Random Thoughts-galaxy New Years

[SNOWEY]

GALAXY NEW YEARS CRUISE RANDOM THOUGHTS- Part I

 

Since I still feel like I am on vacation, a good sign that the trip was wonderful, I will post some random thought on our recent 12/30/04 Galaxy trip to the Panama Canal.

First let me say that this is only our 2nd cruise. The 2nd one was on RCL’s Vision of the Seas.

We have done many all inclusive and we are in our early 50's.

 

We took the Celebrity Bus to the pier in Galveston. The bus sat in front of the port approximately 1 hour before we actually were allowed to exit the bus. Not sure whey this was so, but it seemed pretty congested in this area. We felt frustrated because we could reach out and touch the ship but could not get off the bus. Oh, well, we had 11 days to relax, what was one more hour?

 

Getting on the ship seemed like it took around 20-30 minutes. It is funny how you forget all of that after the cruise! No upgrades available.

 

The Ship is in good shape. Very clean. We did not notice any stains, tears of carpet etc. The ship was less flashy than the Visions. I knew this before we booked so it was no surprise. I have to admit that the Visions was such a stunning ship! The artwork was everywhere.

 

The Rooms were as expected. We upgraded at the last minute to an outside cabin. We truly enjoyed the views (even though most were at sea). 11 day in a closed cabin leaves much to be desired. We used the shade on the window to wake us in the morning. At first you would think there is less storage in the cabin, but it is arranged differently. We are pack rats, 2 large luggage each & 1 roll on. There was plenty of room for everything except the huge clamshell type luggage. It did not fit under the bed. I stored this by the window, since we would not be there anyway.

 

Our rooms were made up the standard 2x a day w/the chocolates on the bed. I saved all of these and gave them to one of the house caretakers. We didn’t encounter any problems with the room. The AC worked great & the shower seemed a little larger than RCL’s. I used little post it notes if I needed something. Very rarely.

 

All Dinners were taken in the main dining room, The Orian. The food to me was excellent. The only bad dinner I had was upon embarkation. It was sliced beef and you could not cut it w/a knife. I went back for another piece and they had another roast to serve from & it was equally tuff. Was this a precursor of things to come? NO WAY! Every meal was wonderful. In fact, I had escargot every night. The deserts were to die for. I have seen some pretty deserts and then when you taste them, there is no taste. Not So! Some of the dinners were: rack of lamb & veal, chateau briard (yummy), fillet minion, duck, other beef variations, & of course the Lobster (tender & large). All were served as ordered. The lamb was served rare as ordered and so was the beef. Some appetizers were just ok, but let’s face it, you can always get something else. The frog legs were very good.

 

Now the service was excellent. Anna is from Romania and she was a sheer delight. She worked very hard. I can’t say enough about our other table mates. We had the most fun. We were very fortunate. We usually closed the late night seating.

 

Most Breakfasts were taken at the Oasis Cafe. No complaints here except the omelet station was crowed at times. Don’t miss the Belgium Waffles out by the enclosed Pool. They had sour cherries to top them off with & oh that whip cream. We usually went through the covered pool area and sat outside on the deck (aft). BTW–Our cruise was particularly windy and this area was not very windy and much quieter than the pool area. If you are interested in Kippers, Eggs Bene, fish, the sit down breakfasts had that in the Orian.

 

We did do the Midnight Buffet to take pictures. Who could be hungry at midnight :o . It was so beautiful! Be sure to cruise on by and take some pictures.

 

Oh, for some reason, there was a big run on Green Tea. I think it is suppose to help you loose weight. LOL. If you want that, you better make sure your server gives you enough for the trip.

 

We only went to about 3 or 4 shows. They were ok. Nothing spectacular. The marionette show was unbelievable, however, I don’t think I would ever go and pay to see something like that. The singer and dancers were good.

 

The Bar Service at the show was excellent. It was easy to run up a high tab. Thank goodness I have RCL stock!

 

The Disco was a disappointment. The only music that was played when we were there was Salsa. After a while, that got old. Oh, they did do some C&W but that was not for us. There was also some rap, but hard to dance to. I guess what I am trying to say was they needed more dancible (is that a word?)music. There was not techno played. We plan to go on the Connie in November and Cirque will be in the disco. I think this will be much edgier. Kind of star wars like. We look forward to that.

 

Oh my, I said this was going to be random thoughts and now it has turned out to be a monologue. Sorry!

 

The Piano bars were wonderful. I am sorry I don’t know the name of the woman singer but she was very enjoyable to drink Martinis to!

 

Loved the Stratosphere Bar (complete with stabilizer Christmas Tree...no the tree is not going to fall)! Watch out for the Large Martinis. Two will knock you out.

 

The Pool Band was excellent. They had a great range of tunes being played.

 

For New Years we were treated to champaign and a Cirque type of show. Wire was strung across the main pool & 3 performers climbed red silk scarves & did acrobatics with them. Very nice.

 

We did not try the Therapy Pool. You can purchase a $99 pass for the whole cruise.

 

Chair Hogs– They were definitely in full force. One had to really look to get a chair by the main pool. I had the pool attendant remove towels 3x during the cruise. Sometimes I think people just left their towels on the chairs never to come back. It would be nice if they could somehow put a note in one’s cabin to ask the pax to remove the towels when they are finished. Such a simple act but would save allot of walking around & spilled coffee, drinks, etc.

 

The Casino was fun. I made my small deposit. DH brought home some cash from the Craps table & an unexpected something else! The Croupier told him that she had a cold. That she had been sick for several days :(. When DH asked if they had any sick time, she said no. Needless to say, when we left the next day, DH was sniffling and was sick for 4 more days! With all the cleaning of the railings, etc. why do they let employees work sick!

 

Ok, I will stop for now and do the ports later.

 

I will try to answer any questions you may have.

 

Thanks.

[GATKLT]

There is a lot of good information in those "random thoughts"

of yours! Thanks for taking the time - make us even more excited about our Galaxy trip in May!

[SNOWEY]

Thanks for taking the time to read through it. I am getting ready to post my photos. Taking the photos for me was even more exciting than seeing the canal. You will have a great time. Make sure you have enough memory stick. I ran out and had to start deleting pics :{ Try to take them on the highest quality.

 

Claudia

[1drifter]

Thanks for the review! Your photos of Alaska were wonderful--can't wait to see the ones from the Panama Canal. We too took a cruise to Alaska in the summer of '04 and will be taking the Galaxy in April--can't wait! Shari

[1drifter]

Claudia--

 

Just saw the Panama canal pictures too. Thank you, they are great. Now I have to go reconsider all my shore excurstions!

[SNOWEY]

1Drifter & Gatklt: Here are the Panama Canal Photos. They are in no particular order. It's tuff to see so many canal pictures at once so they are scattered. Hope you like them.

 

http://community.webshots.com/album/252492638oDNZck

 

 

 

Claudia

[Artemis]

Your nature photography, in particular, is quite nice! Thanks for sharing your album & positive New Year's cruise review! We had to cancel our Galaxy Christmas cruise, but still hoping to get on that boat/itin. before she leaves Galveston....

[SNOWEY]

Artemis: Sorry you had to cancell your cruise :{ At least you will have one to look forward to. Thanks for the compliment re our photos.

[SNOWEY]

I thought I'd "bump" this one up since it is getting quite a few looks.

[excitedofharpenden]

Claudia, thanks for taking the time to post your review and pics I STILL need to get mine developed onto disc!). Really enjoyed the read. It brought back many memories, especially the zip-lining and Oscar.:) He does like to make sure he gets in the photo, doesn't he?

 

Looking forward to your port stories.

 

Phil

[tawcat]

Thanks for the review. we are doing this cruise in april. looking forward to it.

[PescadoAmarillo]

Snowey, thanks for the great review. Reading it brought back great memories, as we were on that cruise, and the one following it also. I agree with all your comments, except that we did notice quite a few carpet stains (no tears, though) and more disappointing (because it is so easily remedied) were the burnt out light bulbs in many places on the ship, and the lounge chairs that were broken on day 1 of our first cruise and still broken on day 12 of our second cruise, despite reporting them to guest services.

 

However, we had the most wonderful time. The food and service we got in the Orion Restaurant were the best we've had on 15 cruises (Kemal was our outstanding waiter on the second cruise, and Nino was almost as good on our first cruise). Every dinner became a 6 course meal as Kemal had a cheese plate on the table when we sat down. And for both cruises, I had steamed broccoli served to me with my entree (that's a GOOD thing!) and a bowl of mixed berries with whipped cream for dessert every night. Amazing service. I really don't like the layout of the buffet in older ships (I like stations rather than lines) but the food was very good, and the waffles WERE amazing, as you said. Unfortunately, I continued to eat my usual healthy breakfast of yogurt and cereal PLUS a waffle once I discovered them. Also great was the made to order pasta at lunch in the buffet.

 

I missed Princess's fresh water pools, although I did the obligatory swim in the pool while we were in the Canal to get my certificate stating that "I Swam in the Waters of the Panama Canal".

 

I was really disappointed in the production shows. There was no scenery to speak of, and I couldn't get over the 2 male dancers to 6 female dancers ratio for some silly reason. I did like the Adage couple and the aerialist/hula hoop performer a lot. The comedian Cary Long was too funny...I think he was my favorite show all week. I felt like he had been an observer in my 21 years of marriage, everything was hitting so close to home.

 

Celebrity really botched our back to back transition. We NEVER received a statement in our room of charges from our first cruise. We had to change rooms (our choice) between cruises, and if it hadn't been for our wonderful room stewards on both cruises, that would have been a disaster, as we did not receive cruise cards for our second cruise until after noon on turnaround day, which meant that we had to bother our new room steward to let us in our new cabin to move in, so we could vacate our old cabin. Then, at least one of us had to stay in the cabin at all times for a few hours, which was a real pain, or bother the room steward yet again to be let in. We were never given any in-transit information at all as promised. I finally saw Constas Gustas, the hotel manager, on Deck 5 and told him of our problems, and only then did Guest Services seem to realize that someone was staying over between cruises. That was when we received in transit passes to be able to go in to walk around Galveston before the next cruise sailed. So....poorly done, the worst of all our back to back cruises, but I guess they don't get a lot of back to back'ers on that itinerary.

 

Roxanna Mois, the Captain's Club hostess was pure delight. She straightened out our Captain's Club membership issues, and made sure that we were welcomed at all the special events, and, in fact, was responsible for swinging an invitation to the Captain's table on the second cruise, I'm sure.

 

Sorry, I didn't mean to piggyback on your cruise review comments, but I did, it seems, and rather than delete what I've written, I'll leave it in the hope it adds value to future Galaxy cruisers. Thanks again for your complete review. Sorry we didn't meet on the ship, but we never received an invite to a Cruise Critic party (was there one?), but we did for the second cruise. We can't wait to cruise Celebrity again, but I do want to try one of the Millenium class ships next.

[fireguy091]

When were the formal nights. Were they on sea days?

[SNOWEY]

FireGuy091: I believe they we sea days. Day 2 & 10. And the other was a sea day.

 

Phil: Yea, Oscar was fun. Looks like I am following in your itinerary. Nov is the Connie (just scored my 1st balcony) for the E. Carrib.

 

JMB410: I agree with you about liking the stations also. I gave up on getting an omlet because it was too congested when I was there. Oh well, I just had a waffle w/sour cherries. Tell you what, if I didn't read this board, I would not have known about the waffles! The station is kind of out of the way (where the covered pool is). But, we soon discovered that it was less windy on the deck back there and ate there allot.

 

Hey, lets have a picture, perhaps that will jog my memory. Check out my photos. There a few of me there. I am the one w/the blonde hair (piled up), sparkley b&W top w/the tall dark handsome husband (lol).

 

So you did back to back on the PC cruise! Wow!

[fireguy091]

SNOWEY

Thanks, we have early seating and on sea days I will be ready for a nice formal dinner by 6 PM. We are thinking about having dinner later in our suite on shore days so we can take advantage of the sushi bar a couple times. What do you think of that idea?

[SNOWEY]

I'm jealous. :D