joolz47

Not a ship I'll revisit. Captain Kate should rewrite her schtick and drop the "I'm a girl in a guy's job" inferences. We get it, she's qualified to captain a ship - now do it and get a new script.

We knew that the ship was due for a refit in the new year, but having read positive reviews despite the ageing nature of the ship, we liked the itinerary, and the chance of a bit of sun before the worst of the winter set in. Yes the ship shows signs of rust and general deterioration, and every time the ship had to start moving from a stationary position the vibrations rattled everything in the cabin, but we didn't miss any destination as a result of propulsion issues, as had happened to previous passengers. Initial impression was good, and we were impressed with the speed of boarding and the general layout of the ship. I hadn't noticed at first that our keys hadn't got our "Elite" status, but realised when we found no welcome bubbly when we opened our cabin door. This needed 4 trips to guest relations and the Captain's club concierge before our keys were updated (an email to Celebrity disclosed that for some reason our status had been removed from the booking 3 days before embarkation - no explanation offered) but no gift offered. Bags arrived quickly, brought by our cabin steward, who was superb all the way through our cruise. After travelling etc., it's nice to take a shower - but bot in brown mud, which was what we got in our bathroom. There was an issue with the water system in some of the rooms, and poor Lady Mancunium took the full hit of the muck dispensed by the shower. Towels, floor - everywhere was coated, and it took until well after the ship had sailed (8.30pm!) for the water to begin clearing. In fairness guest relations did send a bottle of Evian for us to clean our teeth and have a was (LOL) and later offered us a complimentary meal at one of the specialty restaurants. We traveled in an Aqua Class cabin, which entitled us to eat in Blu, but having eaten there on our first night and waited for ages for the food we had ordered and then to have excessive delays between courses coupled with under-cooked vegetables (not just al dente - neither fork nor knife could penetrate the carrots or broccoli) we decided that we would find better elsewhere. After an excellent meal in the Tuscan Grill we alternated between MDR - where service was excellent and Sushi on 5 where again service was superb, and in both the food was very much what I had hoped for - including an introduction to a new addiction - Wasabi Gellato - WOW! So what went wrong other than the water - read on! In the course of 7 nights, we managed to get one mixed drink that matched our expectation! Between the lounge bar man who insisted that soda is part of a Negroni, but omitted to tell us that they had no Campari and had used an alternative, and when challenged suggested that my wife should get a job as a cocktail waitress if she was so knowledgeable!!! (Couldn't be bothered complaining - we just left the bar and never returned). To the Vodka Martini drowned in olive juice (never asked for dirty) to the incessant adding of ice where it has specifically been requested to be left out (Rum & ginger beer with ice?). Destinations were all as expected and since we had visited all before we made our own way on shore. Then the ultimate end to a cruise - the dock workers were on strike and were picketing the port, preventing the unloading of bags and blocking buses and taxis from entering the port. OK, I know the strike was a local issue, but how it was handled by Celebrity was far from perfect - and it was clear from Rich's (the Cruise Director) demeanor that he was embarrassed about the whole thing. Apparently the only way we could get our bags was for us to take them off ourselves, which defeated the whole point of being urged to have them outside our cabins earlier than later, to assist the staff handling them on the evening before debarking (by which time Celeb were aware that there may be a strike. Once we were eventually off the ship we were offered no support by Celebrity, being forced to stand and wait for news of the strike, since there was no transport available, and no indication of when we could expect any. Some people did try to walk off to the waiting taxis outside the port (a 20 minute drag of cases) but since the pickets were making even that difficult and traffic was gridlocked they achieved nothing. After almost 3 hours of standing without drinks or information we were informed by the local police that the strike was over, and we eventually escaped the port. Don't think I will venture onto Summit again and sadly, Celebrity could have done better for their stranded passengers.