Mega-long review: Galaxy 4/1-4/13, Panama Canal

[trcori]

Background: This was the 7th Celebrity cruise in 3 1/2 years for my husband and I (mid-late-40s) and our 10-year-old son. Our first time on Galaxy -- our favorite ship is Mercury, which we've sailed twice, along with two cruises on Century, one each on Infinity and Millennium.

 

Itinerary: 12 nights round-trip from Galveston to Cozumel, Costa Maya, Costa Rica, partial Panama Canal, Montego Bay, Grand Cayman. I know Celebrity is only sailing this itinerary one more time this season, and won't be back to Galveston for at least a couple years, so we'll focus on the ship and the staff more than the merits of the itinerary. It's important to note we truly enjoyed our cruise BUT this time there was a lot to critique. So here goes:

 

GALAXY'S CONDITION: I'm starting with the only thing that thoroughly disappointed me this cruise, to get it right out of the way. In the past, I have been a Doubting Thomasina about those who post "Ship XX is a rustbucket," especially when I had recent experience with the ship in question. That said, I have to say that Galaxy needs a LOT of touchup work, MUCH more than any other X ship we've sailed. I heard a lot about the permafogged Stratosphere Lounge windows pre-cruise, but they are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Many other public lounges around the ship have windows in the same deplorable shape. Even worse, much of the nonskid surfacing on public decks including 8, 9, 10 aft and around the pool is horribly worn, discolored, even blackening in spots. And my eye -- usually so forgiving since I am so in love with cruising -- couldn't help but catch other flaws such as the five 2-foot strips of duct tape covering a vent over our Orion Restaurant table all cruise long. To keep it from falling? Never found out. One other noteworthy point -- a lack of attention to outside cleanliness detail. Cigarette butt buildup on open decks, etc. (Raspberries to the inconsiderate smokers who left them there in the first place, but still, a twice-daily patrol could have removed them.) Now a GOOD comment about maintenance -- the interior stairs and elevator lobbies were always sparkling, and the beautiful teal carpet was in good shape.

 

GALAXY COMPARED TO OTHER SHIPS: Surprise to us -- it's not entirely a twin to Mercury, after all. One very noticeable difference: Many of the public areas are segmented and partitioned, by design. This might have been a designer's attempt at creating intimate spaces, but to me, it meant a lot of nice views were cut off. Example -- in the observation lounge, there is a high-backed ring of tables around the dance floor, blocking any view of the windows (fogged or unfogged!) from that area. Same with the Orion Restaurant -- there is again a continuous ring of seating for the semi-booth tables that are just in from the windowside tables, and if you sit at those tables, you don't see the rest of the restaurant. Cova/Tastings has many tables behind large pillars blocking the view of the bar itself, and so on. This design theme was so common, I have to think it was intentional. Even the pool-deck dance floor is hard to see from most of the deck, hidden beside the elevated bandstand and behind the hot tubs. Very different from other ships. Also noteworthy, the Grand Foyer has more of a "grand" multi-story feel than the other C-class ships, and the garish white lighting at Guest Relations is a departure as well. It's echoed in the cream/gold decor of the Celebrity Theater.

 

OUR GALAXY STATEROOM: Thanks to Cruise Critic insider tips, we learned about the handful of inside cabins that were "family size" for the same price as the regular cabins in their category. When I read about this about 6 weeks pre-cruise, I checked on their availability -- and managed to snag one. The extra space was so nice, we didn't even miss having a window (this was our first inside cabin). However, a warning to those who might try these cabins (the furthest aft port-side cabins on Deck 8) -- the Fun Factory is right above, and the Savoy Nightclub is right below. We didn't mind the occasional pitter-patter of little footsteps very much, but the nightclub music did get a bit intense at times. Especially when the party band Fusion played down there; our entire cabin thumped to the bass lines of their songs. We got used to it fast, and we also knew about the location going in, so it was nothing to complain about (especially with all that room for such a reasonable price), but you should be forewarned, in case you are a light sleeper. Plus since it's aft, it does get the extreme docking/turning vibration, not that much trouble except for the morning we returned, with a 4:45-ish am docking. Great location aside from those minor points -- two steps out the cabin door, and you're at the door leading outside, almost as good as a balcony! As for our stateroom staff -- stewardess Silvia told us up front this was her first cruise out, and it took a few days for her to get the rhythm -- we came back from dinner on the first night and our turndown hadn't happened yet -- then I'll take responsibility for keeping her off-kilter on day 2, when I had a killer headache that kept me in the cabin all day and almost all night. Things leveled out relatively quickly after that, aside from a few little skipped beats, such as pool towels and laundry bags not being replaced, and Q-Tips not being refilled till we left the container prominently lidless in the center of the bathroom counter. One other oddity of our cabin service -- even once the cleanups got into rhythm, the ice bucket always lagged behind -- Silvia's assistant "Fritz" was always knocking on the door an hour or so later with the ice buckets.

 

GALAXY MAIN RESTAURANT: Wonderful service. As fine as our Mercury and Century cruises. Our maitre d' Dorin from Romania, in fact, is a Century veteran. He was quick to respond to any request or concern -- the first night he came by our table, our son happened to pipe up (to our embarrassment) "WHERE'S MY APPETIZER?" and Dorin ran off to expedite it himself. (Not that we had been waiting very long at all, really.) Waiter Oma and assistant waiter Dede, both from Indonesia, were always smiling, charming, and efficient -- our best waiter/assistant team since Dixon and Iwayan on our second Century cruise three years ago -- quite charming to our son, perhaps because he was the only child in sight (just 45 on the entire cruise, and none evident in our section of the Orion Restaurant during early seating). The food, unfortunately, did not quite match the excellence of the service. My prime rib on night 1 was more like pot roast, and for the rest of the cruise I decided to go with alternatives; my husband kept trying the beef and reported inferior cuts every time except for the chateaubriand. I did have some good non-beef entrees, especially the vegetable curry, and the salads and dressings were superb. By the way, if you hadn't already heard, the Galaxy has converted to the new menus, both in terms of selection and presentation (padded faux-leather folders for the menus, and some new offerings). Just to change things up, I went with the clear soups this cruise after a long run of cream soups, and those were very good, as was the ice cream, which I chose for dessert most nights -- the pastry-tray items just didn't sound as good this time around.

 

GALAXY BUFFETS: The custom waffles at breakfast have now been joined by custom pancakes -- usually one or two filled options -- available by the aft indoor pool; we were delighted to see them available even on disembarkation morning, different from previous cruises, when the "good stuff" always seemed to be shut down for that bittersweet last meal. Breakfast is otherwise the same stuff -- including the unique oval French toast -- this cruise, I particularly enjoyed the pastries, including brioche and Danish; the bakery staff on Galaxy seems to really have it together. Lunch buffets varied in their appeal, with several "themes" offered during the cruise (such as Italian, Mexican, Cajun, Jamaican, Asian); my favorite items during the cruise were the Philly cheesesteak from the sandwich/salad bar, chicken Adobo, the ribs and chicken on "American BBQ" theme day, and a sensational plum-tomato salad only offered once (I would love to have that recipe). Probably just the luck of the supplier draw, but the tomatoes were uniformly MARVELOUS this cruise.

 

GALAXY OFF-HOURS FOOD: Same expanded options X has had for a year or so -- pizza and pasta available till 1 am by the indoor pool, hamburgers/hot dogs/fries available till 7 pm by the outdoor pool, sushi cafe in the buffet zone 6-10 pm (BEST sushi we've had on an X ship yet!), ice cream now available till 10 pm, casual dining in the buffet area at dinnertime. We had two midnight buffets on this 12-night cruise -- the "Island Night" tropical fruit & sherbet buffet/deck party on night 4, and Le Grand Buffet Magnifique on night 11. Both were sparsely attended -- good in one respect because we didn't have to wait long for food, but sad because they're a lot of work. "Gourmet bites" were as usual offered in bars on other nights, and I tried room service this cruise for the first night, when the aforementioned headache kept me away from the dining room on the first formal night. The chicken-noodle soup needed salt; the cheese & crackers plate was delightful, and even the famous "not very sweet" chocolate chip cookie tasted good. (It reappeared in our box lunch during the one ship tour we took, to the Muyil Ruins on our Cozumel day.)

 

GALAXY BARS: For the first time ever, my husband had some trouble with his daily Martini Bar visit. He said one particular waiter (didn't get the name) just never could figure out that he didn't want ANYTHING in his martini -- no olive, no twist, just the hooch. This diminished his experience a bit, as the daily 5 pm martini is one of his major cruising joys. I only had a few drinks this cruise myself -- the increased prices ($4.95 even for the "drink of the day") somewhat soured me on the concept. Best bartender: The night guy at Cova/Tastings, who was charming to my son and I the few times we stopped by for coffee drinks after my husband the early-bird went to bed. Best bar experience: The night we sat near the Martini Bar, which provides full bar service to the main restaurant on Galaxy (unlike its counterparts on some other ships), and watched some bar waiter/waitress drama once all the other bargoers had gone off to the late dinner seating. P.S. The increased drink hustling noted by many other Cruise Critic post-ers in recent weeks DEFINITELY was in evidence on this cruise. On day 1 alone, in fact, while enjoying the embarkation lunch buffet, I was hit up 10 times in a half-hour by floating bar waiters pushing those "Bahama Mamas." Bar waitpeople prowled much more prominently elsewhere as well, circulating frequently through the buffet areas during mealtimes, even turning up on open decks away from the pool and buffet (especially when they found good repeat customers, like one gentleman on our deck who looked to be on his way to a five-figure bar tab).

 

GALAXY ACTIVITIES & STAFF: Rave reviews here! Best activities staff EVER, at least for our preferred games (lots of trivia, a little bingo). Activities staffer Kevin from Trinidad was the absolute best trivia leader we've ever seen -- very naturally funny and charming without even seeming to try hard at it. A close second, Mike, who turned up in bunny ears a few days before Easter. CD Shawn hosted a few trivia games too but should have stuck to the rest of his job, as he never quite toned down that classic Boss Jock DJ-esque CD personality, complete with self-deprecatory groaner jokes. Kevin and Mike also assisted at Bingo, but the games were led by activities manager Halsey, who really outdid herself with a laugh-out-loud stunt for the grand finale "the jackpot must go" game on the final day of the cruise -- she and the Bingo board made a grand entrance from the sunken pit of the Celebrity Theater stage, rising up amid flashing lights, throbbing music and a cloud of fog. What a way to start the grand finale game (wonder if she did that every cruise?). Bingo games featured plenty of fun little side promotions such as a contest for "best hat made out of old bingo cards" (the winner created a detailed cruise ship; runner-up turned her bingo cards into a stingray, tail and all). BTW, if you care about such things (we do), the trivia prizes included lanyards with SeaPass cardholders (my son and I won two of these the first night -- very handy), six-pack size coolers (can't wait to use them in the summer), travel pillows, and luggage tags. Funniest trivia moment: Kevin tried to launch a "business trivia" game one morning and had to switch to "general trivia" in the face of a player mutiny, which he handled with grace and humor even when the crowd got near-ugly!

 

GALAXY OFFICERS: CD Shawn Cavanah earned a little slack from us because he's a fellow Seattleite. Nice guy but onstage he has that cringe-inducing hyper-announcer personality that seems to infect many CDs (although Dru Pavlov, our CD aboard Mercury last August, was an exception). Captain's Club hostess Melanie Mowat was omnipresent but nondescript; the ship's Master was Captain Periklis Petridis, one of the dashing younger Captains.

 

GALAXY ENTERTAINMENT: Love the String Quartet. Can't believe the Black-n-White Duo still have a job; they remind us of Saturday Night Live parodies of the Worst Lounge Acts Ever, mumbling their way through myriad oldies. Saw a grand total of one production show --the only one that sounded interesting, since it promised the "adage duo" (Zoltan & Mercedes) and aerialist Janna -- "Elements." Very impressive. Otherwise, we skipped opportunities to see the ventriloquist, xylophonist, and keyboardist, plus the other three production shows. Movies on this cruise included "Crash," "Monster-in-Law," "Million-Dollar Baby" and a quirky British family tale called "Millions."

 

GALAXY "ENRICHMENT" OFFERINGS: My husband can't stop raving about the presentations given by opera tenor Roberto Guerrero. (CD Shawn confessed that Guerrero was a last-minute substitution for somebody else who'd canceled. Lucky for us!) I never did get around to checking out the "destination lecturer" -- missed his Mayan and Panama Canal talks, was going to go to the Jamaica talk but tech troubles canceled it (see separate entry below).

 

GALAXY KIDS' PROGRAM: As mentioned above, our 10-year-old son was one of fewer than four dozen kids on board, only a couple peers in his age group. Program manager Dave told us he'd just transferred over from Zenith a few days earlier. This was our son's first time as an "Ensign" and he was a little lukewarm on the long periods of time his tiny group was assigned to spend in the "teen disco" area near Stratosphere instead of in the Fun Factory, but the counselors got a bit more flexible later in the cruise and let him and his age-mates go back down and use the PlayStations more often. They also spent a lot of time on scavenger hunts. Notably missing: The much-touted "Celebrity Science Journeys" presentations. Didn't get a chance to ask why. Maybe because of the small number of kids? Next cruise, Dave told us, they were expecting more than 100. Also noteworthy: The "slumber party" was again only free on the last night; $6/hour 10 pm-1 am otherwise. Same charge for the "lunch party" noon-2 pm during port days; while the ship's at sea, those same hours are a "quiet time" when your kid can stay in the Fun Factory but has to be picked up at some point for lunch with family. A free "dinner party" was offered every night 5-7 pm for anyone who wanted to go have dinner sans kid/s (not us; ours is quite the seasoned dining-room veteran and grows more adventurous each cruise, trying frog legs and sweetbreads this time around).

 

GALAXY SPA: As usual, I tried only the Thalassotherapy Pool. Better condition than its counterpart on Mercury, which had temperature and maintenance issues during our Alaska cruise last summer. This one was attractive, and felt like the proper mix of salt/minerals/warmth. The pricing was a bit odd -- $120 full-cruise pass offered at the start; I didn't get there till night 4, when the confused attendant first tried to tell me I should be free at "select" level (no, I told her, not till "elite") then told me it was $89, finally called a superior and learned it was $99 for the rest of the cruise. I thought that was a bargain till the next night, when a flyer in the daily bulletin promised a $50 "rest of cruise pass" if purchased during the Day 6 stop in Limon. Oh well ... P.S. The T-pool closed early on the formal nights "for maintenance" -- 9 pm, compared to 11 pm on other nights. One missing touch -- no water pitchers in the changing room, again unlike other ships we've been on. Only in the lobby. It was kind of nice on Mercury & Century to have a glass of water right after coming out of the pool ...

 

GALAXY TECHNOLOGY: Somewhat matching the physical condition of the ship as mentioned above, the technology had some trouble this cruise. The interactive TV (room service, account-checking) NEVER worked. The outdoor music speakers on the pool deck had a horrible hum. The DVD player went down during one of the opera singer's presentations. The future-cruise-sales guy lost his audience during a presentation when the video program on his laptop refused to play. Shopping guide Julie had some PowerPoint flutters during her last big presentation on Jamaica & Grand Cayman. And the crowning moment -- after the memorable grand entrance of the bingo board before the last session, bingo boss Halsey revealed that the top two lines on the display (the B's and the I's) were burned out and would not show. BOY, I hope they got some tech help once we arrived back in Galveston. On the personal-tech front, Internet access is still 75 cents a minute so we tried to keep it down -- did find some deals in port, $2 for half an hour at an Internet cafe inside the "Business Center" at the Colon pier (waterside end of the terminal) and the VERY nice Caybiz Internet cafe near the George Town post office in Grand Cayman, $2 for 15 minutes (instead of sharing a terminal, the three of us got one each for 15 minutes of e-mail blitz -- nicest Internet cafe we've ever seen ANYWHERE, comfy leatherish chairs, fast computers, nice flat screens, good air conditioning, very plush).

 

EXTRA-COST ITEMS PEDDLED AT US: I mentioned the drink hustling earlier. Also stepped up: Photo hustling. Photographers in the dining room on night 1 (not even a formal night). We have just gotten to the point where we say a polite "no thank you" to every photo op, but we did relent on the last formal night and asked the photographer to snap our son. Checked out the pic the next day, thought about buying it -- but the price was FIFTEEN BUCKS. Not THAT great a pic. We did pony up the $30 for the DVD of the Panama Canal "experience" -- my husband was so impressed by the whole thing, he couldn't resist once he saw it was a truly custom video of THIS PARTICULAR SAILING and not just "some" Galaxy trip thru the locks. One last note: An increased number of advertising signs around the ship, including large signboards for the MBNA credit cards in the Guest Relations area and near one of the buffet exits. Ick. Also, lots of extra presentations by shopping guide Julie, including a "Coffee Tasting Seminar" in the movie theater that just turned out to be a sales pitch for a particular brand of Costa Rican coffee. Last but not least, before every port stop, crew members circulated through crowds and manned tables hawking bottles of water in special holders ($10 total) to take ashore.

 

CAPTAIN'S CLUB PERKS: This was a Reunion Cruise -- our first. Tchotchkes in the room almost every night -- thermal mugs, purse-size photo albums, "trip journals," luggage tags. Also some bonus special events -- a champagne breakfast in the Orion Restaurant (with unlimited champagne & mimosas, yum!), a "senior officers' roundtable" Q&A event, and a late-night chocolate "event" that was poorly scheduled -- 11:30 pm the night before the Panama Canal, which also happened to be a night we were asked to set the clock ahead an hour; even as much of a night owl as I am, staying up till 11:30 when I was about to lose an hour of sleep before having to get up at 5:30 (really 4:30) to see the Canal arrival, just didn't quite seem worth it. Some Captain's Club benefits also changed for this cruise -- a new coupon book for our level (Select) with only one thing that appealed to me, a coupon for a free bingo card. The "10 free Internet minutes" are gone, replaced by a coupon for 15% off packages of 100 or more minutes. During the Captain's Club cocktail party, a marketing staffer named Marilyn stopped by our table, and volunteered that these coupon books were her project, debuting this cruise.

 

WEATHER & SEAS FOR THIS CRUISE: Wonderful. Seas were occasionally choppy, never high (second-to-last sea day, once we got past Cuba and into the Gulf, probably the liveliest). Re: the weather, aside from a shower or two at sea, the only serious rain happened on our Grand Cayman day, and preceded a breathtaking lightning show at sea as we sailed northward that night. We also had beautiful moonlit nights (the moon was waxing throughout the cruise, and officially "full" by the end). Surprising sight: We knew nothing about the profusion of oil/gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, till we saw them start showing up in the afternoon of our last sea day, and in increasing numbers out the windows at dinner, then moving to twinkling (or flashing) ubiquity on into the evening. Quite a sight.

 

PORTS & PANAMA CANAL: As noted above, I've posted on the Cruise Critic port boards for the stops where we took tours -- the ship tour to Muyil Ruins/Jungle Explorer from Cozumel, private tours in Costa Maya (to Chacchoben Ruins with Ivan & David), Costa Rica (to Cahuita National Park with Euvangie), and Montego Bay (to Falmouth, Rose Hall & Doctor's Cave Beach with Chester from Barrett Adventures). We did not leave the ship on Panama Canal day; seemed like it would be a wonderful-enough experience to watch the Gatun Locks transit in both directions. And so we did; the public aft area of "our" deck, 8, turned out to be a fine place to watch -- and in fact, the return journey (when all the tour-takers were off the ship) was more spectacular than the other direction, watching the ship sink down below the tops of the doors and walls, with the "mule" locomotives suddenly towering high above. During the early morning approach to the locks, nature turned out to be more impressive than the man-made wonders -- untouched jungle on both sides of the waterway, with beautiful birds soaring overhead and the roar of "howler monkeys" rising above the sounds of the ships (we were behind Seven Seas Mariner, ahead of Coral Princess and Infinity, but watching them paled next to the fascinating sights of the container ships transiting with us in the afternoon).

 

GALVESTON EMBARK/DISEMBARK: We routinely ignore the documents' warning about "arrive NO EARLIER THAN ..." which in this case was 2 pm. Got to the dock at 11:55, had our choice of no-wait lines for either Xpress Pass or Captain's Club Select/Elite (we qualified for both), check-in took barely five minutes, and we were on. The buffet didn't open till 12:30, so we wandered around a bit. On disembarkation day, things were a little cattywhompers because the originally assigned times were all moved up an hour so the ship could get extra sanitizing after a late-in-the-cruise norovirus outbreak. We dutifully arrived in the Savoy at 8:40 instead of 9:40, as requested, but still didn't get called to leave until about 9:30. Oh well. Not a big problem. If you ever sail from Galveston and need to pick up a rental car, do note that the desks are in TERMINAL 1 -- we had to roll our suitcases a ways to get over there.

 

SUMMARY: Mercury is still our favorite ship, more for the layout and decor than because of the Galaxy maintenance issues I've mentioned above, though they are major enough that I would hope X will find a way to fix them BEFORE Galaxy's drydock next year. Passengers deserve better.

 

TR

Galaxy PC 4/1/06, Mercury AK 8/05, Millennium EC 12/04, Mercury CA-MX 4/04, Infinity AK 8/03, Century WC 3/03, Century EC 9/02

plus three childhood cruises:

Princess Carla, Mexican Riviera, two weeks in 1971

Statendam, Caribbean/South America, four weeks in 1970

Matson Mariposa, South Pacific, six weeks in 1967

[FlorenceItaly]

Thank you so much for taking the time to post. I am getting ready to book an inside room on the Mercury, and am wondering what the cabin numbers are for the larger size rooms? I had already decided on the Panaroma Deck so was thrilled to read this in your post. If you would prefer to email me off line that is fine too. My email addy is cruzcrzy@yahoo.com

It's not an email that I use very often so please let me know if that is the route you decide to go. Thanks so much for your help.

 

We live in OKC, in driving distance of the Galaxy but we have not sailed on her, and won't get a chance before she leaves. The only Celebrity cruise I have been on is the Horizon. I am excited to hear you enjoy the Mercury so much.

 

Marie

[trcori]

I don't want to post an external URL here but it shows the numbers on Mercury as 8253 and 8257 ... the three extra beds are the giveaway. Slightly different numbers from Galaxy. Have a great cruise; we will be watching Mercury come and go from our own port here all summer long ... TR

[FlorenceItaly]

for your help. I was pretty sure those were the ones, but wanted to make sure. I was able to find one number through another post, and have put a hold on the cabin. Thanks again for the wonderful Galaxy post. I have some friends sailing her later this month :).

 

Marie

[C 2 C]

Loved your review.

 

We are about to spend 4 weeks on the Galaxy starting with the Transatlantic.

 

I'm shocked at the deletion of the 10 free minutes of email time... it was about the only elite perk worth something.

 

We are also avid trivia buffs and are happy to hear that they were well done.

 

For future cruises what are the numbers of the large cabins?

 

We were on Galaxy two years ago and were shocked at her condition even then. There is no excuse for not fixing the Stratosphere window problem.

[suzeyQ]

Thanks for the review. It's too bad to hear about Galaxy's condition - we're sailing on her next April 16 - hopefully things don't go even more downhill over the next year. I'm sure we'll have fun regardless, but I'll be disappointed if the ship doesn't look nice. Great review!

[elsje]

for your help. I was pretty sure those were the ones, but wanted to make sure. I was able to find one number through another post, and have put a hold on the cabin. Thanks again for the wonderful Galaxy post. I have some friends sailing her later this month :).

 

Marie

 

Hello...another large inside cabin on the Galaxy is 1137..I will be on that one on the TA on May 6th ~ Els

[elsje]

Loved your review.

 

We are about to spend 4 weeks on the Galaxy starting with the Transatlantic.

 

I'm shocked at the deletion of the 10 free minutes of email time... it was about the only elite perk worth something.

 

We are also avid trivia buffs and are happy to hear that they were well done.

 

For future cruises what are the numbers of the large cabins?

 

We were on Galaxy two years ago and were shocked at her condition even then. There is no excuse for not fixing the Stratosphere window problem.

 

Arno..the larger inside cabins have the symbols "dot" "square" and "triangle". Mine on the TA cruise is 1137 on the penthouse deck and there are two of them on the panorama deck 8257/8253. ~ Els

[elsje]

Loved your review.

 

We are about to spend 4 weeks on the Galaxy starting with the Transatlantic.

 

I'm shocked at the deletion of the 10 free minutes of email time... it was about the only elite perk worth something.

 

We are also avid trivia buffs and are happy to hear that they were well done.

 

For future cruises what are the numbers of the large cabins?

 

We were on Galaxy two years ago and were shocked at her condition even then. There is no excuse for not fixing the Stratosphere window problem.

 

Arno. check out www.cruiseclues.com/staterooms.htm and scroll down to Galaxy or any other ship. There is a picture of stateroom 1137..hope this helps. ~ Els

[Andy]

Loved your review.

 

I'm shocked at the deletion of the 10 free minutes of email time... it was about the only elite perk worth something.

 

 

Hi C 2 C !

 

I agree. I like the 10 free internet minutes, as I have to stay in touch with my office when I am on Vacation. It comes in very handy.

 

I hope this is just an experiment.... but it is probably a way to get more $$$ out of the passengers. No big surprise there.

 

Celebrity really needs to work on the Captains Club programs. I keep hearing that some improvements may be in store soon. I certainly hope so.

[trcori]

We did tell "Marilyn from marketing" (said she was from the home office, just on board for this particular cruise) that we were disappointed with the loss of the 10 free minutes. Besides the bingo coupon, which I did use, everything else was casino match play or acupuncture/spa treatment discounts. She seemed more excited about the glossy cover to the coupon book than the contents (or lack of same). Hope they keep the free T-pool access for "elite" level -- if any T-pools are left by the time we get there -- she said a decision hadn't been made on whether they also would be removed from Galaxy and Mercury as is going to be done on Century (BWAAAAAAAA) ... TR

[Arubalisa]

There has to be some nepotism in the employment of the "Black & White Duo". They were by far the worst entertainers on any of the 12+ cruises I have taken. These guys should retire or find new careers.

[Almagetty]

Any info on when next year the Galaxy is scheduled for drydock?:confused:

 

Thanks!

[trcori]

Re: drydock -- all I heard was just "2007 sometime" -- maybe the timing will become apparent as the new itineraries continue trickling out.

 

Re: the B&W Duo -- I even passed through a lounge and witnessed one of the "performers" in an argument with a passenger --- I don't know the context as I didn't see how it started, so I can't say who was at fault, but the performer's behavior certainly did not seem at all courteous or conciliatory toward trying to resolve it in a professional manner as I would expect with employee/guest disagreements. But what actually made me laugh is that they sell CD's; we passed close by the Rendezvous Lounge stage between sets and couldn't believe our eyes. I know it's easy for anyone to make a recording these days, but if anyone actually bought one, I would be shocked ... TR

[Arubalisa]

There has been much conjecture as to when this supposed dry dock is to take place...

[crisvow]

We are booked on the 2/12/07 sailing of the Galaxy so I e-mailed Celebrity to try & find a date for this anticipated drydock. I received an e-mail back that stated the Galaxy would be refurbished on 5/7/2008.

 

I have heard mixed thoughts about Galaxy's condition, but don't think the condition will ruin our cruise next Feb. Thanks for the great review! Looking forward to the 12 day trip, even though it is MONTHS away! :-)