Summit LIVE Bermuda (7/24-7/31) AQ Class Review

[Kteacher]

Charla can I meet you somewhere to give you the Daniel Boulud book?

[Mcgeneseo]

Happy belated birthday!

[GenerationX]

2 hours ago, Kteacher said:

Charla can I meet you somewhere to give you the Daniel Boulud book?

 

Thank you again so much for the book offer! We are doing dinner at LPC at 8:30. Would it work if we met in Martini Bar beforehand about 8pm ship time? Or afterwards around 10:30?  

[Kteacher]

Sorry, just seeing this now 😔😔. We will leave it in the retreat lounge in the a.m. with your name on it. Safe travels to you and Jeremy. So nice to meet you! Enjoy all your future cruises and I look forward to reading more reviews!

[GenerationX]

Good morning from Cape Liberty 😭

 

If you’re one of the lucky people boarding the Summit today, it looks like you’re going to have e a beautiful day to cruise. As you can see, the crew is already hard at work dressing the ship in celebration of your arrival!
 

It’s about 8:30am and the ship hasn’t been cleared to start disembarkation yet.  Our room steward told us that it isn’t unusual for disembarkation at Cape Liberty not to start till as late as 9/9:30 so it’s something to take into account when making flight plans.

 

Our flight out isn’t until 4pm so we should still have plenty of time.  As we're rehydrating on the pool deck from our last night onboard, I’ll start doing a few catch up posts and putting together my final thoughts on our week on the Summit and future cruise plans.

 

 

 

[DisneyJen]

Safe travels home @GenerationX!

Thanks for taking us along 🥂

DH and I will head to the port around 10:45 to board 🍾

[cruisebeachgirl703]

Thanks for taking us along. Always enjoyable following with you. Did you say the oceanview cafe had started out self serve and then went back to full serve?

[Jim_Iain]

Was just checking the Port Liberty Cam and see Summit -

 

Enjoyed your review and safe home.

 

Edited July 31, 2022 by Jim_Iain

[GenerationX]

4 hours ago, cruisebeachgirl703 said:

Thanks for taking us along. Always enjoyable following with you. Did you say the oceanview cafe had started out self serve and then went back to full serve?

I did, the service situation in the buffet turned out to be very odd by the end of the cruise. Some days/meals we would go in and crew was serving and others it was self serve.  The last day or 2 it was kind of a confusing hybrid where some stations were self serve and others had crew serving. There didn’t seem to be any consistency to it.

[GenerationX]

We’re settled into the Admirals Club at LGA after an $80 pre-tip Uber ride from the port.  The agent checking us in said that the lounge expansion just opened on Tuesday and it’s spacious, clean and not at all crowded.

 

When Summit disembarkation finally started, with walk off luggage guests called at about 8:45, it moved pretty slowly.  

 

It was about 9:30 when they called the first batch of 3 luggage tag numbers (presumably suites and zenith had already been called by then).  Then it was about 20-30 minutes before the next set were called.  We were in tag group 23 and were called to get off the ship a little after 10am.  

 

Lines for customs were long and slow moving as well because the port wasn’t using facial recognition.  We asked for porter service (no charge but tip generously) due to my plethora of baggage and those using porters were escorted to the front of the line.

 

At the rate things were moving I don’t know how they were going to clear the ship in time for new passengers to start boarding at 11am.

 

As we were walking down the gangway we saw a group of people down at the pier level coming off the ship and being loaded into a black SUV. So presumably we had at least a few COVID cases onboard but I never heard any numbers announced.  Jeremy and I both tested negative this morning and have no symptoms so hopefully we stay that way!

 

Coming soon: a back in time report on our last afternoon in Bermuda.

 

[GenerationX]

About our last afternoon in Bermuda:

 

When Jeremy got back from shopping in port, we went to Sushi on 5 and split some shrimp tempura udon and a couple of sushi rolls.  We had a few pieces of sushi left that the staff offered to box up for use to take back to the room for later.

 

We ended up eating them along with our afternoon AQ canapés on our veranda as we watched sail away from Bermuda. That  sail out from Bermuda really is fascinating to watch. There are so many shallow reefs that the ship has to navigate through and you get some great views of different parts of the island as the ship loops around.

 

After a short post-sail away nap, we dressed for evening chic night dinner in Blu.  I’m not sure which was a better view: the sunset that night or my chic dressed husband.

 

I think the chic night dinner was our best Blu meal of the trip.  We had the Blu Caesar salad and tomato fennel bisque to start and also split a crab cake. Then we each ordered a lobster tail and split the beef stuffed shells.  We enjoyed everything we ate, but we did see a couple of other tables send their lobsters back for fresh ones. The stuffed shells weren’t as amazing as I remember them being in Blu on Solstice a few years ago, but still good.

 

After dinner we decided that we needed a break from late night partying, so we just had one quick martini and headed to bed.

 

Coming up: a report on our last sea day and final thoughts on the cruise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[asnaleah]

Lovely couple. Thanks for taking us along with you, really appreciate you taking the time!

[cruisebeachgirl703]

Beautiful Pic of you and hubby!!! Glad you had a wonderful birthday cruise. Safe journey. Looking forward to your next one!

[CruiseNYC]

It was a real pleasure meeting Charla and Jeremy during our Summit cruise. I do not at all want to hijack Charla’s review: she’s a wonderful and thoughtful writer and I love her reviews.  But a few additional comments, if I may:

We were in the Retreat - #6139. It was lovely and Ronald and Pres were outstanding and super-helpful with some of my husband’s special needs.  We thought the food in Luminae was only ok; the excellent service was far better than the food.  We had dinner twice in Tuscan Grille and once in Sushi on 5. I can’t say enough good things about both. Thoroughly enjoyed!  Retreat concierges Lyle and Mar are absolute sweethearts. You will love them. 
The casino: DH and I enjoy playing in the casino.  The slots were paying well. We also played 3 Card Poker and did very well there too. It has never happened to us before that we came home with quite a bit more than we started with. 
Final comment: On our last sea day, the chairs on the pool deck were all taken by 7:30 am!  One of the women I had been chatting with said that she got down to the pool at 5:30 am and quite a few had already been “reserved”.  I’m not sure that there’s any solution to this issue but just be aware. 
Charla - hope you don’t mind my 2 cents, fwiw!

Happy sailing, everyone 

 

[Holly g]

On 7/26/2022 at 5:11 PM, DisneyJen said:

@Holly g Thanks for the update on masking and crowd levels.

 

DH and I board next Sunday 🤞

 

Are any passengers masking?

Sorry just saw this. We were masking in the elevators and where there were crowds. Very few passengers were masking even in the theater where it is recommended. 5:30 dinner lineup at the main dining room was very crowded on sea days as were other times especially when the 7pm show in the theater let out. 

[lola2013]

How in the world did I totally miss this fabulous review? Please don’t tell the boss, but I look at Cruise Critic at least a dozen times a day.  And since I am sailing to Bermuda in a few weeks, my eyes should have gone directly to your review title immediately!!!

Anyway, once again, I loved your review, wardrobe and especially your tiara.  Happy belated birthday and already looking forward to your next review.

Susan

[cinderellen]

Thank you again for taking us along on your journey. Looks like hubby had a good time as well. I bet you didn’t notice how quickly the week went😳.  I hope you arrived safely at home. I know St. Louis had some flooding this week so hopefully all is well at home. Looking forward to your next adventure. 🚢🥂

 

[letsgogogo]

You two are literally killing me with the cuteness. 

[FLCruiser97]

Thoroughly enjoyed you sailing with you guys. I look forward to your next onboard report.

[dazey]

The dress you wore on your last night(sparkle beads) was beautiful.  I loved the softness of the fabric and the wind blowing through it.  Perfect.

 

Enjoy your review and have seen several of yours.  I am so envious that you get out there and enjoy so much on  the cruises.  

 

Hope to see other reviews soon.

[GenerationX]

Hello CC, sorry it’s another better late than never return to finally finish my review of our Summit cruise.  

 

Looking back I don’t think I ever reported on our last sea day!  It was one of those perfectly scheduled sea days for me, that consisted of nothing but eating, drinking, gambling, shopping and hanging out with fun fellow cruisers.

 

We started the afternoon with the Captains Club wine tasting event.  The wines we tasted weren’t super exciting but I wasn’t expecting anything impressive from a free tasting and we had great tablemates.

 

I was really there as much for the sommelier as the free wine.  

 

The tasting was led by our good friend Michael who, I knew from my fall Equinox cruise, runs a fantastic tasting event.  In my opinion his promotion to head sommelier on Summit is very well deserved. If you’re interested in wine and will be on the Summit in the near future (I know he’ll be on at least through November because I asked if I’d be lucky enough to see him on Beyond then and he said he’ll still be on Summit 😭) his presentations alone are worth checking out a tasting. 

 

Unless you’re one of those super hardcore wine people (whom I envy) whose annual wine budget is comparable to my annual cruise budget, you will probably leave with at least a little interesting info on wine that you didn’t know before.  He also throws in personal anecdotes that make the events entertaining (ah laughter and wine, 2 of my favorite things).

 

After the captains club tasting, we headed up to the sky lounge for the captains club senior officer meet and greet party where we bumped into a Norwegian couple we befriended in the martini bar a few days earlier and after the party the 4 of us decided to check out the MDR lunch together.  

 

We got to lunch a little late so Jeremy and I decided to skip the appetizer course and just have entrees and split a dessert so as not to spoil our dinner appetite.  I think Jeremy had buyers remorse on his burger (he said the mast grill ones are better), but my beef and shrimp udon was very good, as was the brownie sundae (FINALLY, after I’ve lost track of how many cruises I finally found a brownie sundae that’s made with a decent brownie!)

 

As we were casually strolling back to the front of the restaurant, I saw Michael heading through with his arms full of wine bottles.  He looked me dead in the eye, smiled and tapped his watch.  That was when I remembered that I’d also signed up for the Oregon wine tasting that was starting in 10 minutes!

 

After another hour of wine, I stumbled over to the casino to collect Jeremy from his ongoing (losing) pride battle with a Zeus penny slot machine and we went up to the pool deck, which had earlier been thinned out by a rain storm, to listen to the house band and have a couple of last tropical drinks in the ocean breeze.  

 

After watching sunset, we headed back to the room to dress and have dinner at La Petit Chef.  I was planning to skip LPC this cruise because I’d done it on so many this past year. But then I saw that the show/menu was one I hadn’t done before and remembered thar my poor husband had only done it once, over 2 years ago, when the presentation/graphics were at version 1.0.  

 

I think this show was the coolest one I’ve seen.  The visuals were really eye catching. As far as the food, I don’t think it beat the LPC and Friends show menu for me, but it’s a close second.  The tomatoes in the tarte course were delicious and the short rib course was outstanding. You barely needed a knife, it just collapsed onto your fork after you poked through the crispy, flavorful outer crust.  Dessert was underwhelming, but I’ve kind of come to expect that from LPC.  The puff pastry in the shortcake was so hard I  had to saw at it with my knife and finally gave up and just enjoyed the strawberries and cream.

 

After dinner we made our trips to the martini bar and sky lounge to say goodbye to new late night party friends made over the week and pass out thank you envelopes to all the hardworking bartenders who took care of us all week.

 

Coming soon (really, I promise) one last post with final thoughts on our Summit cruise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[abbydancer2003]

Hmmm, that's. a new LPC.  I guess it's the fourth one.  Thanks for sharing!

[go.without.you]

On 7/24/2022 at 6:38 PM, GenerationX said:

The closet situation is also rough for a girl like me.  If you pack long dresses, the closet has several shelves at the bottom that cuts off the hanging area length and I had to bunch up the bottoms to get them in. Hopefully for evening chic nights I can just hang my gowns in the bathroom while Jeremy and I shower to steam the wrInkles out.  I do have free pressing of 2 items as an Elite perk, but if I send them out, I still won’t have anywhere to hang them when I get them back where they won’t have to be bunched  up and wrinkled again.

 

 

Whenever I pack a long dress I hang it from the slots in the ceiling. Just remember it's there before you wake up and think you are being haunted.

[go.without.you]

On 7/25/2022 at 9:05 AM, GenerationX said:

We started with calamari and the antipasti platter, then had Caesar salads then Jeremy had a filet mignon with a side of eggplant Parmesan and I had my favorite the ribeye with a side of the lobster rigatoni.  For drinks I went with Italian wine while Jeremy kept his tequila streak going for the day and had an Italian Sour.

 

 

How is the eggplant prepared? Is it crispy fried or baked with the sauce?

[warmwinds]

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your adventures.  

 

We're going on the Summit, in Aqua Class, for the umpteeth time in October, but the first since before Covid.

 

And I have to ask a question  - your outfits are gorgeous, but you have me in a panic...has it changed that AQ and BLU are no longer just "smart casual" every night?  I don't even own any cocktail-type dresses anymore (well, I own them, but they don't fit 😅 , and are years out of style).  Same for my long-retired husband's suits.  God forbid we should be invited to a wedding anytime soon - we'll both be out shopping.

 

So can you (or anyone) tell me what's the "norm" these days, is it back to the "old" cruising dressy?    (which we used to love but are now totally unprepared for).  We've been cruising since the 70's and have been through all the changes, but have no idea where Celebrity is right now.

 

And Happy Birthday!