This summer Celebrity Cruises has Celebrity Summit doing cruises from New York to Bermuda. To a certain extent, one could say that Celebrity really got its start doing this run with its first two ships the Horizon and the Zenith back in the 1990s. However, it has been a number of years since Celebrity has done these cruises on a regular basis.
Bermuda is a natural destination for Celebrity. Like Bermuda, Celebrity is sophisticated but relaxed and traditional but not old-fashioned. Given this affinity, I booked onto the Summit for one of her week long cruises.
Summit is a Millennium class ship, which means that she is big but not quite a mega-cruise ship. She has nice modern lines but done in a way that suggest motion so that she always looks like she is speeding along. (That was a trick that the designers of the great ocean liners also used; the SS United States is a good example - - she conveys a feeling of motion even while sitting still). Inside, she has an elegant, contemporary atmosphere.
My cruise on Summit enabled me to obtain more material for the Celebrity Summit section of Beyondships. As a result, I have posted new menus, daily programs and other information about the ship at http://www.beyondships.com/Celebrity-Summit-Profile.html In addition, I have added about 50 new photos to the photo tour of the ship. http://www.beyondships.com/Celebrity-Summit-Tour-1.html
Most cruise lines rank their ships based upon the results they obtain from the questionnaires that they ask passengers to fill out at the end of each cruise. Summit usually ranks first or second each time the results are tabulated. In addition, she does well in ticket sales both on her Bermuda cruises and on the Caribbean cruises she does out of San Juan in the winter.
Nonetheless, Celebrity is investing some $16 million in enhancements to Summit. The idea is to add some of the features that guests have found popular on Celebrity’s new Solstice class of ships. This "Solsticizing" of the Summit will be done during a refit next Spring.
I had the opportunity to talk with Julian Brackenbury, Summit’s Hotel Director, about this project. Julian is already working planning for the refit and preparing the ship to go into dry dock. I asked him to outline what will be done to Summit, how the officers and crew are preparing for the refit, and the role of the crew in doing the work. Our conversation is at http://www.beyondships.com/Celebrity-Summit-art-Solsticizing.html
There will be more about Summit next time, as I also did an interview with Captain Frantzis. I will also be posting a review of the Normandie, the specialty restaurant on Summit.
I would also like to mention two unrelated items.
First, Captain Nick Bates of Queen Mary 2 retired this week. I have had the privilege of knowing Nick for nearly 20 years and he has had a very interesting career including commanding the legendary Queen Elizabeth 2. (See my interview with Captain Bates http://www.beyondships.com/QM2-art-Bates.html ) He has a delightful sense of humor that anhances any occasion. This was reflected in his noon day announcements on QM2 and in his book “A Pinch of Salt.” All the best to him in his new life.
Second, ship enthusiasts in the New York area may be interested that on September 12, there will be six passenger ships in the harbor - - QM2, Celebrity Summit, Carnival Miracle, Norwegian Dawn, Veendam (HAL) and P&O Cruises’ Aurora. All of these are of significant size and from major cruise lines. While six ships is a weekly occurrence in ports like Fort Lauderdale and Miami, it has been a long time since so many ships called in New York on a single day. In fact, one might have to go back to the ocean liner era to find so many first-tier ships in the harbor.
