This was my 31st cruise and my 1st with Celebrity ... sadly I was a bit disappointed ... I expected it to be a notch above the rest but it was certainly no better than any of the other cruise lines...the entertainment seemed to be lacking in several areas .... buffet was poor and food was cold there...but on a positive note we definitely enjoyed the dining room each night and the food there was very good ....the three people that did stand out was our waiter Elvis his assistant Leroy and our room Stewart Eddy... they were exceptional and made the cruise enjoyable...all in all an ok cruise and in saying that I will most likely give Celebrity another try at some point but not interested in doing the Summit again...for now we will just continue sampling all the cruise lines ...and hopefully my next Celebrity review will be a little more Inspiring. Cheers! Read Less

We travel over Thanksgiving yearly. This year we were going with our daughter and son-in-law. We chose this cruise mostly because we had never been to any of the ports other than San Juan and St Thomas. St Kitts, St. Lucia, Antigua, and Barbados were new for us. The price was good and we had a generous on board credit along with the classic beverage package. We used frequent flyer miles on Southwest. The flights to San Juan were pricey and I needed quite a few miles per ticket. I booked the first day November tickets opened up and had to take what was available. But we managed. We left a few days before the cruise so we could stop and see friends in Orlando for a couple days. Our daughter had a red eye out of Denver on Thursday night. Our trip to San Juan was uneventful. Not so for our daughter. Snowy weather hit on Thursday and she had numerous delays and did not get to San Juan til 8pm on Friday evening. We stayed at Hyatt Place very near the pier on Friday night. The hotel was fine. We all were tired so went to bed early. We slept in Saturday morning and decided to go to Punta de Vista in Old Town San Juan for lunch before we boarded. It has a roof top patio with not much shade. You take an elevator and then need to walk up a flight of stairs. It is not handicap friendly. We had a nice lunch and the food was good. The staff is very nice. We left our bags at the hotel and took a Lyft to and from the hotel to the restaurants and then onto the port. The driver dropped us off at the wrong terminal and we had to walk across the parking lot to Celebrity Summit. It was not marked very well. I had asked for a wheelchair for my husband as he was having a difficult time with his blood sugar that day. We had to wait as they were understaffed where you entered the terminal. Once we got the wheelchair we had a Celebrity employee escort us inside. We had completed the preboarding process and checkin was a breeze. I don't think it took us 1/2 hour and we were onboard greeted with a class of champagne. The rooms were ready so we headed to our room. I find so many of the reviews are from Suite Passengers. We just had a regular room and were quite satisfied. It was clean and our room steward introduced himself and left his number if we needed anything. We were mid ship and had no complaints. The bedding could be better, but was not bad. As we were boarding we were approached about specialty dining. They were offering a 20% discount. I declined but said I would take a 30% one. They agreed and we booked Qsine for the first night at 7:30. We unpacked and went to the muster drill. We had a very nice experience at Qsine and the food was very good. It was a great way to start our cruise. We went to the comedian's show at 10pm. He was pretty good. We had precooked several excursions using our onboard credit during the time they were 20% off. This saved us some money. But one of our excursions was cancelled due to lack of participation. We were not notified until the day before. They offered a substitute which was more expensive and they would not honor our 20% discount. If I have any complaints about celebrity is their shore excursion office. The people are rude and very inflexible. I had a disappointing experience on our last cruise to Bermuda on the Summit. Unfortunately a passenger on our excursion passed away during the excursion. Of course the excursion was cut short and the boat ride back to the boat was quite somber. They did not offer any type of compensation for the passengers. I know it was not Celebrity's fault, but they did not deliver what we paid for. And then this year they cancelled the excursion and were very rude when I asked for my original 20% off. This area could definitely use some improvement. We did enjoy the excursions we went on. My daughter loved the scuba diving in St Thomas and swimming with the turtles in Barbados. My husband and I loved the Catamaran and beach bbq to Nevis in St Kitts. We all enjoyed the trip to the mud baths in St Lucia. I had booked a beach day at Beach Limerz in Antigua. They had a taxi waiting for us at the port and it is a beautiful resort with reasonable prices. We took a water taxi to water island directly from the pier in St Thomas. A free bus to a small beach bar was waiting for us after we got off the water taxi. Beach chairs and umbrella was included with any purchase. It was easy to get to and very reasonable. Since we had on board credit I took advantage of negotiating 30% discount at both Sushi on 5 and Tuscan Grill. The food was great at both venues. My daughter felt this really enhanced our dining experience. We did find the food in the main dining room to be good, but it is not the same as the specialty dining experience. We either had breakfast in the dining room or room service. We just don't like to fight the crowds at the buffet. For early excursions we used room service and our only complaint was the food could have been hotter. The other days we ate in the dining room and had no complaints. Since we had stops every day except the last day we used the buffet to eat when we returned to the ship. If we ate lunch we went to the very back of the buffet to the grill where they prepared fresh meat to order. We then sat on the very back of the ship outside. There is a bar there and it is very easy to get a drink. One day we just had a burger at the grill by the pool. It was very good. We had the classic beverage package and were very satisfied with it. A couple times we did upgrade to a specialty drink or martini. But it would not have been worth upgrading to the premium package. When we were at the specialty restaurants they did not charge us an upgrade fee when we ordered one of the featured drinks. We enjoy the solarium pool and spent some time there. The last day at the sea was the nicest day at sea I have ever had. It was sunny in the low 80's and the seas were very calm. We spent the day on deck 11 enjoying the sun and relaxing. On disembarkment morning we had a relaxing breakfast in the main dining room. By the time we finished our number had been called and we left the ship. There was a line but I don't think it took us 1/2 hour to get through. Our luggage was easy to find and we were out the door. We had flights after 5pm so I booked an all day tour with Ellis with a drop off at the airport at 3. It was a very good tour. He took us to a beach, the rainforest, and the weekend pig roast outside of San Juan. We had plenty of time to get through security and our flights were on time. My husband and I had to go through Baltimore to St Louis and my daughter and husband Fort Lauderdale to Denver. It was a long day, our daughter said it took over an hour for her to get her luggage in Denver and they had to wait for the second shuttle as the first was full. We all got home late but luckily Sunday was a down day for all of us and we had a chance to recuperate for work on Monday. All in all it was a great trip. We enjoyed the ship and enjoyed all the ports. I know the Summit is older and heading for dry dock after the first of the year, but we had no complaints. Would cruise her again. Read Less

Chose a different Celebrity cruise around NZ but for 'reasons' unable to take it. Rather than lose my deposit, I searched around for the cheapest cruise I could find. And this 7-day cruise around the Southern Caribbean was it. DH and I hadn't been to this part of the world before, so there we are. That's how we chose this cruise. I booked via Celebrity themselves, and I didn't have any problems switching the booking over. I will say, I booked a concierge cabin, and changed my mind 3 times over. This cruise seemed to be only half full for ages, and I got lucky in being able to change my 3rd choice cabin in Cat 3 to an aft balcony Cat 1 at no extra charge! When I checked before sailing the cruise suddenly filled up, so I was very appreciative of the previous lull. We had two full days (given the ship sails at 8.30pm) and decided to forego the oft-mentioned Concierge lunch in favour of a 2nd day of sight-seeing (Arecibo Observatory) although we were on board by 3.30pm. At that time of day there was no line to speak of, and the process was very easy, except that DH's seapass didn't work; he had to have his photo taken a 2nd time, and even then had to report to Guest relations with his passport and have it taken a 3rd time. We ate in Qsine that first night because I knew it would be going after the ship's re-fit. Got 20% off too, but that's pretty standard. We did enjoy the food there, but didn't appreciate a service charge being added ... and then a space for additional gratuities. The rest of the week we were happy enough in the MDR for dinner, and the Cafe for lunch on a couple of days. We used room service for breakfast most days so that we could make use of our huge balcony, without having to get dressed and leave the room. We typically don't eat breakfast at home, so room service was fine, but on the sea day we ate in the MDR and you could really tell the difference in quality. Being British, I really like my tea, properly made. I asked our wonderful room attendant if there was any possibility of a kettle, and one magically appeared that first evening. I'd brought my own tea-bags, and used the milk that came with breakfast. Very happy. Ok, so you may think that's OTT, but if you're British, you'll understand. Ummm, is this where I own up and confess that apart from two trivia quizzes, we did NOTHING around the ship. It was brilliant! DH has issues with his ears, and found the lounges and theatre really loud and wasn't really tempted to try them out. Maybe it was jetlag combined with the port days, but we'd have dinner, read / surf the net (I had had an internet package thrown in with the original booking) and be in bed by 9pm. We regret nothing :-) I'm in my 50s, DH in his 60s btw. On previous cruises we'd be dancing the night away, or attending shows. But this time ... nothing appealed. The library was a very peaceful spot for us to do our reading. DH used the time for studying and appreciated the calm of the library and our balcony and got a lot done. We found service to be excellent, and the staff would always say 'hello' and try to help as needed. I'd read that service was slow, but didn't find that to be the case, or not overly slow. Ronald was our room attendant, and he was so lovely. But he's now home for a couple of months for a well-deserved rest. Ports: Charlotte Amalie; USVI. Booked a private jeep just for us two through Island Buddy. Reasonably new outfit, but well run and organised. Gave us a good overview of the island as well as taking us to some off the beaten track places. St Kitts: Independent group excursion via Thenford Grey. Again, well organised and run. Liked the Caribelle Batik place, and Brimstone Fortress. The views from there are spectacular! Antigua: This was a ship excursion, but only because we wanted to swim with stingrays, and given there were 3 cruise ships in port, thought that an independent visit might get cancelled in favour of the ships'. We really enjoyed our visit, and had a great time with the stingrays. But the 'problem' with ships' excursions is that they take you there and back, when they could have a longer tour and show you more. St Lucia: Probably our favourite island and tour. Booked Spencer Ambrose Land and Sea tour and had a wonderful day in his daughter's speedboat, being a typical tourist at the mudbaths and waterfall, and then just chilling on Sugar beach. Very well organised, and the scenery was stunning. Barbados: Another ship excursion. Originally I'd booked to see green monkeys on a 4x4 tour in the afternoon (so liked to know that I wouldn't miss the boat given the following day was a sea day). Anyway, we saw several monkeys on St Kitts and thought it a waste of an island to pay to see more at a reservation. So I swapped the tour to a morning 4x4 drive to Harrison's Cave. Again, my comments are to do with the time allowed. We stopped for a short while in Bethsheba; drove through a rainforest (ps it rained practically all day this day), and had sufficient time at the caves. But I wish ships would do full day excursions so that you get to see more things. All in all, we had a lovely cruise. Warm/hot weather with blue skies beat the gloom of a November UK day anytime! We enjoyed the food and the staff, oh and our aft balcony. Not sure we really 'bonded' with the Summit, but I can't put my finger on why not, and I would certainly be happy to sail with her again. Read Less

This was our third cruise on the Summit. We love Celebrity, are avid Aqua Class fans, and have so enjoyed cruising from San Juan. It places you in the heart of the Caribbean to start with, and you can focus on the island-hopping and beautiful sights. However, this trip raised a few red-flags with both Celebrity's quality and safety. That being said, I have still given the ship an average rating. Yet in the past, I'd given it 4-5 stars. The Summit has been around a very long time and her wrinkles are starting to show. Our boarding process was swift and easy as always. By 1:30pm, our staterooms were ready and we were unpacking and getting comfy. Our stateroom was on the starboard side and was definitely showing some wear. Things were perfectly clean and that is a sign of the quality that Celebrity has always been consistent with. Still, on our balcony, I noticed a lot of rust and paint-peeling. This was common through other areas on the boat, as well. ***Right before dinner on the second day, our toilet quit working. It was promptly serviced, fixed and all done while we were at dinner. Five days into the cruise, it happened again. And once more, we received prompt attention, during dinner, and it was fixed for the remainder of the cruise. Later, we spoke with cruisers on a much lower deck who indicated their toilet was failing every single day during the trip. To me, that should have warranted some sort of credit from Celebrity, as that is both a terrible inconvenience and a potential sanitation issue. Whether the company catered to them with some sort of credit, I'm not sure. Because we travel in Aqua Class, we always look forward to the dining experience at Blu. As much as we've cruised with Celebrity, we've always been impressed with the excellent choices at Blu, the freshness of the cuisine, and the attention to every detail the restaurant offers. This cruise, however, I was a little let-down by Blu and our dining experience there. The staff was warm and friendly, and they do work SO very hard. However, this time, some of our portions were extremely skimpy and some of the entrees were rather bland and hap-hazard in presentation. There were several times when we had to ask twice for more butter, lemon wedges, etc. This has NEVER been the case in the past. Once I ordered a vanilla latte and was served one... without the vanilla shot! During a special luncheon in the Garden Cafe on the last day of the cruise, I had a generous piece of red-velvet cake, only to find that it was stiff, stale, and dry, yet frosted and served as an offering. I couldn't even finish it. This is the very FIRST time EVER that I've had issue with the food on a Celebrity cruise. *****Now, for a BIG concern that forced me to place a lower-than-usual rating on our trip. On our Day 5 of the cruise, there was the beginning of an electrical fire. During this incident, I was sitting on our balcony with the door shut. I vaguely heard the Captain talking, but we had just had Thanksgiving dinner, so when he said "Bravo, Bravo, Bravo", I assumed it was a huge compliment to the dining staff. Later, I was to discover that those words may have been a code to the crew to hurry up to Deck 9 and deal with a fire! So, I was sitting, enjoying my book, completely oblivious that there was a fire on board. Nobody checked the balconies to see if guests (like me) were there! Granted, I barely heard the announcement, so I wasn't aware of what had happened, except for the words "Bravo, Bravo, Bravo". What if I had been completely deaf? Would nobody dart in to see if I was there? When my husband and cousins told the crew attending the emergency that I was probably still out on the deck, NOBODY WENT TO CHECK ON ME! And by that time, guests were not allowed access to our rooms! Fortunately, the emergency was dealt with quickly and we merely had some smoke in the hall overnight. However, had it been any worse, I would have been fried and died! During the final two days aboard, I learned that the Summit is to undergo a complete renovation in February/March of 2019. To that, I'll just say, "Bravo, Bravo, Bravo", Celebrity. Let's take a look at safety and Blu's food quality, too please. I want to be blown away by you again like I have always been on every other cruise I've enjoyed with your company. Read Less

We chose this cruise to add on to Royal Caribbean Jewel transatlantic. After 25 Celebrity cruises, we were very disappointed. There seemed to be no management or security overseeing operations. Much of the staff seemed unhappy. We were constantly harassed to buy drink and dining packages. They would swipe our cards or do paperwork before serving drinks, etc. As Elite plus we have 3 free drinks nightly at happy hour. However they only let us use the benefit 5 of the 7 nights. Guest relations didn’t want to give us our onboard credit even though we had emails from THEIR representatives. Cruise director Patrick was great. Dining room food was very good. Never met our head waiter or any maître’ds. Specialty sushi restaurant was excellent. Talent, ex comedians were good. Cast productions were average. Because cruise was over US Thanksgiving there were tons of kids. Embarkation and disembarkation were smooth. Would do Royal Caribbean again in a heartbeat. It’ll be awhile before we do another Celebrity. Read Less

A friend booked this cruise and told us about it. We looked into it and the price for what we got, we couldn't turn it down. We were on a back to back cruise (14 days). We flew to San Juan Puerto Rico from Ft. Lauderdale Florida. Our embarkation went smoothly, we were able to get into our cabin right away, we were Concierge Class. We met our room Stewart Tim who was great. Anything we needed he was always there for us. Our room was good size with lots of storage which impressed me. We had fresh fruit everyday plus hors d'oeuvres in the afternoon. A bottle of sparkling wine whenever we wanted. We at breakfast and dinner at the Cosmopolitan Restaurant. Food was great, with lots to eat. Our dinner table was the same with our awesome waiter Marvin and Reza. We named Marvin, "Marvelous Marvin", him and Reza went out of their way to make our experience wonderful. We would eat lunch at the Ocean View Restaurant when in port. It was a buffet with lots of food. The food was "ok", lots of different kinds of desserts. The entertainment in the evening in the theater was fabulous, thanks to Patrick. Later in the evening there were many things to do but we didn't do any of them. We went to the casino to gamble instead. The staff in all areas were very helpful and friendly. Our 1 excursion, Antiqua Beach Break, we were disappointed. We had a few issues with them wanting to charge us for chairs that we had already paid for. I wouldn't recommend this excursion. We also took a tour in St. Kitts called Super Island Tour, that one was ok....would have been better if it wasn't raining. The music at the pool could have been better, too much rap playing, in the Rendezvous Lounge the singer sang songs mostly in Spanish. They need more English songs. There were a few nights where it was quite windy and we felt the ship moving a little. What I really liked about this ship was it was small and only about 2100 people on it. We would go again on this ship. It will be going to dry dock soon to be remodeled ... The Summit has been number 1 for 11 months so far this year. I can see why. Read Less

We are experienced cruisers, mostly with Royal Caribbean and Celebrity (20+ trips). We liked the itinerary offered here. To save a few dollars I tried the X GTY offer knowing that as Elite members we would get a free upgrade somewhere in the process. We take Aqua Class because we love the restaurant Blu. The menu there is more healthy (I'm diabetic) than others and the service is excellent. They gave us cabin 9101. It has an obstructed view and is located below a deck area that offers a bit of noise in the early morning. Overall, it didn't bother us very much. The room was small but kept clean. We would get some food delivered every afternoon. We also got a rose along with some other flowers. The rose drooped after a few days. Embarkation and disembarkation went well. The smaller crowd helps here. The ship is aging reasonably well but we could see rust on our veranda and elsewhere. The pending refurbishment is needed. The Summit is a smaller ship when compared to the Oasis Class and others. No midway down the middle of the ship. We were the only ship in some ports. With the smaller size that means we get better treatment ashore, particularly in smaller ports. One downside of smaller boats is in Entertainment. Instead of the major production shows put on by the bigger boats we saw some talented singers and dancers but no real plot to the production. The other entertainers were good but you wouldn't know or recall their names. Blu was excellent as always. Both at breakfast and dinner we liked the menu and the service. Revelations Lounge was the place to get free drinks from 5 to 7PM. The small crowd allowed us to get great seats and look ahead as we left harbors with a libation in hand. We learned to order a glass of wine to go with the meal we were going to order in Blu. We looked at the BLU menu earlier in the day. Shore excursions mostly went well with a bit of rain that really did not get in our way. On St Croix we took a catamaran cruise and swim. The crew were excellent but the boat was not. It was an old design. No place to sit for most people and uncomfortable for all. On Barbados we went to Carlisle Beach for the first time It was excellent. Lovely place to visit for the day with great swimming. Lunch is available there. We spent the morning there and had lunch as part of the deal. Arranged thru the ship. You could also get the deal without lunch and just order off the regular menu. That may be the best choice. Tried the fried flying fish. Liked it. Read Less

A surprise get together for my aunt. A great week being looked after by the staff who treated us like family. We sailed out and back to San Juan The ship was extremely well maintained. We stayed in concierge class 8095 and it really was wow on the service. I would highly recommend this, the little perks make you feel special. Such a great ship. Fab evening entertainment loved the shows with such variation. The silent disco was such fun. Make sure you take your headphones off and spend a few moments watching everyone it is so funny. The games get everyone involved loved the Majority Rules quiz. People have such a variety of answers to the questions, will be using this with the family at Xmas. Had dinner in the main dining room most nights the food was truly a culinary experience. Our waiting staff made us feel so special, anticipating our every need. The staff made the whole dining experience an event we will never forget. To sum up my experience when can I go again. Read Less

We chose this cruise because of the ports of call and the availability of a Sky suite and the amenities. Our package included: gratuities, premium drink package, WiFi and $350 on board credit. My husband and I were celebrating our anniversary and my birthday. The service and food were excellent, crew and suite staff were friendly and very attentive. We really liked the Luminae restaurant as we didn't have to make a reservation or any wait. The staff there were very attentive and we met new "friends" every night. The ship is scheduled for refurnishing in early 2019 we found it very clean but in need of an upgrade. In every port except one we had an excursion. Even though we didn't see one whale or dolphin on our Dominica excursion we had a good time. We had one of the best cruise experiences in many years. Looking forward to this type of accommodation in the future. Read Less

This was a cruise that included my son and daughter-in-law, celebrating a couple of milestone birthdays. They wanted to go somewhere "warm and beachy", so the Caribbean became our destination. This was their very first cruise and quite possibly my last, therefore, it had to be Celebrity and we chose Aqua Class so that they could get the full experience. We were not disappointed. Everyone on staff seemed bent on giving us special treatment, especially the staff at Blu, in particular Vladimir, Tatiana, Randy and Mark! The food quality exceeded our expectations and the personal service was exceptional. We booked two tours through the ship, in St. Thomas and Barbados and were very pleased with the quality and value. We loved our staterooms and Mevin, our steward, was very accommodating and attentive. Even the afternoon appetizers were pretty good. Most of the entertainment was top notch and the ship's activities staff was super energetic and enthusiastic. My son's only complaint was that some of the activities were held in a space where the bar wasn't open!! All in all a great experience and I can't wait to see the Summit after her makeover. Read Less