Home

Cruise Lines

Ports of Call

Reviews

Answers

News

Photos

Spirit of Adventure Cruises | Holland America Cruises | Yachts of Seaborne Cruises | Voyages of Discovery Cruises | Other Cruise Lines

The Smooth and the Rough
Reviewed By: Gresham, Bridlington on 1st Dec 2008
Cruise Line: Celebrity Cruises	Times cruised before: 10+
Cruise Ship: Galaxy	Sailed: November, 2008
Destination: Mediterranean	Age: 65+

Our first with Celebrity, the Galaxy, Eastern Med. Living in the North is a disadvantage, 243 miles to get from home to Heathrow, so we stay overnight at Crown Plaza, plus up to 15 nights car parking. Booked through an agent it's cheaper than the parking cost alone. Nice flight with BA and at Rome airport Celebrity staff were on hand in the baggage and luggage went straight from the carousel onto porters' trollies and next saw the bags outside our stateroom. This was spacious with window overlooking the bow. Any further forward and we'd have been sitting on the anchor chain. Fine in good, smooth seas but uninhabitable in the rough. We liked the ship, lots of areas with small tub chairs where you can relx and converse, with or without a drink also fine lounge areas, especially the large forward lounge overlooking the sea. Something the large, newer ships seen to have forgotten, having gone for the large central 'shopping malls' and neglecting the fact that many passengers don't want to promenade up and down day and night but just like to sit and read or chat to new found friends. Galaxy's two tier restaurant featured impeccable service and good food well presented, but not the silver service that we might have expected for a 5 star reputation. We don't normally do excursions and on this trip we could walk ashore at the ports we wanted to visit. Very nice theatre ambience with usual American style small glass-topped tables so you could rest your drinks while watching the shows. The resident dancers were excellent, the headline acts just fair. An accomplished pianist who played almost everything double speed to show virtuosity, a guitarist who did the same and an American comedian whose patter was comprehensible probably only to the US passengers. In-cabin TV was over endowed with staged 'interviews' with various sales and other staff, while the weather forcasts were only very briefly about what was expected at the next port so when we did run into seriously bad weather there was very little information available except through infrequent PA announcements by the captain - and these were not broadcast in the cabins so you had to be in a public area to hear them. All was smooth until leaving Santorini when progressively through the night the ship ran into increasingly rough seas, bouncing and shaking us up and down so it was impossible to sleep. By morning it was very difficult even to stand up in the cabin so I managed to convince my wife to move into a lounge area in the centre of the ship where we stayed all day. The captain reported the seas were 30 to 35 feet (10 metres plus) and had reduced speed to only 7 to 8 knots, later announcing that we would have to miss the call in Naples and sail directly back to Civitavechia. That evening was the second formal night and farewell dinner which we were told was very poorly attended, as so many passengers were seasick and/or remained in their cabins. By late evening the seas had become less violent and we returned to the stateroom and ordered sustenance through the clever interactive TV system. Although time had been promised for an evening excursion to Rome or a vist to Civitavechia we were held up because a Costa cruise ship was being repaired having sustained damage in the bad weather and we were not able to enter the port until late evening. Departure day had us up for early breakfast and reporting to the theatre at 8 am then straight ashore to find our luggage to take this to the waiting coach for Rome, arriving at 9.15am. Celebrity staff on hand with (free) trollies, good. However at the BA check in desk we were told that we could not check in until 2 hours before our flight time at14.55, a wait of another 3 hours, not so good. This is a problem with the posh end of the industry, chuck everyone off first thing, whereas the Thomson and Island lines welcome you to stay on board and tailor your coach departure time to your flight time so you aren't hanging about for hours in an airport. Overall we like Celebrity and hope to cruise with them again - so long as they continue to have ships with sea-view lounges instead of 'promenades'! My wife liked the casino, won US$740. I liked the fact they send you round a note asking if you'd like to add the tips to your account or pay them yourself - now that's 5 star!
Quality of Food
Daytime in the Buffet, evening in the main restaurant
Entertainment
Best the resident dancer group, worst the comedian
Shore Excursions	n/a
N/A
Staff
Dinig and Cabin staff equally good
Children's Facilities	n/a
N/A
Onboard Activities	n/a

Cabins
Spacious and sparkling clean
Overall Rating

Report this review

ASK A QUESTION

COMMENT ON THIS REVIEW

Comment by Michel, Drepano, Argolida (03 Dec 08 09:43) about this REVIEW.

We were on this cruise and would agree with many of this passenger's comments. However, I disagree with his view on 'silver service' in the restaurant. The best restaurants in the world do not really offer silver service (go to Gordon Ramsay, for example and you get your meals already plated up) as this tends to lead to a cold meal, so most meals are served already plated on hot plates.

ASK A QUESTION

COMMENT

Report this comment

Comment by John, Ryde (02 Dec 08 11:53) about this REVIEW.

Can you tell me the da te of the bad weather? Was it Friday 21 November?

ASK A QUESTION

COMMENT

Report this comment

Comment by Gresham, Bridlington (02 Dec 08 14:12) about a COMMENT by John (02 Dec 08 11:53)

After leaving Santorini late evening on 21st in smooth seas actually it most likely began to worsen in the early hours of Saturday 22nd and lasted all day until late and gradually calmed down through the night into Sunday as we sailed towards Civitevechia.

ASK A QUESTION

COMMENT

Report this comment

Comment by John, Ryde (02 Dec 08 16:14) about a COMMENT by Gresham (02 Dec 08 14:12)

Thanks for the prompt reply. We were going in the opposite direction leaving Civitevechia at 6.30 pm on our way home. We sailed down eastern side of Sardinia where we had hurrican winds of up to 80mph for over 3 hours. Interestingly the wind was hitting us side on from the Italian coast. We had a superb day on the Sunday (approaching Gibraltar on the way home) but ran into another storm sailing up the Portugese coast. Ony a force 11 gale this time but head on, and lasting the best part of a day and a half. We were very interested in your review of Galaxy.Most helpful.

ASK A QUESTION

COMMENT

Report this comment