The Celebrity Summit: Cruising Alaska like A Star

In May of 2024, my husband and I along with another couple embarked on an amazing adventure to the Last Frontier.  We planned our own land tour and then got on one of Royal Caribbean’s oldest ships, Radiance of the Seas, for our cruise down the coast of Alaska through the inside passage.  I was curious as to how our experience would compare to Royal Caribbean’s big sister company, Celebrity.  This year in May and June, I had two different sets of friends go on a land tour and cruise on one of Celebrity’s oldest ships.

As stated in a previous article, it seems that bigger cruise lines are in a way forced to use their older ships for cruises to the smaller ports in Alaska because of the size of the bodies of water around the ports.  Many cruise lines are consistently building bigger and fancier cruise ships and ignoring the need for newer, smaller ships that can reach these more unique destinations.  Royal Caribbean has announced, with very little detail, that they will be working on coming out with a smaller fleet of ships in the future.  There are some cruise lines like Virgin Voyages that pride themselves on the fact that because their ships are designed to be smaller that they can go to these smaller ports.  Since Virgin has announced some itineraries to Alaska for the 2026 season, I am curious to see how that might encourage cruise lines like Royal Caribbean and Celebrity to improve or come out with new ships that can manage the smaller ports.    

Both sets of friends were on the Celebrity Summit, which is currently Celebrity’s only ship that starts or ends in Seward so that you can do a land tour up to Denali.  For me, it’s a no-brainer that you would want to do a cruise where you can also go up to Denali or some other areas in Alaska.  As I see it, a trip to Alaska may be once in a lifetime and so adding on the famous national park and the train rides through Alaska is a must.

Celebrity Summit was built in 2001 and was refurbished in 2019.  With a capacity of 2200 passengers, Summit is a much smaller cruise ship when comparing it to its bigger sisters (Celebrity’s newest ship holds 3200 and Royal Caribbean’s newest ship has a capacity of 5600 passengers).  My friends report that the ship did not feel old nor did it feel tired.  There was very little visible rust and the ship felt very clean all the way down to the carpets. Since the ship did not have the big open spaces like on the newer ships, the layout of the ship was a little bit confusing but the signage was very helpful. The staterrooms were nice and very clean and the bathroom was bigger and nicer than expected.  A lot of time was spent out on the balcony, which was clean and comfortable.  In many ways, any downsides to the older, smaller ship were not noticed by these first-time cruisers.

The crew of the Celebrity Summit was “phenomenal” and helped to make everyone feel welcome and ensured a good time.  As one friend needed to eat only gluten-free food, it was reported that there was, at times, a language barrier with some of the crew, which made it more difficult to inquire about allergy issues.  With a bit more effort, this could be overcome.  The officers and cruise director would greet every passenger as they left and returned at each port, which made everyone feel valued.  This is a practice that they simply can’t do on the larger ships.

The food on board Summit was excellent.  My fiends felt no need to eat in any of the specialty dining restaurants as the food and service in the main dining room was superb.  And, because of the need to eat gluten-free food, it was easier to eat in the main dining room so they could choose the next night’s meal ahead of time.  The portions were small but this made it so that they could try more items and not feel stuffed.  One set of friends said that they had their beverages of choice waiting for them each night at dinner, which sounds awesome to me. The buffet also had a lot of great and tasty options for everyone.  The one comment made was that there were times where it was difficult to find available snacks.  They were looking for a quick bite before leaving the ship one day, and it turned out that the only available items were halfway across the ship.  It was noted, however, that perhaps a more experienced cruiser might not have that same difficulty.

When we went on our Alaskan cruise, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the entertainment was actually pretty good.  The stage shows weren’t big, broadway numbers but the talent was there.  The headliners seemed to enjoy the smaller ships over the bigger ones.  My friends found this to also be the case on the Summit.  The ship’s ensemble appeared polished and comfortable performing on stage.  The comedian was enjoyable, which isn’t always the case, and the singers were really talented.  Everything was great with the exception of the last night where a sand artist performed, leaving everyone bored and sent many back to their rooms to finish packing.

The activities offered on board the ship were secondary to the amazing excursions that you could do at each port off of the ship.  While they did offer performances in various lounges or different fun activities to do at night, after a day of fun out in the Last Frontier, the main goal was to eat, enjoy the show and then to bed.  This seems to be a common consensus among port heavy cruises or cruises outside the Caribbean, in general.  For this reason, a cruise ship with fewer bells and whistles fits in really nicely with a port heavy cruise.

Both sets of friends deeply enjoyed their Alaskan cruise on board the Celebrity Summit and would recommend the experience to their friends.  As mentioned, I am curious to see how Virgin Voyages handles their Alaskan cruises, and how Celebrity and Royal Caribbean compare with more luxury cruise brands such as Silversea.  Stay tuned for that comparison.

Thanks to Kristi Johnson and Jane Parkhouse for their thoughts and photos of their most excellent cruise to Alaska.