Celebrity Cruises Summit: proud pinnacle of premium cruising

Cruise Travel, May-June, 2004 by Georgina Cruz

On the return drive from a tour to St. Lucia's Twin Pitons coastal peaks, with their quintessential island scenery of lush greenery and aquamarine waters, we knew we were headed to yet another summit--Celebrity Cruises' Summit, that is, a proud pinnacle of premium cruising.

The eighth member of the line's nine-ship fleet and third of its innovative Millennium Class vessels--the first cruise liners to feature gas turbine propulsion and exterior glass elevators--the 91,000-gross-register-ton/1,950-passenger Summit more than lives up to the sophistication that is the signature of the Millennium Class quartet (including the Millennium, Infinity, and Constellation).

Like her sisters, the Summit has a museum-quality art collection boasting more than 500 works, highlighted by three major pieces--two of historical as well as artistic value, plus one by a distinguished contemporary artist. You need not be an art or history lover to think these extraordinary works are already worth the price of passage.

The first of the Summit's historic art treasures, gracing the base of the grand spiral staircase in the two-level Cosmopolitan Restaurant, is "La Normandie," a seven-foot-high bronze of a maiden draped like Athena (but with a 1930s hairdo) by Art Deco sculptor Leon Georges Baudry. Acquired by Celebrity executive Demetrios Kaparis, the statue once overlooked the grand staircase of the Normandie, the legendary liner of 1935, built by Chantiers de l'Atlantique in St. Nazaire, France--coincidentally, the same shipyard that built the Summit. "Nothing enriches a room like a work of art," said Kaparis.

Making a grand entrance into the Cosmopolitan Restaurant with its stately columns, opulent decor, and musicians balcony, and viewing "La Normandie" is almost like time-traveling back to the golden days of the trans-Atlantic liners. The feeling is recaptured with every entrance, and delights while you savor such dishes as a delectable rack of lamb Provencale or tenderloin steak done to perfection.

"Seeing 'La Normandie' reminds me of another era of cruising--the elegance of great ships like the Normandie that we strive to continue," said Daniel Elias, hotel director. The Summit's specialty restaurant, The Normandie (nostalgic, alternative venues saluting the grand liners are Millennium Class trademarks) is a perfect example of continued elegance. Diners in this exquisite restaurant, with open kitchen and dine-in wine cellar, not only delight in impeccable butterfly service (waiters present and remove dishes in unison) and in the cuisine, prepared or finished tableside, of Michelin-starred chef Michel Roux, culinary consultant to Celebrity, but they also feast their eyes on memorabilia from the Normandie. These mementos include stationery, a menu, and table-setting items from the liner's first-class dining room displayed in the restaurant's vestibule, and two artistic treasures inside: two sets of floor-to-ceiling gold panels originally installed in the Normandie's first-class smoking room.

These Art Deco masterpieces, displayed in a circular colonnade in the center of The Normandie, are themed to hunting and depict scenes of stylized foliage, one hunter with a bow and arrow and another with a deer draped around his shoulders. A dinner here involves all the senses: the view of the Normandie's precious panels: the sounds of the music of a jazz band; delectable dishes including an original chocolate and raspberry dessert from the Normandie, "Bombe Surprise," re-created by Roux; the bouquet of a fine vintage from the restaurant's list of 193 wines; and the feel of fine table linens, china, and crystal.

Fee for dining in The Normandie is $25 per-person. At least three couples on our sailing must have thought it was a delicious investment, as they dined in this restaurant every evening of our cruise. Guests who forego dining here may still visit during the day to see the panels and participate in such optional activities held in the restaurant as a wine-blending seminar ($11.75 plus 15 percent gratuity).

More sensory pleasures wait in the ship's 25,000-square-foot Elemis AquaSpa--the Millennium Class has arguably the finest spa facilities afloat, often surpassing those of land-based spas. The aromas of jasmine and ginger greet arrivals to 12 treatment rooms where some 40 therapies include treatments inspired in Polynesian, Asian, and Egyptian rituals, and to such pampering facilities as a Persian Garden thermal suite, Cleopatra's Bath, and Etruscan Chamber with organic mud. There is an oceanview beauty salon and a gym with more than 40 pieces of equipment, including 12 exercise bikes and 14 treadmills, and a glass-domed thalassotherapy seawater pool area, an oasis with pergolas, topiaries, two Jacuzzis, and piped-in New Age music. Early on several mornings I had the thalassotherapy pool to myself, and as the warm saltwater massaged my body, I fancied the Queen of the Nile herself never had it so good.

And my views included the Summit's third outstanding major work of art, this one the creation of noted Colombian artist Fernando Botero. Displayed beside the thalassotherapy pool (unlimited no fee usage) with its two relaxing airbeds, "Woman With Fruit" is a bronze depicting a rotund lady with long hair, lying on her stomach, almost Sphinx-like, with a fruit in her hand. "She bathes with Evian twice a day," hotel director Elias said, referring to the crew's twice-daily washings of the sculpture with mineral water to protect it from saltwater splashes.