Review: Cruise starting Oct 16 on Summit

[Fishkillbill]

Oct 16

We left Fishkill a little after 6am in a Hertz rental car. Across the Hudson River and down the thruway to the Garden State Parkway. Now down to the Newark airport. We drove around the airport for a half an hour looking for the gas station to fill the rental car up. Then to Hertz to drop the car off. It cost $41.69 to rent a Nissan Sentra. The trip took almost two hours and that was almost no traffic, (it was a Sunday morning). Now we have to take the stupid train to a terminal to get a cab. It was so much easier the old way, to be able to just take the Hertz shuttle bus to a terminal. The cab to the terminal cost $43.20 + $4.00 toll + $7.80 tip = $55.00 total. A real nice big black guy, (x Marine, wife on the police force), took our bags for a $5.00 tip.

 

Once inside the terminal we had to show our papers and fill out a form answering a bunch of questions about our health, (if we had a cold, runny nose, stuff like that). Then we were guided to an area with a bunch of rows of chairs. We were about an hour and a half early, so we had time to kill. We passed the time talking to the couple sitting next to us. They were in Concierge class, so they were looking forward to the lunch in the MDR. We had gotten an upgrade from Concierge to Aqua class, so we would be heading to the buffet. We started boarding about ten minutes to 11am.

 

After walking around the ship for a few minutes we went to the buffet. They had a nice selection of food. We sat down to eat and here comes our concierge friends. He says the only thing on the menu in the MDR that looked eatable was the chocolate cake. So, here they are going to eat in the buffet.

 

About 1pm they announce that the rooms are ready. We are in room 9067. The room isn’t bad, but not crazy about the large overhang outside. There is a plate with three apples on it and a bottle of campaign. I read someware later that there was supposed to be flowers. No flowers, but they would have just taken up space anyway. The bathroom had stuff in it. Two bars of soap. Nice shower, with the jets and all. One problem though, wife loved it, but I couldn’t get the water temperature low enough. That and the heated mirror made the bathroom too hot.

 

I asked for ice twice a day which the steward did and the frig to be emptied, which the steward did. I put the two bottles of wine we brought with us, in the frig and it felt warm. I don’t know why the guy didn’t feel it when he removed all the stuff, but what the heck. They replaced the frig the next day.

 

The suit cases came sometime in the afternoon.

 

At 6pm we went to Blu for dinner. This starts a trend. We are the first for dinner every night. The filet mignon was great. Service was fantastic. After dinner we went to the theater and caught the last half of the show. This starts another trend. Seeing half the shows. Now back to the room for some TV and early to bed.

 

So ends the first night of our first cruise for these two old folks.

[Fishkillbill]

OCT 17-19

Sunday night, Monday night, Tuesday night and Wednesday night are all at sea, so everything is pretty much the same.

 

Two mornings we had room service bring hot tea, juice and some fruit. It was cool sitting out on the balcony. After, we would go down to Blu for a regular breakfast. On Monday, I thought Blu opened at 7:30am. When we went there we found out it didn’t open until 8:00am. So, we went to the buffet instead. They do have a good breakfast there. The rest of the mornings we went to Blu. Cathy has Celiac disease, so she needs gluten free stuff. At Blu, she could have pancakes, French toast and regular toast when she ordered eggs. A number of mornings then brought her gluten free pastry.

 

You do eat a lot. It’s a good thing most of the meals are pretty much “children’s” portions. I had pancakes twice. One the blueberry and the other the vanilla ones. Both times I got two pancakes, about five inches in diameter.

 

For the six meals at Blu, I had the filet mignon, then the New York strip steak twice. Once I have the short ribs. The meat was like stew meat. Just very dry. I don’t remember the other two meals. Probably some chicken thing. I had two soups that were very good. The other four soups were the baked onion. Cathy had the onion soup, without the bread. She had the shrimp cocktail every night. I tried the frog legs once. Nothing much there.

 

We did go to the casino at 2:00pm on Monday. The Cruise Critic gang was there for a slot machine pull. A big THANKS to all folks that put it together. I think there were 50 some odd people in the group. We put in $15 each and an attendant put all the money into two Wheel of Fortune slot machines. We each took five pulls. Cathy and I both got nothing. Lucky a couple of people hit some. At the end, the money was totaled up and split between all of us. We got $9.00 each back. It was more fun putting faces to names I have seen online.

 

Every day, after breakfast, we went to the theater and saw presentations on different topics. Most were informative and entertaining. When they were over, we would walk around for a while and by then it was time for lunch. We ate lunch at the buffet every day except one. One day we ate in the MDR.

 

We relaxed in the cabin a lot. Not real exciting, I know.

 

I’m sure many people will disagree, but I felt the Pool Grill was disappointing. I was so looking forward to it. The hamburger was a normal quarter pounder. I loved the grilled onions though. The problem was with the bun. It was so stale, it broke apart in my hand. The hot dog was a large sausage thing, on some kind of huge bun. The French fries was uneatable. I thought they would be gluten free, but they weren’t. Lucky we took the food to the buffet to eat. So, I could through it all away and have other things.

 

The Spa Café, (the healthy alternative lunch buffet), didn’t have a single customer every time we passed it.

 

The new Sushi on Five restaurant only had a couple of customers every time we passed it. There were servers standing outside trying to get people to come it.

 

Cathy’s need for gluten free food was really easy. Every place we ate bent over backwards to accommodate.

 

A small problem with the drink plan. We had the soda plan. We prefer caffeine free diet Coke. A number of places didn’t have any. On Monday, they said it was down in the “store” and would be brought up on Tuesday. By Thursday, they still didn’t have any. On Tuesday, I did go down to the Customer Service desk and mention it. They said “what can we do to make you happy?” I said, besides restocking the bars, just send a six pack to my room. A six pack was delivered to our room on Thursday. There was a phone message on Thursday, from some manager. Unfortunately, I couldn’t understand anything he said.

 

Getting soda was easy. There are a lot of bars on board. You just hand the bartender or waitress the sea passes and they give you cans of soda. They always ask if you would like glasses with ice. The only place to be careful is at the buffet. You need to sit down and order drinks first. The waitresses are few and far apart. If you don’t, you get to finish your meal before your drinks come.

[CELTICGIRLCRUISER]

Perfect this time!:D

[Fishkillbill]

Oct 20

 

Today we arrive at St. Maarten at 9:00am. I had booked the SM04 tour, but when we first got to our room, there was a letter stating that it was cancelled. I went down to the tour counter and they said the bus had broken down and I was refunded my money. I picked the SMD2 as a replacement.

 

When you take a tour, they tell you when to meet up at the theater. There they give you numbered stickers to paste on for the particular tour you are on. Here I noticed that a large group of people, (I think they were of Indian decent), were going on the tour I had originally booked. So, I guess it was BS about the bus breaking down.

 

It’s close to 90 degrees and the humidity is stifling.

 

A woman led us off the ship and to a big new bus, with Little Switzerland on the side. We ride through a lot of run down neighborhoods. We make one stop, on top of a hill, with a nice view and some souvenir shops. Then to a small town on the French side. We get to wander around for about an hour. Now onto a boat for a ride around the bay and back to the Dutch side. Now back on the bus to return to the ship. I really wanted to see Maho beach and watch the crazy people get sand blasted by the planes taking off. I guess it will have to wait till the next trip. The ship leaves St. Maarten at 7:00pm. There were two other ships there with us, the Aurora and the Freedom of the Seas. All three ships left within a half hour of each other.

[Fishkillbill]

Oct 21

 

We arrive at St. Thomas at 8:00am. Here I screwed up and booked the STP6 tour of St. John. Having never been to St. Thomas, it would have been logical to see some of that island. The ride around St. John was really nice, with a great driver. When we got back to St. Thomas, we took a cab downtown. We walked around a little and bought some stuff. Then a cab back to the ship. We leave at 5:00pm. The Summit is the only ship at St. Thomas today. They say there can be six ships during the height of the season.

 

The temperature is about the same here, but with a nice breeze. So it doesn’t feel as hot.

[Fishkillbill]

Oct 22

 

We arrive at San Juan at 6:00am. People can disembark starting at 7:00am. We are in no hurry because we are staying here for three nights. We leave the ship at 9:30am.

 

No problem getting our bags. We give a porter $5.00 to take our bags through customs. With a porter you go through a special customs agent. This line is much shorter than the regular ones. He pushes the bags down to where the cabs are.

 

It’s a $25.00 cab ride to the Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino. I’m a Marriott Silver Elite, so we get to check in ahead of a lot of other people. Checking is completed by 10:20am. Our room is ready.

[Iamthesea]

Nice review! We were on the cruise before yours. Brings back memories. :)

[easyboy]

Great review. Thanks.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[jean87510]

OCT 17-19

Sunday night, Monday night, Tuesday night and Wednesday night are all at sea, so everything is pretty much the same.

 

Two mornings we had room service bring hot tea, juice and some fruit. It was cool sitting out on the balcony. After, we would go down to Blu for a regular breakfast. On Monday, I thought Blu opened at 7:30am. When we went there we found out it didn’t open until 8:00am. So, we went to the buffet instead. They do have a good breakfast there. The rest of the mornings we went to Blu. Cathy has Celiac disease, so she needs gluten free stuff. At Blu, she could have pancakes, French toast and regular toast when she ordered eggs. A number of mornings then brought her gluten free pastry.

 

You do eat a lot. It’s a good thing most of the meals are pretty much “children’s” portions. I had pancakes twice. One the blueberry and the other the vanilla ones. Both times I got two pancakes, about five inches in diameter.

 

For the six meals at Blu, I had the filet mignon, then the New York strip steak twice. Once I have the short ribs. The meat was like stew meat. Just very dry. I don’t remember the other two meals. Probably some chicken thing. I had two soups that were very good. The other four soups were the baked onion. Cathy had the onion soup, without the bread. She had the shrimp cocktail every night. I tried the frog legs once. Nothing much there.

 

We did go to the casino at 2:00pm on Monday. The Cruise Critic gang was there for a slot machine pull. A big THANKS to all folks that put it together. I think there were 50 some odd people in the group. We put in $15 each and an attendant put all the money into two Wheel of Fortune slot machines. We each took five pulls. Cathy and I both got nothing. Lucky a couple of people hit some. At the end, the money was totaled up and split between all of us. We got $9.00 each back. It was more fun putting faces to names I have seen online.

 

Every day, after breakfast, we went to the theater and saw presentations on different topics. Most were informative and entertaining. When they were over, we would walk around for a while and by then it was time for lunch. We ate lunch at the buffet every day except one. One day we ate in the MDR.

 

We relaxed in the cabin a lot. Not real exciting, I know.

 

I’m sure many people will disagree, but I felt the Pool Grill was disappointing. I was so looking forward to it. The hamburger was a normal quarter pounder. I loved the grilled onions though. The problem was with the bun. It was so stale, it broke apart in my hand. The hot dog was a large sausage thing, on some kind of huge bun. The French fries was uneatable. I thought they would be gluten free, but they weren’t. Lucky we took the food to the buffet to eat. So, I could through it all away and have other things.

 

The Spa Café, (the healthy alternative lunch buffet), didn’t have a single customer every time we passed it.

 

The new Sushi on Five restaurant only had a couple of customers every time we passed it. There were servers standing outside trying to get people to come it.

 

Cathy’s need for gluten free food was really easy. Every place we ate bent over backwards to accommodate.

 

A small problem with the drink plan. We had the soda plan. We prefer caffeine free diet Coke. A number of places didn’t have any. On Monday, they said it was down in the “store” and would be brought up on Tuesday. By Thursday, they still didn’t have any. On Tuesday, I did go down to the Customer Service desk and mention it. They said “what can we do to make you happy?” I said, besides restocking the bars, just send a six pack to my room. A six pack was delivered to our room on Thursday. There was a phone message on Thursday, from some manager. Unfortunately, I couldn’t understand anything he said.

 

Getting soda was easy. There are a lot of bars on board. You just hand the bartender or waitress the sea passes and they give you cans of soda. They always ask if you would like glasses with ice. The only place to be careful is at the buffet. You need to sit down and order drinks first. The waitresses are few and far apart. If you don’t, you get to finish your meal before your drinks come.

 

I agree with you about the soda. Coke zero was gone by st martin. I had to go with diet coke which disappeared by st thomas. Also by st martin in buffet and bar in the back of ship cans were always warm. I probably should have complained but just accepted it. We will bring drinks on next time.