Cruising on the Celebrity Summit
As a member of Celebrity’s Advisory Board we were invited for our annual meeting in San Juan to be the first to preview the totally renovated Summit. It shouldn’t be amazing what 58 million, 38 days and thousands of men and man hours can do but it still is! The end result is a totally new ship and I mean NEW.
Having chartered the ship several times in past years I knew this ship until I walked on the new and improved Summit. I was totally lost, as where the crew members that were not with the ship while in dry dock. This is most total refit I have ever seen. Celebrity is trying to bring all of the ships up to the new Edge standards and the Summit is definitely a great example of their fleet wide
renovation plan called Taking It to the Edge.
So what’s different? Let’s start with the cabins, where they took every room down to the steel. This means everything in the room and bathroom was taken down to bare metal and everything was replaced. Whole new bathrooms, closets, desks, furniture you name it is brand new and looks fantastic.
The reason, Celebrity has gone to using top interior decorators to do their cabins so to make your cabin more appealing and user friendly. Not an interior design expert myself but the cabins are great and very pleasing and they look great! Fantastic job Celebrity.
New for ALL suites holders is access to the Retreat Lounge which replaces Michael’s Club. This conveniently located lounge is a real stunner serving coffees, beer, wine and soft drinks and lite snacks. Also new is the Retreat Sundeck located at the very top of the ship. This is a totally new usable space with comfy lounges and complimentary drinks and small bites. A great place for an evening cocktail party.
Important to note these services were only available to upper suite level guests in the past. Be a hero and for a small group book the entire group into Sky Suites and let everyone enjoy all the free extras! Don’t forget that suite holders get access to restaurants Blu and Luminae. Sky Suites are entry level suites on the ship and more than likely in your budget.
Dining has always been a Celebrity signature feature but quite honestly the main dining rooms have never really appealed to me décor wise. That has all changed for the good now. The dining rooms all have been up dated and look fantastic. I am sure the pictures we have don’t do them justice but they are all really nice.
A huge improvement is the Oceanview Café (the buffet restaurant) it is now so spacious you don’t feel jammed in like you did in the past and like other similar dining rooms. The second big improvement is the various food stations servicing this big room. You for sure need to study the map at the entrance to really appreciate all that is being offered. A new feature I really liked is along most of the windows of the room is a single bar height single seating chair and bar for dining with a great ocean view.
Their big NEWS on the F&B stage is a real partnership with Chef Daniel Boulud. Most well-known for Michelin starred restaurant DANIEL in NYC. He is not only putting his name on some menu items, which is generally the case with other cruse lines, but instead have Celebrity Chefs going to his facilities for training and sending his people down to the ship to train as well. This program is just getting started but holds great promise. His dishes are currently feature on a very limited basis in Luminae, the Summit’s high end dining room. Also a Chef’s table with a galley tour and a 5 course dining experience is in the works.
All of the other various public rooms have been redone as well some with much needed changes. The décor on this ship is truly beautiful and functional. The Summit is the second ship to be taken to the Edge with the Millennium already being done and the Equinox being next in line this year. Four more ships will be done in 2020 with the entire fleet being redone by early 2023. This is a big
half a billion/$500,000,000.00 commitment and I would say worth every dollar. If you haven’t had your eye on Celebrity it’s time to refocus. Contact me for more details.
This report was prepared by Steve Bloss on April 1, 2019. The views expressed as solely those of the author and not necessarily those of WWTCA.
