Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Just back from the Galaxy 12/17-12/29 Christmas cruise!

Live_2_cruise05

By Live_2_cruise05,
in Celebrity Cruises

Recommended Posts

canderson

canderson

Posted
Posted
WOW! What a wonderful Christmas cruise! I will try to put up a review later. If you have any questions just ask! I will be happy to answer!
Just curious -- when you arrived at the pier for embarkation, did you see all of us from the 12/5 cruise STILL waiting around in the rain at the pier for transportation, or did you arrive pierside later on in the day? We gave up on the shp's buses at 12:20 and found alternate transportation. There were still hundreds huddled around when we left.

 

Apart from that, the one before you was great as well.

 

Hope your disembarkation went better than ours! Did it finally warm up in Galveston by the time you got back?

 

Who were the "special guests" on your cruise?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Live_2_cruise05

Live_2_cruise05

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Yes I did see you all! It was bad that day! Our disembarkation was an hour late due to something about the U.S Immigration, but other then that it was fine. It was actually hot today! Well Dr. Ruth was one of the special guests on our cruise. I can't think of the others at this time. Oh in Costa Rica that we almost left a group of people! They where running up on the pier when we where sailing away! All the sudden we saw a small tug come up beside us and it was those same people! It was a quite funny site to see, but I bet that was a bad experience!

 

I will post pictures later!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Vistadeck

Vistadeck

Posted
Posted

We had a great time as well. It was our first Christmas cruise and it was a treat. I thought the Captain Club Hostess, Melanie was delightful and did a great job keeping the Captain's Club folks happy. Laura, the future cruise consultant has to be the most knowledgeable we've met onboard an X ship.

 

We loved playing trivia, especially the Battle of the Sexes.

 

Over the years it seems Celebrity has made a big leap forward on lecturers and enrichment and much more to occupy those on board. I remember when sailing on a Celebrity ship meant you had to mostly entertain yourself, now the line has gone all out to provide a solid and varied schedule of events throughout the day.

 

Everything was great! I always had a smile on my face around the ship, so many nice and cheerful people - both staff and passangers. Since we only had an hour and a half drive home from the port, I asked for some breadsticks to take home :) We're munching on them now with tonights dinner, alas its only 2 course tonight :)

 

Tina and Stephen

Link to comment
Share on other sites
canderson

canderson

Posted
Posted
Wow! What a wonderful cruise. The food was great, service was outstanding and all the CC people were a lot fun!:) Back home, and reality is highly over rated.

 

Enjoy!

Kel

Something we noted is that the quality of the production shows was noticably better than we had recalled from any number of our recent cruises. That's when I recalled that we'd been sailing on M-Class ships for a while after our initial introduction to Celebrity on the Galaxy. The M-Class shows are done through an agency in Nashville. The shows on the C-Class ships are handled through another agency in Miami, and seem to be tighter and with somewhat better talent.

 

Anyone from your cruise noted this difference?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
canderson

canderson

Posted
Posted

Forgot to ask -- did they ever get the automated wake-up service working? It was broken (systemwide, not just our cabin) the cruise before yours, but I was really impressed that there was almost no delay when calling the CR desk every night to ask for the wake-up call. Either everyone else brought travel alarm clocks, or they were doing an amazing job down there handling the phone traffic.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
kelmac

kelmac

Posted
Posted
Forgot to ask -- did they ever get the automated wake-up service working? It was broken (systemwide, not just our cabin) the cruise before yours, but I was really impressed that there was almost no delay when calling the CR desk every night to ask for the wake-up call. Either everyone else brought travel alarm clocks, or they were doing an amazing job down there handling the phone traffic.

 

canderson,

 

No, the automatic wake-up system never worked and it took the TV automated system four days to get going. It was really a zoo in Galveston the day you guys disembarked; that, coupled with the weather, three ships in Port, all made for an interesting day. From our side the only difficult task was getting to the ship with all the traffic. Took our Hertz shuttle about 30 minutes to get from the office to the port. Check in was a breeze--about 10 minutes and we were on the ship.

Just a few minor setbacks, but over all, an outstanding cruise!

 

Celebrity is still number one with us!:D

 

Enjoy!

Kel

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Live_2_cruise05

Live_2_cruise05

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Yes, there was quite a few kids on board. I heard someone say about 400, but am not sure if that was a right amount. They have a kids club on board as well. Although my 5 year old didnt take part in it all the kids that did looked like they had fun! There where many activities for them to do 24/7!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
BABYJOSIE98

BABYJOSIE98

Posted
Posted

My Guy and I are looking at getting Re-married(dont' ask) "lol" Anyway we are wanting to do a wedding in Key West and Celebrity stays in port longer than some of the other lines. I was wanting make sure that our Daughter would enjoy the ship.

 

I may have to check into this!!

 

Sounds like there are plenty of kids aboard.

 

Thanks again,

Michelle

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Glendakayself

Glendakayself

Posted
Posted

We are on the 1/21/06 cruise and our rollcall thread noticed that you guys did not go to Mo Bay even though you were on a 12-night cruise, and the brochure lists that as one of your stops. If my calculations are right, you would have visited there on Christmas Day. We were just curious as to why that port was excluded from your schedule. Glad you had a great time and looking forward to your review!

Thanks,

Link to comment
Share on other sites
944cruiser

944cruiser

Posted
Posted
Hey I was wondering, did any of you guys see those people we almost left in Costa Rica? That was a funny but horrible sight!

We watched the whole thing from deck 12. There appeared to be hundreds of us watching from the railing as those folks ran up the pier. They spoke to someone on the pier and then ran away - the next thing we saw was the tug with the seven passengers aboard, but the funniest thing was watching all of us on the railing - as the tug passed in front of our bow we all ran to the other side of the ship to watch them board the ship from the tug.

 

Later in the cruise, during the Q&A session with some of the ship's officers, that issue came up and they explained that there is very little time lattitude available to the ship in Limon since they have to be at a designated place by 3:30 am to enter the canal on time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
RCT

RCT

Posted
Posted

We also really enjoyed this cruise very much.

 

We were a little concerned about booking a Christmas cruise, figuring the ship would be overrun with kids. However, Celebrity must have a pretty good kids program, because they were not all that obvious. Those that were around were well behaved, for the most part. I would definite recommend this cruise to anyone, with or without kids.

 

We really weren't disappointed about not going to Jamaca, but assumed it was because of Christmas Day and the port would not be open. But we talked to some folks from another ship while in Cayman, and they did make the stop in Jamaca on Christmas. So that obviously was not the reason. Someone else thought that Celebrity is only hitting Jamaca about every other trip. Not sure what the real story is about that.

 

Rick & Janie

Link to comment
Share on other sites
canderson

canderson

Posted
Posted
We also really enjoyed this cruise very much.

 

We were a little concerned about booking a Christmas cruise, figuring the ship would be overrun with kids. However, Celebrity must have a pretty good kids program, because they were not all that obvious. Those that were around were well behaved, for the most part. I would definite recommend this cruise to anyone, with or without kids.

The week before, the staff and crew were estimating about 350 kids on your cruise. They do have a good kids' program. I've heard a number of parents talk about the difficulty they have in hauling them out of the Fun Factory each evening.

 

We really weren't disappointed about not going to Jamaca, but assumed it was because of Christmas Day and the port would not be open. But we talked to some folks from another ship while in Cayman, and they did make the stop in Jamaca on Christmas. So that obviously was not the reason. Someone else thought that Celebrity is only hitting Jamaca about every other trip. Not sure what the real story is about that.

 

Rick & Janie

The latter is a function of the # of nights. The 12nt cruises are generally all scheduled for Jamaica. The 11nt cruises have to skip a port on the way home to make it back in time. Galaxy is, for the most part, alternating 11/12 nt cruises, hence, the "every other trip".
Link to comment
Share on other sites
kelmac

kelmac

Posted
Posted
we are on the same cruise April 1 and I am inhaling pictures, Web cams, etc. to fuel the daydreams till we get there ... Was Dr. Ruth one of your "enrichment speakers"? I would have LOVED to have seen her in person!

 

Yes, Dr Ruth did two talks in the main theater and was very visible throughout the cruise. In addition, there was an Astronomer and a guy from the "Antiques Road Show"--(can't remember their names???).

 

Enjoy!

Kel

Link to comment
Share on other sites
canderson

canderson

Posted
Posted
Yes, Dr Ruth did two talks in the main theater and was very visible throughout the cruise. In addition, there was an Astronomer and a guy from the "Antiques Road Show"--(can't remember their names???).

 

Enjoy!

Kel

Did your "astronomer" also do the series on Mars exploration? Was his name Kuznetz? If so, he did a B2B.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • Hurricane Zone 2024
      • Cruise Insurance Q&A w/ Steve Dasseos of Tripinsurancestore.com June 2024
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...