November 26, 2010

Here is my review of Celebrity Summit, sail dates November 13-20, 2010. I will go through what I did every day, my experiences on the ship, and I have included a few photos of the ship, the islands, and the menus/food. Feel free to ask any questions! 

First some background about me: I’m a 28 year old female from NYC. I have cruised once before with Carnival on the west coast, but it was only a 4 night cruise and I was 14 years old, so it wasn’t much of a basis for comparison! Although I have experience with both domestic and international travel, I have never been to the Caribbean, so I was very excited to experience this part of the world. One more big thing about me: I went on this cruise by myself! None of my friends or family were available to join me, and I didn’t want to waste my vacation week sitting around my apartment doing nothing, so I decided to take the leap and cruise alone. Or rather, cruise with 2000 of my closest friends 😉 As I will mention throughout this review, I found cruising by myself to be an excellent experience- I met so many wonderful people, and felt comfortable sitting with my new friends at the pool, in the theater, or while eating. Ok, now on to the review:

Saturday 11/13: Embarkation Day

I took a taxi to PanAm pier on Saturday morning ($19 flat rate, plus $1 per suitcase) and arrived at the pier at 11:30am. There were very few passengers waiting to board at this time, so I quickly handed over my luggage at the curb, went through security, checked in, got my sea pass card, and boarded the ship. I was on board with my complimentary glass of champagne in hand by 11:45am! It was a bit overwhelming and extremely surprising how fast I went through the boarding process!!! I was expecting a much longer wait, so this was a great way to kick off my cruise 🙂 As allowed by Celebrity policy, I brought two bottles of wine and a 2 liter bottle of soda on board- no questions or problems at all with security. I went straight up to the Waterfall Cafe for the Welcome Aboard lunch buffet. Being relatively new to cruising, I had very high expectations for the buffet. I love to eat, and I had heard wonderful things about the food on Celebrity, so I was really looking forward to eating at the buffet. Unfortunately, I was rather disappointed in what they had to offer. The pre-made foods didn’t change from day to day, and I don’t care for Indian food, so that left me to eat either at the pasta bar, deli sandwich station, or salad. These choices were all really good, but I got sick of it after the first few days. There was also the grill by the pool which served hamburgers, turkey burgers, hot dogs, wings, and nachos, but every time I went over there, the line was too long and I didn’t want to wait so I ended up back at the buffet again. Here is what I ate for lunch on the first day:

After lunch, they made an announcement that we could go to our cabins. I was in an oceanview room on deck 2, and I was very happy with my room. Maybe because it was just me in the room, but I felt that there was more than enough space to walk around and store my clothes. The room had a big closet with plenty of hangars, a few drawers, 2 night stands, the beds were pushed together to make one king sized bed, and there was a love seat, coffee table, and vanity with a mirror next to the window. There were only 2 outlets in the room, and they were at the vanity. I brought a power strip (as recommended by cruise critic!), but never needed to use it because I never had to charge more than two things at once. I guess if there are more people sharing the room, then the power strip might be helpful. The room and bathroom were always clean, and my steward (John) was always available when I needed him. He refilled my ice bucket twice a day, and supplied me with wine glasses for my wine. Here are some photos of my room:

After checking out my room, I went on a tour of the ship, and then I went down to the MDR to find out about my table arrangements. Being a solo cruiser, I was very anxious to get good tablemates! I found out I was assigned to sit with just me and one other couple… I honestly have no idea what Celebrity was thinking when they tagged me along as that couple’s third wheel. That’s a really easy way to ensure both me and that couple have an incredibly awkward dining experience! So needless to say, I requested to change my table. I decided to sit at a table with 3 other couples who were around my age.