Celebrity Cruises - Summit Review

Celebrity Summit has had propulsion problems for years. They've never been fully resolved. To add insult to injury, even though one "pod" failed and caused us miss a port, we paid almost $300 in "fuel supplement" at a time when oil prices were historically low. A Celebrity agent told me that this is because they bought large amounts of fuel when prices were high and they were still using it. Nonsense! No doubt they did the same when prices were low, but they were quick to add those fuel supplements when prices went up!

On our 14-day Mediterranean cruise, we were sorely disappointed. This was my ninth cruise, having sailed Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Norwegian, Holland America, Princess (2), and Celebrity twice before. The quality was just not there. I have never had a substantive complaint about any of the previous eight cruises to Hawaii, Canada, Alaska, Northern Europe, the Caribbean and Mexico.

The food on the Summit was absolutely abyssmal: tough meat, "fishy" fish, and an array of soups and entrees that tasted mostly of salt. Salads in the dining room were listless and carelessly prepared. Clam chowder from room service resembled nothing so much as library paste. The exception was the pastries, but the so-called chocolate-lover's buffet was held in the lounge and was noisy, crowded, disorganized, lacked seating, and lacked--of all things--chocolate. The one lobster night out of 14 left many of us ordering multiple servings owing to the tiny size of the "lobsters." The Cafe was boring, boring, boring! Breakfast was the same every day: Same sausage, same meat, same potatoes, same breads, same fruit, same cheese. The hours there were sometimes inconvenient and the attempt at "tone," that is, having attendants dish the food onto your plate, resulted in congestion. On the last few days, the Summit ran out of several things, such as green tea, coffee cream, and so on. There was no showmanship in the dining room: Cherries Jubilee, Bananas Foster--all were served on a plate with melting ice cream, no table-side flaming or drama.

Also, we were in port most days, and the Summit's dining room was closed for lunch on ALL port days!

 About half of the nightly shows were very good, especially the magician, pianist, and production shows. But the other half left us walking out of the theater early on. Entertainment on the rest of the ship was very run-of-the-mill and consisted mostly of profit centers for Celebrity, e.g., expensive bingo, art auctions, a stingy casino, and lectures on shopping at Celebrity-approved merchants. The atmosphere was sell, SELL, SELL! Nothing innovative, and little action after about 11 p.m.

The ship itself showed significant wear and tear: dingy carpets in the Concierge-Class cabin, spotted cushions on the veranda furniture, stains on the upholstery in the upstairs lounge. Many passengers had problems with clogged toilets; we had a clogged shower drain that was cleared twice. Sewer-like smells filled the hallways.

The tenders were not in good condition, leaking heavily to the point where we used umbrellas INSIDE the tender and sat on rain-soaked cushions. The tender pilots seemed inexperienced. The captain decided not to dock at Livorno, and so we had to tender in at La Spezia, about 100 miles from Florence. The pilot actually had to send a crewmember out on the bow of the pitching tender in the storm and have him manually move the windshield wipers so that the pilot could see out. On that same day, a Carnival ship and a Royal Caribbean ship docked at Livorno with no problem.

Worse was yet to come. After travelling three hours in to Florence and three hours back to the La Spezia quay (where there were NO FACILITIES OR RESTROOMS and no shelter), we were left standing on the quay for over an hour, with sea water washing around our feet, in a terrible storm with lightening and 60 mph winds. One woman was hit in the head by a palm frond that was ripped off the tree by the wind. The storm was too bad for us to board the tender. When we asked if we could go take shelter in a restaurant or store, we were told that we needed to stay in line or the ship would depart without us. I had a stiff neck and sinus infection for the rest of the trip after that night. We didn't reach the ship until 8:30, when we had been told the ship would depart at 7 p.m.

Celebrity offered no apology, only a lame joke by the Cruise Director at the next night's show.

Later, we missed our port in Croatia owing to the propulsion problems I mentioned above. For that, Celebrity gave us a credit of $250.

While I do applaud our cabin attendant, the Celebrity personnel at the main desk were expertly trained to stonewall the passengers on all manner of complaints. Fortunately, this itinerary visited many of the awe-inspiring ports around the Mediterranean, so I don't regret having taken the trip. But I regret having dealt with Celebrity both before, during, and after the cruise. I won't be doing it again.