Review Of Celebrity Summit Cruise to Bermuda, May 2012 ~ Part 1

For the next few days I am going to feature a review of Celebrity Summit. It was written by a member of my forum www.cruisetalkcafe.forumer.com He and his wife went on this cruise recently. He wrote a lengthy and thorough review of their cruise. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Celebrity Summit to Bermuda May 20 2012 by Papa » 04 Jun 2012 12:42 This cruise was a return to old friends in more ways than one. First we cruised with friends Donna and Tony from Cincinnati (by way of Boston). Our fourth time cruising with them having met on Horizon in 1998. Second we cruised on Summit. This made our fourth cruise on Summit. I've now spent 37 days onboard this wonderful ship. We started out Sunday morning at 915am and headed out to pick up our old cruising friends in a hotel outside Newark Liberty airport. We are cruising from Cape Liberty in Bayonne NJ for the third time. This is a very convenient port for us to sail from. We arrived in Newark at about 10:30 and after many hugs we sat down to catch up with our friends and get organized. The ride to Cape Liberty was short and I dropped everyone out front of the embarkation area and heaed for the nearby parking. It was early so I parked all of 150 feet from the end of the embarkation "tent" that RCCL and Celebrity use. Within 5 minutes we were all back together and walking through security. That done we were ushered to the embarkation line. This is the part I love, Gram said "Captains Club Eite Status" to the embarkation host from Celebrity and 10 seconds later we were standing in front of a check in agent, as were our friends. From driving up to drop off luggage to time time we were walking onboard ship was 10 minutes total. Champagne and Mimosas were waiting at the foot of the elevator, rooms not available until 1pm so we headed off to deck 11 and Windjammer for some food of course. We dropped our carryons next to a table and each of us explored the many offerings. Gram went with salad, Tony with sandwiches, Donna with hot food buffet and I went with Asian specialties. We chatted , people watched and of course stopped at the icecream counter for multiple choices of icecream and sherberts with toppings. Just as we finished cabins were made available. We've all been on Summit before so our only "tour" would be to check out the changes done in January 2012 drydock. We'd do that later. We were in 7115 and our friends like it lower down in 3075. We all tend to do interior cabins these days, it allows for more cruising. On the way we stopped by the library for my usual mystery novel or two, Gram reads from her Kindle. First bag arrived and we unpacked, then to muster staions. No life jackets and no outside line ups anymore. We took photos from deck 5 promenade of Statue of Liberty and NY skyine while the muster crowds broke up. Back to the cabin we found our second bag and quickly put it away. Sailaway was bright and clear but extremely blustery. We all had a bad hair day while we watched NY go by and sailed under the Verrizano Bridge. We went up to to see the renovated Revelations Lounge on deck 11 forward. All the crap from Cirque De Solel was gone and we were greeted by a panoramic view in a crisp clean, modern new showroom/ lounge. They were playing a Frank Sinatra Jazz concert on the big screen over the dance floor. Our friends are jazz musicians and they loved getting out of the wind, listening to good music and chatting while we sailed out to sea. We met up for a drink in the newly renovated Rendevous on deck 4 and then to My Time dining at 7:45. Got a table for four over looking the main dining room below. Waiter Nyoman from Bali proved to be a gem and we reserved with him every night. We drank wine, chatted and caught up on family gossip for hours. The food tonight was superb and proved to be so every single night of the cruise. My pork chops were delicious as was Grams fish. We found we had chatted right through the welcome showtime. No big deal. We all headed off to sleep and meet again for breakfast. I'll describe our breakfast maybe just to make everyone feel a bit jealous. Not in the dining room or in the buffet, as Elte cruisers on Celebrity we had breakfast in the Normandy, the specialty restaurant. We were offered specialty coffees, mimosas and bloody Mary's and a continental buffet including bagels and lox, fresh squeezed juices and superb service from the Normandy waiters. My two Cappicinos would have been $4.50 each in the dining room or the new Bistro on 5 which replaced the old Kova Cafe. The weather outside was cloudy and a bit rainy. Although we were able to sit out some, we also indulged in indoor activities like trivia and exploring the changes on decks 4 , 5 and 11. More later. Papa