Celebrity Summit

Cruising with 3 people I taught with years ago. Don't know why I was invited but I'm so glad I was and am booked for another cruise with them next month!

The entire time I felt I was treated like Royalty. The room stewardess, the waiter and assistant waiter....everyone I came in contact with had a smile and a "can I help you?" attitude.

The food was wonderful - I actually got a kitchen tour just for asking my waiter! Freshly baked bread every day! We also had an anniversary meal in the "$30 more restaurant" (I can't remember the name) but it was NOT worth the extra $. We had a relatively early seating, as our regular seating was the early one....maybe that's why. But I noticed some other diners who were seated later were having a much better experience than we were. I would have complained but my friends were having their anniversary celebration and I didn't want to taint it.

Placing towels, etc. on the chairs early in the day seems so unfair, but I must confess that we did it on the only at sea day. It was a wonderful day....this coming cruise has 2 at sea days; I am curious how we'll handle them this time, and on a Carnival cruise.

The entertainment was fabulous! We caught every show. There was an a cappella group that sang at various bars around the ship. We enjoyed them immensely.

We only took one planned excursion: a whale watch. It was a nice experience; didn't see many whales.

On each island we found a taxi driver who agreed to give us a tour....this worked well when we figured out we needed to ask if there was air conditioning in the vehicle. Our best tour was on Dominica. Tobago was a waste of time, except sitting at a local "bar" and having a Red Stripe....

I felt absolutely footloose and fancy free and pampered.

My husband is coming with us this time; I am so looking forward to being in a tropical climate away from Ohio snow with him!

I never really had a strong desire to go to Alaska. I pictured it as a cold, desolate place covered with nothing but ice and dangerous wild animals roaming about. Besides, I rationalized, isnÂ’t it dark there most of the time? What can you see in the dark?

I could not have been more wrong. After my recent northbound Vancouver to Seward cruise aboard CelebrityÂ’s GTS Summit at the end of August, 2002, I canÂ’t wait to return to Alaska and see some of the sites that I didnÂ’t have time to see on this trip.

Chris, (my significant other and traveling companion), and I had heard wonderful things about Vancouver, British Columbia, so we decided to fly in two days before the cruise departure to do a little sightseeing. We stayed at the Pan Pacific Hotel, which is built literally on top of the cruise ship pier! As a matter of fact, I could look out the window of our room on the 12th floor and see the bow of the Summit when she was docked. The Pan Pacific is a beautiful hotel and to make a good thing even better, the bellman picked up our luggage on embarkation day and made sure it was placed in the proper location to be loaded on to the ship. We didnÂ’t see it again until it was delivered to our stateroom! It was a great treat not to have to haul our luggage through security and wonder when to tip and which person to tip.

Departure Day

Embarkation in Vancouver was a breeze. After passing through what I considered to be a thorough security check with an X-ray scan of carry-on bags and a walk through the metal detector, we proceeded to a prominently marked area to line up to wait for our documents to be checked and to receive our onboard ID/credit card. Since we are CaptainÂ’s Club members (CelebrityÂ’s frequent passenger program) and had booked a Sky Suite for this voyage, we were in a somewhat shorter line specifically designated for CaptainÂ’s Club members and passengers occupying suites. We had arrived at the dock early enough to be near the front of this line and chatted with a Celebrity employee who was stationed at the front of the line to answer any questions and ensure that the passengers had the proper documents in hand before they proceeded to the actual check-in desk. This helpful service tended to keep the line moving more quickly. When we proceeded to the check-in desk, we presented our documents and it was a simple and quick matter to receive our room key/ID/credit card. We were also introduced to Zarah Bongelli, the SummitÂ’s Social Hostess, who invited us to call her if there was anything we needed during the course of the cruise. That was a first for me! I later decided the introduction took place because Chris and I (and two other friends who were traveling with us) were all wearing CruiseReport.com shirts and caps. But I digress. During the embarkation process, each passenger is issued a numbered slip of paper that indicated boarding priority. While you waited for your group to be called, there was a Spa representative in the waiting area taking appointments for spa services during the week. What a great idea! When your group number is called, you line up to go through Canadian Customs/Immigration, which involved showing your passport to the Customs official. Celebrity really has their act together when it comes to embarkation in Vancouver.

Understated Elegance

The GTS Summit is a beautiful ship on the outside, so I expected nothing less on the inside. I was not disappointed! We boarded the ship on Deck 3 where we were immediately surrounded by elegance. This is the area where the Guest Services desk and the Shore Excursion desk are located. The marble staircase descending into this lobby area was grand indeed! Beautiful gold fabric flowed down from the floors above and draped around various columns throughout the lobby. In addition, there was art work everywhere.

After having our pre-cruise picture taken on the gangway, we were welcomed aboard by the Hotel Manager and escorted to our suite by a smiling, uniformed, white-gloved staff member who insisted on carrying our hand-luggage. Once we arrived at our suite (6121 on Penthouse Deck), we were given an orientation about all its amenities and features and any questions we had were answered efficiently and professionally. I was amazed that our suite was cleaned and ready for occupancy since we boarded so early (11:30 am). We soon met our cabin steward, Fabian, and our butler, Jonathan, both of whom turned out to be extremely competent, friendly, and efficient. Fabian was in charge of anything to do with the room and its contents, while Jonathan was in charge of any food or beverage requests that we might have. Jonathan also served afternoon tea and evening pre-dinner hors dÂ’ oeuvres to us in our suite each day.

The Sky Suite

And what a nice suite it was! I had been accustomed to Carnival’s “in your face” reds, yellows and oranges. It was so nice to walk into a room tastefully appointed in soothing colors. The carpet was a muted sea-foam green with pale gold and white flecks making small diamond patterns throughout. In front of the sliding glass door leading to the teak veranda, there was a sitting area with a comfortable couch covered in a companion fabric to that on the bed and complete with four yellow and peach loose throw pillows matching those on the bed. There was a club chair, a glass cocktail table set with two place settings, linen napkins and a crystal bowl of fresh fruit which was replenished daily. The suite was equipped with a mini-bar and a DVD player located in the entertainment center beneath the 25-inch color TV. The comfortable king-sized bed was covered with a beautiful pale green/ivory harlequin-checked duvet cover which was removed when the bed was turned down each evening, extra bed pillows covered in matching shams, a down comforter which was left on the bed at night and peach and yellow loose throw pillows. Except for one wall that was covered with floor to ceiling mirrors, the walls of the suite were paneled in a rich wood that was repeated on the four closet doors in the entryway. This paneling was inset with a large diamond pattern made from the same wood except that the grain was going the opposite way. The marble-topped vanity/desk, made from the same wood as the walls, had a large mirror mounted on the wall above it and two sconces, one on each side of the mirror, provided additional lighting in the room. There were two storage cabinets, one on each end under the desk. These storage areas had two shelves with lots of room for storing anything that didn’t fit in the large lighted walk-in closet or the 5-drawer chest found in the closet. I think this was the largest closet that I have ever had access to on a cruise ship. The closet was stocked with plenty of hangers (even those with the clips for hanging skirts) and even had a shoe rack that held about a dozen pair of shoes! Two terrycloth Celebrity bathrobes were hanging there for our use while onboard. Additional drawer space was available in the marble-topped nightstands located on either side of the bed.

The well-lighted bathroom was a nice size for a cruise ship bathroom, constructed entirely of marble (except for the toilet) with a combination tub/shower with removable showerhead for handheld use. One word of caution: be careful when stepping into or out of the tub! The sides of the tub are extremely high and it is a big step down. There were additional shelves and storage areas under the sink and vanity and more built into the wall opposite the sink and vanity. Suffice it to say, there was more than enough storage space in this suite. My favorite part of the bathroom was the 2x5 foot window built into the shower and looking into the bedroom. You could look out the sliding glass door at the beautiful scenery going by while taking a shower! This window was covered by a mini-blind that you could open and close automatically by a pressing a switch mounted opposite the toilet. Toiletries consisting of soap, lotion, mouthwash, and shampoo/conditioner were replenished daily. A hair dryer was mounted on one wall. Towels were replaced as needed on a twice daily basis.

The suite had more than ample lighting with seven recessed “can-type” fixtures in the ceiling, a bedside lamp on each nightstand, two sconce lights over the vanity/desk, an entryway light and a closet light that illuminated when you opened a closet door. Lighting controls were conveniently located on the wall above the bed in addition to other places throughout the room. There was also the natural light that came in through the double sliding glass door. This door was covered by a sheer fabric for privacy and a heavy drapery fabric that served as a blackout drape when fully closed.

Because of the less than balmy temperatures, we didnÂ’t spend much time on the veranda. I would love to have this same cabin category in the Caribbean where the teak deck and real wood furniture with nice fabric cushions could be more readily enjoyed. Overall, I was very pleased with our beautiful and comfortable Sky Suite.

The Constellation Dining Room

We opted for early seating (6:00 pm) in the dining room at a table for four, which included our traveling companions. In my opinion, 6:00 is far too early for dinner and 8:30 pm is too late for dinner. There were two occasions where Chris and I barely made it back to the ship from shore excursions in time to get to the dining room for dinner. Also, being in a Sky Suite, we were served afternoon tea with sandwiches and cookies and evening appetizers each day. If we indulged in this luxury, we wouldn’t be hungry for dinner. Most of the time, we weren’t even in the cabin when this service took place, but most of the time Jonathan would leave us a sample of each day’s “goodies”. My advice to you if you book a Sky Suite is to opt for late seating so you can fully enjoy all the perks that come with the Suite.

Our dining room experience was wonderful! This was one of the few cruises where weÂ’ve eaten in the dining room every night other than when we had reservations to eat in the alternate dining venue. Our waiter, Sebastiao, and his assistant, DeWald, were the best wait team IÂ’ve ever experienced. Add the sommelier, Mikala, and the bar waitress, Rina, to the mix and the result was just about perfect. The attention to detail that this group of staff members incorporated into their service was impeccable. Mikala always had a good suggestion for a wine to complement the dinner. Rina not only remembered our names, but also our drink orders from night to night. It was amazing to see Rina in different areas of the ship and always be greeted with a smile and by name! Our tablemates had purchased a card that entitled them to unlimited soft drinks during the cruise and Rina always had their soft drink of choice waiting at the dinner table for them when they arrived. Even better, they never had to order a refill. She always came by with another glass of soda before they had even finished the first. Now thatÂ’s service!

Sebastiao, our waiter, made recommendations regarding the best entrees each night and was seldom wrong. I’m not a big eater and seldom eat meat or fish, but everyone else at the table sampled some of everything and raved about the food. I found all the soups to be delicious. The crab legs and the lamb received particularly rave reviews from everyone else at the table. Sebastiao always offered additional portions and served them with a smile. On our first night in the dining room, I ordered soup and salad and no entrée. Sebastiao seemed genuinely concerned and asked me why I didn’t order an entrée. After I told him that I was a finicky eater, he always had a suggestion for an alternate dish for me and if I declined, he brought me a large salad instead of just the dinner salad everyone else received. No request was refused. DeWald, our assistant waiter who was from South Africa and had personality plus. kept our water glasses and iced tea glasses full, and made sure we always had a selection of breads on the table. And everything was accomplished with a smile. One evening, the headwaiter for the dining room came by our table to introduce himself and chat. When he asked if there was anything we needed, I promptly told him that I would like to have a banana split for dessert. He smiled and told me that he would see what he could do. Lo and behold, the next night I was served a banana split for dessert. Of course, it was not a banana split in the true sense of banana split but it did have a banana and ice cream, and the fact that they made the effort really impressed me.

The dining room itself was two-levels high and tastefully decorated. The floor-to-ceiling windows on the aft wall were stunning and offered a wonderful view. One thing I noticed about the Constellation dining room was that it was much quieter than most ship dining rooms of its size. The clanging of dishes that was so annoying in the Carnival Spirit dining room was not present here. You could actually carry on a conversation with others at your table. Even though our waiter and assistant waiter had several other tables for which they were responsible, we never felt rushed from one course to the next and always finished in ample time to make it to the Celebrity Theatre for the eveningÂ’s show.

I only ate breakfast once in the dining room and found the service to be slow.

The Waterfall Café and Grill

If you don’t want to eat in the dining room, you can always opt for the Waterfall Café and Grill on Deck 10. Breakfast and lunch are served buffet style with an additional omelet station for breakfast and a pasta station for lunch. In addition, each day at lunch, there was a specialty fare offered in an area at one end of the café area – Tex-Mex, Indian, barbecue, etc. We accidentally discovered this when we were wandering around the Waterfall trying to decide whether to eat on the buffet or to go out to the Pool Grill for hot dogs, hamburgers or chicken sandwiches. If you drink a lot of soft drinks, it is worth the cost to purchase a drink ticket that is valid for the entire cruise. Tea, coffee, lemonade and fruit punch are complimentary in the Waterfall Café, but soft drinks are not. Here’s a helpful tip for anyone who opts for the omelet bar at breakfast or the pasta bar at lunch: stop at the regular buffet line first and get a tray and eating utensils.

I particularly enjoyed the fresh fruit and bread selections each day from the lunch buffet. The hot dog I ate (yes, I eat hot dogs occasionally!) from the Pool Grill was very tasty. At various times throughout the day, the Waterfall Café is the place to go for pizza, frozen yogurt, bouillon, and casual afternoon tea. In the evening, the Waterfall Café becomes an alternative dining venue. If you just don’t feel like leaving your room, the option of room service is always available.

The Normandie Restaurant

Dinner in the Normandie is an experience that shouldnÂ’t be missed. This elegant restaurant is modeled after the dining room on the S.S. Normandie, a French vessel which sank in New York harbor in the 1940Â’s. The cuisine reflects that served on the original S.S. Normandie and is decidedly continental with an emphasis on French dishes. We had a table for six, and the other five said their meal was excellent. While IÂ’m not a fan of the type of food served in the Normandie and personally felt the whole experience took far too long, I enjoyed myself, nevertheless. There is an additional $25.00 per person charge added to your onboard account, but the cost is well worth it for the dining experience, which consists of a four-course meal and lasts anywhere from two and one-half to three and one-half hours. There was a trio playing, too loudly in my opinion, and a small dance floor.

Celebrity Theatre

This is the main entertainment venue on the ship and was designed so that there was really not a bad seat in the house, no matter which of the three levels you chose to occupy. The audio/visual system was state-of-the-art. The Celebrity musicians and the Celebrity singers and dancers were a very talented bunch and performed their hearts out in every show in which they appeared. On our voyage, there were four big production shows, a couple of comedians, a juggler and a classical piano player/comedian. This room was also used for Jackpot Bingo, enrichment lectures, and audience participation games such as the “Newlywed and Not So Newlywed Game”. Don’t worry if you miss out on something going on in the Celebrity Theatre. Celebrity records these events for replay (over and over again!) via the Celebrity Channel on your stateroom TV.

The Salon at the AquaSpa

While waiting to board the ship in Vancouver, I had booked two salon appointments for At Sea days, one for a manicure and the other for a scalp/neck/shoulder massage/hair style combination. Salon services are fairly expensive to begin with and what I didn’t know is that they automatically add 10% “service charge” to your bill “for your convenience”. I was accustomed to the person who rendered the service telling me “tip is not included in case you want to add one.” However, on GTS Summit, the person who has taken care of you hands you a ticket to sign that already has the tip added in. The only reason I know this is because I read the fine print at the bottom of the receipt! So, chances are some people are double tipping, which works out great for the people working in the salon. That being said, my experiences in the salon were great. The manicure included a hand massage and words can’t describe the feeling of sitting in a comfortable chair with your feet propped up, looking out floor to ceiling windows at some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, all the while having your head, neck and shoulders massaged with fragrant oil! I enjoyed the salon so much, I opted to have my growing-out haircut modified while onboard.

Other Areas of Interest

No cruise ship would be complete without its casino and Summit has a good one. Fortunes Casino contained over 200 slot machines, a black jack table, a roulette wheel, a craps table, a Caribbean stud poker table and a Let It Ride table. There was a bar in the casino and bar wait staff roaming through the crowds taking drink orders. I stuck to the slot machines and won some and lost some. I was very aware of lots of bells and lights going off throughout the casino, so I can only surmise that someone was winning big! I didnÂ’t notice the cigarette smoke as much in this casino as I did on the Carnival Spirit and Carnival Destiny.

Cova Café de Milano was a beautiful area with a tea room atmosphere that offered gourmet and fancy coffee drinks, hot chocolate and other beverages/cocktails, as well. Beautiful and yummy pastries were available from the patisserie on the other side of the room from the coffee bar. There was a player piano from which melodic rhythms emanated even when its ivories were not being “tickled” by an onboard Celebrity entertainer. Cova Café was a very nice place to relax and chat over a beverage and pastry selection. This was Chris’s place of choice for AM coffee.

Located aft on Deck 5 on opposite sides of the ship, the Martini Bar and the Champagne Bar were two great places to meet for a drink before dinner. I always sat in the Martini Bar because it was located on the non-smoking side of the ship. It was no problem ordering from the Champagne Bar while in the Martini Bar or vice versa. I donÂ’t drink martinis, but they certainly offered a wide and varied selection of that potent potable! Of course, caviar was available to order with your champagne. The Rendez-Vous Lounge on Deck 4 was also a popular pre-dinner meeting place where you could listen to live musical entertainment while enjoying a pre-meal cocktail.

Celebrity has made sure that there are ample places to sit all around the ship in case you just want to stop and read or people watch. I enjoyed trying out all the various “art work seating” around the ship. These “chairs” were actual sculptures of a variety of shapes that made comfortable seating as well as an art statement! And speaking of art, the GTS Summit has more than its share of beautiful pieces of art displayed throughout the ship including corridors and stair landings. It was a pleasure to walk around the ship and just look at the art. I attended one of the onboard art auctions held by Park West, but the area where the auction was held was too small and crowded and they didn’t serve unlimited free champagne like Carnival did at their art auctions. And, yes, I did make some champagne-influenced purchases at the Carnival art auction on the Destiny!

The library, Words, occupied two levels that were connected by a spiral staircase. Each level has comfortable seating areas and books that can be checked out at certain times of the day. Notes is the 2-level musical listening room, complete with comfortable chairs and headphones and CDs that can be checked out. The fabrics used on the furniture and for the window treatments in both Words and Notes were understated and elegant, but certainly not “fussy”. Each area presented an inviting atmosphere that encouraged people to sit down and linger for a while. I enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere of both of these rooms.

Like most new (and some not-so-new) ships, Summit has an Internet Café. I must say that Online@Celebrity is the most beautiful Internet Café that I’ve seen on any ship that I’ve sailed. You can send and receive email or surf the Net for $.50 a minute using your Celebrity Signature Card, or if you use the Internet a lot, sign up for unlimited use for the entire cruise for $100.00. The only problem we had is that you could not always get connected, especially when leaving port. Celebrity also offers computer classes during the cruise! If you travel with your own laptop computer, you can contact Guest Relations who will have a Connect@Sea kit brought to your cabin to connect your laptop to the Internet.

Fun Things To Do

You canÂ’t be bored while onboard the GTS Summit, unless you really want to be. Basketball, volleyball, darts, paddle ball, shuffleboard, jogging on the jogging track on Deck 11, table tennis, wine tasting, cooking demonstrations, trivia contests, golfing in the golf simulator, watching recently-released movies in the Celebrity Cinema, cultural enrichment lectures, and dancing the night away in the beautiful room-with-a view, Revelations disco, are just some of the many activities available for your participation throughout the cruise. And, did I mention shopping? The Emporium on Deck 5 is made up of a variety of fine shops offering such items as candy, Celebrity logo attire, fine jewelry, formal attire and accessories, Fossil watches, Tommy Hilfiger clothing, porcelain figurines, perfume, liquor and cigarettes. Each day during the cruise brings a different sale on items found in The Emporium shops. The kids have not been forgotten either. The Fun Factory and Arcade are great places for kids to hang out.

Don’t miss out on the Shore Excursion opportunities. Our most difficult task was deciding how to narrow our choices down since we wanted to experience them all. We did an 11-mile mountain bike tour in Ketchikan, rode horses in Skagway and went on a whale-watching trip in Juneau. I would recommend all of these excursions plus the helicopter “flight seeing” and the train ride in Skagway. On my next Alaskan cruise, I plan to look into the cruise lines’ pre- and post land packages to extend my adventure. We stayed in Anchorage for two days after our cruise, rented a car and did some exploring on our own, which was a lot of fun.

I thoroughly enjoyed my trip aboard Summit. It seems fitting to visit such a beautiful destination as Alaska while sailing aboard such a beautiful ship as GTS Summit. The service was excellent and the staff friendly, the food was delicious, the onboard activities plentiful. I highly recommend that you take a trip to Alaska, or anywhere for that matter, aboard CelebrityÂ’s GTS Summit.

The very word “Summit” invokes an expectation of something special, something grand, something “above” the norm. Celebrity Cruises delivers on this expectation with the third in its series of Millennium Class vessels. Launched in 2001, the GTS Summit is designed to accommodate 1,950 passengers with a Gross Registered Tonnage of 91,000. As a result, she has a significantly higher interior space to passenger ratio compared to other ships in her category. Even though not the largest cruise ship afloat, Summit is about as big a ship as you will see squeeze through the Panama Canal with a beam of 105 feet and a length of 965 feet. The introduction of the gigantic mega ships like sister company Royal Caribbean’s Voyager Class ships at 138,000 tons might make a novice cruiser think that a mere 91,000 tons is going to be “small” in comparison, but don’t be fooled. Summit is a behemoth and would have been considered the largest cruise ship afloat just a few years ago.

The SummitÂ’s exterior has a sophisticated, regal appearance with her dark blue hull trimmed in gold contrasting with the white upper decks that give the ship a sleeker appearance. As you approach her, you get the sense that this is a really big luxury liner, not just a huge cruise ship. We soon found that this feeling is carried through to the interior space as well.

CelebrityÂ’s embarkation process in VancouverÂ’s Canada Place went very smoothly. We walked from our hotel room in the Pan Pacific Hotel Vancouver to the pier at 11:30am hoping for an early CaptainÂ’s Club Member embarkation. We were not disappointed. Within 10 minutes, we were whisked through a special CaptainÂ’s Club line, checked through immigration (required for cruises embarking from Canada to US), given our room keys and directed to board the Summit.