We had a great time sailing aboard the Celebrity Summit in August of 2019.
If you follow these ten tips, you’ll likely enjoy sailing on her as much as we did.
Our first tip is to use the Celebrity website to make dining reservations prior to your
cruise if you’ve been assigned to Celebrity Select Dining and want to dine at a specific time.
The process wasn’t exactly intuitive for us.
Login to the Celebrity website.
Go to your reservation.
Click “Manage reservation.”
Scroll down the reservation page.
Click “Book Dining Packages.”
Click “Plan All Cruise Dining.”
For each night, click “Select Guests,” select all guests and check “Same guests
for all nights” -- if applicable -- and click “Add Guests.”
Click “Select Restaurant & Time.”
Scroll down, past the dining packages and click your desired time for “Celebrity Select Dining”
Speaking of dinner reservations, our next tip is to make Select Dining reservations
for one of the earlier dining times.
For our cruise, we made our Select Dining reservations for 5:45 and never had to wait
more than a couple of minutes to be seated.
However, long lines for the dining room started forming within an hour of that time -- both
for guests without reservations and those with reservations -- and many guests waiting
in line could be heard talking about long waits.
Our third tip is to be aware of the awkward table layouts in the Celebrity Summit’s
Cosmopolitan dining room.
During our cruise, tables and chairs in the dining room were squeezed very close together,
which made it fairly difficult to walk through the venue.
We also noticed that many two-seat tables were grouped in such close proximity that
they appeared to be one long table.
We dined at one of these tables and it felt like we were having dinner as part of a group
and it was very difficult to have one-on-one conversations.
Speaking of feeling crowded, our next tip is to head to deck 12 of the Celebrity Summit
for a more peaceful sail-away view.
We found the Roof-Top Terrace practically empty of guests compared to the crowds of
passengers near the pool area.
This was especially helpful when our ship made a quick visit to view the Statue of Liberty.
Our fifth tip is to visit decks 4 and 5 if you want some quiet time outside.
During our cruise, several loungers were available and there were only a few guests on both sides
of the ship on deck 4, even when other areas of the ship were much more crowded.
From the deck 4 outside area, you can take the stairs up to deck 5 for a quiet observation
area that did not have any seating available.
Our next tip is to remember the midship LIFTS are on the LEFT side of the ship when you’re
facing the front of the Celebrity Summit, which we found easier than trying to remember
that the midship elevators are located on the port side of the ship, instead of the middle.
Speaking of the midship elevators, our seventh tip is to use the midship elevators -- or
the lifts on the left -- if time is an issue.
Both the forward and aft elevators on the Celebrity Summit only have 3 elevators available,
but the midship elevators have four elevators available.
Our next tip is to check out the complimentary dinner parties held at Camp at Sea during
Sea Days if you would like to enjoy a dinner without your kids.
During our cruise, the details were listed on the Hours of Operation page posted at the
camp, including information about other dinner parties and lunch parties that were available for a fee.
Our ninth tip is to check the placards located above food items in the Oceanview Cafe if
you have special dietary needs.
The words “Gluten-Free,” “Vegetarian,” “No Sugar Added,” and “Lactose Free”
are listed on all of the placards, but you’ll need to look for the symbol above the word
to know if a food meets the dietary need.
For example, “Vegetarian” has a leaf symbol printed to the left of the word, but a larger
leaf symbol will be printed above the word if the food is actually vegetarian.
Speaking of the buffet, our tenth tip is to keep an eye on what is offered for lunch in
the Oceanview Cafe.
For the last day of our cruise on the Summit, Celebrity raised the bar on the buffet offerings,
which included a mussel station, huge turkeys, sausage and other meats,
a baked potato bar,
bread bowls for soup,
a chocolate fountain,
and awesome-looking cakes and desserts.
Finally, a bonus tip!
Depending on your level in Celebrity’s Captain’s Club loyalty program, you could be offered
complimentary cocktail hours, wine tastings, backstage tours, and more.
If you haven’t cruised with Celebrity before, but have cruised with Royal Carribean or Azamara,
check Celebrity’s website for their loyalty program reciprocity guidelines to see what
you might qualify for.