Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Most exciting/ Most disappointing

Here are a couple of thoughts about the Southern Caribbean islands we visited and the ship. Hope this quick overview helps you out there. For background, I am pretty picky and I would say pretty well-traveled. I've been on 4 cruises - Windstar, Carnival, Regent and now Celebrity. I think we liked them all but this may have been our favorite. We've also been to Europe 5-6 times and all over the USA.

Dining
The food was very very good. Of course some misses but not many. There were some long lines - for omelettes, waffles (the best I've ever had) and for
the homemade ice cream but other than that we could always get our food quickly.

We ate in the dining room every night but one when we ate in their specialty restaurant, Normandie. We thought it was very good but a little too over the
top for us. They made a spectacle out of everything...wheeling out a table with your bowl of lobster bisque and making a presentation with putting the lobster in the bowl. There were so many tables wheeling around the room - with caesar salad, soup and flambe something we found it a bit
disconcerting.

A favorite was the sushi every afternoon. That was really fun. On the other hand, people on cruise critic raved about the pizza but it was just OK. The
weird thing was that they had great accompaniments to the pizza - grilled eggplant, olives, peppers, etc. And, while it wasn't great, it was always available which came in handy when we were rushing to an excursion.

The Summit
The Summit is about 8 years old I think and I really didn't see anything wrong. It's beautiful. The bathroom in our cabin showed some wear and tear
but it was spotlessly clean...just like the rest of the ship, so we had no issue at all. Not sure Concierge Class was worth the extra money, although I
did like the pillows and the frette sheets. We did feel the ship moving but we both took Bonine (I was nervous not too even though I haven't been sick
before) and had no problem at all.

The Champagne & Martini Bar
We loved the Champagne Bar and the Martini Bar - they were both excellent. We also liked the bar at the back of the ship. To our surprise, they carried
LEFFE beer (Belgian) which is one of DH's favorites!

Service
The service was excellent! Everyone went out of their way to say hello and to do something special when requested. I did call Jose, our cabin steward
for extra pillows, etc. and they came immediately every time. Also, in the dining room, DH ordered a Leffe and they didn't have it at the inside bar.
So every night after that our waiter was at our table with a Leffe before we even sat down! We also couldn't decide on entrees a couple of nights and they brought us two without even being asked!

Tipping
They have a new tipping policy. It's automatically included. You can change it if you want but it just made it much less stressful not to have to worry
about it.

Excursions
We did three excursions through the ship - and were not disappointed with any of them. And one of the best things was the excursion in Puerto Rico
that ended at the airport. They credited the transfer we had originally bought and added the excursion. I was truly wowed! They also offered a transfer of suitcases, boarding passes combo so you didn't have to worry about bags until you reached your final destination.

The islands
All the islands we visited were beautiful, clean and while we did see some poverty, there seemed to be much less than places like Jamaica. I felt safe the whole time - except in Dominica where we were on tiny roads 2000 feet above sea level. YIKES! The drive was a bit scary but so so so fun and incredibly beautiful!

The People
There was definitely a mix of middle to upper middle class American passengers as well as some British, European and Hispanic (I think from Puerto Rico) - all well mannered and congenial. There was also a group from a company of around 600 people from Idaho or some other mid-west state. Very nice - they didn't take over the boat, if you know what I mean!