Summit Review 6/14/2015

[Nancwah]

Is there a main restaurant open instead of the buffet on the day of the embarkation?

[mr_bad_example]

The MDR is open from noon to 1:30 p.m.

[islander555]

thought I'd give this a little bump.

We were also on the cruise, and were in cabin 1111 aqua class (didn't know I wasn't regular folk anymore, but what the hey). I also had upgraded to the premium beverage package upon boarding. If you drink I wouldn't go any other way. I didn't attend any of the shows, or activities and ate lunch at the buffet (at the spots that weren't crowded) which I was very pleased with. Had dinner every night but Wednesday night at Blu. Their staff was outstanding! Didn't even hang out at the pool, I don't see the lure as it is very small (not complaining). If I wanted to swim I would go when the crowds died down. Funny story though, the one time I did have a spot in the lounges and a family showed up and started complaining about how all the chairs were empty but saved. the guy behind him told him to just move those towels as he hadn't seen anyone while he was there. the dad moved the towels (in a huff) placed their stuff on the lounges and announced to the rest of the family "come on, lets go get breakfast".

My room was great, real close to the stairs or elevator. I would wake up and run down the stairs to get coffee and bagels or other stuff and bring it back for breakfast on the balcony.

We spent most of our time at the aft bar drinking don Julio or bahama mama's. my kind of vacation. The only time we went to the library, we got a cribbage board which we played on the back of the boat.

Bermuda, great place, the people are so friendly. Anytime we looked lost someone would stop and come over to help us.

If you go to st. George, go to Jo Jo's and get some home made rum cake! Then hit the turtle bay beach out past the runway and finish the day off with a house drink at the swizzle inn. you won't be sorry.

hope this helps. First cruise, and I definitely would do it again.

[thmpsn]

Can anyone tell me if luggage valet was offered? It is worth the charge if it offered.

Karon

[marco]

If you mean the " for $20, put your luggage out in the hall the evening prior and you don't see it until you claim in off the carousel at your destination airport"......no, they didn't. We were on NCL last year out of NYC and they didn't, either. They may do it several other ports, but I've only seen it done at FLL. Too bad...if you are flying home from a cruise, it's the greatest thing since sliced bread and well worth $20. I've not seen it offered in NY or NJ. Another thing....if you are planning to go to St George early on the Wednesday the day you dock, get your ferry tickets early and wait in the line for the ferry. Many people did not get on the ferry, though they were waiting for a while. The NCL 'Breakaway" arrives and leaves with the "Summit" and it's carrying a LOT of passengers, making transportation to/from the dockyard crowded on both buses and ferry. I think the first ferry was at 10-ish. The next one at 12:30-ish. even if you take that one, ample time to see/do St George....or go the next day. The last ferry back to the dockyard from St George was 5:30. There was ample room on it. You can take the bus, but it's a long ride, about and hr and 1/2 to St George from the dock yard, but a beautiful, picturesque ride. We took the ferry to Hamilton, bus to St George from there and the 5:30 ferry back to the dockyard. We loved the "Summit" and Bermuda so much, we're going to go back in Sept.

Edited July 5, 2015 by marco

[thmpsn]

Thanks, Marco, for all the helpful info.

Karon

[mr_bad_example]

The Classic beverage package covers wines up to $9.00 per glass at Cellar Masters (and everywhere else). If you choose a wine that costs more, you simply pay the difference.

 

The Premium beverage package covers wines up to $13.00 per glass.

[thmpsn]

The Classic beverage package covers wines up to $9.00 per glass at Cellar Masters (and everywhere else). If you choose a wine that costs more, you simply pay the difference.

 

The Premium beverage package covers wines up to $13.00 per glass.

 

With the classic, you pay the whole cost if it's over 9.00. With the premium you only pay the difference.

Jim

[mr_bad_example]

Jim,

 

I stand corrected. We have always upgraded to the Premium and I assumed the deal was similar. Thanks for setting me straight.

 

Derek

[lawgeek]

If you mean the " for $20, put your luggage out in the hall the evening prior and you don't see it until you claim in off the carousel at your destination airport"......no, they didn't. We were on NCL last year out of NYC and they didn't, either. They may do it several other ports, but I've only seen it done at FLL. Too bad...if you are flying home from a cruise, it's the greatest thing since sliced bread and well worth $20. I've not seen it offered in NY or NJ. Another thing....if you are planning to go to St George early on the Wednesday the day you dock, get your ferry tickets early and wait in the line for the ferry. Many people did not get on the ferry, though they were waiting for a while. The NCL 'Breakaway" arrives and leaves with the "Summit" and it's carrying a LOT of passengers, making transportation to/from the dockyard crowded on both buses and ferry. I think the first ferry was at 10-ish. The next one at 12:30-ish. even if you take that one, ample time to see/do St George....or go the next day. The last ferry back to the dockyard from St George was 5:30. There was ample room on it. You can take the bus, but it's a long ride, about and hr and 1/2 to St George from the dock yard, but a beautiful, picturesque ride. We took the ferry to Hamilton, bus to St George from there and the 5:30 ferry back to the dockyard. We loved the "Summit" and Bermuda so much, we're going to go back in Sept.

 

One thing to pay close attention to is that the St George ferry schedule varies depending on the day. I think this is also true for Hamilton as well. Best bet is to get a schedule from the booth where you get off ship.

[lawgeek]

OK. Here is most of the rest of this way too long review. I will post some final thoughts later.

 

CASINO

We spent some time in casino, but not as much as other cruises. It is a nice facility, the staff are very good. We played in a Texas Hold em tourney and unfortunately lost. I could have won, but made two dumb errors that cost me and ended up just out of the money in third place. At least I did have the satisfaction of knocking the wife out of the tourney.

 

We also played in a slot tourney, that was not all that fun. Wife won her $25 back, but it was in the form of slot play, which she lost! For those who care, there was also Blackjack, Roulette, Craps, Three Card Poker, Ultimate Texas Holdem and, of course, slots. One interesting thing I was not aware of is that Casino is open in port, but opens later. Not sure I have ever seen that before.

 

Although not related to the casino, there was Bingo on board. This was something we usually might do, but did not on this trip.

 

POOL

I almost put a two word description on this heading “Don’t Bother.” I say this, because when the weather cooperated, it was a mess. One look and I had no ambition of going down there. We did swim a little on off hours times (ie late day, early evening). One time the water stung my eyes so bad, they burned through dinner. I won’t explain what causes this here, but it is not the salt or the conditioner in the water, it is the byproduct.

 

I saw lots of empty lounges with towels on them most days. Far more than people in the pool area. That is nothing new to any of you though. I am just glad that the quality of my trip was not centered around the pool!

 

I will also add that my wife and our friend went to pool on morning of second port day (buddy and I were scuba diving) and they had a very good time with an empty pool area. So, for the record, it was not all negative!

 

SPA

I did not use the spa, but did go in there with my wife when she wanted to book a facial. I am not really sure what they feed spa employees, but it seems like on every ship, they are very snobby. This was no exception. When I asked about discount treatments on port days, the girl scowled at me (plan was for girls to use spa while we scuba dive). Eventually, the other girl gave me brochure with pricing. Big difference in the type of attitude and service we experienced in all other areas of the ship.

 

To top this off, DW went for $15+ facial. She decided to tipgirl despite not being overly impressed. When I examined bill closely after arriving home I noticed her tip of $20 plus a $24 gratuity automatically added. Oh well, live and learn. If they are making that much money, you would think they could at least smile.

 

BERMUDA

We woke up early to watch the sail in to Bermuda and were met with low clouds and spots of sunshine. We watched the NCL Breakaway head in first. I heard one officer previously mention that they let them go first to see if it is deep enough! OUCH! A fairly funny comment though.

 

When we arrived at the port, as soon as the person on shore grabbed our dock line, the skies opened up and it began to pour rain. We all started plotting our plan B as it looked like our scooter tour may be nixed.

 

We were off the boat within a half hour of arriving and the rain had abated. None of us like to ride buses and based on the information I had, cabs were pretty expensive to get around on. We had reserved scooters/”bikes” with the local rental place for a three day rental. Our plan was to ride and ferry on the bikes for our main mode of transportation. We also were going to purchase transportation passes as we imagined a lot of ferrying.

 

As my buddy was purchasing his pass, I spoke to a rep from the scooter company who was at the dock. He queried why we would need a pass. I did not have a good answer, but it was too late as buddy had bought his and DW was about to purchase mine. In the end, we only lost a few bucks on the passes, so not too bad. What we did not realize was St. George ferry did not allow bikes. This meant we would have to ferry to Hamilton, then ride to St. George when we went. No big deal, but threw off the estimated use of the passes.

 

We went over to the bike vendor and the lot with the bikes stored had about 6 inches of water from the rain. We had reserved one bike per couple and needless to say the drivers were apprehensive about riding on wet roads. We nonetheless went ahead with hit and took the trial run around the block to make sure we were comfortable. Please note this is not so they can make sure you are competent as they cant see where you ride.

 

My buddy owns a Harley and I have owned motorcycles and ridden scooters on other islands, so we were at least experienced. I honestly do not think this is good thing to do without prior experience. I heard two stories about issues with bikes (they may be same incident). One came from a fellow biker who overheard a couple in front of him say something about he was glad he could test drive and make sure he could do it. The couple telling me the story said they ran across that couple laying in the middle of the road fifteen minutes later. The other rumor was there was a couple on our ship who went down and she had a broken arm and he had road rash all down one side. Not a fun vacation I imagine. Moral here is that you may think twice about this one.

 

Because of the weather we decided to head out to Hamilton, where we could ferry back from if need be. My first experience on the bike was one of severe anxiety for the following reasons:

 

1. The roads were wet and I was on a scooter;

2. I had the slowest vehicle on the road;

3. I had not been on a scooter for several years and was not used to it (see number one again);

4. DW is a horrible passenger as she makes sudden body movements (especially on big curves) and leans the opposite of what she should;

5. Despite posted speed limits of 35-45 kph, traffic always was moving faster than the 60-65 kph top end of my bike; and

6. They drive on the wrong side of the road.

 

Each of the above made for a pretty miserable trip to Hamilton where the traffic got insane! The most dangerous part was the two roundabouts we hit before town. Very confusing when you are on wrong side of the road. We did survive and I was sooooo happy when we were able to park and get off that thing. When we parked there was a middle aged woman in a rental helmet crying to her family and saying she just could not do it. Towards the end of that ride, I was more comfortable and knew I would enjoy this thing eventually, but the traffic in the city was not fun.

 

Hamilton was ok. Walked around, looked in shops, walked to fort. Heat was pretty miserable though. Overall, I don’t think any of us was overly impressed. I was happy to be able to pick up a few Cubans. We went to a great bar called The Docksider. It was more of a local hangout than tourist place. Had some really good chicken wings and a few Swizzles.

 

We ferried back to boat from Hamilton. Decided to find where we needed to be next morning for our dive trip. We chose Deep Blue (I think) which is located in Somerset. After search ing for a while, I never found it. Became separated from friends when looking, and they eventually found the location. Main problem was the only sign for the place faced the other directing of traffic (this is true for a lot of signs we saw). It was very small and really only a dive flag. When someone told buddy to turn at bright blue house, he found it.

 

Diving was good, not the most impressive I have seen. Boat and crew were pretty good. Not as service oriented as some places I have dove, but good all around. First site was a dual wreck. First weas intentionally sunk tug that was impressive and second was real close and concluded to be a treasure hunting vessel that was a true wreck. Both were very interesting. Second dive was a reef dive that had a lot of nice coral, but not much else. Couple of ok swim throughs, but would have preferred more wildlife.

 

After diving, we picked up women and headed towards the popular beaches. We stopped at Church’s Bay upon a local recommendation and were very pleased. Only a handful of people, an umbrella rental person and nice structure for snorkeling. Sand was slightly coarser than others we went to later, but this was an awesome beach. Snorkeling was ok saw some fish, including a huge parrot fish (actually, I still have not checked to make sure, but looked like parrot). DF found some nice sand to take home and sea glass.

 

After our beach time, we rode up to lighthouse to take some pics, then down to Horseshoe bay to take another picture. It was later in day so not so crowded, but we were glad we went to Church’s for our actual beach time that day.

 

Along the way home, we stopped at small bar close to Dockyards and had a cocktail. It was truly a local hangout, but we were treated extremely well despite our melanomic differences. Can’t remember name of place, but there are some here who know.

 

As an aside, I have not mentioned how wonderful the people of Bermuda are. While out riding our scooters, we would pull over in bus stops to:

 

1. Let traffic pass;

2. Communicate with our friends;

3. Look at map; and

4. Take a break from the pure insanity of Bermuda biking!

 

I can’t tell you how many times people would stop their car and ask if everything was all right or say we looked lost and how could they help. One gentleman drove past us in his work van stopped up the road reversed all the way back told exactly where to go (even avoiding us going on a very wining road) got bac in his car and drove off. Amazing! I have several stories of the same type of treatment. Just really awesome people who appreciate the business that tourism brings. I have not seen this degree of courtesy on any other Island have travelled to (or other land destination).

 

That night we ate at Blu, DF’s went barhopping and ate at Frog & Onion and they were impressed. We did not join because DW said they wanted to be alone. I can’t imagine that being true since I am so much fun to be with, but I listened, lest I hear about it all night long.

 

Day three we had to plan to the minute as we wanted to hit St George and ship boarding was 4:15. We begrudgingly awoke early to catch 7:30 ferry to Hamilton (I hooked up with DF’s later that night and we probably closed martini bar (not sure though). From Hamilton, we biked up to St George. That end of the island was much nicer in appearance.

 

We were in rush hour traffic in Hamilton and that was a sight of its own. It really is a disadvantage having the slowest vehicle on the road in those conditions. Once we figured out how to get out of town (actually, I just got lucky to get on the proper road) traffic lightened up considerably. Was really looking forward to St George as I was starving and hung over. I needed food and coffee!

 

When we got to town, we went down to Tobacco Bay and took a picture, it was pretty cool looking, but not what we were looking for. We went into town and stopped at grocery to see about somewhere to eat (they have prepared foods in grocery, but we wanted to sit down somewhere. We foud a small restaurant, but it was full. We were directed to another small place which I can only describe as a ST George version of Starbuck’s. They had hot food and good coffee. Name was GoJo’s I believe (I think Islander called it JoJo’s but that person was wrong, or I am…just look for something Jo’s). I loved my egg sandwich and so did everyone else. Actually, they all had there own sandwiches, so they could not really enjoy mine. But you probably get the gist here

 

While in coffee shop, a lady arrived with several boxes of what turned out to be Rum Cakes. She set up a table and set her cakes out on fine crystal that she had also brought. Thing was, she had transported the boxes of cakes and crystal all on her trusty scooter/bike. I would have loved to see her crossing the causeway loaded up like a pack mule with treats.

 

She said she made her cakes from her husband’s family recipe (he was native Bermudian) and they were best on the rock. DF’s bought one and we tried it the next day, it was truly delicious. Didn’t have any others, but surely better than something you buy in a box at the gift shop.

 

The rest of the day was to be at beach. Cake lady and our bartender in Hamilton recommended we go to beaches out past the old base. The area is called Cooper's Island I believe. We went past the crowded beaches there (looked like mostly locals) and hiked in a little ways to a few near deserted beaches. It could not have been too far as I only recall a few derogatory remarks from DW.

 

We went to beach on the right, which was Turtle Bay. We were four of the eight people on a large beach. A waverunner tour stopped there to cool off for about ten minutes, but they were not disruptive. We found out where the bay got its name and had an awesome final beach day. After, we headed to Swizzle Inn (Swagger Out) for a few Swizzles and T-shirts and then back to St George to catch ferry.

 

Some of you might be thinking “How did you get back on ferry with your bikes?” Answer is we did not. St George ferry does not allow bikes. We checked and found out that we could leave our bikes with any Oleander lot on the Island. So…with tears in my eyes I begrudgingly turned in my helmets and keys and walked into town sniffling.

 

Ferry (2:15) was busy but got on. Had nice ride back, went to Frog & Onion so I could:

 

1. Get beer;

2. Get T-Shirt; and

3. Annoy DW by waiting as late as possible to get on ship.

 

This really annoys her as we came very close to missing boat in Istanbul on our last cruise. She reminded all of us of this of this fact…at least 10 times. I take pleasure in torturing her in this way and torturing my friends in having to listen to her. I know…I am amused by very strange things!

 

After showers, we had a nice sail away, we had a Cuban (in the authorized area, of course) at sail away and said good bye to an Island that I would travel to anytime.

 

Final thoughts to follow later.

[Long Island cruisers]

I am traveling with my grandchildren ages 15 and 17, one boy and one girl. What activities would be available for them on board the Summit?