After we fell in love with Celebrity Cruises last spring on the amazing Celebrity Equinox, we were excited to try the cruise line again on a different ship. This trip was a much, much different (far less glamorous) experience, but still fun in its own way.
The Celebrity Summit is an old ship (from 2001) that has been 'Solsticized' ' that is, it has been retrofitted with some of the features that are on Celebrity's Solstice class ships (like Equinox). This includes Aqua Class cabins & dining room, a Persian Garden, expanded specialty restaurants (including Bistro on Five & Qsine ' more on those later), the ever popular martini bar, & an Internet cafe (& on-board) featuring Apple products. The biggest changes during 'Solsticizing' happen in the public areas; staterooms are untouched, with the exception of Aqua Class rooms, which are renovated balcony rooms. All this sounds really fancy, but it doesn't cover up a harsh fact: it's a 12 year old ship. Ships can age gracefully if they're taken care of, as Summit largely is, but it's nothing like sailing on a newer ship. We sailed in one of these 'new' Aqua Class cabins & couldn't have been more disappointed by the experience. Solsticizing in cabins is, to put it harshly, lipstick on a pig.
Putting Solsticizing aside for a moment, our room was a decent size for the age of the ship. Located on the ninth deck, about mid-ship, it was in a great location, not far from the mid-ship stairs. An Aqua Class room (which is actually just a standard balcony room), it consisted of a king sized bed (two twins pushed together, as is traditional on a cruise), a small sofa & coffee table, a small desk & a decent sized closet. We initially were disappointed at the amount of storage (compared to previous cruises we've been on), but we were able to store everything comfortably for our seven days at sea. The bathroom showed the most wear of anywhere in the room ' a chipped mirror, rusty & moldy spots in the shower, & a very tired feeling. Despite our cabin steward's efforts, it never felt clean.
Lots of noise from the pool deck above - you can hear chairs being dragged, people running or walking quickly, and any type of amplified music that is played on the pool deck. The balcony is partially obstructed: there's a large overhang from the deck above that goes out 20' beyond the edge of the ship, meaning you can't look very high above the horizon from your balcony.