Celebrity
Summit
Southern Caribbean, San Juan
April 4, 2009
by Joe Reynolds
We arrived in San Juan on April 3 and reached the Milano hotel, a very
centrally located hotel in Old San Juan. The hotel was very
comfortable and a good location. Rooms small but clean. We went up
to Fort Morro in San Juan and it is a beautiful view from outside
the fort even if you don’t go inside. We toured around San Juan on
the free shuttles and the drivers will tell which bus to get on to
get to where you want to go faster. We liked the open trolley the
best since the weather was nice. We ate as guest of my son Joby at
Carli’s and then went to Senor Frogs where we had a good time
dancing.
We got up next morning leisurely and ate breakfast on the roof
top of the Hotel Milano. We left the hotel in two vans with our
party of 11 with a charge of $3/person plus $1/bag and went to the
Pan American Pier (one of three piers in San Juan) and boarded a
short time later around 12 noon. We met on deck 10 aft for awhile
and then checked into our cabins. We all checked our table
assignments location and there were two adjacent tables which was
satisfactory. We would have preferred to have had a table for 12,
but it was not available. Our waiter Anjoid from Jamaica and assist
waiter Blakojck were excellent. Yusef from Turkey was our Asst.
Maitre’d. We met Ruby from previous cruises with Celebrity and she
is now the Restaurant manager. She had them fix a very good lamb
Wellington just for me.
We ate the first night in the Normandie as a guest of Celebrity
and then again Monday with 8 of us in the wine room and the three
teens at a separate table outside. It was very enjoyable and the
arrangements were as we wanted them. Everyone was most impressed
with the service except they stopped doing the “voila” presentation
which used to give a nice flair to the eating experience. In my
opinion the turning away from the Michel Roux presentation and
recipes has not been a plus to the restaurant. I, of course, would
still eat there and still recommend it. The food was excellent.
The Cabin was a Royal Suite and was very nice and stateroom
service was very good. The butler performed well and even delivered
waffles to the room. for breakfast so I didn’t have to stand in
line. On the full sea day there was a brunch in the main dining room
that was excellent from 10:30 AM until 1:30 PM. They literally had
everything laid out. The ship has stood up against the years very
well. One could certainly find defects if one looked for them, but
in general it looked very good.
St. Marten—we took a cab to Kawa on Orient Beach and it was very
nice. Spent about 3-4 hours there and came back to the ship.
Dominica—We did Levi Baron
Roseau Treasures tour and he performed according to his excellent
reputation. His helper Gary was also very good. I think Dominica was
the prettiest island of the trip and I also think it was prettier
than Tahiti. We did the South Pacific last year and Tahiti was fresh
in our mind. I think Dominica would be an island to go and spend a
few days. The Titou Gorge experience was well worth the cold water
that got warmer and going in the tunnel was really interesting.
Jumping into the water following Levi’s lead was nice. We had safety
vest on which was ok. The dog paddling up the cave area was not as
difficult as I thought it would be. Morne Bruce was just a
sightseeing view stop. The Champagne snorkel was as advertised and
just pretty to see the bubbles (small) come up out of the ground
with the fish swimming around. There was a $12/per set charge for
snorkeling gear. You paid less if you had part of your equipment.
Grenada—Mandoo’s spice island tour was very informative and his
presentation at Dougaldston’s Estate old work area was excellent. I
don’t think the teenagers were impressed. We visited the Grand Etang
Lake and the Annadale Falls. We learned about cinnamon, nutmeg,
cocoa, coffee, and bay rum and other spices. Grenada is truly the
spice island.
Tobago—I had made arrangements
for 9 of us to tour with Ted’s Sunshine tours but everyone was
toured out by this time and I went alone. Ted arranged a taxicab for
me, and I did the tour that had been planned for the 9 of us. Tobago
is a poorer looking island than Barbados. The roads may be a slight
bit better than on Dominica, but the rain forest is not as pretty.
We visited the St. George’s fort in Scarborough the capital of
Tobago and then went up the coast road past Mount St. George to
Goodwood, Roxborough up to Speyside where we had lunch at Jennas
Tree House Restaurant which was quite good eating. We (the cab
driver & I) then came back down to Roxborough and crossed from the
Atlantic side of the Island to the Caribbean side on a very curvey
road coming out at bloody bay. We visited Parlatuvier Bay, Castara
and then went inland some to Moriah coming back out to the coast at
Plymouth. We could see Pigeon point and Buccoo point but it was too
far to drive at this late time. It was getting close to 4:00 PM and
we were to be aboard by 4:45 PM, so we proceeded back across the
island to Scarborough on the Atlantic Ocean side and ended the tour.
Barbados—We had planned a day
at the Boatyard and this would have been a nice facility except that
they didn’t have enough umbrellas and didn’t adjust their charge for
not being able to supply them. I would not recommend the Boatyard if
you expect to get what they offer in their advertisement. In
quotations it does state on the sign when you check in (as long as
supplies last). The loudness of the music wasn’t a problem as you
could get far enough away from it for quiet. There were plenty
people there when we arrived and they only had 8 umbrellas left. Two
or three were broken and could have been fixed temporarily with some
twist wire, but no one seemed interested in fixing them. Four of us
left the Boatyard and went to visit a friend of a friend in our
group who just happened to own The Crane House in Barbados. I had
originally planned to just go to the Crane Beach Hotel for $25/per
person for access to the beach. As it turned out I could get to the
beach for no charge and take a picture of the hotel. Our host
furnished flying fish sandwiches from Cutters which was on my
original agenda. What a beautiful home and it was a most enjoyable
day for the four of us and the 2-year old grandson who enjoyed the
pool.
We only went to two shows aboard ship. The Karen Grainger show and
the last show of the cruise which included a summary of the aerial
artist, the comedian, and Karen Grainger’s show. Toward the end of
her show she came out in the audience and got me up on stage. She
was doing Cher and I was to do Sonny Bono. She put a little jacket
on me and a wig—I can’t sing, but she did let me do some dancing and
that went over better.
It was a good cruise. This time I’m the one that got hurt from a
fall in Dominica, but it was very minor with only scratches on the
knee and elbow. Three weeks later however I had to have Incision and
Drainage under anesthesia of an arm abscess in the elbow area done
yesterday. Doing well and should be good to go May 26 to
Switzerland. Go while you can, because one day you can’t.
