Celebrity Summit Southern Caribbean: November 2017

If anyone is familiar with our trip reports, you know we LOVE the sun and ocean, so what better way to spend the week after Thanksgiving than on a cruise in the Caribbean! I'll write it up in sections focusing on islands/activities, food and beverage, and overall thoughts.
This cruise is courtesy of Foxwoods, though we did pay to upgrade to AquaClass (it was absolutely worth it, more details to come on that!)
We were originally scheduled to fly to Puerto Rico on Friday so we could spend a day exploring the island before our cruise departed Saturday evening. Sadly, Mother Nature had other plans and with the devastation Hurricane Maria caused the island, we decided to switch our flight to Saturday.
Flights were on time and we landed, got our luggage, got a cab, and got to the port and were on the ship within an hour of landing.
The ship is in need of a remodel (which we heard is happening this year), but was clean, rooms were well appointed, and we were happy.
We had a balcony room on the 9th floor.
Our itinerary was port heavy, after a day at sea, it was Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Kitts, St. Thomas, and back to San Juan.
Though we boarded the ship around 2 pm, we didn't set sail until 8:45 pm so it was like 2 full days at sea Saturday and Sunday until we docked at Barbados on Monday. The bed was SUPER comfy and we spent most of the at sea days exploring the bars on the ship, laying in the sun, and eating, lol!
Barbados, they really do have pink sand beaches! And this sign summed up our trip, hhh!
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We chose to just take a taxi to a beach for the day, the weather was amazing and beach was beautiful, and not crowded! Also, the crystal clear water allowed you to see the fish just swimming around you.
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More to come...next stop, St. Lucia

Great start! Look forward to the rest :)

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Originally Posted by CTslotters

If anyone is familiar with our trip reports, you know we LOVE the sun and ocean, so what better way to spend the week after Thanksgiving than on a cruise in the Caribbean! I'll write it up in sections focusing on islands/activities, food and beverage, and overall thoughts.
This cruise is courtesy of Foxwoods, though we did pay to upgrade to AquaClass (it was absolutely worth it, more details to come on that!)
We were originally scheduled to fly to Puerto Rico on Friday so we could spend a day exploring the island before our cruise departed Saturday evening. Sadly, Mother Nature had other plans and with the devastation Hurricane Maria caused the island, we decided to switch our flight to Saturday.
Flights were on time and we landed, got our luggage, got a cab, and got to the port and were on the ship within an hour of landing.
The ship is in need of a remodel (which we heard is happening this year), but was clean, rooms were well appointed, and we were happy.
We had a balcony room on the 9th floor.
Our itinerary was port heavy, after a day at sea, it was Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Kitts, St. Thomas, and back to San Juan.
Though we boarded the ship around 2 pm, we didn't set sail until 8:45 pm so it was like 2 full days at sea Saturday and Sunday until we docked at Barbados on Monday. The bed was SUPER comfy and we spent most of the at sea days exploring the bars on the ship, laying in the sun, and eating, lol!
Barbados, they really do have pink sand beaches! And this sign summed up our trip, hhh!
Attachment 6145
We chose to just take a taxi to a beach for the day, the weather was amazing and beach was beautiful, and not crowded! Also, the crystal clear water allowed you to see the fish just swimming around you.
Attachment 6146
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More to come...next stop, St. Lucia

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This is just what i need....some sun and warm water. Looking forward to the next part. It is 16 degrees here and this will help take my mind in a good direction. Have fun and enjoy your cruise and island hopping.

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St. Lucia welcomed us with a rainbow!
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We planned a catamaran and snorkeling excursion at the Pitons. The catamaran ride was about an hour each way, the sun burned off the clouds in the previous picture as soon as we got to the boat and we enjoyed our ride out to the snorkel spot.
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Snorkeling here was very different than anywhere else we've been because it was completely natural, no sunken ships to draw in the fish, but rather natural coral and rock formations from the mountains, it was awesome and the variety of sea life was vast.
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It did drizzle a bit on our drive back to the dock, but that was actually refreshing since it was SO hot there. And, we were greeted back to the ship with a double rainbow! (can't find the picture). We took that as a sign that we would finally visit the ships casino that evening (yes, we were on the ship for 3 days and didn't gamble a penny!).
The casino was very small but they had a ton of old WMS G+ deluxe games we like so we didn't mind. We actually left up about $100 the first night (yay!)

To be continued...

What kinds of camera did you use for the underwater shots? Loving your cruise report! I can't wait to read more.

Fun TR! The weather looks amazing. Looking forward to reading more.

So glad you two got to enjoy the sun this time of year! Loving the TR. [emoji3]

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So happy to hear you enjoyed your cruise! That was such a nice itinerary, how could you not? Can't wait to hear more!

Thanks for writing this TR. Warm sunny days put a smile on me. You both have been real busy and really needed this vacay .

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Great pics enjoying it all so far definitely Amy and I need to take advantage of cruise in 2018.

Love hearing cruise reports. Looks beautiful so far, can't wait to hear about the rest. My co-worker just did an 11 night cruise on the Summit that just came back this past Sat., 12/23.


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Glad everyone is enjoying it! :) I get so much out of reading everyone's reports and reviews so I'm happy to share our experiences!

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Originally Posted by Jen Jen

What kinds of camera did you use for the underwater shots? Loving your cruise report! I can't wait to read more.

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We have a Fuji underwater camera. We've had it for over 8 years, got it before our honeymoon in Hawaii. It has various underwater and beach specific settings so it's really great to have on beach vacations. I think one of the seals is starting to loosen since we noticed droplets when we took the battery out to charge so we might be in the market for a new one soon. If they have a new version of this one, we'd probably get it again!

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Originally Posted by dvandentop

Great pics enjoying it all so far definitely Amy and I need to take advantage of cruise in 2018.

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Yes, you definitely do! It's a great way to see different places, we can do a group trip! :)

Antigua. We had no plans this day and just walked around the port to check it out, lots of shopping to do if that's your thing, and then we drank our way through the various bars on the ship. LOL. We had a lot of sun the prior day so we took it easy with getting too much. And the plus side of staying on the ship on a port day is you get to enjoy a fairly empty ship!
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The above is the view from the bar that the below picture was taken from. Also a great place to eat lunch outside.
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The coffee bar was one of our favorite places, will write more in detail about it in the overall ship summary.
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We were not as impressed with the martini bar as everyone else seems to be. But the bartenders did do shows and fancy stuff (think Tom Cruise in Cocktail), it was neat.
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Loved how green every island was, it made for pretty views.
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Us at a show after the day of bar hopping.
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St Kitts. The day we took it easy and Kathy wanted to scratch her arm off. During our St. Lucia excursion while swimming back to the boat, someone had swam into the rope dividers (which were covered in who knows what), and in turn, that rope bounced back at me and rubbed up my entire arm. I tend to have very sensitive skin (I'm very susceptible to poison ivy and bug bites), and was left with lovely itchy markings up my entire arm. We went to medical and she said not to worry and gave me pills for the itchiness. I'm sparing you all pictures but it was not fun but I wasn't going to let it affect our vacation.
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We did walk into the casino on St. Kitts to see the game selections but didn't play. It was everything you'd see in our casinos, 88 Fortunes, lots of the newer Ainsworth, China Shores, etc.
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We decided to hit the sun deck and watch a movie from a cabana. It was awesome, we got sun on our lower halves (I wanted to keep my arm out of the sun), and got to enjoy some outdoor peace and quiet. The screen was amazing and the sound quality better than we've seen in any outdoor movie venues on other ships or elsewhere. It was a great way to spend an afternoon and just relax. The loungers were SO comfortable and seemed brand new.
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To be continued...

[emoji3] [emoji7] [emoji847]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...3509d8ab52.jpg

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St Thomas, our last day. We were originally scheduled to go on another snorkeling and beach excursion but with how bad my arm was feeling, Adam thought it best to to tempt fate and head back into the water for me to get some other ailment, so we cancelled (thankfully without penalty!). We spent the day getting plenty of sun and enjoying an empty ship. We watched another movie, moved to the loungers by the pool for lunch, and moved to the top deck loungers in the early afternoon. It was great and we got our fill of the sun for a little while.
There was also plenty of stops for refreshments.
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St. Thomas was the first island, other than Puerto Rico, that we visited that had tremendous hurricane damage (most of the others were out of the path of the storms). Many of the shops were still boarded up and you could see boats sunken in the water and washed up on shore. It was sad to see the destruction everywhere.
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Next post will be summary of restaurants, food porn, reviews of shows and staff, and overall thoughts. Hoping to get to it tonight. :)

You probably loved the 100% non smoking Celebrity ship casino! That's one of the main reasons we sail with them versus other ships.

lol @zeus! Adam would be flattered if he knew I posted that picture.
@Slotspert, are you allowed to smoke inside on other cruise lines?!!?! We've only sailed Disney (no casino) and Celebrity so we don't have anything to compare it to but I would most likely have avoided the casino if people were smoking in there.

Thanks for sharing, I’m enjoying your photos, sorry about your arm.

AquaClass and food reviews.
As I stated earlier, we splurged on an Aqua Class cabin. Aqua class gets you access to blu restaurant instead of having to eat in the main dining room. The restaurant was one of the main reasons we booked it and it was WELL worth it. The food and service was top notch. Because the restaurant is much smaller than the main dining room, items are cooked to order, and the menu is focused on fresher/healthier food. The menu is much more similar to how we eat at home (herbed quinoa/farro, fresh veggies, seared proteins) versus the typical heavy main dining room cruise fare.
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mmmm...lobster tail!!! and steak!
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The spreads and butter with the bread service.
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delightful duck breast
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seared salmon
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lamb shank, so tender and delicious
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We met lots of interesting people at dinner that we enjoyed chatting with. Though we had a table for two, tables were close enough to another table for two that you can easily converse with your neighbors (or far enough away that you could ignore them!). We met a couple that was on their 6th week in a row of cruising on the summit! Wow!

We also had access to the "Persian Gardens" in the spa. It had heated loungers, a Turkish steam room (my favorite!), a eucalyptus steam room, a dry sahara room, and one other I'm forgetting. We went there to relax and sweat out the toxins (booze) 3 or 4 times during the trip. We were the only ones there most of the time so it was nice and relaxing.
AquaClass also had daily iced tea and treats delivered to the room daily for "teatime." It was a fun treat though we didn't always love all the snacks. Attachment 6166

The drinks and service reviews.
Celebrity has 3 levels of alcohol drink packages. We had the middle package included in our booking, but upgraded to the top package for $10/day. We really wanted to try some of the better wines, and have unlimited premium bottled (still and sparkling) water which is only included in the top package. I drink A LOT of water every day so this alone was worth much more than $10/day.
As I stated before, the Cafe on the ship was a favorite spot of ours. I loved the individual pots of premium tea I was able to get, and Adam loved the espressos and coffee beverages.
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This is an assortment of some of our cocktails. We went to the same bar, Wine Cellars, before dinner every night and the bartender there was THE BEST!!! He was so nice, and felt bad that the tequila collection on the ship was not to Adam's standards (lol) so he guided him towards various whiskeys based on the tequilas he gravitates towards. He would have never explored all the whiskeys and different drinks if we weren't on the premium package and had to pay for it.
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The Perrier was from a Polish distributor! This amused us, lol!
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More on overall thoughts, shows, and casino coming soon...

Wow, it sounds like you guys were at a very nice resort instead of on a cruise ship. All of this is very appealing. The upgrades would be so worth it. Food and cock porn is truly amazing!

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I hear Celebrity has the best food over NCL and RC, looking forward to hearing about the food!


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Whoops. Wrong thread :)

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Originally Posted by CTslotters

lol @zeus! Adam would be flattered if he knew I posted that picture.
@Slotspert, are you allowed to smoke inside on other cruise lines?!!?! We've only sailed Disney (no casino) and Celebrity so we don't have anything to compare it to but I would most likely have avoided the casino if people were smoking in there.

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Most of the other lines have smoking and non-smoking sections. Additionally, Princess goes non-smoking on Formal Nights. Celebrity is the only one I have sailed that is totally non-smoking.

Your food pictures are amazing! And it sounds like you found the perfect bar for before dinner every night. I would have loved exploring all those whiskeys :glee:

What a bummer about your arm. If it was bad enough to see you out of the water, it must have been pretty damn awful. I hope it is all healed up now with no lasting effects. Glad you were able to have a great time in spite of it!

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Originally Posted by CTslotters

lol @zeus! Adam would be flattered if he knew I posted that picture.
@Slotspert, are you allowed to smoke inside on other cruise lines?!!?! We've only sailed Disney (no casino) and Celebrity so we don't have anything to compare it to but I would most likely have avoided the casino if people were smoking in there.

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Unfortunately, for the non-smoker, a majority of cruise lines still allow smoking inside their casino. Even worse, some ships actually use the casino as the "smoking" inside space on their ships. You really need to do research before booking to find which ship is worse. NCL is awful, Celebrity is best, Holland America allows on some ships and not others, Carnival is also bad. RCCL tries to designate a 50/50 split and their larger ships do a better job at this. Princess has a few 100% non smoking nights (usually during formal nights) to protect all the nice clothing from smelling. Cunard is non smoking in their casinos. But all this is in a state of flux.

Wow - amazing write up so far! Looks like you both had an awesome time, and those food pictures, YUM! It got me thinking about my upcoming cruise in June to Alaska!

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Originally Posted by CTslotters

Antigua. We had no plans this day and just walked around the port to check it out, lots of shopping to do if that's your thing, and then we drank our way through the various bars on the ship. LOL. We had a lot of sun the prior day so we took it easy with getting too much. And the plus side of staying on the ship on a port day is you get to enjoy a fairly empty ship!
Attachment 6152
The above is the view from the bar that the below picture was taken from. Also a great place to eat lunch outside.
Attachment 6153
The coffee bar was one of our favorite places, will write more in detail about it in the overall ship summary.
Attachment 6154
We were not as impressed with the martini bar as everyone else seems to be. But the bartenders did do shows and fancy stuff (think Tom Cruise in Cocktail), it was neat.
Attachment 6155
Loved how green every island was, it made for pretty views.
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Us at a show after the day of bar hopping.
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I absolutely loved Antigua. It was my favorite of all the islands we visited on our 11 day cruise last year. If you go back, make sure to do a catamaran excursion that takes you snorkeling, swimming with sea turtles, and then to a beach. It had the nicest beach of any Caribbean island I’ve been too and crystal clear blue water. I loved it. Loving this report and it’s getting me pumped for my cruise! Miss you guys and hope to see you this spring in LV! I’m down for a group cruise too as DVan mentioned anytime! ;)

I'm such a bum and never finished up this TR, lol! (@hoofy7, thanks for tagging me, it reminded me I'm not done, and miss you too, hope our paths cross soon, enjoy your cruise!)
Sorry about the delay! And I'm happy to answer any specific questions if anyone has any!
So I think I have shows, casino, and overall thoughts remaining.
We typically don't love the shows on cruise ships but do attend and just leave if it isn't our cup of tea. Well, these shows actually had some of the best performers we've seen on a ship. It was the current cast's last week after a 6 month stint (we saw them all at the airport with us as we were flying home, lol). They had two aerialist/cirque type performers that were awesome (we wondered why they were doing this on a cruise ship!) The original stage productions actually had a fun story and the music and singing was much better than we heard on our Celebrity cruise last year. Overall, it was a nice hour spent most evenings (we left after 10 minutes of the comedy show one night because he was AWFUL!!!!)
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Casino thoughts, while it was small, the staff was super nice, I loved all the old WMS G+deluxe games they had, and Adam and I both left the trip up! We only went there about 4 nights and one night, I made it to the final 4 to win $1k slot play, went through 10 rounds of correct picking with 3 other people and they let "age choose first over youth" and she chose correctly. (Dammit! Adam was taping it too since I kept getting to the next round and couldn't believe I was in the finals, my disappointment ran deep! Oh well). My best hit was around $200 on Zeus III (@zeus, you would have been proud!), but we had lots of smaller wins that kept us playing. We barely ever bet over $1 because we weren't there to gamble but having won our first night, we just played off winnings during the trip!

Overall, we wouldn't hesitate to take this smaller ship again. We really had a great time and writing this up as it's snowing outside makes me realize how much I miss being in sunny, warm places!