My wife and I had sailed on Celebrity twice before, on the larger ships (Equinox and Silhouette) in the Mediterranean and Adriatic. We knew that the Summit was a smaller ship but we were surprised that this may have resulted in it feeling more crowded, not less crowded, than the larger ships. During the first couple of days at sea, the Oceanview Cafe - which is configured very differently than on the larger ships; far less open, fewer stations, less selection - became so crowded that it was difficult to find a place to sit, and the lines at many of the stations were quite long. This would not have been so great a negative to us had we not been on the larger ships where we simply didn't experience anything of the sort. In any case, a simple solution would have been for us to repair to the main dining room, which was only lightly attended; we just didn't think of it initially, because we took our other meals in Blu, where the food and service was generally first-rate. (A shout-out here to Elvis, the sommelier in Blu - what a delightful guy!) Lunch in the dining room was fine, although we really liked all the options we had in the Oceanview on the larger ships for both breakfast and lunch. Breakfast in Blu is certainly nice but the selection is limited.

Again, because of our wildly positive experiences on the larger ships, little disappointments stood out. Physically, the ship seemed a bit worn. Our cabin had a problem with an unpleasant odor in the bathroom that was obvious enough that the stateroom attendant should have gotten it sorted on his own (I can't believe his sense of smell could be worse than mine, and I could certainly smell it). Mentioning the problem during a conversation with the Concierge led to the application of some more serious chemicals to the drains and that seemed to take care of it. It wasn’t a really big deal (the room itself did not suffer), but again, we were not accustomed to seeing any such issues on Celebrity on our prior cruises.

The pool, too, was quite crowded on sea days. Read more