Cruising the Southern Caribbean on Celebrity Summit
Cruising the Southern Caribbean on Celebrity Summit
Even if you’re not one of the rich & famous, you will still be treated as a celebrity with Celebrity Cruises!
By Jeannette and Dan Dudek
Cruising the Southern Caribbean on Celebrity Summit
Years ago, the saying “only the newly wed and almost dead” took cruises, may have been valid. However, today, cruising has been discovered by many generations as an ideal vacation. Multi-generations can even enjoy the same cruise.
On the luxurious cruise ships of today, numerous activities go on simultaneously, something for everyone regardless of age. Just choose what interests you. Or you can just lie on the sundeck enjoying the fresh sea air and the pleasant sounds of the on-board singers and musicians.
No matter what you do, even if nothing at all, you can be assured you will be treated as a celebrity. From your cabin steward, waiters, bar and pool and spa attendants to the cruise director, staff and officers, you are treated like royalty. “Your wish is my command” comes to mind. The staff and crew please you in every way possible.
Jeannette and Dan on Celebrity Summit
During our recent two week cruise aboard Celebrity Summit we talked with a number of passengers to get their input as to what they thought about the cruise. Every age group, young children, teenagers, young adults, parents and those retired to a person told us they loved the cruise and the beautiful Celebrity Summit. Even the very senior among us had a good time; you could see them using their rented electric scooters to zip around the ship – and especially to the Celebrity Theater for bingo.
Celebrity Cruises sails several Caribbean routes. To get started, just select the cruise that goes to the locations that most interest you. For this voyage, we chose Celebrity Summit for two glorious weeks of back-to-back cruises of the Southern Caribbean departing from San Juan, Puerto Rico. (Back-to-Back simply means you booked two independent cruises on the same ship, one immediately following the other. The second cruise visits different ports-of-call. In most cases, you have the same stateroom for both cruises.)
Cruise the Southern Caribbean with Celebrity Cruises
Stateroom and Amenities
Our spacious concierge stateroom located at the stern of the ship included a large private balcony. The room’s amenities included: HDTV; hair dryer; deluxe robes; binoculars; safe; stocked mini-bar; a rain and a sun umbrella; complimentary fruit basket and bottle of sparkling wine.
Cruising the Southern Caribbean on Celebrity Summit – Stateroom
Every day our exceptional room attendant not only cleaned the room and replaced the towels, he also kept our ice bucket filled and delivered canapés every evening for pre-dinner appetizers. Special requests were no issue. He obtained and taped down an extension cord so we could have an electrical connection for a medical device that had to be located on the bedside table; and he found for our use some “push-through” tuxedo buttons we forgot to pack.
Celebrity Summit Southern Caribbean Cruise
Onboard Facilities
The Celebrity ship for our cruise, the beautiful Summit, has a length of 965 feet and has a maximum occupancy of 2,158. She was “Solsticized” in January of 2012; meaning that she underwent a major upgrade. This upgrade included the addition of AquaClass staterooms and the Blu restaurant exclusively for AquaClass guests; and a number of other improvements to enhance the cruise experience for all its guests.
Amenities and Facilities on Celebrity Summit Include:
- Two Specialty Restaurants: Qsine, and Normandie
- Celebrity iLounge – Internet & Apple PCs available 24 hours/day
- Large outdoor pool and two whirlpools
- Indoor Thalassotherapy pool
- Large Sun Deck for pool side lounge seating
- Fortunes Casino with “live” dealers at table games
- Celebrity Theater for nightly performances
- Art Gallery and Photo Gallery
- Emporium Gift Boutiques
- Lecture room – used for lectures and comedy shows
- AquaSpa, Fitness Center, Night Club area, Lounges and Wine Room
Celebrity Summit AquaSpa
We actually booked this Southern Caribbean cruise while taking our first cruise last January; a Celebrity cruise of the Western Caribbean. While Jeannette promoted taking an ocean cruise for several years, Dan favored renting a sailboat and doing a “bare bones” cruise of the Caribbean islands. So last year after years of discussion we compromised – we booked a Caribbean ocean cruise.
After a few days on Celebrity, Dan converted and became a “cruise person”, i.e. he fell in love with Celebrity’s service, food, shore excursions, on-board entertainment, on-board lectures and the casino! By the end of this first cruise, we eagerly booked the Celebrity cruise to the Southern Caribbean.
Note: If you book a future Celebrity cruise while still on a cruise, Celebrity Cruises will usually give you a discount, on-board credit and possibly a cabin upgrade.
Dan and Jeannette Swimming with Sting Rays
Cruise Highlights – Of the many highlights of our voyage, the three that stand out were:
- Meeting the Master and many officers and crew of the beautiful Celebrity Summit
- Dinner at the Normandie specialty restaurant
- An excursion snorkeling and swimming with sting rays
To learn and understand more about cruising we encourage you to read each of the pages in this review. While all parts describe our experiences aboard Celebrity Summit, most of what we wrote applies to cruising in general. We believe you will find these accompanying articles to have sufficient details to make your next cruise more enjoyable.
Read More of Jeannette and Dan Dudek’s Celebrity Summit Review:
Overview | Pre-Cruise Documentation | San Juan Airports & Embarkation | Sunset Balcony Staterooms | Dining Options | Normandie Specialty Restaurant | Qsine Specialty Restaurant | Excursions | Production Shows | Bridge & Engine Room Operation | Senior Officer Interviews | General Info | Disembarkation in San Juan |
If You Go:
Bio
Jeannette and Dan Dudek travel extensively domestically and internationally; visited over 30 countries; and have been to most U.S. states and Canadian provinces. Jeannette’s career has included teaching elementary school classes; as well as English classes for middle school students; she also as has been a business manager and accountant for several firms. Jeannette’s passion is gourmet cooking and hosting special gatherings for friends and family.
Dan spent his career as an international consultant; assisting large firms implement computerized project and portfolio management systems. Besides international travel, Jeannette and Dan enjoy traveling North America in their RV, as well as handgun competitions, sailing, hunting, hiking, biking and other outdoor sports.
