Since this is our first cruise I can't say whether Celebrity Summit is the best ship/cruise line or not. However, I can state that my husband, five year old son and I had a great time and enjoyed the sunshine immensely! First, some positives. We chose a lower deck stateroom as I read you can't detect as much motion as higher up, and we chose not to have a balcony because I am the paranoid parent of one very creative, active five year old and I wanted to relax and sleep with both eyes closed. We had a very normal ocean view stateroom - no champagne breakfasts or roses or that type thing. The room was great. You walk in the door and the bathroom was to the right, closets to the left. Straight ahead was equivalent to a queen size bed and there was a couch that folded out into a single bed, desk with chair and small coffee table. Best of all, there was a decent sized non-opening window that my son loved to sit and look out and pretend to see pirates and sharks and squid. Our stateroom attendant, Marcos, was great. We would walk out the room and I swear in five minutes he was in the room cleaning up. And although we didn't have one of the more luxurious rooms, Marcos would greet us and open the door for us if he were in the hallway when we reappeared. We even got chocolates on our pillows when the beds were folded down for the evening, which my son absolutely loved. The drapes, linens and carpets on the ship are similar to what you would find at a medium quality hotel - floral type stuff. As for the food - there were lots of places to eat so you never had to do the smart casual/formal thing if you didn't want to. With a five year old and restricted luggage weight we opted out of the formal nights and ate at the buffets instead. We did dine in the Cosmopolitan (smart casual nights) twice, and although it was nice enough, it just wasn't worth the hassle with a child. We did, however, get the menu from the Cosmopolitan and order dinner from there through room service during the last formal night. Another great thing on this ship is the Fun Factory, which is the kids club. All our son wanted to do was go to the Fun Factory - forget thousand year old churches or that type stuff! There are categories based on ages, but I think they mostly mixed the kids up depending on how many there were. Usually there were three or four staff members in the Fun Factory, if not more. Activities varied and each day there was a sort of theme. The kids made crafts, played games on the Sports Deck, had a Rocket shaped slide and some sort of Space Ship to pay in, plus there were movies, competitions, stories, etc. When in port you have the option to leave your child on board in the Fun Factory and just pay $6 per hour for the lunch and dinner periods (12-2 and 5-7). Every child was signed in and out by the parent, and they had to wash hands before they could go into the play area. We were very comfortable with the staff at the Fun Factory and felt this was a very nice service. The hand washing thing was a big deal on the ship, which we really appreciated considering all the viruses out there. When you go to the dining rooms an attendant stood there to put some antibacterial cleanser on your hands, and there were dispensers everywhere. We also took advantage of the one price Soda plan. For about $138 my husband and I could drink as much soda as we could stand the whole trip. If you aren't a big soda fan skip this as there are tea, coffee, juice, and water available for free. Okay, now for some of the drawbacks and some suggestions. There is a real lack of information on the basics. For instance, one of our trips got canceled, and the cost was refunded. However, no one bothered to explain that a child's refund has to be completed by hand so would not show up as a credit until halfway through the trip. It took a trip to Guest Relations to find that out, which I found annoying as it could have been avoided by including one more line in the letter they shoved under our door. Also, you won't get told this until very late in the cruise, but you can opt out of the automatic tipping and just do your own tips in envelopes at the end of the cruise. You just have to sign a paper at the Guest Relations desk to do this. Trips are really expensive and usually if you do a little research you can go off and do the trips on your own for less money. We did Santorini, Venice, Barcelona and Villefranche on our own. There is a HUGE push to sell things to you on the ship. You get handed brochures for art auctions, jewelry sales, etc. etc. There are stores in the Emporium but the prices are expensive on some of the items so when you are in port check out the stores there to see if you can get a better deal! Also, there are lots of drawings to pull you into the Emporium and get you in the buying mood - they were fun, and you don't have to buy anything to enter - just be there at a certain time for the drawing. Also, if you have kids, there is no dedicated channel on the TV for kid friendly shows so you might want to bring a small DVD player or laptop and some DVDs for the kids when they are in the room.