John Summers

Age: 51
Occupation: Architect
Number of Cruises: 7
Cruise Line: Celebrity Cruises
Ship: Summit
Sailing Date: March 18th, 2002
Itinerary: 11 day Ultimate Caribbean

The Summit is a large architecturally stunning ship. Our cabins 8044 and 8022 for my son featured nice details and a patio. Other public spaces are very good as others reported in their reviews.

Our trip started out on a bad note when we were informed that we would skip Key West and Columbia because we were departing with one propeller, not two. Our 11 day, 3 day at sea trip just became a 5 day at sea prison.

Food was one of the reasons we decided to try Celebrity. My wife and I are frequent visitors to New York City and San Francisco as well as many trips to Europe. We love good food. I lost six pounds on this culinary adventure and my wife who had been on Jenny Craig diet lost one pound. The food was horrible. Soups were little more than bullion infused hot water. Salads were never crisp. Fish was always smothered in sauce. The beef and lamb were edible, the veal was not. Grill service of pizza, burgers and hot dogs was worse. Pizza crust was doughy not crisp and lacked flavor. Burger and hot dog buns were always stale. You know you are on a class ship when you get to squeeze the catsup, mustard and relish from plastic tubes. Breakfast and lunch buffets are typical of other cruise lines. The Normandy restaurant offers good service with food equal to an off Broadway diner in New York City. At $25 it is not a value.

Entertainment is fine for the 65 and older crowd. My 20 year old son was clearly bored as were me and my wife. Good thing he had his own stateroom where he could sit on the balcony and nap or read.

Celebrity is trying to market itself as an upgrade to Princess and Royal Caribbean, say up there with Holland America. The ship succeeds however the food and entertainment are clearly below the aforementioned cruise lines. Additionally as for the two missed ports of call Celebrity refunded each of us $50 apiece, a total of $150. This was the ultimate insult.

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