Great Destination - Ship is OK

Cruises: 2-3 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 43

Review summary

My girl and I really loved Bermuda! Beautiful island, excellent weather, hospitable citizens. We'll go back, but probably fly in order to spend more time on the island. The Summit is, I guess, what you would call a mid sized ship, about 2000 to 2400 passengers on board. No water park on the roof, dining areas large but not sprawling. At least based on our June 16, 2013 departure date this was more of a senior citizen focused group. There were a few kids on board but not many. The hallways were dotted with powered and manual mobility assistance devices. We're a couple in our 50s so I guess this was the correct demographic for us as opposed to a more family oriented offering. We like to party and we found that by midnight the ship was pretty much shut down except for the cruise, so if you crave night life, you'll be bored on this boat. We slept a lot more than we expected to. The activity list was terrible. We found the choices were art auctions and chocolate diamond presentations and cooking classes and the like. It was clearly targeted at the retirement community. I've been on one other cruise and the bars closed at 2 or later and the karaoke lounge was open from 6 to 12 and there was a piano bar set up to sit around and sing along and this was just not the case on this ship. We would walk around at 11 PM, having finally digested dinner a bit and we'd find ourselves heading to the dance bar, knowing the band had broken down and the DJ, who was so-so, would be spinning to a dwindling crowd. For the non-retired crowd, we found it very heavy in tattoos and body piercings, which is fine, but not our crowd. The food was good, not sensational. We found "select dining" (choose your own dining times each day) to be cumbersome. It was very difficult to coordinate having dinner and seeing a show. The shows tended to be very early, 7 PM and 9 PM. I guess more in line with the needs of the retirement community. We found ourselves lining up for dinner at 6 and 6:30 which is not us, we dine at 8 to 9 PM. I will say that shows far exceeded expectations. The singers and dancers were very talented and they were supported by a full live band as opposed to recorded music, which I've seen before. So big thumbs up on the shows. Some of the material was a bit dated but we opted out of theme shows that didn't seem to suit us. In each show there was a pair of performers that did Cirque Du Soleil quality acrobatics that never ceased to amaze. That was absolutely world class. A pet peeve was the very popular and clearly understaffed burger bar poolside. The line was a consistent 40 minute ordeal unless you went there at 4:30 or later. They had one man flipping and one man handing out the food. The condiments section always looked ransacked. If something is so popular, why not open another one or double the staff. Late night dining was bad. Pizza that was very unimpressive. There was fruit and some sandwich meats which were the "wonder meat" variety. Any platter that was emptied (watermelon for example) was not refilled. We found ourselves competing with the crew for this food. One time a steward cleaned out the watermelon into his plate, a heaping bowl full and that was it for the watermelon. He beat me to it and there was none for me for that evening. The open buffet restaurant was not particularity appetizing with the exception of the carving board. The spoon out foods (stews and casseroles and such) just didn't look sumptuous, so we avoided them. The main dining room had decent entrees. They had a lot to choose from. Generally offerings ranged from pretty bad to good enough. If it was a stand alone restaurant, it's not one I'd go back to for a second visit. I'm told that's what cruise food is and so I guess it will meet the expectations of a frequent cruiser. The room, a mid ship, higher floor, balcony, port side stateroom, was a pleasure. Plenty of room and comfortable bed. Thumbs up there. All in all, cruising is not for me. If it was and I didn't know it, this wasn't the trip to convert me. I don't like scheduling my day around food and I felt forced to do so. With all the eating, the gym is worth mentioning. Not enough aerobic machines to accommodate those that wished to burn calories. A ridiculously small array of free weights (dumbbells only with three benches to share for all the resistance trainers on board). The resistance machines touched each muscle group once but did so in very unusual angles that tended to stress joints. We enjoyed our cruise but would have been better served by flying into Bermuda, staying for 5 days or a week and planning our days without worrying about meal times or offered excursions or having to refrain from bringing our own liquor back to the room.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Cape Liberty (Bayonne), New Jersey

King's Wharf, Bermuda

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