Our 14-night New England & Canada cruise departing September 7, 2013 was the second of our Back-to-Back (B2B) cruises on the Celebrity Summit, so we were already on the ship when our cruise began. We kept the same stateroom #3092. A glance out my stateroom window the morning of the start of our cruise showed that it was a beautiful sunny day. After breakfast, two dozen passengers who were all doing B2B cruises and not taking a shore excursion on Embarkation Day met in a conference room to fill out Custom Declaration Cards. Then staff members escorted us off the ship to a shuttle bus for the very short ride to Customs and Immigration. When the next agent became available, we were processed quickly and transferred back on the shuttle bus to the ship. It was such an easy and quick procedure. I then went up on deck to snap some photos of the magnificent New York Harbor, Statue of Liberty and Verrazano Narrows Bridge among other sites seen from our ship. Although, before my retirement, I had lived all of my life in New York, I, too, was impressed with seeing the New York Skyline from the ship’s deck while docked in Cape Liberty, Bayonne, New Jersey. What a glorious sight!

Our ship’s Ports of Call were Cape Liberty, Bayonne, New Jersey, Portland, Maine, Bar Harbor, Maine, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Charlottetown, P.E.I., Quebec City, Quebec (overnight,) Quebec City, Quebec and Gaspe, Canada. It is a wonderful literary and if you have never seen this part of the world before, I highly recommend the cruise. Every port is exciting, different and interesting. For peace of mind, we booked Celebrity shore excursions in each port. The high quality excursions were interesting, educational, and fun. The guides were well informed and personable. We chose the first week of the Fall Foliage Cruises because we were hoping for warm weather and we were not disappointed. The foliage colors were just starting to turn so if the fall foliage is what you want to see book a later date.

Our Oceanview stateroom #3092 on Deck 3 was conveniently located near the front desk and Grand Foyer, just two decks down from our Main Dinning Room assignment and the Celebrity Theater. Our cabin was bright and quite comfortable with a king bed, end tables and a small couch with multiple small pillows. Floor-to-ceiling mirrors on one wall made the room seem larger. A desk with a mirror and chair plus a glass cocktail table and a wall hanging completed the decor. There were enough drawers, shelves and closet space for our belongings. My only complaint was that the passageway into the room was a bit narrow especially when we both needed access to the closet, drawers, safe or bathroom. The bathroom was of average size and adequate for our needs with sufficient towels and other amenities. I especially appreciated the retractable clothesline in the shower and the nightlight that many ships do not have. Celebrity provided two robes and a large umbrella for use on the cruise. We received a complementary logo tote bag to keep. The attractive ship hallways also seemed a little narrow but still airy-feeling with light colors, landscape photographs on the walls and mirrors on the ceiling. Our steward, Joanne had a new assistant on this cruise and they again did a great job of keeping our stateroom tidy and stocked with amenities. Read more