My husband, 23 month old son and myself cruised on April 17th to 25th on Celebrity Summit repositioning cruise from San Juan, PR to Bayonne, NJ. This was our 1st Celebrity cruise and 2nd overall, so we are not avid cruisers likes many here but hope some find our review helpful. We had wanted to cruise Celebrity for a while, after reading many articles and posts about it being a bit more upscale than many of the main cruise lines, the food being better quality, and the relaxed atmosphere of their ships. We had a great cruise and a wonderful family vacation, with no major complaints whatsoever, although you will read some good things and some not so good. We would not hesitate to book Celebrity on our next cruise, although would probably prefer another ship mainly for the sake of variation.

Precruise/Embarkation/Disembarkation: 5 stars We flew into San Juan one day early, on April 16th, and stayed at the Sheraton San Juan Convention Center, which we found very nice (it is a new hotel) and convenient (right across from the port, had a great view of the Summit from our balcony!), although there isn't much around the hotel except a bar and the hotel's restaurant (very nice). We arrived around 7:00 PM so didn't do much that night except eat dinner and go to sleep. The next day we took a cab (5 minutes) to Old San Juan, walked around about 2 hrs, bought some stuff at CVS, returned to the hotel around noon to check out, and took a cab to the port. Even though the port seems very close, you have to go around a small airport that's located there, so you can't really walk it (much less with luggage). Check-in to the ship was a breeze, we were impressed. It was about 1:30, so relatively early for an 8:00 PM departure I guess, still we were expecting it to be much more crowded. We dropped our bags outside (2 minutes), checked in (5 minutes, and probably that much because the agent had to go photocopy our passports or something), and 3 more minutes to get our picture taken and board the ship, seriously. Debarkation was also quite fast even with immigration; about 20 minutes from the moment we stood in line (still in the ship) to get out. This was about 9:25, and by 9:45 we were waiting outside for our ride to Manhattan with Dial 7 car service (very recommended).

The Celebrity Summit: 4.5 stars We thought the ship was beautiful and is in excellent condition. We had read some negative reviews online, but figured it really couldn't be that bad, Celebrity would not be selling cruises to 2000 people every week on an unkept ship, and it really wasn't so. All the common areas were beautiful, we especially loved the Martini Bar, the Rendez-vous lounge, the MDR, the Waterfall cafe, the pool area, the fitness center, and the shops. The ship is nice sized for us, although today it may be considered small in comparison to the newer ships. We never felt crowded, quite the opposite, even in the buffet and the pool during sea days. We absolutely loved the relaxed atmosphere of the ship, no announcements, no very loud music and/or activities. Absolutely loved eating breakfast in the Waterfall cafe on the outside part, and the relaxed dinners in the MDR. Read more