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We sailed Celebrity Summit to Bermuda after sailing on her to the S. Caribbean previously. She's not a newer ship and she's due for a face-lift, but she's clean and well maintained. We had forward cabin 6000 for me, my wife and my nephew. The cabin was great, except for the usual contortions needed in that small a bathroom.
Our stateroom attendant, Constancio, was excellent, always making sure we had everything we needed. We sent one bag of laundry out and he dropped it off in the evening and we had it back after lunch the next day. Well done by the laundry team.
We had dinner in the Cosmopolitan Restaurant every night and had absolutely no problems. After reading so many complaints about the dining room food, I wonder about some cruisers' expectations being unrealistically high. Our waiter, Diego, and his assistant, Rudy, were both excellent and our food was always the correct temperature and always presented well. Diego was very knowledgeable and his recommendations were always spot-on. We also found that the food at the buffet was fine as well as the grill (in fact the chili at the grill was outstanding...I loaded it into tacos every day). Kudos to Executive Chef Andy Bouchard for the tight kitchen that he runs and his friendly open personality. He was great to talk to and to pose for pictures with.
The bar staff in all of the public rooms were as friendly as all of the other crew and had know problems with any curve balls that I threw at them. The cruise director, Damian, was terrific once again (he had been cruise director aboard Summit in January 2010 for our Southern Caribbean sailing-a first for me and my wife). He was friendly, engaging, had a great sense of humor(being a Toronto Maple Leafs fan you need one, as do us New York Islanders fans). Damian did a great job and I only hope our paths cross again.
As far as the entertainment goes, we didn't do the production shows at all, but the comedian, Troy Thirdgill, was very funny. We didn't catch his full show but we saw his half hour in the farewell show. The singer, Mark Preston of the 60s vocal group The Lettermen, was outstanding. We had seen him on a previous cruise and he does a great show. He also is very good at poking a little fun at himself and makes everyone feel at ease. He did a full hour show and the reprise at the farewell show and both sets were completely different and beautifully performed. One thing about him is that in each show he came down from the stage and shook hands with as many audience members as he could while singing a song. If you are sailing a Celebrity cruise and Mark Preston turns up in your daily, make sure you catch his show. You won't be disappointed.
Embarkation at Cape Liberty was easy, parking was $133 for the week, cheaper than the NYC passenger terminal and close to the check-in location. Disembarkation was just as easy. We were off the ship 15 minutes before our designated time, baggage was easy to find, porters were plentiful and customs was a snap. In all we were off the ship at 8:45 AM, out of the parking lot by 9:30 AM and home well before noon.
Captain Costas and the rest of the ships officers were friendly, funny and very visible. Thanks to Cruise Critic we got to do a bridge tour and my wife got to do a galley tour and both were first rate.
Thanks to Celebrity Cruises for a great vacation.
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