We chose the Celebrity Summit as it left from San Juan, Puerto Rico to go around the Caribbean.
Most ships leave from Fort Lauderdale now and take two days to reach the islands.
We had read that the ship had been modernised with things that the newer ships have, i.e.
ice bar which doubles as the martini bar and where you can be amused by watching the barmen performing tricks of the trade, a coffee shop and ice cream parlour.
There was also a specialty restaurant called Quisine which was new.
We had tried this restaurant in September on the Celebrity Eclipse which was very good and $10 cheaper than on the Summit.
The crew were very friendly.
I was in a wheelchair and was wheeled on and off the ship every day by such friendly people.
The security people called me by name and welcomed me back each day.
Our cabin steward was very friendly and did what we asked but seemed to have an aversion to taking dirty glasses away.
Our first impressions were not too good.
We went up to our level in the lift which was on the same level as the library.
We had to wait around 20 mins until we could go to the cabin so looked around.
There was lots of glass in the library (windows) which needed cleaning.
The first thing I noticed in our cabin was unironed/badly ironed pillowcases.
It made the cabin look untidy.
The table on the balcony was dirty and had the previous occupants crumbs on the table and floor.
We went up to theCafeeria for some lunch and found a good choice but all the hot food was lukewarm/cold.
This was the same for breakfast and lunch throughout the two weeks.
We tried to have lunch out each day and only had toast for breakfast as this was made while you waited.
We had room service breakfast with so-called hot food once but didn’t repeat the experience.
There was a brunch on a day at sea which looked and sounded lovely – so much to choose from.
We sat on a big table and there was so much waste as nothing was hot so was just pushed aside.
The service in the dining room was very good.
The food was average and nearly always cold.
Having had wonderful food on the Eclipse we were disappointed with that on the Summit.
We tried one of the specialty restaurants at a cost of $40 each called The Normandie.
The menu looked very appetising and we were looking forward to going.
I won’t go into what each of us had for starter but it was not good at all and I sent most of mine back.
We had ordered chateaubriand steak for the two of us and I was really looking forward to this.
When it arrived at our table it was barely lukewarm and the vegetables were cold.
We asked them to take it away and they said they would prepare another one.
About ten minutes later our plates returned with the original steak which had been put in the oven and was now hot and like old boots! The waiter said a new steak was being cooked and this was just to keep us going.
We asked him to take the plates away.
Eventually, our meal arrived.
Now you would think that after all the problems the chef would have made sure he cooked the steak correctly but it had been well done, not medium.
There was cheese next which was delicious and a complimentary glass of port to apologise for everything that had gone wrong.
At long last after two and a half hours it was pudding time.
We ordered two grand marnier souffles.
One came out but the other one had exploded and was all over the oven.
We were handed our bill to pay and told we could come back for a complimentary meal.
Needless to say, wild horses wouldn’t have got us back there.
On the whole we enjoyed our holiday as we went to the islands that we like visiting.
Would we go on the Summit again – NO.
The ship has seen better days and definitely does not deserve 5*.
