Galaxy Panama - Just Returned - Info

[canderson]

Updates and Corrections

I’ll post more complete info later, but here are a few things that may be useful in the near term.

A few things from our Galaxy 12 nt. that I’ve either misremembered from our Galaxy cruises of a couple of years ago, or things that have changed, and a few tips for this cruise:

It appears that all cabins now have Sony TV’s installed. That’s good news, as they all have front panel A/V jacks. Good for those doing digital camera picture checks or DVD players, or …

Unlike the M-Class ships, I was unable to get our “thicker” hardshell suitcases under our bed. Even located to best effect, they were raising the bed up a good 1” or so.

Unlike the M-Class ships, the exterior cam channel is not a separate channel from the channel that provides map with current location. It therefore cannot be used as a combo nightlight and clock at night.

The condition of the front windows in the Stratosphere really is pretty bad. One even had 6 inches of water sloshing around in the bottom. This is something they really need to address before the next drydock, however inconvenient, or they need to stick a couple day drydock into a schedule that is already completely full for 2006.

Disembarkation was unique in our experience on Celebrity. We were advised that we need not leave our cabin until it was time to head for our disembarkation area (will be the lounges on Deck 6 or 7). Previously, there has been a more universal “move out” time. In our case, we were about 1/3 of the way through the list as Red 4, and were not expected to leave our cabin until 9:20am. This is more in line with the way other cruise lines manage this, and was appreciated. The annoying tour through the main theater for immigration was also avoided entirely, another real plus.

Oscar Brown’s tour that includes ziplining has moved the zipline experience to another facility called Brisas (an improvement over Almonds and Corals in some respects). Also, he has moved the lunch to a very nice restaurant atop a hill overlooking the city and ocean. Again, this turns into the best shore excursion of our cruise.

The front rail on Deck 13 gets its first visitors at 5:00am, and starts to fill up by 5:30am on Canal day. However, the forward deck below (Deck 11?) was opened up just before daylight, so it may make more sense to do your Canal viewing from the railing there if you get up a little later. The view is nearly as good.

MANY of the shows for late seating guests were being held at 7:15 instead of 10:30 on this cruise. Plan to adjust your schedules accordingly.

We stayed on Central time until we left Costa Rica, losing the hour’s sleep between Costa Rica and Panama, making for a very short night indeed . We returned to Central time in the wee hours between the 1st and 2nd at-sea days on the way home.

Those of you on 11nt schedules will likely find a change to the following schedule of dinner attire as you head up to your final port before heading home, but here’s the 12nt schedule as we found it:

Galveston Departure – Casual

At Sea – Formal

Cozumel – Casual

Costa Maya – Informal

At Sea – Formal

Puerto Limon – Casual

Panama – Casual

At Sea – Informal

Jamaica – Casual

Grand Cayman – Informal

At Sea – Formal

At Sea – Casual

[melaniausa]

Thanks for your posting, it was very helpful! Just a couple of quick questions as I will be traveling this route in March: What is the name of the music duo and the pool band?

 

Thanks!

Melanie

[ronhow]

Melanie,

 

I just returned on the same cruise.

 

The duo is called Black and White duo. I found them very repetitive but they are good. Only problem I had with them is the one fella (plays guitar) sits on a stool the whole time and never even stands up!

 

The band is called Quintesence (if I spelt that correctly?). We enjoyed them a lot in the Savoy Lounge, although not very many people attending.

 

They played at the pool for very short periods of time. On a cruise where you are at the pool as much as we were because of the hot weather, I believe Celebrity does not have the bands planned out very well. Most times at the pool, there was no band and not even recorded music. It seemed very quiet at times poolside.

 

HOWEVER, it was a wonderful cruise and Celebrity did a great job.

 

If you have heard any negative comments about the condition of the ship, they are simply FALSE! She is in great shape and does not show her age. The food and service were OUTSTANDING!

 

Will write a more detailed review later.

[canderson]

Ditto to Ron's comments on general ship condition, food and service. In 12 days, I had only one meal that could have been improved -- the Osso Buco needs to be cooked more slowly and a good bit longer to get it as tender as it ought to be.

 

The only disappointment was the condition of the forward windows in the Stratosphere. For Panama and Alaskan sailings, this is a very popular location on any ship.

 

Apart from those two things, it was a typically Xcellent Celebrity cruise. I still think that Galaxy has the best decor in the main theater of any of their ships.

[ronhow]

Totally agree on the Osso Bucco....it was delicious but not as tender as it should have been.

 

I cook it all the time and make sure to cook it long enough for it to be tender.:)

[tawcat]

when we took this cruise in april, the duo that played/sang had a very good selection of dance music. how is the new duo? we are traveling with two other couples and we all dance quite a bit, belong to a dance club here in town, we are hoping not to be disappointed. thanks for the info.

[canderson]

when we took this cruise in april, the duo that played/sang had a very good selection of dance music. how is the new duo? we are traveling with two other couples and we all dance quite a bit, belong to a dance club here in town, we are hoping not to be disappointed. thanks for the info.

Black & White are exclusively country if that's what floats your boat. Then there's the DJ up in the Stratosphere, and Quintessence in the Savoy (except when they had late night pool deck duty). So you'll have three venues with different flavors.

 

I was a little surprised at what seemed (based upon prior cruises) to be less karaoke than before. They held about a 1 hour session at around 11pm on the first and third formal nights up in the Savoy.

[ronhow]

Agree with Canderson regarding Black and White Duo. They played mostly country. Occassionally, they did play something else, but I found them very repetitious and in my opinion a duo is not the right type of music for the Rendevouz.

 

We did the Summit in May and they had a wonderful 5 piece band in the Rendevouz where you could dance each night before or after dinner.

 

We did NOT dance much with this duo as their music is not condusive to dancing.

 

We found Quintessence much more enjoyable although they did NOT play at the pool much, something Celebrity should fix on a cruise with so many hot sea days. At times, there was no music at the pool whatsoever.

 

Have fun....it is a great itinerary and Galaxy is wonderful.

[Glendakayself]

What excursions do you recommend for Jamaica? We're on the 1/21 cruise. A member of our roll call has noted that the current cruise (12/17) and some others have not listed Jamaica as a port on the web cam. I did see you guys docked at what I thought was the Mo Bay pier last week when I checked the cam. I know that the cruise prior to yours was 11 night and would not have gone to Jamaica. The current cruise would have docked there on Christmas day if they followed the same schedule as listed in the brochure. What was available in Cozumel? How early can we board?

Thanks in advance,

[melaniausa]

Thanks for all the information. I believe I have seen the Black and White duo on another ship last year. They were okay.

 

One other question- Would it be safe to book a flight departing at 12:30pm at Houston Hobby? Not sure if I would be able to make that flight or not.

 

Thanks again.

[MortgageChick]

We are on the Galaxy in 10 days. I would definintely not book a 12.30 flight from Houston unless missing it would not be a big inconvenience. I think it is possible to make it, but also a good chance of not. If you have any delays at disembarkation, you know silly people who can't seem to get their act together and get their on board account settled, or customs issues, or anything out of the ordinary- you will miss it. WE had the choice of AIr Canada at 12 noon or 5pm, since missing our flight to Canada would be a huge inconvenience to us, we opted for 5pm.

[MortgageChick]

Here is one situation in which booking a 12.30 flight would not be a good move

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=267895

[ronhow]

We did dock in Montego Bay. Unfortunately, we had been there many times so we opted not to do a shore excursion. We rented a van and did some shopping and lunch and then back to ship.

 

As to a 12:30 flight, YOU WILL NEVER MAKE IT!!

 

If the pier in Galveston is anything like what we went through on Saturday, it will be very difficult for you to make that flight. We had a 2:30 PM Flight and got to the airport about 1:15 and we were lucky to even get there at that time.

 

Keep in mind, we were in a Royal Suite and one of the first to get off the ship...we were off, got our luggage and through customs by 10AM and with the chaos at the pier, it took us 3 hours and 15 minutes to get to the airport.

 

So just some friendly advice, if you can get a flight at about 2 or 2:30, I would opt for that.

 

Happy sailing!!

[canderson]

Thanks for all the information. I believe I have seen the Black and White duo on another ship last year. They were okay.

 

One other question- Would it be safe to book a flight departing at 12:30pm at Houston Hobby? Not sure if I would be able to make that flight or not.

 

Thanks again.

If you'd had that reservation on the most recent Galaxy run, you'd have actually made it. The earliest departures were met by buses (see other thread) and made it out successfully. Things didn't start to completely unravel (as Ms. Moreno asked, does anything ever "ravel"?) until about 10:00am, at which time it got very ugly. But given what I've seen of Galveston disembarkations, I don't think I'd risk it, even with an early disembarkation.

[canderson]

What excursions do you recommend for Jamaica? We're on the 1/21 cruise. A member of our roll call has noted that the current cruise (12/17) and some others have not listed Jamaica as a port on the web cam. I did see you guys docked at what I thought was the Mo Bay pier last week when I checked the cam. I know that the cruise prior to yours was 11 night and would not have gone to Jamaica. The current cruise would have docked there on Christmas day if they followed the same schedule as listed in the brochure. What was available in Cozumel? How early can we board?

Thanks in advance,

The 11nt cruises get one less port on the way home than the 12nt.

 

MOST of the tours in Cozumel were available when we arrived, with several of the other sites scheduled for opening in the week or two that followed. In particular, Xcaret was due to reopen on 12/12. Things on the island are a bit rough at present, including the golf course. We had to play three of the early holes from the forward tees due to water. The large, toothy reptiles lounging along the water hazards looked like happy campers, though. If you play the Cozumel Country Club, and you hit a ball out of bounds, just pull another one out of the bag and take your drop.

 

Things opened up for registration at 11:00, I think. I should know, I was the first one at the registration desk. It may have been 11:30, but it certainly wasn't later. Boarding started within a few minutes after that.

 

As has been our experience once before, when registration was scheduled to start, they had no network connectivity between the pier computers and Celebrity's reservation system, and they were processing everything by hand -- including the filling out of the standard hardcopy form in the cruise docs! They got that figured out after the first 20 minutes or so, but it made the "Express Pass" a waste of time for the early birds.

[Glendakayself]

Canderson, thanks so much for the great information. We are really looking forward to our cruise.

I'm glad that you confirmed your cruise did visit Jamaica last week. I've never been there and would hate to see it dropped from our schedule. The 12/17 cruise is a 12 night which was originally scheduled to call at Mo Bay, but they have a sea day listed on the web cam where Mo Bay should be on Christmas day. I'm wondering if that date might be the problem since no ships are due in that port on that day.

Thanks again,

[melaniausa]

Thanks so much for the information. When southwest releases their flight schedules I will book the later one for sure. I would hate to miss a flight and be on stand by all day.

[horselady295]

Southwest just updated the website for reservations through May '06.

 

What is Ziplining?

 

DH wants to see as much of the Panama Canal as possible.. is there a tour that goes Ocean to Ocean other than the Train Tour?

[JLDMED]

We're on the PC trip on Galaxy in Feb 06 and just booked a "Canal by Ferry" trip that came very highly recommended. They take you all the way through the canal on a smaller ship (seats about 300, I believe) and then back to the Galaxy by bus. From what I understand, the narratives by the guides are very interesting, and the small ship experience while going through the locks/Guillard Cut is not to be missed.

[TEXASMUNK]

Just curious, who is working the cigar bar on this winter's cruises on the Galaxy?

[canderson]

Southwest just updated the website for reservations through May '06.

 

What is Ziplining?

 

DH wants to see as much of the Panama Canal as possible.. is there a tour that goes Ocean to Ocean other than the Train Tour?

Ziplining -- OK, here's a website that does better explaining it than I would. This new facility that Oscar is using is an improvement.

 

http://www.brisasdelajungla.com/english/index.htm

[KathyHKidd]

What was available in Cozumel?

 

If you've been to Cozumel a dozen times and are looking for something different, I cannot recommend the cooking class highly enough. My husband humored me and took it with me, and he's raved about it ever since. He says it was one of the best shore excursions we've ever taken.

 

The chef was highly professional, and he had a great staff. We each had our own cooking station, and people were LIBERALLY supplied with free margaritas or (for the nondrinkers such as myself) soft drinks and bottled water.

 

The food was easy to prepare and tasted terrific. It was definitely restaurant quality, and it was better quality than the food in the dining room of our RCCL ship.

 

The class was held under a canopy near the water, but there were fans everywhere so it was pleasant (and I faint in the heat, so that's saying a lot).

 

The only thing you need to consider is that only 12 people can take the class per ship. You've got to sign up very early to get this gem of a shore excursion.

[horselady295]

Ziplining -- OK, here's a website that does better explaining it than I would. This new facility that Oscar is using is an impr ovement.http://www.brisasdelajungla.com/english/index.htm

 

OMG, that looks like fun! I could not find ziplining listed as a shore excursion on X's website... I assume one needs to book directly... can anyone share booking info?

 

Thanks!

[canderson]

OMG, that looks like fun! I could not find ziplining listed as a shore excursion on X's website... I assume one needs to book directly... can anyone share booking info?

 

Thanks!

None of the ship's excursions include this option.

 

You can contact Oscar (his sister Carol, actually) at cbrown@costarricense.cr

 

Ask for a list of the tours they are providing. I think you'll be wanting what they call Tour #2. Email can be strange to CR at times, so if you don't get a reply in a couple of days, resend your message.

[wrp96]

Thanks so much for the information. When southwest releases their flight schedules I will book the later one for sure. I would hate to miss a flight and be on stand by all day.

 

Take the later flight. If you get to the airport early, you can pay the fare difference and go on an earlier flight, which is what we did on Friday.