Ok, last time I tried this, I wrote so much that the session timed out and I lost it all, so this time I'll try to be more concise.

My wife and I sailed the shortened southern Caribbean trip on the Celebrity Summit during the week of Jan.31 to Feb 6. I'll have to say that I am in full agreement that the level of service on cruise ships has generally taken a dive. We previously cruised on Carnival twice. The Glory and the Valor. The Glory was our first cruise, and the service was 5 Star! The Valor was not far behind. The Summit was another story though. Except for the Concierge who helped us with a lost luggage problem, most of the service crew seemed to have an attitude. So much so that we dedided to forego the evening dinners in the restaurant. As soon as they found out we wouldn't be ordering wine, the level of attention dropped quite a bit. We went to one main dinner the whole trip. This seemed to be the same at the Normandie restaurant, however the only attitude came from the wine steward there.

Other comments are that they closed down the food too early for my liking, and the pizza sucked (the only thing available after 10pm). In the whole week there a couple of cleanliness items really got to me. I never once saw a bartender (or anyone else) wipe down a bar. Whether it was in the Casino or on the pool deck...and the casino bartender smelled like he hadn't washed himself or his clothes in DAYS! Another thing was the handling of cups and glasses. Almost every service person we had contact with touched the drinking edge of the cup or glass they were serving us. This is the first lesson in Busboy 101....what gives???? The aft deck (one of the only smoking areas on the boat) had a gutter that wrapped around the back of the deck. With the wind kicking up much of the time, this caused all kinds of debris to be blown into the gutter. Stuff like sugar packets, napkins, straws, cigarette butts, etc... I never once saw it clean except the night we departed from San Juan.

Room service was available 24 hrs, but good luck getting what you want within 30 mins, or without a second call!

Needless to say, they didn't get a very good customer survey from me. I'm wondering if they'll even get back to me about my comments (which are pretty much verbatim compared to what I wrote here). I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't seeing as they obviously don't take customer service all that seriously. One thing I have to say is that in these days of extremely reduced spending on the part of vacationers, the cruise lines should be falling all over the ones that do decide to put some money into the economy and into their pockets.

Next time, I'm going to an all-inclusive resort. To me, the crusies have turned into "assembly line" class vacations. At least there I know I'm not going to get nickle and dimed to death! I'm still a cruise fan, but I think I'm going to wait until I can afford to go on one of the more exclusive lines.

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