LIVE Summit Aqua Class Review 3/2 - 3/6

[Lena11033]

This morning my check in time was 11:30. I made it to the port for 11:15 and it was busy but not to the point that held anything up as I was checked in and on the ship by 11:30. One thing different was that before I could go to my room first but was directed to the muster station first. They did ask if I had watched the videos which I had at the hotel so I was done. 
I think why the port seemed busy is this is a sold out sailing. 
I had heard some horror stories of the porters but I had someone who was really nice and tipped him well. 
 

After I headed to my room to drop off one of my carry ons before grabbing lunch. The buffet was PACKED. One thing I’ve learnt from YouTube is go to the aft lol

after lunch I headed to the pool area for my first drink then back to the room to see if it was ready as it wasn’t before. So now I’ve unpacked one bag, now at Cafe al Bacio listening to Billy Idol, enjoying a coffee and sending my husband texts of the duty free (he wants a gift 😆)

[cbfb]

1 hour ago, Lena11033 said:

This morning my check in time was 11:30. I made it to the port for 11:15 and it was busy but not to the point that held anything up as I was checked in and on the ship by 11:30. One thing different was that before I could go to my room first but was directed to the muster station first. They did ask if I had watched the videos which I had at the hotel so I was done. 
I think why the port seemed busy is this is a sold out sailing. 
I had heard some horror stories of the porters but I had someone who was really nice and tipped him well. 
 

After I headed to my room to drop off one of my carry ons before grabbing lunch. The buffet was PACKED. One thing I’ve learnt from YouTube is go to the aft lol

after lunch I headed to the pool area for my first drink then back to the room to see if it was ready as it wasn’t before. So now I’ve unpacked one bag, now at Cafe al Bacio listening to Billy Idol, enjoying a coffee and sending my husband texts of the duty free (he wants a gift 😆)

What deck are you on? We love AC but not so much the cabin locations on the Summit. Especially deck 9. Sailing the summit in a few weeks and trying to decide if we should do a move up bid to AC. 

[calicakes]

3 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

Good.... I won't tell him in advance.   Last time going through Heathrow was a MESS.    They only had 2 agents and about 2,000 on line.   Took us 3 hours to get cleared.   Luckily our driver waited for us at no extra charge sine he lived in Southampton -  we tipped him heavily for sure.

 

Iain thought he gave up his UK Citizenship when he became a U.S. Citizen.   When I got transferred to Ireland he called the UK Consulate to find out.   The lady very sweetly said -  Once a British Citizen always a British Citizen,  come down to see me and I'll fix you up with a new passport.  LOL

We were at LHR at the end of January, it was probably the quickest passport control experience we've ever had.  We never spoke to an agent.  We stood in front of a machine and that was it.  We also received our luggage in 15 min.  

[Lena11033]

6 minutes ago, cbfb said:

What deck are you on? We love AC but not so much the cabin locations on the Summit. Especially deck 9. Sailing the summit in a few weeks and trying to decide if we should do a move up bid to AC. 

I’m on deck 11. I’m right by the stairs so we will see how it goes for noise. I’ve been in the room to unpack and haven’t heard the bar or the movies but also not trying to sleep yet. If there is no sound then I’m going to say it’s convenient for food and the bar 😅

[Guppy99]

37 minutes ago, cbfb said:

What deck are you on? We love AC but not so much the cabin locations on the Summit. Especially deck 9. Sailing the summit in a few weeks and trying to decide if we should do a move up bid to AC. 

We love deck nine. Sheilds us from the direct sunlight. 

[OnTheJourney]

19 hours ago, Lena11033 said:

Catch up - last night I had dinner at La Mar which was a 4 min Uber from the hotel. I would say it was expensive but Miami just seems expensive in general 

 

I had the Causa crab, conchitas la mar and the chocolate cake (way too much cake for one person). Tip was included but I was there for over two hours so I gave them a little more. I’d definitely go back the food was excellent 

 

Wow! Livin' it up before even boarding the ship!!  It all looks great!!  

[OnTheJourney]

16 hours ago, Guppy99 said:

We love deck nine. Sheilds us from the direct sunlight. 

Agreed! Some people don't like that overhang. I'm fine with the extra shade provided. We're in Aqua on 9 for a Summit cruise later in spring. 

[OnTheJourney]

19 hours ago, Lena11033 said:

They did ask if I had watched the videos which I had at the hotel so I was done. 

And that's the extent of the emergency drill procedure? Sorry...but...as one who was on a ship that ran into a REAL (and almost disastrous) emergency situation and had to be partially evacuated by helicopter, I just don't agree with this relaxed a form of doing a drill. Even after being physically given the life vest to hold and look at (this was not on Celebrity), when the actual time came to put it on, in the confusion, stress, and nervousness of the moment, I had NO idea what to do with it. Watching a video is truly not really enough. Sorry to mention these thoughts, and I wish you a fantastic and safe cruise, but this is just one of my pet peeves. 

Edited March 3, 2023 by OnTheJourney

[Lena11033]

5 hours ago, OnTheJourney said:

And that's the extent of the emergency drill procedure? Sorry...but...as one who was on a ship that ran into a REAL (and almost disastrous) emergency situation and had to be partially evacuated by helicopter, I just don't agree with this relaxed a form of doing a drill. Even after being physically given the life vest to hold and look at (this was not on Celebrity), when the actual time came to put it on, in the confusion, stress, and nervousness of the moment, I had NO idea what to do with it. Watching a video is truly not really enough. Sorry to mention these thoughts, and I wish you a fantastic and safe cruise, but this is just one of my pet peeves. 

Everyone is different for learning.
For me the videos are better, I have a learning disability so having a video show me how to put the vest on is far better than an in person demonstration. I can rewatch videos (I watched multiple time before getting on) or have closed caption on. I can’t do that with a person. They do still have people to show how to do the vest when you go to the muster station if you haven’t seen the video but I’m constantly asking people to repeat because I can’t hear them with everyone else around me. I’m sure people think I’m ignorant but I literally have too much ambient sound for me to hear - think it’s frequencies I’m always telling my husband off for talking at the other side of the room he knows I can’t hear him but he magically expects me to. But his home theatre stereo gives me headaches with certain films/sounds 

[OnTheJourney]

6 minutes ago, Lena11033 said:

Everyone is different for learning.

You are correct, and glad you found the video useful. .You're to be commended for watching it more than once. Some people are more visual vs. auditory learners. Being a musician, I'm more auditory but totally agree with you about various types of sounds or volume levels being too distractive from whatever else I'm trying to concentrate on. I, too, have trouble with ambient noise interfering. If there's music playing in the background and people are trying to talk to me, it makes it very difficult since my brain focuses on the music instead of the conversation. 

 

Looking forward to more of your entries!!  We were on the Summit right after she was "revolutionized" back in fall of '19 and thought they did a great job with her. Looking forward to boarding again in a few months. Enjoy!!! 

Edited March 3, 2023 by OnTheJourney

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

On 3/2/2023 at 1:49 PM, Lena11033 said:

This morning my check in time was 11:30. I made it to the port for 11:15 and it was busy but not to the point that held anything up as I was checked in and on the ship by 11:30. One thing different was that before I could go to my room first but was directed to the muster station first. They did ask if I had watched the videos which I had at the hotel so I was done. 
I think why the port seemed busy is this is a sold out sailing. 
I had heard some horror stories of the porters but I had someone who was really nice and tipped him well. 
 

After I headed to my room to drop off one of my carry ons before grabbing lunch. The buffet was PACKED. One thing I’ve learnt from YouTube is go to the aft lol

after lunch I headed to the pool area for my first drink then back to the room to see if it was ready as it wasn’t before. So now I’ve unpacked one bag, now at Cafe al Bacio listening to Billy Idol, enjoying a coffee and sending my husband texts of the duty free (he wants a gift 😆)

 

Ooh! What are the drinky drinks?

[Lena11033]

8 minutes ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

 

Ooh! What are the drinky drinks?

Tequila tropicale from the pool deck bars

venetian from cafe al bacio

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

1 minute ago, Lena11033 said:

Tequila tropicale from the pool deck bars

venetian from cafe al bacio

Thanks!!

[hcat]

Love all the photos..review is off to a great start..

Lots to enjoy in Key West plus a good pharmacy where u can get eye drops!

Great variety of choices for lunch or just a drink or ice cream.. we like some of the local art/ craft stores and KW Aloe Products.  Very interesting  houses, Hemingways home..gardens...  -I def rec getting off the ship  heard they want to ban cruise ships???,

[Lena11033]

Yesterday evening I had dinner at Tuscany grille. I’m not sure I would do it again. I had the pork belly to start (really loved), beet salad (good) followed by branzino (ok). For desert I had the donuts which were tough, I liked the flavour just dense. Maybe that’s how they are supposed to be but wasn’t expecting that. 
 

I didn’t do a show I think it was a comedy show last night which didn’t interest me so just wondering the ship and bar hopping with some guys I met. Funny at home unless I use the treadmill it’s hard to hit 10K steps but no issue on the ship. 
 

It is really full I had to climb the stairs because the lifts were taking too long with all the people and did not want to get into a packed lift. Which is fun being on floor 11 😅
 

 

[310Loves2Cruise]

10 hours ago, OnTheJourney said:

You are correct, and glad you found the video useful. .You're to be commended for watching it more than once. Some people are more visual vs. auditory learners. Being a musician, I'm more auditory but totally agree with you about various types of sounds or volume levels being too distractive from whatever else I'm trying to concentrate on. I, too, have trouble with ambient noise interfering. If there's music playing in the background and people are trying to talk to me, it makes it very difficult since my brain focuses on the music instead of the conversation. 

 

Looking forward to more of your entries!!  We were on the Summit right after she was "revolutionized" back in fall of '19 and thought they did a great job with her. Looking forward to boarding again in a few months. Enjoy!!! 

I couldn't agree more as a musician as well about having background music and focus. I am prone to miss bits and pieces of conversation if there is distraction of music. In some cases, that applies to someone nearby who may have no muting of loud music on a device. In other cases, the decibel level of music currently seems to be designed to promote hearing loss. There are some quiet spots on the Summit I have scoped out in the past. 

[Norwaylady]

Bon Voyage⚓️

Looks like a great start🤩 

Looking forward to the rest🥰

[cbfb]

11 hours ago, Lena11033 said:

Yesterday evening I had dinner at Tuscany grille. I’m not sure I would do it again. I had the pork belly to start (really loved), beet salad (good) followed by branzino (ok). For desert I had the donuts which were tough, I liked the flavour just dense. Maybe that’s how they are supposed to be but wasn’t expecting that. 
 

I didn’t do a show I think it was a comedy show last night which didn’t interest me so just wondering the ship and bar hopping with some guys I met. Funny at home unless I use the treadmill it’s hard to hit 10K steps but no issue on the ship. 
 

It is really full I had to climb the stairs because the lifts were taking too long with all the people and did not want to get into a packed lift. Which is fun being on floor 11 😅
 

 

Great pictures! Thank you for the Tuscan Grill info. We are on in a few weeks and thinking about going. Saw the martini pictures, martini bar is our favorite. Is the menu the usual or is it the E class menu which is showing on the app for our cruise? I’m hoping to be able to get our favorites, Fresca and 25th anniversary. 

[Lena11033]

2 hours ago, cbfb said:

Great pictures! Thank you for the Tuscan Grill info. We are on in a few weeks and thinking about going. Saw the martini pictures, martini bar is our favorite. Is the menu the usual or is it the E class menu which is showing on the app for our cruise? I’m hoping to be able to get our favorites, Fresca and 25th anniversary. 

I didn’t see those on the menu so thinking it’s the same as E class. That being said I ordered a lavender lemon drop martini which was on the menu but they don’t have the lavender syrup to actually make it. 
 

if they have the ingredients for your favourites they can make it. A woman yesterday asked for a martini that was no longer on the menu and they made it no problem. 

[OnTheJourney]

7 hours ago, 310Loves2Cruise said:

There are some quiet spots on the Summit I have scoped out in the past. 

One thing I've learned to really like about cruising with Viking is the quietness. Nice, subdued (sort of new agey) music in the background in certain public areas. Very unobtrusive and soft (well, perhaps not quite as unobtrusive for musicians since, again, I find myself listening to it since it's all so pleasant - although it's all very enjoyable to listen to). I find the more high-powered, much louder, pop-oriented stuff playing in the Celebrity or RCCL Windjammers during lunch as being a bit offensive and just makes me feel a bit stressed. As for "quiet spots"...LOTS of them on Viking. Small areas to just sit and read especially near their "Wintergarten" - one of the loveliest spots on the ocean ships. I seem to recall the Summit has a library area - not sure anymore. I'll have to check around on the Summit next time we're there but mostly if we want quiet for reading we just sit out on our balcony, except that often you can easily hear the music coming from the pool deck. 

Edited March 4, 2023 by OnTheJourney

[Lena11033]

2 hours ago, OnTheJourney said:

One thing I've learned to really like about cruising with Viking is the quietness. Nice, subdued (sort of new agey) music in the background in certain public areas. Very unobtrusive and soft (well, perhaps not quite as unobtrusive for musicians since, again, I find myself listening to it since it's all so pleasant - although it's all very enjoyable to listen to). I find the more high-powered, much louder, pop-oriented stuff playing in the Celebrity or RCCL Windjammers during lunch as being a bit offensive and just makes me feel a bit stressed. As for "quiet spots"...LOTS of them on Viking. Small areas to just sit and read especially near their "Wintergarten" - one of the loveliest spots on the ocean ships. I seem to recall the Summit has a library area - not sure anymore. I'll have to check around on the Summit next time we're there but mostly if we want quiet for reading we just sit out on our balcony, except that often you can easily hear the music coming from the pool deck. 

unfortunately as this is a partial charter there’s not been much quiet areas. If I had know when booking I would have picked a different date. Nothing wrong with charters if it’s something you are interested in - I would personally enjoy a disco cruise as an example 

today is a sea day and as I spent the morning in the spa that’s as quiet as it is going to be getting. If I want to read today I’ll probably have to sit on my balcony with headphones in. 
 

[Lena11033]

Yesterday’s update for Key West

 

I ended up staying on the ship. I woke up and I had a bad pain in my ankle (probably slept weird not alcohol induced at all 🙃 )

I had breakfast at the spa cafe as I hadn’t ventured there yet for a juice and turkey wrap and watched everyone leave the ship then I staked a claim in the shade to stay for the next few hours drinking and ready a trashy romance novel. It was nice there being so few people on the ship for some relaxing time. 
 

For lunch yesterday I had the buffet which was not as good as day one but figured it’s probably because most people aren’t there - also made it easy to get a table. I ended up having curry which had good flavour but I will say it’s lacking spice. I’m used to Indian food being spicier. 
 

Afternoon was spent the same way as the morning with reading for a couple of hours while drinking, after which I was feeling sleepy so headed to cafe al bacio for a pick me up which didn’t work so ended up taking a nap. I’m not a napper but the three day drinks in the sun may have had something to do with that. By the time I woke up most people were back on the ship and I watched as the port workers did their thing so we could sail away. 

After we left key west I got ready and headed to Blu for dinner. I noticed for MDR it was better for lines than day 1, the line up for that all evening went into the rendezvous lounge on day 1. Last night it was a shorter line. 
I had the Spanish style poached egg, braised short ribs and chocolate lava cake. The food was excellent and the conversation with the staff was great. I don’t know if this is normal as it was my first time in Blu but the maître d’ was coming around to every table to say how they would love for people to be there every night. 
 

After dinner I went to the martini bar and got chatting to a lovely couple of guys who cruise a lot and just came off the previous cruise. Well that was until we couldn’t talk or hear each other with all the pirates so they headed to dinner and I went to go buy my husband his gift from duty free (Remy XO). Then headed to see officers vs guests game which was a lot of fun. There was supposed to be something on the pool deck but not a lot of people so called Mike for a bit then headed back to the martini bar as the pirates had left and stayed for a bit before heading to the full moon party which again wasn’t very busy so headed to my room and found my excursion for Nassau has been changed from 10:45 to 8:45 for day 4 so no partying hard tonight if I’m going to make that. 
I can no longer do the nights of three hours sleep and function the next day. 

[39august]

What group is the partial charter, please? We experienced this once on a Princess cruise. Bad impact on the non-charter cruisers. Hope it doesn't impact your enjoyment too much. 

[Lena11033]

4 minutes ago, 39august said:

What group is the partial charter, please? We experienced this once on a Princess cruise. Bad impact on the non-charter cruisers. Hope it doesn't impact your enjoyment too much. 

Some Tampa bay NFL thing. 
I would say it’s the same impact for the non charter people on summit. Now I’m just finding my own spots away from it but I am going to put my notes on the partial charter at the end. But I am still managing to have a good time just it had impacted the trip. 

Edited March 4, 2023 by Lena11033

[310Loves2Cruise]

22 hours ago, OnTheJourney said:

One thing I've learned to really like about cruising with Viking is the quietness. Nice, subdued (sort of new agey) music in the background in certain public areas. Very unobtrusive and soft (well, perhaps not quite as unobtrusive for musicians since, again, I find myself listening to it since it's all so pleasant - although it's all very enjoyable to listen to). I find the more high-powered, much louder, pop-oriented stuff playing in the Celebrity or RCCL Windjammers during lunch as being a bit offensive and just makes me feel a bit stressed. As for "quiet spots"...LOTS of them on Viking. Small areas to just sit and read especially near their "Wintergarten" - one of the loveliest spots on the ocean ships. I seem to recall the Summit has a library area - not sure anymore. I'll have to check around on the Summit next time we're there but mostly if we want quiet for reading we just sit out on our balcony, except that often you can easily hear the music coming from the pool deck. 

My brother and sister-in-law cruised with Viking recently, and I am glad to hear about the quiet spots aboard. I am AQ on my next cruise, so will hopefully be able to use the balcony if the weather cooperates. Last cruise, not so much as there was lots of rain and water on the balcony rendering a cuppa or relaxation impossible!