Our First Cruise Experience
Written: Oct 29 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: smoking kept to permitted areas, great vegetarian choices
Cons: some staff members need better customer service training or personality training
The Bottom Line: As first-time cruisers, we had a wonderful time on the Galaxy.
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| etoile's Full Review: Celebrity Galaxy |
As you read this review, please keep in mind that it was written by a first-time cruiser, and I have no basis for comparison on most points. Also, I traveled with my partner, so my perspective is that of a young couple (early-to-mid 20s).
We booked our travel through Cruises Only, an online travel agency. We were on the October 18th (2004) sailing out of Baltimore, which made stops in Charleston, St. Maarten, and St. Thomas before finishing the trip in San Juan on October 25th.
Embarkation
Many reviews posted here mention embarkation, but I feel that is more a function of the ship and her crew, so I will keep this section brief. We boarded in Baltimore, which was a trying process, but once we were on the gangway the line moved smoothly. We had already been instructed to remove hats and sunglasses, so our picture-taking (for the SeaPass records) went quickly. There was a long line of crew members in the Grand Foyer, and one of them took our overnight bag and asked for our room number. He must normally work in some other part of the ship, because he walked us all the way forward on deck 5 before taking us down to deck 4, where we then had to walk all the way back to midship to reach our stateroom. We later discovered that the elevators just aft of the Guest Relations desk brought us much closer to our cabin, but he'd led us in the wrong direction.
Stateroom
When we arrived in our room, the two beds had been separated. We had expected this, because we appear to be two women traveling under separate names but sharing a room. We are actually a couple, so I took it upon myself to unplug the lamps and start rearranging the furniture to form a queen bed. As I was doing so, the cabin attendant came in and insisted on finishing the job herself, which was fine, although I felt like I should be helping! We found the room quite spacious with plenty of storage space, although the only outlets were at the vanity and in the bathroom ("shavers only" but it worked fine for my cell phone charger). I would have appreciated another outlet in the main part of the room. There are mirrors all over the ship, and our stateroom was no exception. This proved to be a bit awkward because I couldn't easily hide behind the door to hang out the Do Not Disturb sign - once I tried while wearing my bathrobe, and people walking past could see me, so I was careful after that! We had a few problems with the toilet during the cruise. At one point it appeared to have stopped functioning; Cabin Services said they would send a plumber but the problem resolved itself spontaneously so I cancelled the request. The toilet did this a few more times during the week; I'm not sure what the cause was but it wasn't much hassle.
Entertainment
I think the most fun I had on the ship was watching the TV channel that showed our GPS location on a big map! Admittedly it was only good for a few minutes of entertainment at a time, but I'm very glad they offered that channel. As for the shows...the opening night show was a special offering by Stars on Strings. We definitely enjoyed that - it's too bad they are not on every sailing! We only attended one of the shows put on by the Celebrity Singers and Dancers (what an awful name, how about the Celebrity Squad or something catchier?), a revue called Broadway Express. Being a big fan of Broadway shows, I very much enjoyed it - not all of the cast was of peak quality (both singers and dancers) but many of them were quite good. My partner and I ducked into the casino just to try it, as we have never been to a real casino before. We spent $20 between us in the five-cent slot machines, which took about an hour and a half. I was grateful that there is a section in the casino with a sign reading "This Area For Non-Smoking Slots Players" and there were plenty of machines in that section. The movies shown in the Cinema were recent, though not quite first-run, but I hadn't seen them so I got to enjoy two of them. I do wish there had been at least beverage service for the movie, though, and I don't think bags of popcorn would have been too out of reach. (Pop 'em in the microwave, dump 'em in a bag...we wouldn't know the difference!)
Dining: Orion Restaurant
I am a vegetarian, and I was delighted by the Galaxy's vegetarian menu. When we booked the cruise, I was fully expecting to have to settle for a crummy salad every night. The very first night, I asked for a vegetarian menu and received one automatically every night thereafter. I was given a choice of two appetizers and two entrees daily, all of which were appealing. For some reason only one soup and salad was ever listed, even when the standard menu contained other soups that were also vegetarian. (Fortunately my partner is not vegetarian, and alerted me to the several tasty fruit-based soups on her menu.) The desserts were quite good, and the traditional Baked Alaska night was a blast - but my partner was given an "end cut" that was much larger than her hand! Our waiter was attentive but not particularly personable; we found our assistant waiter much more friendly and even chatted with him for a few minutes when we saw him off the ship in St. Thomas. The assistant maitre d' was very helpful at all times, taking care of any issues we had that were over the waiter's head. We were lucky enough to get a table for two, which pleased us, but our assigned table was adjacent to an eight-person table that was very loud. After a few nights we realized another table nearby was continually unoccupied and in a much quieter area, and our waiter and assistant waiter helped us transition to that table for the rest of the cruise. Our bar server (who had been providing me with sodas daily as soon as we showed up) wasn't informed of the switch and left my soda on our previous table, thinking we weren't there yet, but as soon as I retrieved it and let him know he was happy to start bringing my sodas to the new table. The soda package was a very good buy for me, as I regularly drink at least two sodas at dinner and had more throughout the day.
Dining: Oasis Buffet
We had most breakfasts and lunches in the Oasis Buffet. The food was reasonably good, although at times the vegetarian selections were limited to side dishes. My main complaint is that the lines were quite long; we did figure out that there were other lines but they do not all serve the same thing - one is an exclusively pasta line. The provided drink glasses were very small, only six ounces, and the coffee/tea cups were only about four ounces. I had purchased the soda package but only once in the Oasis Buffet did I succeed in flagging down a server for a soda, and she misunderstood my order and brought me a regular Coke (I only drink diet) but never showed up again for me to ask for a replacement. The pizza and hotdogs/hamburgers station outside at the Oasis Pool (or was that the Ocean Pool?) was very convenient for me to grab a couple of slices of pizza and join my partner inside the buffet dining area.
Going Ashore
Although Celebrity is responsible for selecting contractors to run the shore excursions, they are not responsible for things like what content is available (e.g., if there's no aquarium, and you want an aquarium, they can't just create one for you) or what the weather will be like. They can, however, tell you what the weather will be. Before arriving at St. Maarten we had spent two full days at sea, and any weather reports we could have gotten for the island would have been out of date. As a result, we were clueless when we left for our excursion, and ended up getting caught in heavy rain with no umbrella or other rain gear. It would be a trivial matter for the officers to check the weather forecast and notify passengers so they can plan accordingly for the day. Actually getting on and off the ship was rather easy, although there were occasionally long lines for leaving. Dipping your SeaPass into the slot is a quick and efficient way of recording your location. Cold towels were provided for those returning to the ship, but there was no indication of whether these cost anything (until the last time I was getting back on the ship on the last day before disembarkation - that day I saw a woman ask for five towels, and they were free) so I didn't get any.
Shopping and Photography
We found the logo merchandise to be rather overpriced, but I did pick up a nylon jacket on sale that will serve me well in the fall and spring. The jewelry store was overpriced as well, but I made friends with Jennifer H. (one of the jewelers) and she was very pleasant. The liquor was normally priced for a duty-free store, and the "cheap stuff" stores was reasonably priced - jewelry was inexpensive, and sundries were moderate. The photography, though, left a lot to be desired. Our first experience came on the first formal night, when we had to wait in a long line to pose for formal portraits. We watched how all the other couples were posing, and when the photographer wanted to pose us back-to-back we declined and asked for the standard couples poses. (I did portrait photography as a hobby several years ago, and back-to-back is a standard "friends" pose.) The male photographer was quite accommodating and posed us as the other couples had posed. Later, while we were eating dinner, a female photographer was making the rounds of the tables. We heard her telling people that she was "taking pictures of couples tonight," but when she reached our table she said she was taking pictures of individuals. I realize it's not very apparent that my partner and I are a couple, but when we asked for our picture taken that way she seemed rather taken aback, though she did take the picture. On the second formal night, our formal portraits were taken by the same female photographer. She tried to get us to do the back-to-back pose as well, which we again declined, and arranged ourselves in the couples poses. Suddenly she cut our posing short, announcing that we were done, when I had been watching and knew perfectly well that the "looking into each other's eyes" pose still remained. I called her on it and said we wanted that picture as well, and she looked a bit annoyed as we arranged ourselves for it. Fortunately, by the time she came around to our table, she recognized that we were there as a couple and took our picture together without batting an eye. The Photo Gallery service wasn't very good, either. At first I couldn't find the pictures for the main seating, and I was clearly looking all over for a few minutes before I asked a staff member who told me they were on the other side of the ship. Later in the week, while I was looking at the pictures and couldn't find ours where I had left them, I asked a staff member about them and was treated very brusquely. When we had finally chosen our prints and were ready to purchase, we noticed a spot on one of them. Fortunately we got a courteous assistant that time, and she put our pictures in the queue for reprinting from the negative. They came out fine, and we bought them. The "Cruise In Review" video presented more problems. While watching a preview of it on the in-room TV channels, we spotted ourselves, but we still weren't sure we wanted to buy it. I went to the Photo Gallery and asked if the video could be purchased after the cruise was over (they mail them to your house anyway). The man there said he didn't know, but he'd check and I could come back later - "around 11:30, before we close" - for the answer. I planned to be in bed by then, but he said I could call and didn't have to visit. When I called around 11:15, I was informed that the gentleman I had spoken with earlier had just gone off duty, and the person on the phone had no idea what I was talking about. I had to call back again 20 minutes later, when he finally told me that I could call the toll-free number printed on the back of my portrait folder to order the video after the cruise ended.
Disembarkation
This was quite possibly the worst part of our cruise experience. We had placed our luggage outside the night before, of course, so we only had our hand bags to contend with. We went to the Celebrity Theater at 9:15, fifteen minutes before our appointed time, to see how things were going. One of the dancers (lovely women all) was directing people, and when she checked our sheet for Pink 1 she said she was sorry to inform us that customs was running behind and it would be at least another half hour to 45 minutes. So we checked back at 9:45...and the same woman told us it would be another half hour. We returned to our table outside the theater and read our books (it was too dark to read inside the theater), and then at 10:00 an announcement began throughout the ship. Earlier in the morning, back-to-back cruise guests had been informed that they would be allowed off the ship once all the disembarking guests had been cleared, and the expected time for that was 10am. The 10:00 announcement apologized to the back-to-back guests and said they probably wouldn't be allowed to leave until 10:15. We looked at each other and thought "that's funny..." and went back to the theater to see what was going on. Sure enough, crew members were shouting "Everyone can leave! Everyone can leave!" We headed out; fortunately the line to get onto the gangway moved quite smoothly. Everything else was a function of the port at San Juan, rather than the Galaxy, so I will close my review here.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
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Epinions.com ID:
etoile
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Location: Fairfax County, Virginia
Reviews written: 20
Trusted by: 10 members
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