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| San Juan secondary cruise port - San Juan, Puerto Rico Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved |
FOLLOWING WHAT perhaps could be characterized as a disastrous 2013 cruising season (we don't think so), 2014 was short and mostly uneventful. But we certainly hadn't soured on cruising. Indeed we were all in. Our single cruise this year, was a short, 7-day Caribbean Cruise. By February, 2014, we had 4 cruises under our belt, including the adventure in Europe. My good friend (and partner in our law firm) and I got talking about wanting to go somewhere warm during the dead of winter. In Saginaw, Michigan, where we lived, Mid-January to about mid-March was the poster child for SAD ("seasonal affective disorder). It was grey (partly from the skies and partly from the dirty, accumulated snow and slush), cold, damp and dark. It had been some years since Bob had been on a cruise ship, and he could tell by my enthusiasm that it was time for him to get on board again.
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| NCL Norwegian Sun Princess from our Celebrity Summit deck - San Juan, Puerto Rico Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved |
HE HAD cruised before on Carnival and on Celebrity. We agreed that any choice there would be a no-brainer. Three of our first four cruises had been on Princesses, but I had really enjoyed our Celebrity Cruise and wanted to do that again. We found a nice, 10-day cruise that originated out of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and visited 5 Caribbean islands, all in a 7-day cruise.
we expected (and experienced) a relaxing, enjoyable week in the sun!
WE HAD a group of guys that belonged to a local social club and the couples occasionally would go out to dinner together. Jon and Peg were also neighbors and our boys went to school together. Another "Bob" (you may find by reading here that I have a lot of "Bob" friends) - and his wife heard about it and decided to join us. Jon and Peg signed on soon afterward. Then another friend Mark decided he and his wife needed some relief from the "winter doldrums" Suddenly, we were 5 couples. It worked well. This was the first cruise since very early on where we would actually have friends along. It was a fun group who all got along well, so we expected (and experienced) a relaxing, enjoyable week in the sun!
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| Our motley crew (sans the photographer - moi') - Caribbean Celebrity Summit Cruise - 2014 Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved |
HAVING STOPPED in San Juan on the "O'Brien" cruise the year before, I was looking forward again to doing some exploring around Old San Juan. What I wasn't aware of was that there are actually 2 cruise ports in San Juan. The one we have stopped at now multiple times is on the north side of San Juan Bay, adjacent to the two forts and located in the lee (south) of the peninsula where Old San Juan is located. The new and second port is diagonally across the bay, further to the southeast, near an industrial channel at the end of the bay, and immediately adjacent to the airport. It was midafternoon by the time we landed, sorted transportation to the cruise port, and got boarded. We had started out the day in Saginaw early that morning and had a long day of travel. Though less than a mile apart as the crow flies, by vehicle it is closer to 4 miles - through the city. With little or no planning or organization, the transportation to the port has been a bit of a circus, and I could just image that group trying to organize it self for the short trip to Old San Juan and back for just a couple hours before our sail-away. I had to laugh, though. There is another Senior Frogs right on the edge of the second cruise terminal. It looks like a military building (hangar maybe)? Already on board, with a bar right at hand, we didn't even make the walk. And in spite of it being not a very "pretty" cruise port, I actually got some nice photos of Norwegian Cruise Lines ship coming in. This is the only time (so far) that we have ever done a Caribbean sailing out of anywhere but Miami, Fort Lauderdale, or Tampa (in just under a month, we will be adding another Caribbean departure port: Cape Canaveral).
We continued to give a decided edge to Celebrity for its food
I WAS still new to Celebrity (this would be only our second cruise with them) and didn't really know the ships very well. When we sailed on the Reflection in 2012, it was the newest of the Celebrity fleet. Our ship on this cruise would be the older, Celebrity Summit. At that time Celebrity had two "classes" (it really isn't a quality descriptor, more of a size and design thing) of ships: The Millenium Class and the newer "Solstice Class." At that time, we were still 4 years away from the introduction of Celebrity's newest (and currently "top") class. There were only 4 ships in the Millenium Class, and they essentially replaced a few of the cruise line's aging vessels. The "Millenium" was the first and was launched in 2000, with the Infinity, the Summit, and finally The Constellation (which became Celebrity's "flagship" until the launching the Celebrity Edge in 2018, the first of the currently newest: "Edge Class."
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| Celebrity Summit - Caribbean - 2014 Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved |
MILLENIUM CLASS ships were older and a bit smaller, but certainly not inferior. In my view, they were every bit the equivalent of the smaller Princess ships we sailed on. Over time, it seemed to me that Celebrity kind of pulled away from the traditional mainstream cruise ships that Princess and HAL continued to float. They all modernized as the rolled new ships and classes out. And in some ways, Princess out-teched Celebrity (in particular with their medallion system). But Celebrity began to have a more modern edge (beginning with the Solstice class and then really moving forward with the Edge class ships). We have not been on a Millenium class ship since. But in November of this year (2025) we again board the Summit for a short Bahamas cruise.
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| Our "rockstar" Bar Staff on the Sunset Deck of Celebrity Summit Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved |
THE SUMMIT was still mostly "old school," but still very clean. They did not have the top deck aft bar that would become a centerpiece social gathering spot, especially in the afternoons, on the newer class ships. Instead the bar on the back was kind of an extension of the buffet. But it was still a "happening" place and we spent a fair amount of our onboard time back there. Their dining room was traditional, at that time, still mainly by set time and assigned table. The 10 of us, of course, had our own table. We continued to give a decided edge to Celebrity for its food (in fact, the "latest, greatest" Royal Princess, I thought the food was mediocre and certainly the worst we had had on any cruise so far). The buffet was also very good. That was back in the days when Celebrity would bring out sushi rolls in the mid-afternoon and we started a daily habit of a plate of sushi out on the back deck with our sunset cocktails. Sadly, they figured out how to monetize sushi a few years later and have discontinued the afternoon buffet sushi (indeed, the current version of the Summit has a "Sushi on 5," which has become one of Celebrity's most popular "specialty" restaurants - it was nonexistent in 2014). One of the signature venues on Celebrity ships was their Martini Bar. We were first introduced to it on that cruise. It was a very cozy, oblong bar with a unique iced bartop. There was nice seating around the bar, which was situated mid-ship on deck 4. There was also a small dance floor at the bottom of the stairway from the atrium that Celebrity calls "The Grand Foyer." It quickly became our first-stop meetup location just before dinner.
None of us were on this one for heavy cultural experiences
THIS CRUISE came together kind of quickly, and with the size and nature of the group, we didn't really try to set up any excursions. We had - by this time - also learned that in the Caribbean, it was often possible to hook up an island tour on-the-fly, once ashore. None of us were on this one for heavy cultural experiences - we were looking for fun, sun, and good company. There were very few planned excursions.
