Brief Impressions 4/2 Summit Cruise

[odiesam]

Just off our second Celebrity cruise (sailed Summit 2015). Most of our other cruises (10+) were on Royal (with our now grown kids.)

 

Loved our Summit cruise in 2015 but not so much this time.

 

First the positives:

 

- great dining room service; we had select dining and never waited for a table of 2

- loved the new rooftop terrace. Watched the NCAA games up there along with a couple of movies.

- great weather and nice fellow cruisers

- enjoyed the comedian shows

- loved the premium drink package taking advantage of the specialty coffee drinks; pellegrino water etc.

 

The not so positives:

 

-We had balcony 6030 this time. Often could smell smoke when out on our balcony. When it rained water pooled and needed to be mopped off on our balcony. This was also true with the running track area; after a rain shower, big puddles, the drains obviously need some work.

- many areas of the ship smelled like stale smoke or stale something. Last year we had a cabin in the newer 3rd floor oceanview area so maybe that was why we didn't smell it so much.

- food was ok; we never ate at any of the specialty areas; really poor selection of fresh fruit

- casino table minimums for the entire week was $10 thus few craps players (a venue where we have fun and meeting other people)

- the portside vs the starboard week long games felt a bit Carnival-esque

- unless specifying with a bartender when ordering a glass of wine, seemed to always be served the lowest quality brand even though we pointed out the fact we had the premium package.

-our cabin steward was not timely, always seemed to forget to replace things.

 

We are probably newer ship people and will cruise in the future on a newer ship. Weather was wonderful; realize cabin steward service is a hit and miss kind of thing.

 

All in all it beat being home where it is snowing in April?!?

[Hydrokitty]

Just off our second Celebrity cruise (sailed Summit 2015). Most of our other cruises (10+) were on Royal (with our now grown kids.)

 

Loved our Summit cruise in 2015 but not so much this time.

 

First the positives:

 

- great dining room service; we had select dining and never waited for a table of 2

- loved the new rooftop terrace. Watched the NCAA games up there along with a couple of movies.

- great weather and nice fellow cruisers

- enjoyed the comedian shows

- loved the premium drink package taking advantage of the specialty coffee drinks; pellegrino water etc.

 

The not so positives:

 

-We had balcony 6030 this time. Often could smell smoke when out on our balcony. When it rained water pooled and needed to be mopped off on our balcony. This was also true with the running track area; after a rain shower, big puddles, the drains obviously need some work.

- many areas of the ship smelled like stale smoke or stale something. Last year we had a cabin in the newer 3rd floor oceanview area so maybe that was why we didn't smell it so much.

- food was ok; we never ate at any of the specialty areas; really poor selection of fresh fruit

- casino table minimums for the entire week was $10 thus few craps players (a venue where we have fun and meeting other people)

- the portside vs the starboard week long games felt a bit Carnival-esque

- unless specifying with a bartender when ordering a glass of wine, seemed to always be served the lowest quality brand even though we pointed out the fact we had the premium package.

-our cabin steward was not timely, always seemed to forget to replace things.

 

We are probably newer ship people and will cruise in the future on a newer ship. Weather was wonderful; realize cabin steward service is a hit and miss kind of thing.

 

All in all it beat being home where it is snowing in April?!?

 

Just got off Celebrity Equinox and have to say the only places I smelled smoke were in the smoking areas. My biggest complaint with is the list of rules that clearly state that passengers are not allowed to reserve or save seats at the pool or in the solarium....but nobody enforces it. Our cabin steward was wonderful but as you said that's a hit or miss kind of thing...but it sure did beat being home where it was 50 when we left and snowing when we got home!!

[agargoyle]

Hi,

 

thanks for the review...interested in how popular the roof top terrace..did the area seem to be used often both day and night? We are on deck 11 on the May 1st cruise and that part of the ship was my favorite because no one knew about is and had very few people .....

 

As far as room steward is concerned I do hope that you filled out a comment card while on the ship to the Hotel Director or included the information in you post cruise survey.

 

While I hate to see a steward in trouble, the cruise line cannot maintain higher standards if people do not complain while the even is happening or shortly there after. Granted the steward could have been not feeling well or just had bad news from home.....but I always let the Hotel Director know good or bad how the room steward was.

 

Looking forward to being on the refurbished Summit in 3 weeks.

[DrivesLikeMario]

Thanks for the review. I appreciate your comments and hope to find none of your negatives on our next 3 Summit cruises. It's a bit scary booking 3 cruises on a ship you've never been on before. Hoping for the best.

[Hydrokitty]

Thanks for the review. I appreciate your comments and hope to find none of your negatives on our next 3 Summit cruises. It's a bit scary booking 3 cruises on a ship you've never been on before. Hoping for the best.

 

Hi Drives Like Mario....when are you on Summit? We're on her departing NJ Oct. 2 for 2 weeks to Canada. I know what you're saying about booking cruises on a ship you've never been on....we've only been on Infinity and Eclipse and booked Summit and Equinox....but I trust Celebrity....2 fantastic cruises down and 2 to go!!! :D

[tartan cruiser]

Have Summit booked for 2/2017. Any idea what Liquid is? Charge for this? I haven't seen any mention of this in the reviews. Looking forward to more reviews as time passes regarding Roof top terrace. Especially food and variety of movies.

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review.

[Clarea]

Appreciate the feedback.

[PinkMEB]

My daughter and I were on this same April 2 cruise and loved it - not a single complaint. Someone said they were disappointed in the fruit. We thought it was fresh, delicious and a good variety. Loved Blu restaurant and loved loved Qsine where we ate twice. The only time we smelled smoke was in the area by the pool to the left of the bar and we quickly left that area. Our stateroom attendant was excellent. Yes, we had a wet balcony after rain but what would you expect? Weather was beautiful and we enjoyed the ports.

[odiesam]

The Rooftop Terrace did not seem very crowded any of the times we were up there.

 

We did not eat at any of the specialty restaurants so my guess is the fruit selection was better at these (couldn't find a berry except on a dessert top!)

 

What bothered me about out water was our neighbors did not have it and it was standing water 2" deep not draining; room service deliverer commented on it when he saw it. After it was mopped up the first time later that afternoon it barely sprinkled and our balcony was flooded again. Up on the jogging track there were workers taking the tops of the drains off as these weren't just puddles but flooded spots failing to drain.

 

We are big non smokers and like Celebrity because they are the most restrictive but obviously there will be those that smoke on their balconies and it is difficult to get the smell of years' worth of smoke out of an older ship. If we sailed one of these class ships again we would probably return to the newer 3rd floor ocienview cabins.

[fedexretiree]

[/L

We have 6030 booked for our upcoming cruise. I hope that the drain situation is resolved by then. We typically book cabins closer to the aft of the ship but wanted to try something different this time. Did you feel lots of movement in this cabin?

[IsanTom]

Thanks for the review!

[Cruise a holic]

Thanks for the information. We will be sailing on the Summit in August for the 6th time. We sailed on the Reflection in March and we had a very negative experience with our butler. We had him on the Summit a few years back and as luck would have it had him again on the Reflection! Hope he doesn't come back to the Summit in August. We didn't complain about him, as I felt the man really needed the job, but didn't give him any tips-other then the prepaid tips. Typically if we have great service from cabin staff and butlers we give them an additional tip.

[jean87510]

On summit now and love it. But then again, i don't like fruit. And i don't always inspect rust.

[Gillian123]

On summit now and love it. But then again, i don't like fruit. And i don't always inspect rust.

 

Enjoy your cruise :)

[Barwick Cruiser]

[/L

We have 6030 booked for our upcoming cruise. I hope that the drain situation is resolved by then. We typically book cabins closer to the aft of the ship but wanted to try something different this time. Did you feel lots of movement in this cabin?

 

We had 6035 on our b2b in Feb...which is also the last sweet sixteen but on the port side. We also had an issue with unusual amounts of water on the balcony after a rainfall. Obviously you'll get some water on an outdoor surface however this was more than that. We did have to get our attendant to sweep/squeegee it off in order to use the balcony later and it was a frequent occurrence.

 

As to the smoke issue, we also smelled cigarette smoke often and at first just attributed it to the smoking area on deck 5 aft of where our cabin was. However we later discovered that on both the port and starboard sides there is a crew smoking area directly below the sweet sixteen cabins with openings where the smoke can drift upwards. Several times we'd go out on deck5 on the Starboard side for sailaway and walking forward you can see the crew restricted area with chairs for them to relax on their breaks and often saw them smoking there as well. It wasn't ever really bad but will keep us from booking these cabins in future.

[jigger]

Yikes !!

[fedexretiree]

We had 6035 on our b2b in Feb...which is also the last sweet sixteen but on the port side. We also had an issue with unusual amounts of water on the balcony after a rainfall. Obviously you'll get some water on an outdoor surface however this was more than that. We did have to get our attendant to sweep/squeegee it off in order to use the balcony later and it was a frequent occurrence.

 

As to the smoke issue, we also smelled cigarette smoke often and at first just attributed it to the smoking area on deck 5 aft of where our cabin was. However we later discovered that on both the port and starboard sides there is a crew smoking area directly below the sweet sixteen cabins with openings where the smoke can drift upwards. Several times we'd go out on deck5 on the Starboard side for sailaway and walking forward you can see the crew restricted area with chairs for them to relax on their breaks and often saw them smoking there as well. It wasn't ever really bad but will keep us from booking these cabins in future.

 

Oh wow...Makes me rethink about booking this room. Did you notice a lot of motion being in the front of the ship?

We typically book close to the back and have not noticed a lot of movement there.

[Barwick Cruiser]

Oh wow...Makes me rethink about booking this room. Did you notice a lot of motion being in the front of the ship?

We typically book close to the back and have not noticed a lot of movement there.

 

We didn't notion much motion at all, but then the seas were pretty calm for our cruise and neither of us gets motion sickness much...we typically book mid-ship, 7th level on an M class and 9th level on S...but we'd heard so many great things about these cabins that we wanted to try one!