LIVE FROM Summit - August 21, 2021

[goldsmip115]

Can you tell me who the Butlers are on the ship, please.

[garyl62]

So nice to follow along, last two times we sailed the Summit we were also in 6118, but those were both before the revolution.  It a great cabin, quick to run down to 5 for an early morning coffee at Cafe Al Bacio, or just a short walk to the Aft elevator to go down to Luminae or up to the Sunset Bar, have a great week!

Edited August 24, 2021 by garyl62
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[sunpsyche]

We sailed Summit B2B one month ago and following along to join in the fun! Our first leg was under 300 people and the second was under 400. It was a bit different to have our own “private yacht” but the service was incredible, especially in the Retreat and Luminae. 
 

We didn’t stay at Holland House, but it is lovely with that view!  Drinks were tasty also. 
 

Enjoy every minute!

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

5 hours ago, goldsmip115 said:

Can you tell me who the Butlers are on the ship, please.

Ours is Allaine (pronounced “Allen”). He is searching for things to do for us!  We just don’t require that much attention!😛

[sunpsyche]

21 hours ago, goldsmip115 said:

Can you tell me who the Butlers are on the ship, please.

We had Daisy and our friends had Glenn. 

[goldsmip115]

Thank you.  We had the most amazing butler Cesar on 3 Summit cruises.  I dream of sailing again with him one day.  If I ever have the pleasure of sailing with him again the entire cruise will be perfect unless the ship sinks.

[Seany527]

Looks like Host Anne is another victim of Celebrity’s really poor wifi. 
 

With only 270 guests (wow, btw) how slow will the internet be when capacity is at its max? They really need to do something about it. 

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

Wifi is fine. I’m streaming you tube videos regularly. Every once in a while it’s slow but we are at sea!

 

Anne is just enjoying her vacation. Hung out with her at Retreat sail away yesterday. 

[Host Anne]

Greetings everyone ~ most of my wifi issues have been with the "Surf" wifi that comes with my package and the syncing issues on my own computer (we won't go there right now).

 

At any rate.....here's a bit more and I'll finish tomorrow when we are headed home!

 

THE REST OF THE CRUISE

 

I have struggled to be able to post to the Live From Thread from the ship.  I can open it, but the posting will not work.  So apologies for the Not So Live From Summit thread this week.

 

I’ll give a shorter recap of how the cruise has been (I’m going to use my Capt Club minutes and hopefully will be able to post).

 

FOOD

We have mostly dined in Luminae.  Our daughter and son-in-law both have some food allergies.  Having the same table and staff every evening helps to ensure they are getting food they can eat.  All meals have been very good to excellent, and the service is above and beyond at all times.  There is nothing that they are not willing to try and do when you ask from something unusual.  The nice thing for our daughter and son-in-law is that they could order from the main dining room or Blue menu.  It gave them a much wider variety since they are limited in food choices.  The chef provided desserts they could eat beyond sorbet and we were very appreciative for the wonderful care and service they received.

 

We dined in Tuscan one evening and it was probably the best meal in Tuscan on any Celebrity ship.  While I’m sad that this beautiful room is no longer “Normandie,” the experience was wonderful.  The chef went WAY above and beyond by making our son-in-law gluten-free gnocchi.  It’s something he’s always wanted try but has never found it in a restaurant before.  He enjoyed it so much, he had a second serving … in addition to the appetizer and rib eye!  We all enjoyed the dinner immensely and Paul (our waiter) and Mr. B (the maître ‘d) treated us like royalty.  There were four other tables of guests and one table of officers in the restaurant that evening. 

 

Food in the Overview was fine.  It has to be difficult to make so many food options for so few people.  The pizza was probably the best pizza I’ve had on a Celebrity ship and the burgers and hot dogs were fine, too.  There was a good selection of food choices each day and we ate lunch here probably four days.  We dined in Luminae two days for lunch and Sushi on Five the other.  Compliments to the chefs for serving consistently good to excellent food up here.

 

When you think about the variety of food they serve on the ship and how difficult it can be these days to get certain provisions, Celebrity has done a fantastic job at getting and making a wide variety of food.

 

BEVERAGES

We had the elevate drink package and by the second day they no longer asked for our cabin number in the lounges we’d go to.  Wine was refilled regularly (especially during dinner) and if the bar we were at didn’t make or have something, it was no issue for them to go to another bar to get it.  That probably won’t be the case when the ships add capacity but for now it was very nice.

 

CABIN 6118

We were in an S2 Sky Suite on deck 6.  This was only the second time in our 30 years of cruising that we were in a suite.  Suites on the M-class ship are very different from the S- and Edge-class.  Most are on deck six overlooking the lifeboats.  The support structure for the life boats immediately outside the cabin need some maintenance (painting) as it is severely rusted.  The ocean environment is severely corrosive and you can see it very well on our veranda.  Speaking of the veranda, it’s very nice.  It’s the length of what would be two normal balconies and has a comfy outdoor couch, small round table and two chairs.  It’s pretty narrow but for two people, it's great. 

 

Inside the cabin, it’s definitely the width of two cabins but it’s shorter.  There is plenty of room and storage space, another couch, desk, two night stands, two closets and storage next to the desk and under the TV.  We didn’t come close to using all the space.

 

The bathroom is on the smaller side.  One sink with a tub/shower combination.  You really can’t get two people in here unless one of you is actually in the shower.  My only constructive criticism of the entire cruise is the shower curtain.  Sounds king of strange, doesn’t it?  The tub is elevated (and could be challenging for someone with minor mobility issues) so the shower curtain runs all the way to the floor outside the tub.  But to use the shower curtain and prevent water from going everywhere, you need to put the shower curtain inside the tub when showering.  That means that approximately 8 inches of shower curtain is on the floor of the tub (running to the middle of the tub).  It’s slippery, dangerous and never really dries.  They really should cut these curtains so they do not run into the middle of the tub.  There’s no way to avoid stepping on it (the shower is part of the tub) and it is really easy to slip on the curtain while taking a shower. 

 

RETREAT HOST (formerly called Butlers)

Allaine was our Retreat Host for the week (they no longer call them Butlers).  We are pretty easygoing when it comes to cruise needs.  He was great and happy to do anything we asked (he made our Tuscan dinner reservation and took care of a champagne request) but we didn’t have many other requests.  But I am sure if you had a lot of needs, Allaine would have been happy to take of them quickly.

 

THE RETREAT

We’ve only been in one other Retreat and that was on Edge when she first came out.  There is a big, big difference between these two retreats, but we knew that.  The Retreat on Edge was built as part of the ship from the beginning.  The Retreat on the M and S class ships were retrofitted so we didn’t expect them to be the same.  However, I think the Retreat is wonderful regardless of the ship you are on. 

 

More to come later….time to enjoy the final day….

[Host Anne]

By the way, at 12:45 or so Captain Matt announced all passengers on this cruise tested negative.  WOO HOO.!!!!

[Seany527]

5 hours ago, Sox Fan Cruiser said:

Wifi is fine. I’m streaming you tube videos regularly. Every once in a while it’s slow but we are at sea!

 

Anne is just enjoying her vacation. Hung out with her at Retreat sail away yesterday. 

Contradicts post #22

[abbydancer2003]

I just found this, and of course am reliving our cruise from a month ago.  Some comments.

 

We loved the Holland House.  My sister is thinking of taking her kids there for Spring Break.

 

Our butler was Daisy, and she was outstanding.  She's one of the few (maybe the only) female butlers AKA retreat hosts.

 

Anne, Paul was our waiter in Tuscan, too.  We thought he was a hoot, and we learned a lot about Romania from him.  He's a big Disney fan.  We wanted to fix him up with the Head of Housekeeping but we found out she was married.

 

I"m looking forward to reading the rest - thanks.

 

[sunpsyche]

59 minutes ago, abbydancer said:

 

Our butler was Daisy, and she was outstanding.  She's one of the few (maybe the only) female butlers AKA retreat hosts.

 

 

Daisy was exceptional, wasn’t she! I do believe she is the only women butler/retreat host on the ship. 

[abbydancer2003]

1 hour ago, sunpsyche said:

Daisy was exceptional, wasn’t she! I do believe she is the only women butler/retreat host on the ship. 

She was.  Possibly the only one in the fleet.  And I thought the Retreat Lounge staff was outstanding as well.

 

[Host Anne]

Just back in our cabin on the final night.  I'll save the details for later but I can say this was the BEST final evening of all of our cruises (and we've been on quite a few). 

 

We can't thank the wonderful crew onboard Summit and all the new friends we made this week.  Our love of cruising has been renewed.

 

More to come tomorrow!  Thanks for following along and apologies for the sporadic posting.

[Host Anne]

5 hours ago, Seany527 said:

Contradicts post #22

 

I was primarily using the internet service that came with the elevate package which was the SURF package. Those using the STREAMING service found the internet to be much faster.  

[abbydancer2003]

6 minutes ago, Host Anne said:

Just back in our cabin on the final night.  I'll save the details for later but I can say this was the BEST final evening of all of our cruises (and we've been on quite a few). 

 

We can't thank the wonderful crew onboard Summit and all the new friends we made this week.  Our love of cruising has been renewed.

 

More to come tomorrow!  Thanks for following along and apologies for the sporadic posting.

We thought our cruise was our best ever.  We're on the Equinox in October, and if it's half as good as our Summit cruise it will be amazing.  The crew was especially superb.

 

[steveweese]

Following

 

[Jim_Iain]

Thanks for you post.    I've enjoyed reading your perspective.

[wendyam76]

11 hours ago, abbydancer said:

She was.  Possibly the only one in the fleet.  And I thought the Retreat Lounge staff was outstanding as well.

 

There are at least two female Retreat Hosts on Apex. We had Reggie and she was excellent and then she very excitedly told us one day somebody had recognised us, Tarri -  she had served us in Constellation and had worked her way up to Retreat Host. We were so delighted for her!

[TeeRick]

Anne thanks so much for giving your experienced cruising perspective to us on this Summit cruise.  Much appreciated!

[abbydancer2003]

54 minutes ago, wendyam76 said:

There are at least two female Retreat Hosts on Apex. We had Reggie and she was excellent and then she very excitedly told us one day somebody had recognised us, Tarri -  she had served us in Constellation and had worked her way up to Retreat Host. We were so delighted for her!

To clarify, they are what used to be called butlers?  If it's lounge hosts, I've had females more often then males.

[wendyam76]

10 minutes ago, abbydancer said:

To clarify, they are what used to be called butlers?  If it's lounge hosts, I've had females more often then males.

These are butlers yes. I think they are referred to as Retreat Hosts but I would have to check! In the Retreat Lounge there were at least two lovely ladies dealing with everything. 

[wendyam76]

2 minutes ago, wendyam76 said:

These are butlers yes. I think they are referred to as Retreat Hosts but I would have to check! In the Retreat Lounge there were at least two lovely ladies dealing with everything. 

On ships with The Retreat at least, butlers are now referred to as Retreat Hosts in the Celebrity marketing literature - but everyone on Apex would still go back to saying Butler! 

[Host Anne]

The person who previously served as suite butlers are now called your "Retreat Host."  They are available to handle things from your cabin, reservations, etc.  The two people in the Retreat Lounge are Retreat Concierges (I don't have access to their cards at the moment but I will confirm that.  

 

Back to my LIVE FROM a bit late....