Great ship - great crew - fabulous food

This was our fist cruise on Celebrity and we are totally sold on this cruise line.  Previously had been on a Carnival and would NEVER cruise on them again.  Love, love, love Celebrity.  My husband and I are in our mid 50's and appreciate a cruise line who caters to our age group and what we want in a cruise.  We want great service, high quality food and a ship that isn't over run with kids and 20 something's up partying all night getting drunk.  We are way past that in this stage of our life.

We like the concierge class cabins that Celebrity offers.  They aren't extremely different than a regular balcony cabin, but the few little extra's are nice and if you watch for fare sales you can get a concierge class for the same price as a veranda class.  Even better yet is booking future cruises on-board - that's when you get some great incentives.  We booked our April 2015 cruise (which will be on the Summit for a Southern Caribbean cruise) while we were on the Silhouette in April 2014.  We only paid $200 down, received 1 fare class upgrade for free, $250 on-board credit and the free classic drink package.  Speaking of the free drink package, that is a great deal and they seem to be running it all the time now.  I'm sure a time will come when the alcohol will be included even with the lower priced cruise lines (the luxury lines like Celebrity's sister line Azmara include alcohol in the cruise fare).  We would never purchase the alcohol package as we don't drink enough to warrant the cost, but when it's free, then that is the option we will take. 

This particular cruise was an eastern Caribbean/Bermuda repositioning cruise for 8 nights.  Departed out of San Juan and returned to New Jersey.  Nice way to get two itineraries in one plus and extra night.  We especially liked the crew on the Summit (more so than the crew we had on the Silhouette this past year).  The cruise director was fantastic and very friendly and accessible - claimed he would meet everyone on the cruise before the end.  I think he did.  Our waiters were awesome - Wan Wan and his assistant Budhi.  Remembered our names after the first night when we saw him the next morning in the main dining room for breakfast.  After that we requested his section for the rest of the cruise since we choose the select dining without an assigned table.  The food on Celebrity cruises is excellent.  My husband is a picky eater and tried many new firsts for him and loved it.  I've noticed some reviewers complaining about the café on the ship and I have to admit we didn't eat there often.  But the main dining room is very good and if you don't like what you ordered they will bring you something else.  Or if you wanted more of something here again, they will bring you more.  We also like the Mast Grill with burgers and fries for lunch.  Our cabin steward was very good too.  Rooms always kept very clean as well as the rest of the ship. We did a galley tour on a different Celebrity ship (the Silhouette) and I was completely amazed at how extremely clean it was - you could eat off the floor.  This tour gives you great information on how the galley operates, where they source their food from (for Caribbean cruises - all sourced in the USA) and how they adhere to US standards for cleanliness and food storage, etc.  A nice day at sea activity to try if you can.  Another day at sea activities they offer is dance lessons.  I love dancing and have done ballroom/Latin dancing over the years.  They offer classes for this that are taught by the performers who do the nightly entertainment. 

Now that we've sailed on 2 different Celebrity ships - both different class ships as well - Summit is the smaller Millennium Class and the Silhouette is the larger Solstice class, I have to say we actually like the smaller Summit.  I know the Solstice class ships are newer and have more restaurants and a grassy lawn, but those amenities were not important to us.  Having 900 less passengers was nice on the Summit and you can get around the ship much easier with it being a bit smaller.  But here again, it's a matter of what's important to the passenger and personal taste.  I would never cruise on one of the mega ships that have 5,000 to 6,000 passengers.  We also don't need a ship that has all the sports activities on them.  Those cruise lines are geared towards the younger crowd and Celebrity's demographic is more upper middle class middle aged group.  I prefer to get my activities and entertainment on the islands or port of call. 

In a nutshell - you can't go wrong with a Celebrity cruise.