We had never been brand-loyal within the cruise industry, having sailed with Princess, HAL, Disney, NCL, and Carnival....in addition to Celebrity. In fact, nearly 10 years had passed since we had booked with Celebrity at the time we booked an Alaskan vacation with Celebrity for June 2013. Celebrity was great to us in accommodating cabin switches and upgrades prior to that cruise, and we were blown away by the personalized service we received on board throughout our vacation. Everyone wore genuine smiles, referred to you by name, and always, and I mean always said “thank you” when delivering a drink.

It had been just 9 months since we sailed on Millie, and our March 29th sailing was one of two Celebrity bookings we have (or had) for 2014. Much has changed since then! Among the things that stood out to us the most: 1. Service….not very personable, particularly the bar service which at times was even unfriendly. 2. Michael’s Club is a dedicated “private lounge” and no longer a public venue for live music and cocktails. Perhaps this is no big deal for the S-Class ships, but the venues are already too limited on M-Class ships. 3. Nearly impossible to find fish available at Aquaspa Café. 4. Customer service access and follow-through was more challenging and trying than any cruise we have been on, regardless of the brand. We will elaborate in further detail on each of these items and more shortly.

First, the Summit is in excellent condition for a twelve year old vessel, and we did in fact enjoy ourselves. Additionally, the officers were very noticeable and personable, and the Captain made himself available more often than we experienced on any of our previous cruises. We are easy people to please, whine very little, and were committed to having a nice time regardless of what we encountered. However, our expectations were based on our previous Celebrity experiences, and this one fell well short of those expectations. Perhaps we were too spoiled going into it. To avoid just rambling, we will break our review into four sections: 1. Cabins. 2. Dining. 3. Beverage Service. 4. Entertainment. No need to summarize embarkation and disembarkation, as both were smooth as reported by many others. Read more