Just Back from the Galaxy & it was great!

[leenie29]

We were on the 11/20 sailing of the Galaxy Eastern Med and it was a great and amazing vacation. It was my husband, myself and our two boys ages 12 and 8.

I'm not going to give you a review of the ship but will tell you that for our purposes the ship was fine and the service was excellent. The beds were very comfortable. The boys didn't use the kids club at all so I can't tell you about that program. They were too exhausted by the shore excursions to do anything. Yes it is an older ship without all the fancy amenities of the newer ships but it's not the Caribbean where the ship matters more. This itinerary makes the ship more of a floating hotel than being on a cruise ship.

We landed in Rome one day pre-cruise which was great because we were able to get used to the time difference and see a bit of the city. One tour I would recommend is ICON tours' Ancient Rome Forum and the Colosseum. The guide had the boys attention the entire 3 hours and this was after an overnight flight from Newark. After the cruise we also had one night in Rome post cruise and saw the Vatican on our own. Thankfully we had a flight on Saturday because Alitalia had a strike on Friday plus there was bad weather on Friday in the states that delayed or cancelled most flights.

Re Late Seating: We did late seating (8:30 PM) which was great if you wanted to tour during the day and wanted to rest before dinner. A few of our shore excursions didn't get back until almost the start of the early seating so we were very happy that we had the later seating. I'm not sure what the early seating people did for dinner that night.

Re Formal Nights: We had 2 formal nights on the sea days and Thanksgiving was also a formal night. That formal night was a little tougher because we were in the port of Rhodes and were kinda of exhausted from walking around the town all day. Celebrity should keep formal nights in the Med to sea days because it's a more relaxing easy going day than a port day.

The itinerary is amazing ... Italy, Greece, and Turkey, WOW! We did miss Santorini due to the bad winds, which was the only disappointing thing we had (in our opinion) on our sailing but on the plus side it did give us an extra day to relax. However it meant that we got into Istanbul at 8 AM instead of 1 PM. This caused a bit of problem because Celebrity decided to turn our two day 5 hour each day Classic Istanbul Tour into a 10 hour one day tour which would have been too exhausting for many people (or those of us with kids who couldn't handle 10 straight hours touring). Enough people got angry enough to get the attention of Hotel Director and the Shore Excursion Manager that they manage to give us the option (after much discussion between the passengers and the two managers) of the 2 day tour or a 10 hour tour.

Re: Celebrity Shore Excursions. We did the Delos excursion, 2 day Classic Istanbul excursion, Ephesus excursion, Athens sightseeing and 3 hours in the Plaka excursion, and Pompeii. Two tours were excellent because of the guides, Amaryllis in Delos was amazing entertaining, very knowledgble and very funny and George in Ephesus was hysterical. My boys found him really funny and loved his tour. The rest were very good and we really enjoyed them.

Any questions?

Eileen

[Texed]

Thanks for the report.

[Arubalisa]

Thanks for your post. It is good to hear the "old lady" is still holding up well. Only a couple more weeks for us until we see her again. :)

[Sheik]

The Med is amazing and in my opinion is the Galaxy more meant for "experienced" cruisers than first time cruisers. It's a lovely ship with fantastic crew...

 

Sorry to hear that you miss one of the highlights of the cruise, Santorini. A reason to come back next year. Be aware cruising during the month October/November.These months are typically very stormy and rainy.

 

Being European and a frequent Med visitor (3 times a year), my opinion after 25 years experience about the weather is:

 

May: weather can be good, but there is a big chance to get low temperatures (20 degrees C), clouds and some rain. It's springtime, lot of beaufitul flowers.

 

June/First 3 weeks of July): Weather is getting hotter (25-30 C), sunny, less clouds, more sunhours. The characteristic is "stable weather".

 

Last week of July/first 2 weeks of August: This period can cause a lot of floods due to heavy rain and winds (called Mistral) from Barcelona to Villefranche. Also the Greece islands can get hit very hard (called Meltemi). This occurs every year, so it's hit or miss when you cruise during this period. The temperature will raise to 30-35 degrees Celsius. This period is very unstable.

 

Last 2 weeks of August/September: Temperature is getting lower (25-30 C), weather is stable. Little chance of winds and rain. When there is some rain, it's mostly for a short time.

 

October/November: Weather can get very cool (18-23 C), cloudy and rainy. The wind can be very bad in this period. These months are hit or miss. Days are getting shorter and shorter.

 

My best period?

The most stable months with very less rain, clouds and winds (and cancelled ports) is the second half of August till the first week of October. After this period it's hit or miss. Temperatures can get hot. I prefer nice weather, so it's a very personal opinion. I hope that someone will keep my post in mind when planning a cruise. ;)

[leenie29]

The Med is amazing and in my opinion is the Galaxy more meant for "experienced" cruisers than first time cruisers. It's a lovely ship with fantastic crew...

 

Sorry to hear that you miss one of the highlights of the cruise, Santorini. A reason to come back next year. Be aware cruising during the month October/November.These months are typically very stormy and rainy.

 

Being European and a frequent Med visitor (3 times a year), my opinion after 25 years experience about the weather is:

 

May: weather can be good, but there is a big chance to get low temperatures (20 degrees C), clouds and some rain. It's springtime, lot of beaufitul flowers.

 

June/First 3 weeks of July): Weather is getting hotter (25-30 C), sunny, less clouds, more sunhours. The characteristic is "stable weather".

 

Last week of July/first 2 weeks of August: This period can cause a lot of floods due to heavy rain and winds (called Mistral) from Barcelona to Villefranche. Also the Greece islands can get hit very hard (called Meltemi). This occurs every year, so it's hit or miss when you cruise during this period. The temperature will raise to 30-35 degrees Celsius. This period is very unstable.

 

Last 2 weeks of August/September: Temperature is getting lower (25-30 C), weather is stable. Little chance of winds and rain. When there is some rain, it's mostly for a short time.

 

October/November: Weather can get very cool (18-23 C), cloudy and rainy. The wind can be very bad in this period. These months are hit or miss. Days are getting shorter and shorter.

 

My best period?

The most stable months with very less rain, clouds and winds (and cancelled ports) is the second half of August till the first week of October. After this period it's hit or miss. Temperatures can get hot. I prefer nice weather, so it's a very personal opinion. I hope that someone will keep my post in mind when planning a cruise. ;)

 

Sheik,

 

Great Advice on the weather. I prefer early spring or late fall because I love cooler temps for traveling and less crowds. I had been to these places the same time 18 years ago so I knew the weather could be hit or miss.

 

Actually the weather was wonderful around 20 C (68 degrees or so) and sunny everyday except in Istanbul where it was grey and cloudy probably around 10 -15 C (in the 50's) but because you are near so much water it felt colder. The problem in Santorini was the winds that caused the roughish seas. Santorini closed the cable cars because of the winds and we couldn't tender in. The captain was wonderful and sailed slowly passed Santorini so we could see it from the ship. I had the same problem 18 years ago in Santorini and stayed on the ferry near the ferry port until we could safely dock.

 

Eileen

[Sheik]

Thank you for your post and great that you loved your cruise onboard the wonderful Galaxy. Although I prefer the newer vessels, like the Radiance/Voyager/Millennium class ships, I just love the 'older' Century class.

 

Before our cruise, I really thought I would never sail on such old ship again, but I was totally wrong!! Did I miss the royal promenade, the rockclimbingwall, the ice ring, specialty restaurants? No! And that really surprises me.

 

Oke, the ship needs a new pooldeckfloor and some new poolchairs and tables but the itinerary, the charm, the happy crew, the food, the intimity and the interior of the Galaxy is simply unbeatable. I dare to say that it was our best cruise ever! We love her. Thanks for your topic, because there are too many negative threads on this board about the Galaxy.

[leenie29]

Thank you for your post and great that you loved your cruise onboard the wonderful Galaxy. Although I prefer the newer vessels, like the Radiance/Voyager/Millennium class ships, I just love the 'older' Century class.

 

Before our cruise, I really thought I would never sail on such old ship again, but I was totally wrong!! Did I miss the royal promenade, the rockclimbingwall, the ice ring, specialty restaurants? No! And that really surprises me.

 

Oke, the ship needs a new pooldeckfloor and some new poolchairs and tables but the itinerary, the charm, the happy crew, the food, the intimity and the interior of the Galaxy is simply unbeatable. I dare to say that it was our best cruise ever! We love her. Thanks for your topic, because there are too many negative threads on this board about the Galaxy.

 

Sheik,

 

I really don't understand all the negative posts about the Galaxy either. It wasn't a war torn rust bucket in need of repair as some have described it. It's got this comfortable old friend feel to it. Yes it is an older ship but that kinda went with the "theme" of the itinerary seeing ancient ruins. I actually liked being on a smaller ship for a change especially when it came time to get off the ship (we've done NCL Dawn and Caribbean Princess) or coming back exhausted from a shore excursion.

 

Every crew member that we encountered were friendly and very charming. Some cynics might says it's their job to be that way. It might be but it never felt insincere or forced it always seemed real and caring. My youngest son who's 8 had a great time getting himself all the pizza and ice cream he could down and within a couple of days the food staff knew his preferences and name. Whenever we would bump into one of the pizza or ice cream crew around the ship they always greeted my son with a high five and by name. My older son who's 12 enjoyed talking to the crew about their families and their home countries. They were as happy to talk to him as he was to them. One person both of my kids took a liking to was Cihan the ass't maitre de. He missed his kids and my youngest was his daughter's age. Unfortunately he's off for two months but he was wonderful.

 

I also think it was our best cruise or even vacation ever. My kids loved everything about this vacation and really hated leaving. They got more out of that vacation educationally than they get in school. I can say both my husband and I hated coming home and going back to work.

 

Eileen

[lgarner]

As we will be aboard her January 2nd to the caribbean.

 

I too read some not so pleasant posts but realized that some people gripe about everything! We have been on the Zenith which is also older and we loved it. We are not picky and would rather have great service and food than the ice rink!! And since DH hates to stand in line for anythign, we really like the smaller crowd!

 

Arubalisa, I've enjoyed your info about Aruba and see you are on Galaxy soon. You aren't on the 2nd are you?

[Lois R]

Elaine, nice to see you again and glad

the family had such a good cruise:)

 

I hope you are doing well....sorry, I can't remember

your hubby's name..but I hope 2007 brings you

both good health and much happiness for the coming

year. ( wanted to say his name was Rob but might

be mistaken...)

 

One of these days I want to sail Galaxy too.....just

have to figure out when....it might be a good choice

for a 50th birthday cruise.:D

 

Hi Lisa...hope you are feeling well:)

[Arubalisa]

If anyone would like to get some good insight into the Galaxy as a whole IMHO, Eileen and Sheik sum it up exactly.

Before our cruise, I really thought I would never sail on such old ship again, but I was totally wrong!! Did I miss the royal promenade, the rockclimbingwall, the ice ring, specialty restaurants? No! And that really surprises me.

Oke, the ship needs a new pooldeckfloor and some new poolchairs and tables but the itinerary, the charm, the happy crew, the food, the intimity and the interior of the Galaxy is simply unbeatable. I dare to say that it was our best cruise ever! We love her. Thanks for your topic, because there are too many negative threads on this board about the Galaxy.

For me last year, the Galaxy was cruise #11. Previous- Carnival, NCL, Princess, RCCL, Costa, HAL and Chandris Fantasy. Hhmm...what was that last one you say? Yes, Chandris Fantasy which later merged with sister company Chandris to become today's Celebrity Cruises. My best cruises by far had been those on Chandris Fantasy. Excellent service and food on beautiful ships, and economical. It was not until this very moment that I have put two and two together and made the connection. Somewhere, somehow, I do not know who, but someone in that corporation (managers, ship's captains?) have continued for the last 16 years to carry on the essence and philosophy of what the Chandris family believed in. THIS is what must have made me fall in love with the Galaxy the same way I fell in love with the Britanis. The Galaxy is about 3 times the size of the Britanis, but like Sheik said, "the intimity and the interior of the Galaxy is simply unbeatable". I too love her for all of these reasons as well as her fine crew.

I actually liked being on a smaller ship for a change especially when it came time to get off the ship (we've done NCL Dawn and Caribbean Princess) or coming back exhausted from a shore excursion.

70,000 GT is a good size for me. We sailed the Golden Princess and at a little over 100,000 GT, there were parts of the ship we never even saw!

Arubalisa, I've enjoyed your info about Aruba and see you are on Galaxy soon. You aren't on the 2nd are you?

Thanks for your kind words. Sorry we will not be sailing with you, our family is on the Holiday sailing just before yours. I promise we will take good care of the ship for you. Feel free to stop by our roll call. There are only a few of us who post there on a regular basis. New faces are always welcome.

Hi Lisa...hope you are feeling well:)

My dd and I are fully recovered thank you so much for thinking of me. Much better to have a ruined Thanksgiving than a ruined Christmas cruise.;)

 

[Lois R]

Hi Lisa...glad you and your daughter are doing well:)

I didn't know you had been ill......but I am glad you are better.:)

 

I was actually giving my wishes to lgarner...I guess I should

have used her screen name.....she is a Lisa too:D and we

met a couple of years ago in person.

She had been ill for a long while.....:(

and hoping she is on her road to recovery too:)

 

So I am really hoping everyone is doing well!!!

And HAPPY CRUISING TO ALL!

[Dick in Falls Church]

What Eileen omitted was that we were the last cruise ship of the season in almost every port. As a result, everything was closing as we sailed out of port, and every vendor had the very best price available, special!!! Yeah, sure.

 

It was really a very pleasant trip. Had been on the Galaxy in Feb for the Panama Canal. The only major differences were that there were some more bad panels in the upstairs lounge, and the beds were better.

 

Oh yes, and the menus had a list of items which were available at every meal--like shrimp coctail, snails, steak, salmon.

[leenie29]

What Eileen omitted was that we were the last cruise ship of the season in almost every port. As a result, everything was closing as we sailed out of port, and every vendor had the very best price available, special!!! Yeah, sure.

 

It was really a very pleasant trip. Had been on the Galaxy in Feb for the Panama Canal. The only major differences were that there were some more bad panels in the upstairs lounge, and the beds were better.

 

Oh yes, and the menus had a list of items which were available at every meal--like shrimp coctail, snails, steak, salmon.

 

Hi Dick,

 

And that we were also (except in Instanbul) the only ship in port. I forgot about that part but I'm sure I'll remember when the Visa bill comes in. My kids and I joked about my husband's non-stop buying spree (he hasn't been in any store except a supermarket in 15 years.) in Turkey and Greece. He was like a little kid in a candy store. It was lots of fun going through security with him in London on our flight back with all his extra stuff.

 

It really wasn't bad being the last sailing of the season. The ports weren't crowded at all. And the Celebrity store was selling all of it's Med clothing for 75% off which was really nice.

 

Eileen

[Arubalisa]

It was really a very pleasant trip. Had been on the Galaxy in Feb for the Panama Canal. The only major differences were that there were some more bad panels in the upstairs lounge, and the beds were better.

 

Oh yes, and the menus had a list of items which were available at every meal--like shrimp coctail, snails, steak, salmon.

Thanks for the comparison Dick. We are looking forward to the beds rocking us to sleep each night! Dd will love the every night shrimp and steak, dh will love the snails and salmon! Anyone know if they offer a Caesar Salad nightly?

[Lois R]

We were on the 11/20 sailing of the Galaxy Eastern Med and it was a great and amazing vacation. It was my husband, myself and our two boys ages 12 and 8.

 

I'm not going to give you a review of the ship but will tell you that for our purposes the ship was fine and the service was excellent. The beds were very comfortable. The boys didn't use the kids club at all so I can't tell you about that program. They were too exhausted by the shore excursions to do anything. Yes it is an older ship without all the fancy amenities of the newer ships but it's not the Caribbean where the ship matters more. This itinerary makes the ship more of a floating hotel than being on a cruise ship.

 

We landed in Rome one day pre-cruise which was great because we were able to get used to the time difference and see a bit of the city. One tour I would recommend is ICON tours' Ancient Rome Forum and the Colosseum. The guide had the boys attention the entire 3 hours and this was after an overnight flight from Newark. After the cruise we also had one night in Rome post cruise and saw the Vatican on our own. Thankfully we had a flight on Saturday because Alitalia had a strike on Friday plus there was bad weather on Friday in the states that delayed or cancelled most flights.

 

Re Late Seating: We did late seating (8:30 PM) which was great if you wanted to tour during the day and wanted to rest before dinner. A few of our shore excursions didn't get back until almost the start of the early seating so we were very happy that we had the later seating. I'm not sure what the early seating people did for dinner that night.

 

Re Formal Nights: We had 2 formal nights on the sea days and Thanksgiving was also a formal night. That formal night was a little tougher because we were in the port of Rhodes and were kinda of exhausted from walking around the town all day. Celebrity should keep formal nights in the Med to sea days because it's a more relaxing easy going day than a port day.

 

The itinerary is amazing ... Italy, Greece, and Turkey, WOW! We did miss Santorini due to the bad winds, which was the only disappointing thing we had (in our opinion) on our sailing but on the plus side it did give us an extra day to relax. However it meant that we got into Istanbul at 8 AM instead of 1 PM. This caused a bit of problem because Celebrity decided to turn our two day 5 hour each day Classic Istanbul Tour into a 10 hour one day tour which would have been too exhausting for many people (or those of us with kids who couldn't handle 10 straight hours touring). Enough people got angry enough to get the attention of Hotel Director and the Shore Excursion Manager that they manage to give us the option (after much discussion between the passengers and the two managers) of the 2 day tour or a 10 hour tour.

 

Re: Celebrity Shore Excursions. We did the Delos excursion, 2 day Classic Istanbul excursion, Ephesus excursion, Athens sightseeing and 3 hours in the Plaka excursion, and Pompeii. Two tours were excellent because of the guides, Amaryllis in Delos was amazing entertaining, very knowledgble and very funny and George in Ephesus was hysterical. My boys found him really funny and loved his tour. The rest were very good and we really enjoyed them.

 

Any questions?

 

Eileen

 

Eileen, so sorry...when I sent you and the family

best wishes, I totally got your name wrong.......

My mind was seeing it right..but typing it wrong...

so sorry.

[leenie29]

Thanks for the comparison Dick. We are looking forward to the beds rocking us to sleep each night! Dd will love the every night shrimp and steak, dh will love the snails and salmon! Anyone know if they offer a Caesar Salad nightly?

 

Hi Lisa,

 

Yes they did and I did have it every night. IMHO it was their best salad. DH tried their other salads and said the same thing. Their chocolate desserts were awesome!

 

Eileen

[Arubalisa]

Hi Lisa,

 

Yes they did and I did have it every night. IMHO it was their best salad. DH tried their other salads and said the same thing. Their chocolate desserts were awesome!

 

Eileen

Thanks so much Eileen.:D I thought I remembered it being that way, but then thought maybe just wishful thinking on my part! :rolleyes: Now I have reason number #443 to look forward to our upcoming cruise. :)

[lgarner]

Good to "see" you again. I have been watching for you on the threads but hadn't seen you in a while.

 

I am doing well - two years cancer free - praise God!! I am working part-time and going back to school. I am planning to get my Masters in counseling so that one day (two more years of school and then many hours of internship) I will be able to work with other cancer patients. It has become my dream!!

 

We are cruising soon on the Galaxy and I really am looking forward to the break from classes (midterms next week) and work!!

 

I hope you are well and maybe we can sail with you some time in the future.

 

Lisa

[FBFLORIDA]

Did any of you go to the art auctions?

[leenie29]

Eileen, so sorry...when I sent you and the family

best wishes, I totally got your name wrong.......

My mind was seeing it right..but typing it wrong...

so sorry.

 

That's okay Lois, no problem. It was a great cruise and Celebrity was just as my in-laws described it. It was a great way to end a horrible year.

 

How are you doing?

 

Thanks,

Eileen

[leenie29]

Did any of you go to the art auctions?

 

I did not but my husband did. Said they were overpriced like most cruise ship auctions. Didn't see much he wanted to buy.

 

Eileen

[Lois R]

Hi, I am well thanks and I know your 2007 has to be better

than 2006!

I didn't realize you had not sailed Celebrity before this.

So glad you had a great cruise:)

I have not been on Galaxy yet.....maybe in 2008.

[SusieV]

How was the food? We'll be on Galaxy soon and my husband is concerned at some of the bad reviews Celebrity food is getting lately.

[Sheik]

I sailed on her in September. We found the food in the diningroom comparable with Royal Caribbean. Except the Chateaubriand and lobster, that was very delicious! ;)

 

We found the food in the Oasis restaurant not as good as the Windjammer on the Royal Caribbean ships. But still very good you know :) There is less choice than on the bigger ships and I think because of the size of the Oasis restaurant and the size of the ship ofcourse.

 

Overall, food was very good, not excellent. Our wine sommelier did a very good job.

[Sheik]

I sailed on her in September. We found the food in the diningroom comparable with Royal Caribbean. Except the Chateaubriand and lobster, that was very delicious! ;)

 

We found the food in the Oasis restaurant not as good as the Windjammer on the Royal Caribbean ships. But still very good you know :) There is less choice than on the bigger ships and I think because of the size of the Oasis restaurant and the size of the ship ofcourse.

 

Overall, food was very good, not excellent. Our wine sommelier did a very good job.