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INSIDE VIEW:
THE CONTINUING EVOLUTION OF CELEBRITY SUMMIT A conversation with Hotel Director Mark McSoreley by Richard H. Wagner |
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Celebrity Summit is always changing. If you look back over her service career, the ship has gone through a series of changes reflecting Celebrity Cruises' evolving concept of Modern Luxury. These have not been sweeping monumental changes but rather a stream of subtle changes. Still, Celebrity Summit is not the same ship today that entered service back in 2002.
2016 Refit In March 2016, Celebrity Summit went through another significant refurbishment. We asked Hotel Director Mark McSorley to discuss the changes made to Summit during that refit. The biggest change made during the 2016 refit was the replacement of the Normandie Restaurant with the Tuscan Grille. The Normandie was a fine dining venue offering multi-course meals using a menu similar to those used in the Murano restaurants on Celebrity's Solstice class ships. The Tuscan Grille is another concept born on the Solstice class ships but it is a steakhouse with overlays of Italian cuisine. “Business-wise and for the mass guest demographic that we get aboard, it was a wise business decision. We do an average of 150 covers in there every night and so we are reaching out to a lot more people and a lot more people are trying and enjoying it whereas before we would do an average of 40 or 50 people a night.” Mr. McSorley sees this as reflecting the fact that tastes have changed away from more formal traditional cruising. “I think the cruise industry has changed very much. {For example] Evening Chic came in and formal night went out. That was not just a decision that we made lightly. Basically, the reason was that formal nights were not formal nights anymore. You had people dressing up and getting upset because people around them did not want to dress up and did not bring anything with them. So we came up with Evening Chic, not to try and downgrade formal night but to try and find a happy medium between them so that people could still dress up and feel comfortable and encourage those who want to have a beach-style vacation to be a little more formal and blend in.” The decision to change from the Normandie Restaurant to the Tuscan Grille, has been controversial in maritime circles, not so much for the change in the menu but rather because of the change in décor that accompanied the change in style. The Normandie restaurant contained original art work from the 1930s ocean liner SS Normandie including panels from its public rooms. Other panels from the Normandie are in the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. While Celebrity has created a museum area with exhibits about the Nomandie near Summit's casino, the original Normandie panels were removed from the ship. This move appears to be justified for two reasons. First, of all the people that we spoke with on Summit, only Mr. McSorely appeared to have heard of the Normandie. Indeed, one guest volunteered that he had not been on the Normandie yet. (Normandie was destroyed by fire in 1942). Thus, maintaining the Normandie décor in the restaurant could not be justified on commercial grounds. “It is sad but it is the reality and as a business we have to move forward with the reality." Second, “we wanted to bring it in line with what the other Tuscans look like on the Solstice class ships.” On those ships, the Tuscan Grille's have a casual West Coast décor arising out of the wineries of the Napa Valley. Normadnie's Grand Luxe décor does not fit with the laid back California atmosphere the Tuscan Grille's seek to project. Leaving aside the issue of whether replacing the Normandie Restaurant with the Tuscan Grille was the right thing to do, it cannot be denied that the resulting restaurant is a good restaurant. “It is a lovely restaurant, very nice. We have put in there more vases to soften up the middle section, we have put in more pictures We are constantly adding things that are softer touches to soften it up a bit. Overall, it is a beautiful restaurant.” The second major change made during the 2016 refit was the addition of the Roof Top Terrace. This area was created out of a rarely used section of open deck aft on Deck 12 and features a giant video screen facing rows of premium loungers and cabanas. “For our itinerary, sailing eleven months of the year in Bermuda and the Caribbean, it was a great idea and a great decision to change that area into something that we could utilize. It was just a sun deck area that was very rarely utilized. it was just real estate that needed something better that people could actually use and enjoy.” “Our CEO {Lisa Lutoff Perlo] did not want to have a big screen on the pool deck like [other cruise ships]. She understood that guests want to have a big screen but she wanted to do it a little bit different being Celebrity. So we decided to put it all the way back.” “I think it is a smart move. It does not disturb anybody. If someone wants to watch a movie, wants to watch a sporting event, they can watch it. You're not telling everybody on the pool deck, this is what you're watching.” “We have a good schedule of movies going on there. We have some chill out sets up there where we just play music and have graphics [on the screen]. You can relax, read a book. We have sporting events when they are on. We try to balance it out without playing aimless TV up there all day long.” |
In addition, the Roof Top Terrace is used for “A Taste of Film,” a dining event combined with an outdoor movie.
“Taste of Film is a great concept where we try to bring you the taste of the movie you are watching while you are sitting watching the movie. The idea is that while you are sitting there, you become more enraptured in the movie by sitting and eating.” “We have a pantry right behind the screen. It is a finishing kitchen for us. We cook everything down in the Pool Grill, it is brought up, they plate it in the pantry and the [waiters] bring it out. At the start, you quite notice the waiters coming over and giving you the food but as the movie goes on, you don't even notice and just start taking stuff.” “We are cooking ala minute and sending the food out with the waiters according to the movie's sequence. You just sit, relax and get into the movie.” In addition to these two major changes, during the refit Summit's Penthouses and Royal Suites were given makeovers, furniture in the ship's public areas was reupholstered, and 80 percent of the carpeting was replaced. Dining Options When Summit entered service in 2002, like most of her contemporaries, she had one main dining room. All guests regardless of their cabin category were assigned to a table in that restaurant for dinner. Now Summit has three dining rooms, each quite different. Access to these restaurants is based on cabin category. “Luminae is our suite restaurant. We started rolling it out in the ships a couple of years ago. The idea was that we wanted to give something extra to our suite guests, to have another area for them to socialize and dine if they wish.” “Since it has been installed across the ships, it has been an amazing success. The food in there is fantastic. I would say. its not as rich as Murano but it is not as light as Blu. Its very creative culinary [art] from our chefs. The menu is something you won't see anywhere else on the ship. There is a different menu every day. The menus are not as expansive as you would get in the main dining room or in Blu. There are only a couple of choices for each course. The reason for that is there is something different every day. Everyday you get to experience something new.” “The service in there is exemplary. We have a lot of top sommeliers in there Our top waiters from across the ship go in there. A very, very high level of service.” “It is a very beautiful setting. It is very comfortable in there, nice colors. It flows very well. Beautiful glass tables. There is a very luxurious feeling in there.” “Luminae is very popular. Our guests who go in there pretty much do not go anywhere else. People love being in that environment.” “Blu is for the Aquaclass guests. It is more with the health conscious options in mind. Again, it is a more advanced offering than what we would offer in the main dining room.” “You go in there, you have healthy options. You still get your steaks, you still get your chicken, your potatoes, your vegetables. We just don't deep fry. We pan fry. It is how we prepare it mostly.” “It is smaller portions It is not like you go in there and get a plate that is overflowing. If you want two, you can have two, if you want three, you can have three. It is about what is on the plate and the quality that is on the plate and how we prepare it. Blu, you walk out and you feel light, healthy, you won't feel bloated.” Even Summit's main dining room, the Cosmopolitan Restaurant, is evolving. Prior to Summit's 2016 refit, the main floor of the dining room was devoted to the traditional two seating, assigned table system while the smaller balcony area was devoted to Select Dining, Celebrity's flexible dining system. “Now we have Select Dining downstairs and upstairs we have the traditional seating. It just shows the evolution of cruising. More and more people want to do Select Dining. [In addition to wanting to dine on their own schedule, guests] want to eat together as a couple or with friends. They don't want to be assigned to a table with other guests. That is a bit sad in itself because that is what a lot of people loved about cruising is you meet people. You go to dinner and you meet some people and you have a great time for a week.” Going forward, Summit will continue to evolve. “We have a very young, dynamic team aboard Summit from the captains down. Our whole management team are pretty much in their 30s, which you don't see in a lot of cruise ships. The company has put a lot of faith in us. We respect that and enjoy it. We want to continue to evolve Modern Luxury and evolve what we do.” 
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Cruise ship interview - Celebrity Cruises - Celebrity Summit - Hotel Director