Phyllis Summit to Bermuda 6-6-10

[Phyllis]

http://travel.webshots.com/album/577979092lwbjvk

[Phyllis]

Brief overview/review

Bermuda:  Always beautiful and the weather was great for the 1st 2 days, 3rd day damp & cloudy.

Seas:  Choppy both ways, but tolerable with the patch.

Crew:  Excellent

Entertainment:  Very good

Food
Main dining: Ok
  (Comments:  Soups watery, tasteless;  food over gravied & salty;  desserts nothing to remember;  no warm rolls)  Service:  Excellent
Upgrade dining:  Excellent on every level!  We ate there the last nite again just to have a good dinner (although I thought we had paid enough to begin with)
Buffet:  Very good, superior to dining room.
Breakfast:  Better by room service.
Coffee:  No word to describe it!  Headed straight to Dunkin Donuts once in the car!!

Ship
Obviously Summit is a lovely ship, but it is very much in need of a refurb!  Broken furniture, rust, stained rugs, all in all I felt like we were on Celebrity's poor stepchild.  They had to change us to another cabin after 2 days due to broken plumbing.  Second cabin better, had front porthole.   Now I know what's behind the portholes on the bow.  Chocolates on bed but I missed the towel animals

Refurb scheduled for April 2011.

Still have to use shuttle bus from check in point to ship in Bayonne.  

For me, this was not one of my best cruises, but not the worst either.  

[Dani]

Phyllis, this is what we found with the food on the Zenith a few years ago.

We started on Celebrity, pre RCL , and the food was over the moon. Everything made , no box mixes, etc.

Slowly we saw it decline, after six cruises with them we never went back.

We were so impressed that the dining was all one class. The whole ship was basically one class, just fancier staterooms.

Well, I think the extra pay dining experience is now creating the old class standard on the ships.

Pay for the basics = second class.

Pay for upgraded food, cabin, etc = First Class

Disappointing if , like us, you don't have that much extra to spend on the cruise above the normal fees.

And the ship used to be so "Ship Shape " , sad to hear how they are getting run down.

As to your experiences with the ADA , well that is just inexcusable. Unfortunately they are not bound by any of our rules governing ADA ?  They can thumb their nose and accept that they lose passengers.

Looking at the cruise prices it seems to me that NCL Dawn is more reasonable. If the uptick in prices on Celebrity does not buy one an uptick in total cruise experience, then I would not want to pay the difference..

We aren't cruising now , maybe a good thing as we have these memories of cruises before cutbacks.
Our first cruise we were blown away by the white glove treatment.

[Phyllis]

As to your experiences with the ADA , well that is just inexcusable. Unfortunately they are not bound by any of our rules governing ADA ?  They can thumb their nose and accept that they lose passengers.

Au contraire, mon ami.... In a suit against NCL a few years ago, the US Supreme Court ruled that the ADA does apply to cruise ships embarking from US ports!

[Dani]

As to your experiences with the ADA , well that is just inexcusable. Unfortunately they are not bound by any of our rules governing ADA ?  They can thumb their nose and accept that they lose passengers.

Au contraire, mon ami.... In a suit against NCL a few years ago, the US Supreme Court ruled that the ADA does apply to cruise ships embarking from US ports!

The Supreme Court ruled something right ?   Shock !  Good to know that piece of information.

[Phyllis]

It wasn't all bad, but less than I hoped for.

[Maria]

The next one is bound to be better.  And a sub-par cruise can be better than no cruise if you enjoy the company

[Maria]

Phyllis, thanks for sharing the photos.  Love the sunsets!

[NJVIC]

Phyllis - sorry to hear about some of your experieinces on Summit - we had found everything to be above par the week we sailed - yes the ship needs some work but we did not experience anything like you mention. I do know that a significant amount of the crew was leaving the week we returned. A good number of the cooks and wiat staff were finishing their contracts. Maybe that had something to do with the food in the main dining room.

So when do you think you'll be booking your next cruise and would you consider a different ship or line based on this last one?

[Phyllis]

No plans at all     If there's a next, it would be out of NYC or Boston and, of course, make a stop in Bermuda