Just Back - Summit Med -great cruise

[dilacruiser]

Thanks to all of you for answers over the last 15 months. This was our first cruise ever, and the Summit was great. I know we are new to cruising, but we did not see the wear and tear people talk about. The thing that stood out the most for us was the service. Everyone went out of their way to treat us like kings and queens.

 

Now just have to catch up on laundry and sleep.

[Nora4sure]

....and say...hurry up and do your laundry and catch up on your sleep and then give us all your juicy little tidbits about your experience!!

 

So glad you enjoyed your trip. We'll be here waiting!

Nora

[martodd]

How was the food???

Were the entertainers good?

We sail on her next week and would love any information that you can give!!

Thanks, and happy to hear you had such a great time.

[dilacruiser]

The food in the Cosmopolitan was very good. The sandwiches at the buffet, the aqua spa cafe, pizza were very good. Not too crazy about the buffet in general, but I am not a buffet person. My kids had room service many times and it was good.

 

We saw most of the shows: Hyperion Knight, the pianist was spectacular, the aerialist/ballet dancers were very good, the celebrity singers were fine, Louis Johnson was very funny the first night, but not so funny in his second short show.

 

On Point, the acapella group, were very good.

 

We are not bar/lounge people, so I cannot comment on that entertainment.

 

It was very hot in Santorini, Athens, and Rome in particular, and very warm in every other port. That really sapped us of our energy.

 

We did private tours in Naples, Rome, and Florence. We did ships tours in Santorini, Athens, and Villefrance.

The Santorini tour was the Mesa Gonia village and wine tasting. It was exellent - great guide. Athens - Taste of Athens - our guide was not good-too quiet, no personality. Nice and Eze tour guide was fine. By that day, we were happy we only scheduled a 4 hour tour.

We were very happy with our private tours.

 

Left Barcelona about 22 hours ago; adrenalin must be keeping me up. We were in the city during the Euro cup - fireworks that sounded like bombs - exciting place to be.

[Nora4sure]

In the ports that you had to tender, were lifeboats used or private tenders. Ive been to the carib but have never tendered so the experience is going to be new to me.

 

Thanks,

Nora

[dilacruiser]

We tendered in Santorini and France. In Santorini, I wasn't paying attention, so unsure, but in France, they used a combination. In the am, we tendered in a lifeboat, but when we came back, they had some larger tenders there to help with the volume.

[C 2 C]

Dilacruiser:

 

It's so nice to read that you had a wonderful cruise experience. I can imagine the celebrations after Spain beat Germany in the European version of the Superbowl.

 

I try to keep a list of some of the people on board. Do you remember the name of the present Captain, Cruise Director and Hotel Director on Summit?

[junglejane]

Hi, Dilacruiser! It was nice to meet you on the ship. We, too, had a great cruise. I'm going to post my own comments. Short version: great ship, great cruise.:)

 

--Junglejane

[dilacruiser]

JungleJane,

 

We missed the cruise connection party because we forgot to turn our clocks ahead the night before. I'm glad we had a chance to meet on the 1st Tuesday.

[tnfamilytime]

Dilacruiser and Jungle Jane,

Thanks so much for your post. Dilacruiser, what private tour company did you use. We sail July 10th and haven't booked ANYTHING yet! yikes!

[dilacruiser]

We used Francesco Marrapese in Naples for the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii. He was fantastic. Took us to a lemon grove for a personal tour (per request).

 

We used limoinrome with Claudio for Rome (Claudio gets you to all the hot spots quickly. He took us to a church where we got to touch a statue of the Risen Christ by Michelangelo (Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, I think) He is extremely knowledgeable about history and knows the way around Rome.

He then arranged to have Daniele (same company) for Florence. He also was a fun guide to have.

 

I think in general, the guides may be easier to get this year, although I booked Francesco a year in advance, because of the weak dollar - it makes the ships tours cheaper. Plus, tourism is down a bit from last year, again because of the weak dollar. Its worth a try to see what you can arrange.

[spearmint]

Hi, Dilacruiser! It was nice to meet you on the ship. We, too, had a great cruise. I'm going to post my own comments. Short version: great ship, great cruise.:)

 

--Junglejane

 

Will be looking forward to your comments, plus anything more from Dilacruiser. We are thinking of a Med cruise. Is there much time wasted in travel to and from the ship? I have the idea that Civitavecchia (sp) is a couple of hours from Rome, for example.

[nycglitter]

We used Francesco Marrapese in Naples for the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii. He was fantastic. Took us to a lemon grove for a personal tour (per request).

 

We used limoinrome with Claudio for Rome (Claudio gets you to all the hot spots quickly. He took us to a church where we got to touch a statue of the Risen Christ by Michelangelo (Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, I think) He is extremely knowledgeable about history and knows the way around Rome.

He then arranged to have Daniele (same company) for Florence. He also was a fun guide to have.

 

I think in general, the guides may be easier to get this year, although I booked Francesco a year in advance, because of the weak dollar - it makes the ships tours cheaper. Plus, tourism is down a bit from last year, again because of the weak dollar. Its worth a try to see what you can arrange.

 

 

I am sure you are exhausted and have lots to catch up on, but could you please tell me how difficult it was to manage all of the shore days? I am thinking that this trip will be fun, but anything but relaxing! Will we be zombies, or is it doable? We have tons of energy, but have never been on a cruise so port intensive!

[mbmam2]

Diane,

 

Glad you made it home OK. Now I know why you were not at the CC Party! I looked for you and your husband for the rest of the cruise but we never crossed paths again. Glad to hear you had a good time too. All the pre-work on the website paid off.

 

I have posted my review as well in a couple of places. It was a great cruise. I jealous of those leaving now, I want to go again! I bet Barcelona was crazy after the Euro 2008 win. It was fun watching the tournament progress during the cruise. I spent many nights in the casino watching the games with people from all over Europe.

 

For the guy who asked the question about our Captain and Cruise Director, the CD was John Howell, and the Captain was Yannis Berdos. We all met John at our CC Connections party and I ran into hime several more times on the cruise. Nice guy. I met the Captain on a tour of the bridge. Also a nice guy. All the officers seemed very competent.

 

Bob

[C 2 C]

For the guy who asked the question about our Captain and Cruise Director, the CD was John Howell, and the Captain was Yannis Berdos. We all met John at our CC Connections party and I ran into him several more times on the cruise. Nice guy.

 

Thanks Bob

 

I agree. John Howell is not the flashiest CD but few are friendlier or more willing to spend the time talking with passengers. He has always been the greatest supporter of the Cruise Critic gatherings on board.

[dilacruiser]

My husband and I generally walk 3-4 miles per day at home, so the walking did not bother us. We are also not late night people, so we didn't expect to stay out late at clubs.

 

To start with, we were too jet lagged to enjoy Venice. We flew in the same day as embarkation, ate lunch, toured the ship, unpacked, and went to dinner at around 7:30. We thought we might go into venice after dinner, but we all were too exhausted to do anything but go to bed.

 

We spent 4 hours in Venice on sail away day, but I did not plan anything specific because I did not know how tired we would be. We went to an art museum (The Accademia). So, for us Venice was kind of a waste. If we had come in earlier, we would have planned more, and probably enjoyed it more, but we decided to tack on extra days at the end and not at the beginning.

 

Dubrovnik: We had a beautiful day in Dubrovnik, spent about 5 hours there, walking the wall and having a nice lunch at a restaurant called Sebastians, where we had the best tasting mussels, calamari and white fish we have ever tasted. It is located on Prejko street, one block off the Strata. That night, still a bit jet lagged, we go to bed around 9:00.

 

First Sea Day: We forgot to set our clocks back, so we miss the Cruise Connection Party. We were really ready for a sea day and needed the extra sleep. We never felt jet lagged after this day.

 

Santorini: We spent about 5 hours in Santorini between our tour and just seeing Fira on our own. It wasn't fatique, but the heat that made us head back to the ship early. The sun was just so intense, it just sapped the energy out of us.

 

Athens: We had a 7 hour tour. The first 3 hours viewing the acropolis were the exhausting parts, mostly because the crowds and heat. During the afternoon, we headed to the Plaka and found a nice little outdoor cafe and had salads and calamari. The kids (22,21,16) were tired after the morning, and we sent them back with a different tour bus. We enjoyed this afternoon by ourselves. I did take a nap prior to dinner this day.

 

Second Sea Day: I grow to love sea days. So relaxing, playing games with the family, drinking Cova coffee, eating too many pastries.

 

Now starts the long stretch:

 

Naples: We used Francesco Marrapese, who arranged a private guide for Pompeii from 8:30am til 10:30am. This was perfect. While I'm sure there was more to see, we got a really good feel for Pompeii, without taking up too much of the day. He then took us to a lemon grove, where we got a private tour and sampled the Villa Massa lemoncello. This was a highlight for our family. We spent some time in Sorrento and Positano, then headed back to the ship by 5:00. We were in bed by 10 that night.

 

Civitavecchia: We met Claudio from Limoinrome at 7:45am. We were tired still from yesterday. It took 80 minutes to get to Rome, but we beat the ship tour busses. There had been an accident on the main road, which slowed everything down. Claudio said it usually takes 60 min.. We saw the Coliseum, then mostly drove past the Roman Forum, and Circus Maximus. We walked around by the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps. Claudio took us to the Santa Maria de Sopra Minerva church, where he had me touch the statue Risen Christ by Michelangelo. Now, my kids tell me there was a sign saying don't touch, but I did not see it then. We decided ahead of time not to do the Vatican because we did not want to cram too much in on one day, but we did see St. Peter's Basillica. Most of us fell asleep on the way back to the port. We were back by 5:00. When we were supposed to sail, 1000 passengers were not back aboard because another accident delayed the tour busses. We were able to stay up for the 10:45 comedian Louis Johnson.

 

Florence: We meet our driver, Daniele from limoinrome, at 8:00. We see Pisa, then head to the Accademia Museum, where he made advance reservations for 9:30, so we skip the lines, and the Uffizi Galery (again advance reservations).

We really wanted to climb the 464 steps in the Duomo to see the Judgement Day fresco, but the lines were too long to get into the Duomo. I did not tell them ahead of time that this was something we wanted to do. But, with the heat, I think it might not have worked out so well. We arrive back at the ship before 5:00. We have a formal dinner that night, and are able to stay up for the late show.

 

Villefrance: We sleep til 9:00 and are so glad we didn't plan a full day tour. As much as I would have liked to see more of France, I think it would have been too much. We had an afternoon tour of Nice and Eze. We spent about an hour walking around Villefrance before the tour. If we would have known the beach was right there, we may have planned to bring our suits and get to the beach a little earlier.

 

Final Sea Day: I wish there had been 2 final sea days. The trip went so fast. The final day was windy and a lot of people got sea sick. But, it only lasted through late morning, then it became calmer. I originally thought I would be bored on sea days, but on a cruise like this, they are so welcome.

 

We stayed at the Hispanos Sieta Suiza, an aparthotel near the Sagrada Familia. We enjoyed staying a little away from Las Ramblas. We were able to walk there - about 30 minutes away.

 

So, all in all, I think this is an intense cruise, but not too exhausting so as not to be enjoyable. Just do not try to cram too many things in. I am not a real high energy person, so I planned accordingly. Of course, there are things I wish I could have seen, but you can't possibly enjoy them when you are exhausted or only take a few minutes to see them.