[Linked Image]Just returned from a great cruise on the Summit.This is a beautiful ship! It is only about a year old. We did a 10 night sailing with 2 sea days at the beginning and 2 sea days at the end, with St Maarten, St Lucia, Barbados, St Kitts, and St Thomas being the ports. We had a balcony cabin on deck 8 just back from mid-ship ( a 1B cat). Our only other cruise to compare is the Ocean Princess. We liked the cabins much better. Quite a bit more room. The bathrooms are much more logical. The Princess ones had funny angles in the bathrooms.We had a pull out sofa, table, desk, and chair, plus the balcony. I really liked the layout of the ship overall. I thought the bar/lounges were very comfortable and larger. The theater is more nightclub-like, we enjoyed this a lot. The dining room is beautiful- 2 stories with huge windows looking out the back of the ship.<br><br>Food: Good to very good in the dining room. Seemed to have better presentation and variety on Princess. Buffet was pretty good also. Had homemade ice cream every day. Also a pasta station at lunch, plus a theme area that was different every day. We did not try the Normandy, but now wish we had.<br><br>Ports: Carol, I see why you like St Maarten, it is a very beautiful place. Didn't make it to the beach, just shopped and took taxi over to Marigot to look around. <br>St Lucia: we got a day pass to Sandals Halcyon and hung out there for the day. Good option, it was cloudy this day.<br>Barbados: snorkeled. Love this island too!<br>St Kitts: took an all day sail-snorkel trip, which was great. Would like to go back here, very beautiful also.<br>St Thomas: Went on a sail to Buck Island to snorkel, the dumped the guys and my friend Robin and I shopped. My goal was to buy some tanzanite and blue opal earrings. Mission accomplished. Also found an omega reversible necklace. <br>Service: Dining room, excellent. Cabin: so-so (barely knew who our cabin attendant was)<br>We really enjoyed the sea days. Will look for an itinerary that has the port days split up a little more. Love the 10 days, but 5 ports in a row was tiring. Think 3 formal nights a little much. Princess' 2 nights was just fine. I think DH is going to buy a tux. We seem to have gotten hooked on cruising now!<br>This is pretty brief, would be glad to answer any questions!<br><br>We were on deck 8 and had the overhang from the waterfall cafe above us, but we were kind of in between 2 sections. It didn't feel closed in. We deliberately avoided deck 9 for the reason you pointed out. I've learned from reading the boards about noise, so we make sure we have a passenger deck above us. Some people we met had an aft cabin and loved it. Should have asked them to let us see their balcony. Sounded really nice. Steve liked the OP balcony better-you could look straight down to the water, where as we had the life boats, etc below us this time.<br>The tanzanites are oval .81 tw each with 4 diamonds below them, then 3 inlaid pieces of blue opal! Love them!<br><br>One other note, we enjoyed the entertainment on this ship more than the OP. The live music was everywhere. They had a really good band that played during dinner. I wish they had a steel drum band on deck though, like the OP did. Missed some of that Caribbean music. I guess they are trying to be more refined.<br>Didn't have much trouble finding pool chairs, etc. Though we usually like being on one end of the ship or the other, instead of right at the pool. Did get in the pool though, which was refreshing, even though they were salt water. Drink service was pretty slow up on deck. Lines were always long for the grill, for burgers, etc. The salads at the buffet were very good, along with the pasta. I never eat much bread at home, but fresh bread, rolls, on the ship are great!<br>Kathy