Galaxy Review 4/25/05

I just got off of the Galaxy that sailed to the Panama Canal on 4/25/05. I am going to do sectional reviews so as not to bore anyone with a four page summary. I first want to say that I was reading the boards before I went and was a little uncertain about taking this cruise. It sounded like an uptight, very formal cruise line with a lot of stuffy people - not really my idea of fun. However, as I learned people's ideas vary differently. I will start my review tomorrow.

Until then,

Princessasch

Can't wait to hear more!

Me too! We're taking this cruise in Feb. What cabin were you in?

I'm doing the 11-nt. Galaxy in the Med on 6/13. Any suggestions/advice?

Looking forward to your review...welcome back!

Pincus

We're going to Panama Canal in March - what did you do in Costa Rica?

The Galaxy is a pretty old ship, the last ship I was on was the Carnival Elation which was brand new - so it was not as nice. I was in stateroom 1061 which is a sky suite and it was okay. The tub didn't drain well, the shower leaked and the phone didn't work properly. At first the phone didn't work at all but then they fixed it. I still never could get the wakeup call feature to work though. We had the most wonderful butler, Vasant. He was kind, though very busy all the time. He works 14 hour days, but still stopped to chat with us every day. I have read on the boards another person didn't like him, but he is very much like a butler. He isn't there to be your friend. He is just there to do his job. But I think we were able to break through that wall. Then again, I don't expect anybody to wait on me hand and foot. Maybe that helped.

The crew keeps the Galaxy very clean. There is always someone cleaning the stairs and the floors. So even though it's old, it's kept in top condition.

I found the crew to be most friendly and in fact I made a lot of new friends on the boat that were crew. I met one couple that were our age on the boat as guests. Most of the crew that was on my ship will be gone by August, but here are people that made a difference in my ship experience.

Jose(Jos) Luis Hidalgo - Bar Server from Providence, Columbia

Gabriel Brabete - Bartender from Romania

Viara - Bar Server

Michelle- Bartender from Phillippines

Gift - Assistant waiter from Malawi, South Africa

Vasille- Sommelier

Jose Alvarez- our waiter from Honduras.

If you see any of these people, please tell them Todd and Autumn miss them and say hello. They provided service above and beyond what I would have ever expected, and even though my husband says they only do it for the tips (which I tipped most of them extra on the last night), I really believe that we made a connection.

The kids club was awesome! My kids were there from 9 am to 10 pm every day. On the Carnival ships they make you come get your children from 12-2 and 5-7 every night, not allowing them to stay in there for more than six hours a day. My kids didn't want to leave, in fact the staff made a remark that they had adopted my youngest (who is four). On the days I didn't take them off the ship they fed them lunch ($6.00/hr from 12-2) and dinner($6.00/hr from 5-7). If we were at sea. 12-2 was considered quiet time and they didn't feed them so I had to pick them up to eat. Dinner was free when we were at sea and they ate there most every night. When I did take them to dinner, my youngest was so worn out that he slept at the dinner table. In fact my children have never slept better in their whole lives than they did on that boat. They feed them snacks throughout the day and my children got a lot of one on one time because there were only 21 kids on the ship (six that went to the fun factory on a daily basis.) It was wonderful!

Dinner attire-there is so much confusion about dinner attire that I have to clear it up. Somebody on the boards said he got kicked out of the Orion Restaurant on informal night for not having a jacket. My husband rented a tux(more on that later) so I didn't bring him a sport coat. I had enough to pack as it was. I figured if they were that uptight about a jacket in the dining room then we would eat in our room on those nights. We called Celebrity before we left and were told a jacket was not required. The first question I asked Vasant was if we needed a jacket and he said a long sleeve shirt was sufficient enough. I didn't bring a long sleeve shirt for my husband and I wasn't going to have him wear his tux shirt with his brown slacks. So we didn't go to the first informal dinner, but I went to the dining room after the main seating (our seating) to see what people were wearing. I saw several people walk out in short sleeve shirts and slacks. We were going to be okay! Apparently it did used to be more formal, but they have lightened up a bit. In fact a lady at the dinner table next to us wore a variation of a peach leisure suit every night -even at formal night. So take it with a grain of salt. They don't want tanks, tees, bathing suits, shorts or sandals in their dining room. I did wear t-shirts with my skirts and they never said anything.

More on shore excursions tomorrow!

thanks, will be looking forward to your other installments

Thanks! Looking foward to the next post - were the hot tubs working? How old are your children? The dress code info. was helpful too. Isn't Elation an older ship than Galaxy? Has anyone been on both - I'm expecting Galaxy to be nicer than Elation.

Elation 1998

Galaxy 1996

Looking forward to hearing about the shore excursions - especially costa rica and cayman

If you have late dining do they have early shows or are they after dinner - the celebrity web site says its dependent on each ship.

One correction, Tabasco, I meant to say the Carnival Pride in my last post, though I have been on the Elation as well.:rolleyes: Galaxy ranks closer to the Pride as far as niceness goes.

The shows are at 7:30 and 9:00, the hot tubs were working on about the 10th day of the cruise, my children are 4 and 9.

Cozumel:

We went to Paradise Beach because of all the reviews I have read on the boards. I have never been to Cozumel before but I have been to Cancun. I was very disappointed in Cozumel and I wish I would have went to the beach at Chaankanaab. Here's why. The service was very good and so was the food, but it was pricey, and the swimming water was murky and rough. My mom actually got ran over by the kayak rental guy when she was sitting on the beach because he couldn't control the kayak coming in. I couldn't let my nine year old go out to the iceberg or the water trampoline because it was too rough, and he's an excellent swimmer. If you go here, bring towels as they are not provided and cost $12 for a $4.00 one you'd find at Walmart. Very cheap and flimsy. The facilities are clean and nice and they do have hammocks all over the place, but I think I would have rather explored the grounds at Chaankanaab for all I got out of Paradise Beach. Cozumel itself is rundown and dirty-at least in the area we were in. The taxi was $24 there and $26 back. There were six of us.

Costa Maya:

Costa Maya has a beautiful port area with lots of shops and two restaurants/bars. It is clean but the people don't want to bargain with you. $20.00 for a shark tooth necklace that I got for $10 in Mahajual (but could have gotten for $5). We took a taxi to a little village called Mahajual. It is a one road town. The main road is sand and goes through the middle of the town. There are tons of bars that also double as houses. It's probably as close to "actual" Mexico as you can get. There are vendors and it's a little scary at first - I didn't have my kids with me that day - but there were a lot of people from the boat there. They have nice walking beaches, but the water is covered in jellyfish. They are small round button types and they don't bite, but can cause a rash like allergy to your skin. We sat at a table across the street from the waiter's house and we ordered cokes and nachos. The nachos were awesome! Everyone was very friendly. I think the taxi ride was $2 per person.

Panama Canal:

Per our butler's recommendation we got up early - 6:00 and headed to the back of the boat on deck 10 to see the locks. Everyone goes to the front and there is pushing and shoving, but there was hardly anyone on deck 10 aft. Once in Gatun Lake we tendered to shore (because we had booked an excursion). We took the monkey watch which I don't recommend if you don't want to spend most of your time in a bus. I wanted to do the tram in the rainforest but the bus ride was too long. The monkey watch didn't mention we would be in a bus 1.5 hours each way. The bus was air conditioned, though the shocks were bad. Talk about a scary place. Our butler told us not to ever go out on our own. He knew of crew members who had been mugged and robbed in Cristobal. Anyway, we got to our destination, and got on a boat-nine passengers, a driver and a guide. We saw a two sloths, I pet one, some howler monkeys and another kind that, I always forget the name but it starts with a C, we got to feed bananas. We saw two turtles and an iguana. We got fed a small bagged lunch and stopped at a really nice resort inside the park for about 20 minutes. It rained the whole way home and I slept. Save your money on this tour. It's not worth $86.00 a person. After the shore excursion, the boat is docked in Cristobal and there are shops and lots of vendors. For the most part the prices are good, but Panamanians do not bargain at all. We were the last ship of the season and they wouldn't come down on their prices. This is where I picked up gifts for all of the crew I had gotten to know.

I will talk about the next three excursions next time.

Till then,

Princessasch

Thanks for the note on the shows!

Also, you can spend a wonderful day at Uvaro Beach.....Great beach, some water sport equipment, god food, cold beer, nice bach chairs, hammocks and umbrella....a truly enjoyable day. Some vendors who will negotiate

where is Uvara beach? Do you take a taxi there? I know when we went to Majahual people were having problems getting stung - we just hung out on the beach, it was beautiful there

My wife and I are sailing on the Galaxy 3-9-06...Did anyone try the whitewater Rapids in Costa Rica and did they like it?.. What was the average age of the other passengers?.. We hope it's not all walkers & wheelchairs :o

Yeahhh!!!!!! We found someone else who is sailing on 3/9/06 - you must join our thread we've started on the Celebrity Connections - look for the 3/09/06 date. Melinda and I have been chatting waiting for someone to join us. Have you signed up for the celebrity connections party yet. I was looking at the whitewater rafting which sounds very fun but I think there was a minimum age - (not maximum) of 13??? My daughter is 11 and I have a 13 year old son who would love it. We're thinking maybe the canal tour.

There's a hot topic going on dress code - how did your kids dress for the "informal" night that apparently is quite formal? Were most men in jackets at dinner that night?

Tabasco- my 9 year old wore a suit and my 4 year old wore dress slacks, shirt, tie and vest. They only attended one formal dinner because they lived in the Fun Factory. On formal night, yes, men wore suits or tuxedos. I forgot to mention earlier that babysitting (which is from 10-1 am) normally costs $6/per child/per hour. The first formal night it's free. Take advantage of it!

Continuing on with my excursions:

Costa Rica - Puerto Limon is a very dirty, dirty town. It's definitely not a "tourist friendly" town. I booked a shore excursion with Oscar Brown(cbrown@costarricense.cr). I had heard such great things about the tour (we took The Tortuguero Canal tour) that I was extremely excited. While he was very energetic and informative I was extremely dissapointed that he failed to mention that the day we were in Costa Rica was a country holiday. May 1, is their Labor Day. The banana plantation was closed, the bamboo trade school was closed, never saw the two biggest hotels and never stopped to purchase souvenirs or coffee. So needless to say, I spent most of the day traveling yet again in another bus. The restaurant we stopped at had nothing for kids to eat, except french fries, but their fryer suddenly stopped working after I ordered. The service was extremely slow.....I mean it took over 15 minutes to get or drinks and we were her only table. The food was okay. Nothing spectacular. Nobody liked their margaritas and the food wasn't any cheaper than it would have been at an American restaurant. $78.00 for us to eat and that was only four full sized meals and some tortillas and drinks. I would not recommend this tour due to my experiences, but other people have really enjoyed it. On the canal tour we saw a lot of birds, a crocodile, and some monkeys and a drug dealer and a lot of drug running boats. The guide was very nice and informative. The guides on both of our tour boats, I tipped. Hopefully you can get some info from other people about their excurstions or what they did in Costa Rica. I did get some good buys at the market in the port. This is where I did most of my shopping, because after this it gets extremely expensive.

Jamaica- Yeah mon!

Jamaica is beautiful. We went to sunset beach, which I highly recommend. This is also where the ship's crew hangs out. The water was perfect for snorkeling. You pay $20/adults and $10/kids and get towels, beach chairs, snorkeling equipment, food and drinks - all inclusive. This also happens to be where my whole family fried with SPF 45 on. So reapply often. My 4 year old and I have just now stopped peeling. The beach was perfect for the kids, the food was great, there's even a nude beach down a ways for those of you who prefer au naturale. There are jellyfish in the water - so be careful. I don't think anyone got stung when we were there, but there was one swimming closely when we were snorkeling. The bus driver that took us away from Sunset Beach took us to a "friends" souvenir shop - and he was supposed to give us good deals. They weren't what you would get in Mexico, but I also didn't bargain. All the shops pretty much have the same stuff and Jamaicans are in your face when you shop. They follow you around and hover-like you're going to steal something. Be careful when shopping with kids because there are a lot of souvenirs regarding joints and sexual positions. The shops at port aren't even worth going into and we got hasseled by two Jamaicans who were selling stuff on the street in that area. Everybody speaks English.

Last but not least, my favorite port - Grand Cayman-

The charm this island has left me in awe. I am so enamored with this place that I am looking for work there now so I can move my family there. :) We took the Native Ways "Rays, Reef and Rum Point" tour. Sharon Ebanks is the contact and her email is nativway@candw.ky. I can't remember their website but you can search under Native Way Watersports. We took a nice bus to the dock where we boarded our boat with about 50 other people. Our boat guides were Tom and Chris. One thing to warn is that unlike other ships Carnival changes it's time to match that of the port you're in. So all times quoted by vendors are true to ship time. We went to an area out in the middle of the ocean - there were about 10 other boats in the same area but sort of spread out - to swim with the stingrays. The water is shallow - 3-4 feet. The sting rays just nonchalantly swim around you and brush up against you. You can hold them, get a massage by them and feed them. My husband and I chose to go away from the chaos and explore. Not much else to see in sting ray city, but the water is so clear that you can see forever. Another thing to mention - if you can bring your own snorkeling gear. The gear at Sunset Beach was less than desireable and my mask at Sting Ray City kept fogging up so bad, I couldn't see that well. We then got back in the boat to snorkel at Coral Reef. Pretty much the same stuff we saw in Jamaica. You can't touch here so you have to be a decent swimmer or wear a life jacket. We were supposed to stay for 45 minutes but I think everyone was about done after 20. We then sailed over to Rum Point. Where we got the lunch we had ordered earlier - Chris gives you a menu to look at and you order what you want - included in the price. This paradise. My children played in the water some more and we walked the grounds. Found tons of conch shells, and bought stuff in the gift shop. If I said Jamaica was expensive, Grand Cayman is obscene. A beer was $5.50, shirts are about $25-$30. Their exchange rate now is $1.20 USD = $1.00 CI. After Rum Point we went back into town and had drinks at the Hard Rock Cafe. My husband insists we go into every Hard Rock Cafe when we see one. We purchased more stuff - which surprisingly wasn't any more expensive in Cayman Island. We then perused some more gift shops - again it's pretty much all the same. There were no panhandlers, or hagglers and the city is so clean. It was by far the best port.

That's all for now. I will conclude later with any stuff I forgot, the limo from Extreme Elegance and the Port of Galveston.

Till then,

Princessasch

Did you use the thalasotherapy (sp?) pool - is it worth it? Can you pay for each visit or just the entire cruise - how much was it?

Is a private beach area, unfortunately, it can only be visited by buying one of the ship's tours to the beach..About 40 minutes away from the pier. No taxi service.

I had a suite so the thalasotherapy pool was free for me. I used it twice for about 20 minutes. The jets are powerful and it was nice, I'm just not one for sitting in a big bathtub with 10 other people. I think the cost for the entire cruise was $99.

Now for all the "extras".

Tuxedos through the ship:

We ordered a tux for my husband through the company on the Celebrity.com website. It came to us the first formal night, and if our butler hadn't insisted we try it on as soon as we got it, we never would have. Thank goodness we did. The pants were too short, the jacket was a short instead of a regular and we had two different shirt sizes. Luckily they were able to fix it all on board, but just be careful of this company. I gave them all the correct measurements and they really messed it up.

Port of Galveston:

I have only the Port of Long Beach to compare this to, but it was so easy getting through customs and getting off the ship. On the ship you are told where to go and what time to be there. They were a little late getting us off but there was no line going through customs. It took about 15 minutes to get off the boat through customs and gather our luggage. Very easy.

Extreme Elegance Limo:

They met us at the Houston Airport and took us to the Tremont in Galveston the night before we got on the ship. They were supposed to pick us up in port at 10:30 am the day we returned. We called to confirm this the morning we got back to Galveston. They never showed up, so my husband called and the receptionist kept telling him that she would call him back. She never did so he kept calling her, finally she quit answering the phone. Luckily I was able to flag down another limo to take us to the airport. Too many hands in the pot in this company - just beware of them.

The Wyndham Tremont:

Beautiful hotel, $120/night. Worth the price. It is old, so if you are sensitive to "unworldly things" don't sleep there. My mom and my son both had nightmares all night long.

Not much else I can think of at this point. It is a journey you will surely not forget. The crew was amazing. Have fun and if you have any more questions, please ask I will try my best to answer them.

Princessasch