Sailing like a Celebrity -- a non-DCL cruise report

[ChuckElias]

Day 6 -- At sea
Sunny, mid 60s

We really eased into our day. We spent a long time sitting on our balcony under blankets. It was definitely very chilly and windy. But I brought coffee down from the buffet and we just enjoyed the view. We finally left the stateroom at around 10 am. I think I grabbed something quick from the buffet, and then I settled by the pool in the sun. Several people on deck commented that it seemed like we were moving very quickly, and it turned out that they were correct. During the captain's morning announcements, he let us know that a passenger was sick and we were going to try to get to Bermuda as soon as possible. So that was the third medical emergency of our sailing. I found out later that the passenger had been injured in an incident involving a scooter and stairs. I don't know if the scooter was driven down some stairs or if the person had gotten off the scooter and accidentally stepped onto the staircase, and then fallen down the stairs. Either way, this person was pretty badly injured, so we were trying to get to Bermuda a few hours early. I checked the ship's TV channel occasionally, and we sailed at 20.5 knots all day.

Kathryn took part in a wine blending event. This was a paid event. The participants were divided into teams of 5 or 6 people. They were given tastings of 4 different wines. The sommelier explained what made each wine distinct, what flavors should be coming through, and suggestions for what food each wine would pair well with. Then each team was challenged to produce a blend of the 4 wines. The sommelier then judged all the blends and awarded a winner for the best-tasting entry. Kath's team came in second. She said that she really enjoyed the event, and that it was fun and interesting.

I used that time to walk the ship and take pictures of the stairway art. I have to say it's very disappointing. And not just because I'm used to magical art on the Dream. In one stairwell, the Summit has creepy female heads made of beads. In another stairwell, it has reflective metal plates, with designs stamped into them. It's just odd, and not very interesting. There are also paintings near the Cosmopolitan Restaurant that are (forgive me for being blunt) ugly. I've been on Royal Caribbean ships that have great art and sculptures. Viking ships are like Scandinavian art museums. The Summit's offerings are just really disappointing.

Female busts

Reflective metal

Outside the restaurant

Kathryn and I caught up in a lounge to listen to the Seagulls and talk about the wine event. This is a pretty decent band, and the singer has a very strong voice. We liked them every time we heard them.

The evening show was the second presentation of the song-and-dance performers. I was not interested after hearing about their first outing. But Kathryn said the show was better this time. The dancing was very good and it didn't have the "confusing" feel of the first show. The music was all 80s/90s songs. While the show overall was better this time, Kathryn said the singing was still pretty uneven.

After the show, we all met again for dinner. Kathryn had the Greek salad, which was fine, but nothing special. Dale had a chilled strawberry soup, which was just ok. I had the seafood bisque, which was very good. Kath was kind of on a roll with lamb dishes at dinner, and she continued her streak by getting the lamb shank, which was excellent. I had the crab-crusted flounder, which was also excellent. For dessert, I had a donut-shaped mousse with strawberry puree, which was very good.

The strawberry soup:

My bisque:

The Greek salad

Lamb shank:

Crab-crusted flounder

Mousse

After dinner, I spent the rest of the night in the Casino bar, watching Game 6 of the Sixers/Celtics series. Because the ship left from Bayonne, NJ, there were a lot of Philadelphia fans in the bar; so I kept my cheering very quiet as my Celtics pulled out a win to send the series to a Game 7 in Boston. Good way to end the night, so I grabbed one piece of pizza for dessert, and headed back to the stateroom for the night.

 

[ChuckElias]

Day 7 -- Bermuda
Mostly sunny, low to mid 70s

Up to Oceanview Café for breakfast. I decided to have pancakes. On previous cruises, I've enjoyed fruit pancakes or pancakes with a fruit compote. So I got blueberry pancakes on this morning. But they were definitely not what I've come to expect. They were essentially a plain pancake with a circle of blueberry jam in the center. I didn't like it. You're basically eating a plain pancake except for the two bites in the middle. Not great.

Yes, this is a blueberry pancake. Weird, right?

After breakfast, I went back to the room and watched our approach to King's Wharf from our balcony. We arrived in Bermuda at 11 am instead of scheduled 3:30 pm arrival time. This was because we'd been sailing faster than normal throughout the previous day. Once we docked, we had a quick, light lunch and disembarked before noon. We had scheduled a shore excursion later in the afternoon, but I still wanted to do our normal walking tour of the area near the port. We walked to the Clock tower market and walked through a few of the shops. Then we stopped in at Snorkel Park beach. They charge a nominal fee to sit outside the bar, and we walked the beach and stuck our toes in the water.

We stayed for a couple of hours, then took a different path back to the port, stopping in at some other shops. One of these shops had "Bermuda's only cigar roller". He was selling Cuban cigars, as well as his own hand-rolled cigars. I work with a cigar enthusiast, so I bought a few to bring home for him.

We were docked next to the NCL Prima for the day. The Prima was scheduled to leave port at 3 pm. However, they were still in port when we were walking back to the Summit at 4. There was a large group of Summit passengers standing around at the entrance to the pier, so we asked what was going on. Apparently, there were 2 Prima passengers who hadn't returned to the ship yet, and the crew was searching for them. We didn't hang around, but learned later that the Prima had left port without the late passengers. One of the people who had waited outside said that the stragglers had thought that the Prima was staying in port overnight. That's a pretty big -- and expensive -- mistake.

Our excursion was scheduled to leave at 5:30, so we grabbed a quick bite to eat at the poolside grill. They serve burgers and hot dogs with fixings like grilled onions, mushrooms, etc. So we got cheeseburgers and fries. Then we met up for our Pirate Glass-bottom Boat excursion. This was a 3 hour excursion, where they took us out to see fish and shipwrecks through the bottom of the boat. They turned on some lights to give a better view. Lots of fish were visible and the history of the shipwreck was interesting to hear.

Looking down through the glass bottom:

We got back to the Summit at about 8:45, which gave the girls just enough time to run to the theater to see the 9pm showing of the Frankie Valli tribute. The show had been scheduled for earlier in the cruise, but had been pushed back due to an illness. Kathryn said the music was great, but there was WAY too much talking between songs. By the end of the show, the high tenor sounded pretty shot; so Kathryn guessed that he'd been the one who was sick earlier in the week -- and also maybe the reason there was so much talking during the show.

The Summit has an agreement with the port that allows them to open the casino after a certain time, even though they're still in port. So I went down to see if I could sit in on a poker game; but there weren't enough players interested, so there was no game. So instead, I sat at the Casino Bar, got a whiskey sour, and watched the Knicks lose Game 6 to the Heat. Turns out that there was a fun little group of people that hung out at that bar to watch games, so it was a fun way to end the day. Had to walk through the Martini Bar to get to the elevator and saw everybody dancing with the silent disco headphones on.

 

[ChuckElias]

Day 8 -- Bermuda
Sunny, high 70s. Turning overcast by sailaway

We started the day off early, getting coffee and breakfast at Oceanview before disembarking the ship around 9:15. We walked to the ferry building, which is very close to the cruise pier. In fact, ferry and taxi service are very easy to find and get to. And even better, the taxi drivers aren't obnoxious about trying to get you into a cab. There are other cruise ports (Cozumel, for example) where you walk by a line of 15 cabs and every driver is bombarding you with "Need a cab? Where you going? Only $10 to the beach!" and it feels like walking a gauntlet just to get into town. Not the case for us in Bermuda.

In any case, we boarded a ferry and visited Hamilton. We walked through some of the shopping on Front St, then walked to Church St. and saw Hamilton's City Hall, as well as 4 really cool churches. I loved the Anglican cathedral. It was really beautiful. We talked about how hard it must have been to import all the marble onto the island. I took pictures of the stained glass, the pulpit and organ, and the regimental flags of all the military units that had fought in various wars. And for some reason, I lost all the pictures So I can't share them with you. But I found it very beautiful. Also, they had a free online audio tour available that would tell you about the various features of the church.

We walked past Fort Hamilton, but didn't go through it because we were all a little tired from all the walking and it was almost 1:00. So we made our way back to Front Street. We passed the Cabinet building and found a fun outdoor cafe, where we had lunch and drinks at The Front Yard. Our server was really funny, and confessed to us that he's been in Bermuda for 7 years but couldn't wait to get out and go home to Scotland. He was great to chat with over lunch. After we left, we walked through a few more of the Front St. shops and made our way back to the ferry.

My cider at the Front Yard:

The Cabinet Building:

City Hall:

After returning to the ship, Concierge guests were invited to the ship's helipad for sailaway. They served some drinks and we got to spend a half hour or so there while the ship left port and put back to sea. It was a fun "treat", the water was amazingly blue, and everybody seemed to enjoy the special access.

(That blue drink was pretty gross, to be honest! )

 

[ChuckElias]

Day 8 -- continued

After sailaway, Concierge guests had a second invitation. There was a special reception, just for us. They provided drinks and had a few prizes to give away as a thank you. Additionally, the acrobats who performed with the song-and-dance team in the main theater gave us a private 10-minute performance, which was really fun. It was a nice thing to do for us, and it was very low-key, but fun.

The evening show in the main theater was singer James Humphreys. The show was promoted as featuring everything from opera to top pop songs. This was a hard pass for me. We saw him rehearsing earlier as we went through the theater to get to the helipad for sailaway, but it didn't inspire me to see the show. Kathryn and Dale went and they liked it. Kath described the performance as "flamboyant", with way too much talking. But his singing was excellent. He's obviously very talented. She said his opera choices were much better than the pop stuff. We saw him at lunch the next day, and he was dressed in a tight-fitting shirt that was unbuttoned to his belly-button. So I think the flamboyant description was apt.

Dinner was our second "Chic" night, so we dressed up again!

Kathryn had a pâté and Dale had a cheese soufflé for appetizers, both were very good. Dinner was lobster tails. I got the duck l'orange to make a surf-and-turf. Kathryn continued her lamb-streak by ordering the lamb t-bone. All the entrées were excellent. Dessert was baked Alaska and a glass of port.

Pâté:

Cheese soufflé:

Lawbstah!

Baked Alaska:

After dinner, the comedian Orlando Baxter performed his "adults only" show. We liked him so much earlier in the week that we had decided that we were definitely going to the second show. He was just as funny the second time. Yes, there was some R-rated cursing, but it wasn't every other word, and the most "adult" topic was his prostate exam. So it was never uncomfortable or raunchy. We all really enjoyed him a lot.

Interestingly, this was the only "after hours" show of the whole cruise. Some people complain that Disney Cruise ships "go to bed" at 11 pm, but this ship didn't really have night-life either. And to be honest, we didn't care. It worked well for us. It had gotten overcast earlier in the evening, but we walked the deck a little bit because it was still warm. No stars to see, but it was still a quiet and pretty way to end the night.

 

[RememberWhen]

Love the bow tie!

 

[ChuckElias]

Love the bow tie!

Me, my bow tie, and my port!

 

[ChuckElias]

Day 9 -- At sea
Mid 50s, rain

We decided to have a very lazy morning. We stayed in the room (and by "we", I mean Kathryn), and I went upstairs to Oceanview and brought breakfast back to the room. It had turned cold and rainy overnight, but we were determined to enjoy our balcony for one last morning. So we put on our Concierge bathrobes and sat under blankets while we ate outside.

Our bathrobes. I have pictures of us wearing them, but I want to stay married, so I'm not posting those!

Once we left the stateroom, I went up to the Solarium to enjoy the heated pool one more time. After drying off and putting on warm clothes, we saw that the buffet was MOBBED for lunch, so we went to the Cosmopolitan restaurant and had a sit-down lunch, which I actually enjoyed very much. We sat with a mother and daughter from Canada, and a young couple from NJ who were on their first cruise together (and the guy's first cruise ever). We joked with them about how brave they were to choose a 9-night itinerary for their first cruise. That's a long time to be stuck on a ship, if you're not enjoying it. But they were both having a blast. They were in their mid-20s and were one of the youngest couples onboard. But they both said that they had loved the entire experience. I had the Pad Thai Shrimp noodles, and enjoyed it very much. It was nice to be waited on, instead of walking around the buffet. It was a nice experience for our last lunch.

After lunch, I decided to have one more go at the poker table. Without going into too many details, I crushed the table and finished first, winning $270. At that point, I realized that the cost of parking at the port was $300 ($30/day), so I pocketed my winnings and decided to use it for the parking garage.

We had made a bunch of friends during the sailing, and we'd decided to meet in the Martini Bar as a last hurrah. We had such a blast. The bartenders did something that I'd never seen before. We all wore boas and sunglasses, just to be goofy. They did a "martini pour" of about 20 drinks at once. It was actually pretty impressive!



And since we were being "goofy", my DCL Castaway Cay shirt made an appearance, as well.

The final evening's show was the song-and-dance crew again. The ladies went and liked it, even though the singing was kind of uneven throughout the performance. I used the time to pack up.

Dinner appetizers were cream of broccoli soup and a duck "roll up". There's no way in the world that I would ever order broccoli soup, but Dale said she enjoyed it. The roll-up was like chicken fingers, except made with duck meat. It was really good! My entrée was short ribs on polenta and it was excellent. The pasta primavera was also very good and was very light, so it didn't make you feel stuffed. Kathryn had chicken puttanesca with fried capers and sun-dried tomatoes. It wasn't what she expected, but it was great. For dessert, we all had the Grand Marnier soufflé, which was very good. And Reynaldo did his duty! (If you don't get that soufflé joke, shoot me a message )

Cream of Broccoli soup:

Duck roll-up:

Pasta Primavera:

Chicken Puttanesca:

Short ribs (and yes, it was WAY too much peas-and-carrots!!):

Soufflé:

We said goodbye to our whole serving team. They were wonderful for the entire sailing. I felt very fortunate that we had the same team every night. They were great. After dinner, we basically went to the room and finished packing up and put the bags out in the hallway.

And that was the end of our first Celebrity cruise. The next morning was a pretty standard breakfast menu in the Cosmopolitan restaurant. Disembarkation was very easy, including a reserved area for Concierge guests to wait before going to the gangway. Interestingly, we did not have to produce our passports to get through Customs. They had facial recognition machines, which I assume they matched to our passport pictures that we provided at check-in.

And that was it. We really enjoyed our experience. Not everything was perfect, but the service we received was excellent the entire time and that really made it a wonderful cruise. Thanks for reading. I'll post some more pictures over the next few days.

 

[Zipadeelady]

We have a cruise booked to Alaska on the Summit so this really helped with getting to know a bit about the ship. Thanks! Let just hope I can remember it all next Spring.

 

[lostpro9het]

We have a cruise booked to Alaska on the Summit so this really helped with getting to know a bit about the ship. Thanks! Let just hope I can remember it all next Spring.

You can tell J that the wine selection is on point so he wont go thirsty. ;-)

 

[ChuckElias]

You can tell J that the wine selection is on point so he wont go thirsty. ;-)

Agree with this. I guess I should have mentioned this more in the report, but our Sommelier was excellent. Her name was Mena, and she did a GREAT job of checking with Kathryn every night to find out what she was ordering for her meal and then making excellent suggestions for wine pairings. The wines she got all week were very good.

 

[ChuckElias]

Welcome aboard!

These chairs look cool, but they're not all that comfortable. If you want to lean back, you're FAR away from the table.

First dinner

Inside the Solarium:

 

[ChuckElias]

Qsine is one of the specialty restaurants onboard. It projects a story onto the table throughout the meal.

All of the images on the table are projected from the ceiling. Very cool effect.

Outdoor pool deck:

Rooftop terrace, where movies are shown outdoors:

 

[Zipadeelady]

You can tell J that the wine selection is on point so he wont go thirsty. ;-)

Good to know. How about the Bourbon? That is more of Joe's thing, he's growing up. I'll stick to the dry wines.

 

[Zipadeelady]

Qsine is one of the specialty restaurants onboard. It projects a story onto the table throughout the meal.

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All of the images on the table are projected from the ceiling. Very cool effect.


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Outdoor pool deck:

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Rooftop terrace, where movies are shown outdoors:

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Were there many hot tubs? Were going to Alaska in May so I'm assuming the Solarium will be packed and the outdoor pool will be empty. I'd defiantly like to get some time in the hot tubs.

 

[lostpro9het]

Good to know. How about the Bourbon? That is more of Joe's thing, he's growing up. I'll stick to the dry wines.

VERY good. Thats half why I get the drink package with Celebrity, to just try new to me bourbons and whiskeys.

 

[Zipadeelady]

VERY good. Thats half why I get the drink package with Celebrity, to just try new to me bourbons and whiskeys.

That will make Joe very happy. We got the classic drink package. Will that suffice or should we splurge for the premium?

 

[lostpro9het]

That will make Joe very happy. We got the classic drink package. Will that suffice or should we splurge for the premium?

Depends. Classic covers up to $10/drink. Premium covers up to/$17. So your drinking habits will dictate happiness ;-) In either scenario if your drink of choice exceeds your limit then you just pay the difference and gratuity. So if you’re talking Blantons, Angel’s Envy, and Macallan you need to pay the difference with classic. Not a big deal though. If you’re a big martini drinker then Id recommend the Premium. Plus the premium covers all the smoothies, bottled water, and premium coffees.

 

[Phonedave]

We have a cruise booked to Alaska on the Summit so this really helped with getting to know a bit about the ship. Thanks! Let just hope I can remember it all next Spring.

So a year from now? We are booked on the Solstice to Alaska this summer. Summit is also a Solstice class ship as well, so a lot of similarities.

Two things that I did not see mentioned are

Room service - we always order a pre-breakfast room service - Coffee and something very light - we split a muffin, or a croissant, or something like that. That we one of us sits on the balcony and has coffee while the other is showering or getting ready.

The Concierge Class "Daily Delectables" - In Concierge (and Aqua) classes, they leave a little plate with some small afternoon snacks in your room. It seems that it always starts out very good - Two little toasts with bruschetta, 4 marinated olives, some parmesan cheese, and two slices of salami for example (there are 4 spots on the plate, you always get 4 items). It is just a little snack while you are changing/showering for dinner. But, as the cruise goes on, it seems to go downhill. I swear that once, one of the snacks was a little pile of potato chip crumbs. My wife and I joke about them "phoning it in" as the cruise goes on and that the kitchen must be running out of the good stuff.

 

[Phonedave]

Depends. Classic covers up to $10/drink. Premium covers up to/$17. So your drinking habits will dictate happiness ;-) In either scenario if your drink of choice exceeds your limit then you just pay the difference and gratuity. So if you’re talking Blantons, Angel’s Envy, and Macallan you need to pay the difference with classic. Not a big deal though. If you’re a big martini drinker then Id recommend the Premium. Plus the premium covers all the smoothies, bottled water, and premium coffees.

I think premium is worth it, it is also cheaper to upgrade it before you get on the ship.

The packages also cover wine by the glass, and a lot of the nicer wines are between $11 and $17 a glass (go figure)

The "healthy" smoothies in the Solarium area are also covered with the Premium, which are pretty nice (At least I think so, they have a lot of vegetables, and seeds in them, if you are into that sort of thing)

 

[lostpro9het]

I think premium is worth it, it is also cheaper to upgrade it before you get on the ship.

I agree!