If you are a friend or relative who doesn’t cruise, then you may not know what Cruise Critic is so I need to explain. If you cruise and don’t use Cruise Critic then you are NUTS! It is an amazing website that houses just about every piece of info on cruising that you can imagine but beyond that it also has forums about every aspect of cruising and Roll Calls for every cruise that sails. Cruise Critic is where you can go to meet the people who you will be cruising with before you cruise with them.

Why do this? Well for us it will show you the main reason we cruise. We both work in places that are not conducive to socializing. Our neighborhood where we live has a lot of turnover so other than our immediate neighbors, we don't have a lot of close friends there either. It is because of these two things we don’t have a lot of friends at home that we socialize with. We do have family and our best buddy Bob (about a hundred miles away) but that’s it for us.

So we cruise to meet people. To socialize. Cruise Critic does that. It lets us meet a lot of great people (like just about every friend we have) before we cruised with them and many of them have become life-long friends. We have friends from all over the world that we met through Cruise Critic. I can’t say enough about how valuable we have found this website. I should mention that you can also meet people on your Cruise Critic roll call that you can share private shore excursions with and we highly recommend this. It’s how we met other great friends who have come to see us and we have visited them.

The main part of the Cruise Critic website that we use are the conversation boards where people who love cruising trade info. For most every cruise that sails there is usually a “roll call.” That’s a conversation board about just that cruise. It is a place to plan excursions with others going on your cruise, trade cruising advice and just get to know the people you are going to be sailing with for two weeks. Some roll calls (especially those for Alaska cruises) are dead. Hardly anyone posts. Others are huge and take over your life. This one was one of those.

See the photos from our Cruise Critic Sail-Away by clicking here.

See the photos from our Last-Sea-Day lunch in the Main Dining Room by clicking here.

 

We originally booked this cruise for the fall of 2017 while on board Silhouette in the British Isles in 2016. This was one of the few cruises offered by our favorite cruise line, Celebrity, that was still on our bucket list. Our plan, when booking it, was to take any cabin, knowing full well that when Celebrity announced the 2018 deployments we would switch on the first day staterooms became available for this cruise and get the stateroom we wanted.

This cruise was on Summit, one of Celebrity's older M-class ships. We had sailed on her sister ship Infinity (exactly the same ship) six different times so we knew exactly what we wanted—an aft cabin. So when this cruise opened for booking we grabbed it on the first day it was available and got a great aft cabin on deck eight. Our original plan was to do this cruise by ourselves, without any of our Martini Mates, Silhouetters or friends. Just us.

So when we booked this cruise we planned some shore excursions with two other couples on the Cruise Critic roll call. (If you don't know about Cruise Critic Roll Calls, please see the note at left.) Right after we did that, two of our best friends, Bob and Holly, and my brother and his wife, Steve and Jamie, decided to join us on this cruise. (That's the gang in the picture above plus our new friend Gerardo) This set up a very different dynamic than when we usually sail together. While we usually do shore excursions together, eat dinner together, we wouldn't be able to do that on this cruise as they booked Aqua class (which eats dinner in Blu) while we would be eating in the Main Dining Room (MDR). But we still spent a great deal of time with the four of them but for Kathleen and I, it made it a very different cruise.

Disclaimer

I came back to add this because it needs to be said. I had a really hard time writing this review because of a number of things but the biggest of them (that colored more than half the cruise) was the fact that we both caught horrid colds about midway through the cruise. Kathleen got it first and I followed soon after. There is nothing worse than being sick on a ship and this really sucked. As I write this (almost two weeks later) I am still coughing. Totally sick of being sick. Just wanted you to know that up front. It didn't really change the quality of the cruise but it did change some of our experiences and that made the trip wind up on a very sour note.

Embarkation/Disembarkation

From our AirBnB we were picked up (right on time) by Carmel Limo and driven underneath the Hudson River to the Cape Liberty cruise port in Bayonne, New Jersey. It was Sunday, which meant that even though we had been told it would take about an hour to get to the port from downtown Manhattan, it only took us about 20 minutes flat. So we arrived early (around 10:15) which meant we had to wait about 45 minutes in the terminal before we were allowed on the ship. Once we were onboard we went right to the buffet to grab some burgers and started using our drinks package.

Staterooms were released at 1:15 and we were in ours five minutes later. An even bigger surprise was that our luggage was already in the hallway which meant we got to unpack and fix up our cabin at one of the earliest time ever, on any Celebrity cruise.

Disembarkation was fine. We were off within minutes of when we were told we would be. There is quite a bottleneck in the port to pick up luggage. You have to face off with video screen to clear customs but once you are through there it's an easy disembark.

The Food

Let's be honest, so much of cruising is about the food. Let's start with breakfast. We ate pretty much every breakfast in the buffet. We prefer Blu for breakfast but since we weren't in Aqua on this trip, off to the buffet we went. On day two I discovered the Eggs Benedict station which was on the starboard side of the buffet, all the way aft. During lunch it is the pizza spot. The Eggs Benedict were superb. I think I ate them just about every morning. They had a variety of styles to choose from but I got hooked on the Mexican ones. The guy cooking would slather guacamole on the English muffin, then salsa, then the perfectly poached egg, then hollandaise sauce. My mouth is watering just writing about it.

I can't say a lot about lunch as we either skipped it (after that huge breakfast), were off the ship in ports or we caught a quick burger, salad or pizza in the buffet. We did do lunch in the dining room twice and it was fine. Nothing to be thrilled with.

For dinner we normally do early seating or are in Blu because we are in Aqua class but this time since we were in a Concierge cabin and weren't eating in Blu, we decided to try Anytime Dining. We did not reserve our seating time in advance. To be honest, I just didn't think it was necessary and it turned out I was right as there was usually a longer line to get in for those with reservations than those without.

The first night we ate in the dining room we had to wait about 30 minutes to get a table. The second night we were given a pager and waited about 45 minutes. After that, we would go a little later (6:00 instead of 5:30) and we usually got in within 10 minutes or so.

We always asked for a table of six or eight. We eat by ourselves most nights at home so we like to socialize at dinner. Strangely we wound up at a table (different tables) with just about the same people almost every night we ate in the dining room. This was both a good and bad thing. We liked the people but we were looking for some variety. The food was fine but nothing special. Some of the items on the menu have been there since our first Celebrity cruise in 2004. That's just sad. Service in the dining room was good.

Be aware that if you take this particular cruise (New England Fall Foliage) that it will be a predominately older crowd so if you don't want to wait in line, go to dinner later or book traditional Late seating. All our friends who had Late seating told us it was emptier and the service was better and more relaxed. We had great service but there just weren't enough people doing the serving. See my note below about the problems that X has.

We did two different nights in speciality restaurants—one in Qsine and one in the Tuscan Grille. Qsine is one of my favorite restaurants anywhere because I love the variety. We had made a reservation pre-cruise for 14 so we could get the big table for a reunion of our Silhouetter buddies and we had an amazing time. There was a snafu with the billing (we had prepaid but the restaurant did not have record that we did) but the meal was AMAZING. I will be sorry to see this version of Qsine go to make room for Le Petit Chef at Qsine or whatever they are calling it.

Our night in the Tuscan was almost as good. Service was outstanding, we got a nice discount, we had a bunch of fun with all our friends (we took another big group­—this time 10 of us).

Which brings me to a comment my brother made. Why can't X make food that is as good as the food they serve in the speciality restaurants for the MDR or the buffet? I mean simple stuff, like desserts for instance. The desserts in the buffet are puffs of air compared to the desserts in Tuscan Grille. I know you get what you pay for but I seem to remember when dinner in the MDR featured that kind of food. The food we had in both Qsine and the Tuscan Grille was FAR superior to anything else I had on board...other than the Eggs Benedict. That was the best thing I ate. Well maybe that was the Qsine lamb chops.

The Weather

Normally I wouldn't have an entire section in a review about the weather but so much of this cruise was about the weather. For our entire time in NYC, even though it rained a few times, the highs were in the mid 70s. With horrible humidity. Horrible for us. Here in Seattle we don't ever get that warm and that humid at the same time. On the cruise, the weather turned even weirder. Our first three days—sailaway from New Jersey, our stops in Boston and in Portland, Maine—were downright warm. The high in Boston on October 9 when we were there was 86 degrees. Even crazier, the high in Portland, Maine on October 10 was 84. In the sun it was substantially warmer.

And then the very next day  when we were supposed to stop in Bar Harbor, Maine the ship wasn't able to because of the high seas and the wind. From that point on we had some of the rockiest weather we have ever had on a cruise. Going around  Nova Scotia and across the Gulf of St. Lawrence until we were in the St. Lawrence seaway, we rocked and rolled the entire time. The same was true on the way out of Québec as well. That meant that on a 14 night cruise, we had at least 6 days that featured some heavy oceans.

Another weather consideration if you are thinking of taking this cruise would be the lateness in the past few years of the fall foliage colors. Celebrity offers this itinerary three times each fall. As of now, you can take it in early September, mid-September or when we did—early October. It used to be (10 years ago) that the best foliage was on the middle cruise. As the globe has warmed up, fall colors are getting later and later each year. For instance, on our pre-trip we barely saw reds, oranges or yellows in Vermont or upstate New York. On the cruise we really didn't see incredible fall colors until we were on our way into Québec. Totally amazing (check out the pics in the slide show on the home page).

The Ship

Summit is in OK condition for a ship that was launched in 2001. She was "Solsticized" in the late 2000s after the Solstice line of ships joined Celebrity, but she is in need of another fix up. There is nothing horribly wrong, just rust showing on verandahs, creaking floors, verandah doors that sticks and other symptoms of an older ship. The rumors are that Summit will be going into dry dock in 2019 and we hope that is the case.

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As I mentioned earlier, our cabin was 8176, which was an aft cabin that we really wanted to sail in again. We have sailed in aft cabins on M-class ships six times before and they have the most amazing verandahs that are both huge and give you an 180 degree view of everything. That's Kathleen standing on our verandah below. The best part of this stateroom was our stateroom attendant, Eddie (that's him with Kathleen below). In more than 23 cruises, we have never had a stateroom attendant as great as he was to us. He was the hardest working, most congenial guy on the ship and he made our entire cruise better than it would it have been with anyone else taking care of us.

The rest of the ship also needs updating. The public areas are still nice. Definitely an improvement on the RCL ship we sailed on two weeks before we left on this cruise. That ship (Explorer of the Seas) was built around the same time but looks much more the worse for wear. That said, I now believe I like the Solstice class ships more than the Millennium class. They just have so much more to offer and so much of the M-class ships have been just had things added on to them which makes them much more hodge-podge than ships that are built for a purpose. A great example are the dining rooms. On M-class ships the Aqua class dining room is an add-on, carved out of the main dining room but on the S-class they are purpose-built and feel more natural, like they belong there.

I will say that parts of the ship are in great shape, like the gym. Lots of great equipment, kept in pristine condition, open almost all the time and just an all around great place to work out. The Martini Bar, the Main Dining Room (MDR) and other large venues are still almost as nice as they day they were built and put in service.

The worst part of the cruise

We had one major complaint about this cruise: the ship is  understaffed. That's the best way to put it. We found so many great, hard working Celebrity crew members that did the very best they could but there just weren't enough of them.

Some examples:

• We were in the Rendezvous Lounge before dinner and there were at least 100 people in the lounge and about 20 of them waiting at the bar and there was just ONE bartender. That's it.
• We were in the buffet for dinner. We had our dinner and we waited more than 20 minutes for a server to come by and offer us a glass of wine or a cocktail. I finally got up and walked to the bar on the far end of the buffet and got my wife a glass of wine and ordered a drink for myself. The bartender there said that he would bring it to me. About 20 minutes later, I finally got up and went back to get it.
• Another night in the buffet, it was a SPECIAL burger night at the grille at the back of the buffet. I went back there on three separate occasions about 15 minutes apart and each time there was a line of 8-10 people waiting and ONE crew member working.
• On a daily basis in the Rendezvous Lounge there was only one server for the entire side of the lounge, more than 150 plus people.
• My brother, his wife and our two best friends were in Aqua and eating in Blu. There was one sommelier in the entire restaurant each night for more than 150 diners. Good luck if you were looking for a different bottle of wine or a maybe just a second or third glass with dinner.

• We had the best stateroom attendant we have ever had on any of our 26 cruises (17 with Celebrity) but he worked with no help whatsoever. Not sure he ever got any time off. When we first sailed Celebrity in 2004, stateroom attendants had an assistant and were responsible for about 15 staterooms. our amazing stateroom attendant had no assistant and at least 20 staterooms to attend to.

As a long-time Celebrity cruiser who loves the Celebrity product, I will have a much harder time recommending Celebrity after this experience, especially with the staffing situation becoming even thinner with their concentration on their new ship Edge to the detriment of the other ships in the fleet. There were other problems (all fixable, as is this one) but this is the biggest one and it faces the entire industry with the onslaught of more than 120 new ships coming in the next five years.

Lastly, I want to mention that at least twice I went to ask to speak to the Hotel Director or Food and Beverage Manager about this situation. I went to Guest Relations and was told someone would contact me. I was never contacted.

Television and internet connectivity sucked!

The television experience on this cruise was the WORST I have ever had at sea after 25+ cruises. I know, I am on a cruise, do I really need to watch TV? Yes. Because my wife and I both caught horrible colds and just needed a day to be sick in our cabin. We wanted to take our minds off of how we felt by watching television. Good luck!

Nothing on at all. Barely got the map of where we were. When something would come on the reception was horrible and the selection even worse. HGTV that flickered in and out and was cut to ribbons by Celebrity to eliminate commercials. Cooking channel that repeated the same shows over and over again. Celebrity's television experience has gotten worse and worse over the years.

Now I totally get problems with satellite reception. Weather can screw that up and on this cruise we had some crazy weather. But couldn't they PLEASE put some movies, TV shows, anything on their server that we can access while at sea. The only option other than the aforementioned lousy programming were movies that were chargeable at $14.95 per viewing. Most of them were old. Something that I would find free on Netflix or Amazon Prime.

Last summer we did a quick HAL cruise to Alaska and their TV was AWESOME! Tons of free movies, the full catalog of BBC nature films and so much more. Incredible 4K televisions in every cabin. Makes X look sad in that department.

I have had people ask me why I didn't just stream Netflix or Amazon? Well besides only having Elite Plus internet minutes, in our aft cabin, the connectivity was HORRID! I ran a couple of speed tests and got barely .3 megabytes per second up (at home I get 50 MB up and down). Yes, .3! My brother had better luck than I did and I think that may have been because of his placement on the ship (remember, we were in an aft cabin) but when I would go forward and sit in a common area, mine wasn't much better.

A little about those people who did great work

Let's start with the best stateroom attendant we have ever had in more than 23 cruises, Eddie who took care of us in stateroom 8176. The photo below are our gang, the Cruise Ruiners with the amazing Marly from Columbia in the Rendezvous Lounge. She was beyond phenomenal. Never seen anyone work so hard. The entire crew in Cafe Al Bacio was awesome. The amazing Voltan who was EVERYWHERE in every dining venue at all hours of the day and night. All the guys who make eggs Benedict in the buffet—the best I have ever had and I love eggs Benedict.

We are big trivia fans and the activities staff that ran the daily trivia contests were awesome. And there were a lot of them. Some sea days there were four sessions. I do wish they were all up in the Revelations Lounge where everyone could see the screen they were projecting video questions on but that's a minor complaint. The staff did a great job running the games. We were pretty much one of the top teams. Our team name was the "Cruise Ruiners" because one lady thought we were talking a little too loudly during a bingo session that preceded one of the trivia games and told us we had "ruined her cruise." The name just stuck. Maybe we'll get shirts.

The People who were Disappointing

Some of the people who were not so good:

The guest relations people who told me they would have someone call me back but never did (about our ongoing issues).

The manager of Qsine who woke me out of sound sleep because he thought we had walked away from the tab on a table for 14 when we had paid pre-cruise as a group through the group department almost a month before we sailed. He did apologize after waking me up with a phone call at almost 10:00 pm but there is no excuse for this. Where did he think we were going to go to get away from him? Jump ship and ditch the last 10 days of the cruise?

The Concierge who was supposed to be there to help us as well as the special events coordinator who turned the Cruise Critic group down cold when we asked to be able to have lunch together in the dining room on the last sea-day. This is something that we have had no problem arranging on Infinity, Silhouette, Solstice and Eclipse on previous voyages. These people were totally unhelpful.

Would I recommend this cruise to a friend?

They ask this on the Celebrity cruise evaluation that they send you. Well, I would recommend it but as it stands now, I would tell them that before they consider taking Summit to New England, they need to re-evaluate whether they want to sail on a ship that is so understaffed. If they are willing to wait 20-30 minutes for a cocktail or glass of wine. That If they want anytime dining they might have to be willing to wait 30 to 45 minutes to be seated.

They also need to think about what will happen if they become ill and want to just lay in their staterooms and watch the WORST television on the high seas. Holland America makes Celebrity's television look like the 1950s.

They need to decide if they want (or can) sail and be away from work and family with the WORST internet connectivity ever. My average download speed was under 1 MBPS and upload speed (I need to upload changes to websites when on vacation) was NON-existent.

I would tell them that if they can put up with this, then maybe Summit to New England is for them. I would tell them that the crew that will be sailing with them there are OUTSTANDING and trying as hard as they can to help them have a great vacation.

On other note. Since I originally posted this review, Celebrity has scheduled Summit for a complete refresh and refit in dry dock on March 2019. Hopefully they will fully staff her when she comes out.

If you are still reading, you can CLICK HERE to read about the ports of call.

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