We recently returned from the June 16 cruise from Venice to Barcelona on the Summit. We had a fantastic cruise and were very happy with this ship and itinerary. We are a couple in our late 40's with two daughters ages 7 and 11. This was our 7th cruise overall and our 2nd on Celebrity. Most of our other cruises have been on Princess, so we couldn't help making some comparisons here and there. This was also our first European cruise. I've tried to separate our comments by topic so that you can skip the ones that don't interest you. We had a very active Roll Call for this cruise which was a huge help in pre-cruise planning.
PRE-CRUISE/EMBARKATION: We flew Delta from PHX-ATL-VCE and arrived the day before the cruise around 11 am. We had decided to splurge on a water taxi to our hotel, Locanda Orseolo, provided that we could be taken directly to the hotel's canal side entrance rather than St. Mark's Square. Upon arrival at Marco Polo airport, we went to the Venezia water company's desk in the airport terminal. We were told that because of the tides we couldn't go directly to the hotel but had to be dropped off at St. Mark's. Knowing that low tides cannot occur at noon, we decided to walk with our bags out to where the water taxis depart. We asked again there and found someone willing to take us directly to the hotel. Thanks to tips we've read on Cruise Critic, we told the driver we wanted to take the "scenic route" through the Grand Canal rather than the shorter more direct route. We agreed on a price of 120 Euros. We had a very nice trip through the Grand Canal and then to Canal Orseolo, where we arrived at the "water window" for our hotel, Locanda Orseolo. The driver knocked on the window and it was opened by Igor, who immediately greeted us by name. Our luggage was handed in through the window and we then climbed in ourselves.

We picked Locanda Orseolo based on the great reviews it has received on Cruise Critic and TripAdvisor. We were not disappointed. We had Room 14, which is a 2 room suite that looks out onto the canal. The first room had two twin beds and the second room had a king bed and a nice bathroom. The hotel is charming, ideally located, and the staff could not have been friendlier. We only wish we had arranged to stay two nights instead of just one. We dropped off our bags and set off for some immediate sightseeing in Venice, including a visit to St. Mark's Cathedral. We returned later to meet a couple from our Cruise Critic Roll Call who were also staying at Locanda Orseolo. We all went to dinner together that evening. We had hoped to take an evening gondola ride but it started to rain so we ended up at Harry's Bar for overpriced bellinis.

The next day we had a nice breakfast at Locanda Orseolo including their famous crepes. We did more sightseeing in Venice, including the Secret Doge's Tour. We also took a lovely gondola ride. Finally it was time to go to the ship. We shared a water taxi from the hotel with the couple from our Roll Call. This time we made the mistake of not fixing the price ahead of time, and not asking to be taken on the shorter, direct route. So we ended up with another scenic trip from the hotel through the Grand Canal to the cruise terminal, at a cost of 110 Euros. We got to the cruise terminal around 4 pm and were able to board quickly and easily.

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS OF THE SUMMIT: We have been on the Infinity to Alaska so we were familiar with the layout of the ship. We really like the size and layout of the M-class ships better than our other favorite line, Princess. We had connecting staterooms (6093 and 6095 -- Category 2C) located midship on Deck 6. Because we have young children, we also liked the fact that we could have cabins that connected with an interior door, which is virtually impossible to find on Princess. I do prefer the location of the closets in the Princess staterooms, though, because you don't block the doorway when you use the closet. Our rooms were clean and comfortable and we liked our room steward, Rolando, who made sure to always greet us by name.

CRUISE CRITIC CONNECTIONS PARTY: We had an active Roll Call for this cruise. We had 59 people signed up for the Connections Party. We had an informal get together after sailaway at the Mast Bar, and the official party was at 10 am on the first sea day in Michael's Bar. We had about 25 show up from the Roll Call. The Cruise Director, John Howell, was there along with the Hotel Director, Raffaele Bernardini and the Food & Beverage Director Robert Flack. There was also someone from Celebrity's Miami office, as well a