our S. Caribbean itinerary in March.

[sbt518]

Now, I didn't say I didn't like the pizza, just that we prefer the thin-cruise Chicago style pizza (it's crispier and more seasoned I would say). We went to the Henry St. Ale House where Rob & Deirdre had eaten lunch (they got to Grimaldis too late to get into the first seating). It was a very cool bar with a tin ceiling, and a good beer selection on tap.

 

We love the Henry Street Ale House. So weird that you were on vacation in our neighborhood. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[dln929]

We love the Henry Street Ale House. So weird that you were on vacation in our neighborhood. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

 

Not weird, just a tip from the gal who gave us our walking tour of Brooklyn Heights. She told us that Grimaldi's, where everyone wants to eat, probably would have a line a mile long outside(and it did) but that the Henry Street Ale House would be a great little substitute. She was right. It had great beer, good burgers, and the nicest bartender you could ask for. Plus those rope pulley ceiling fans are pretty cool. Literally and figuratively. :p We absolutely fell in love with Brooklyn!

 

____________

Deirdre

[librarylady19]

Dinner, as you can guess, was a rather long affair. Somewhere near the end of the meal, the ship finally started moving (around 8:30 p.m. I think). Deirdre and I raced out to the deck so we could see the ship pass under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge - quite a sight.

 

 

When we finally left Qsine, all very full and satisfied with the exemplary dining experience, the show in the Theatre had already started. Scott and I opted to forgo the show in order to visit Michaels.

 

As some of you may recall, in addition to being a Library Director, Scott is also a very good homebrewer (he has won many competitions, had 2 beers brewed by local breweries and teaches brewing classes.) He was very interested in the wider variety of beers offered by Michaels (per the menu posted from Silhouette) and had been looking forward to trying some of those beers onboard.

 

We had visited Michaels shortly after boarding and taken some photos but unfortunately the bar was not open yet. Scott did get some pictures of the beers, of course!

Note to beer drinkers: most everything on the beer menu was available during this cruise.

 

 

 

We had been in Michaels on our past trip on Summit and found it very staid; the only entertainment there was at the piano and on that trip at least it was rather low-key. We were quite impressed with the improvements:

 

 

 

 

The entertainment “stage” is not visible in this picture but it is at the end of the room with a white backdrop.

[librarylady19]

The entertainment “stage” is not visible in this picture but it is at the end of the room with a white backdrop.

 

This was a cozy area to sit in:

 

It was pretty quiet when we arrived that evening (probably about a half dozen people there). We chatted with the bartender (he also worked at the Mast Bar during the day); Scott always likes to talk about beer!

 

At 9:45 p.m., guitarist-vocalist Andrew Halpin performed. We were quite impressed - he had a voice reminiscent of a young James Taylor (I’m old enough to remember James Taylor in his hey day - he was my first concert in 1975!!). He didn't know any Springsteen songs but I overlooked that for the moment!

 

We had a chance to chat with Andrew after his show, he’s from California and had been on the summit for 5-1/2 months at that point. He did mention that the last 2 weeks were terrible. He said Michaels was dead the ship was overrun with more than 600 kids (no wonder the staff seemed a bit discombobulated....more on that later....)

 

We did visit Michaels as often as possible during the course of the cruise but would certainly have gone more often if it had been open earlier in the day, as others have stated. Michaels never opened before 6 p.m. (the advertised time was 7 p.m. but we often found the bartender there earlier and he gladly served us. Another improvement would be with a wider variety of entertainment. One night guest entertainer Doug Cameron performed with part of the Celebrity Orchestra and it was amazing - the best show all week! the place was packed and the poor bartender and waitress could barely keep up.

 

Several times, guests wandered in and were surprised about the craft beer offerings; I don't think it is very well advertised (Celebrity's marketing genius at work perhaps!!) Good entertainment would draw more people in as well. I would have loved to see dartboards in there that could be used when there was no live entertainment - give the place more of an English pub feel.

 

We finally called it a night after this....a sea day tomorrow.

[librarylady19]

 

Monday, September 3 - At Sea

 

[i forgot to mention, that one of the first things we did yesterday after getting into our cabin was to get our Internet discount coupon (select - 25% off) and sign up in the iLounge for a package. There was also a special going on, so we got something like 120 minutes I think for $75. We were both set up to use the wireless service on our iPads. It proved to be somewhat spotty as far as the connection and slow...to be expected i suppose.]

 

We were up at a reasonable hour (well, before 9:00 a.m.) and went to Blu for our first meal there. It was a very pleasant way to start every day (except one) on this cruise. It had to be good if I was able to get Scott up and out of the cabin before 9:00 a.m.!!

 

Service was very prompt at breakfast; we were seated immediately, most often seated near or with Rob and Deirdre. There is a nice variety of items on the Blu breakfast menu. I must start the day with carbs and fruit and there were many options for this at Blu. Scott always had eggs or omelette with some breakfast meat. The weak point there is the potatoes; never crispy, oh well.

We always ordered cappucinos and they were brought to us from Cafe al bacio within 5 minutes of ordering. we also enjoyed the smoothies, something I never drink at home; the mango citrus variety was delicious. The pastry basket did circulate but it was not always brought right away and I had to ask for it a couple of times. Twice I had the tableside-prepared muesli and it was very tasty!

After breakfast, we perused the dinner menu for Blu that was posted outside the restaurant. Funny thing about a cruise, even when full you always seem to be planning the next meal!! It was formal night that evening and i was quite disappointed not to see rack of lamb on the menu. Nothing really special was listed and I was quite aghast to see one of the menu options was MEATLOAF (more on that later....)

 

We looked in the shops for a bit...nothing really caught my fancy though.

 

 

When we returned to our cabin, it had already been cleaned and an arrangement of flowers had appeared on the desk! There was no note and we never did find out why we received those but i certainly enjoyed having them.

 

 

Another nice surprise - we had 2 additional chairs on the balcony; not loungers but better than nothing. Belinda and her assistant Joey were wonderful all week; the best stateroom service we have had to date!!

 

 

At 10:30 a.m. I met up with some members of our Roll Call for our cabin crawl which Deirdre was organizing. It was nice to meet more of our RC members as our sailaway gathering didn't go off as planned. We were able to see an inside handicapped, one of the deck 11 AQ aft cabins, several "regular" balcony cabins and some on Deck 9 AQ also. Quite a few of the cabins had not yet been cleaned/or were in the process of being cleaned at that time of day.

 

We enjoyed a very nice lunch in the Main Dining Room that day, something we like to do once a cruise when possible. We were able to get a table for 2 in a nice, quiet area and enjoyed a 3-course lunch with wine...aaah vacation...

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Do you know if the penthouse deck balcony cabins have the same storage spaces? I'm particularly interested in the drawers in the closet and in the bathroom. I would love to not bring along my own hanging organizers if I don't need them.

 

Thanks for all of your posts. I'm looking forward to reading the rest!

 

I don't know if Sandi has seen those cabins or not, so I'll jump in here and answer your question. Yes, same storage in the balcony cabins on the penthouse deck. In my view, M class cabins have great storage.

 

Enjoying your review, Sandi! We're trying Qsine for the first time on our Thanksgiving cruise. Sounds like it will be fun since we have a group of 6.

[librarylady19]

Hi Linda,

Thanks for responding. I agree with you 100% about the layout and storage in the M class cabins. I really do not believe that the S class cabins were designed by women (but...they did get rid of that pesky mirrored wall:) so maybe).

 

I sure hope you enjoy Qsine as much as we did. 6 should be fun.

[librarylady19]

We did go to the Sunset Bar that afternoon for trivia but found it to be a bit challenging. The hostess was from Peru and had a very thick accent...nice girl but she did get heckled quite a bit by the impatient crowd (not me of course).

Here we are:

 

 

Now I must call it a night....coming up: dinner at Blu, dancing at Revelations...

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Hi Linda,

Thanks for responding. I agree with you 100% about the layout and storage in the M class cabins. I really do not believe that the S class cabins were designed by women (but...they did get rid of that pesky mirrored wall:) so maybe).

 

I sure hope you enjoy Qsine as much as we did. 6 should be fun.

 

I think they spent all their energy making the bathrooms better and then kind of went astray. :D

[anandaindonesia]

My grateful thanks, Sandi, first for your helpful spreadsheet, and secondly for this wonderful review. It magically transports me on board the Summit in seconds!

 

Happy birthday, Scott!

[Ellen S]

Hi Sandi, Your review is fantastic. We've been on the Summit 3 times and going back next September. We did the Silhouette in February and I wish they could blend M Class and S Class. Glad to see the MDR chairs (are the same from before)and the other restaurants have great looking chairs. On S Class they are barrel chairs (which my DH cannot sit in). We were very well accommodated with a new chair for the rest of the cruise for him. You are right about a man designing the cabin on S class. Also the S class cabin is about 1-2 feet narrower. Missed all the drawers.

Looking forward to the rest of you review. :)

[lovestx]

[

Thanks for the review, Sandi. I am considering the Summit cruise to Bermuda for my parents' 60th anniversary in June 2013 but wasn't loving all of the recent reviews of kids running rampant. So am reading your review with that lens on.

[sha1955]

Sandi, as always brilliant reviews and pictures. I love the way you write. I feel we are with you.

Thanks to you I booked 6145 b to b next year. Hope the Summit staff are happier. Long way to San Juan from London though!

More please....:p