We were pleasantly impressed with our cruise on the Celebrity Summit, sailing Christmas week, 2013. This was our first cruise with Celebrity, having sailed many times with Princess, NCL and Royal Caribbean and it surely will not be our last. There was something different about Celebrity. The entire staff was not only efficient and friendly, but they all had very positive attitudes. This is something we had not seen before on other ships. Also, the ship did not abuse their announcements. Twice per day we heard that we were in port and then later we heard from the captain that we were ready to sail and what the distance to the next port and the expected seas. There was no announcement for "Bingo Bingo Bingo" or "Art Auction begins in 5 Minutes", like we have had on other ships. Even the disembarkation ran without announcements. Passengers left their rooms on time, had a delicious full breakfast and met at their various destination points on their own. Leaving the ship was quite smooth.

We were traveling with a family of ten: my parents (73, 75) and my sisters family (48,45,19,17) and my family (52, 49, 21, 19) in a total of five rooms. Four were outside cabins on Deck 2 and my parents stayed on Deck 6 with a balcony. Our rooms were practically the same size as my parents room minus the balcony. There was ample closet/drawer space and our luggage fit nicely under our beds. Nice flat screen tv with good channel selection. Bathroom was fine, shower was good. Window was a very large circle. We had no problem with staying on Deck 2. We had read about a slight smoke smell in the Deck 2 hallway and we noticed it ourselves. It did not effect our stay but we did write about it on the comment card before we left the ship.

The food exceeded our expectations. We had breakfast in the Oceanview Restaurant on Deck 10 every morning. There were so many stations that there were no lines. There were at least a dozen omelet stations. Many, many items to choose from. There also were waiters coming around with coffee/tea refills and fresh pastries. We were usually off the ship at lunch time, but visited the Oceanview in the late afternoon for a snack. Many flavors of ice cream both soft serve and hard were available with candy toppings if desired. We also loved the fresh tossed Caesar salad, the fresh grilled pizza and the pasta and salad bar. Also, water, iced tea, lemonade, coffee and tea are available all day long. We appreciated this! Dinner we had select dining and had reservations for 6:45pm on Deck 5 of the Cosmopolitan. Our waiters were fantastic and really made our dining experience so pleasant. Read more