First "Live Report" From the Galaxy

[NJGRANNY]

Hi Carkosh,

We got off the Galaxy on Nov. 1 - we were off the ship by 10 a.m. The only holdup I could see was that the rain was really heavy and people sort of bunched near the exit area.

We had a great cruise (love the Galaxy) and hope you do also.

[excitedofharpenden]

Carol, looking forward to your further insights and how you got on with the Two Ocean Dome Car as we are doing that one. We'll try to keep this thread up near the top so it is easy for you to find!

 

Have fun and enjoy.........................:)

 

Phil

[luv2cruise123]

Thanks for the rates on internet packages also. Nov. 25 is not going to get here any too soon for me! What time were you able to board in Galveston?

[cod]

Hi Carol, Glad to read your review but I hope you're just too busy having fun to do much of this while on the cruise! Do a full review when you get back. However, I won't get to read it because we'll be waiting to get on the day you get off! I can hardly wait. It sounds like a great time is in store for us.

[carkosh]

Hi All Again, Just finished dinner after long but very fun day at the Canal. We entered the first locks at 6 am, not 7 am when it was scheduled. Our dome train ride started at 9am instead of the published 10:15 am. Just be sure to check all you excursion times. I didn't receive any notice of the change but luckily our friends did & they informed us of the new time.

 

The dome train was alot of fun, though. I will say that I'm not sure the extra $20 was worth it. Our friends were on the regular train (they are both the same train, just 1 car is the dome car) & it is air conditioned & just as nice as the dome car. You all should have a great time no matter what car you're in.

It has rained all day everyday since leaving Casa Maya & I do hope you all will get better weather although our guide informed us today that Dec. is the end of rainy season. Hopefully it will improve as we go more north back into the Caribbean.

 

Five more nights for us & then the crying begins...LOL. I know all of you will have a great time!

 

Carol

[ecslady]

Carol -

 

Thanks so much for taking the tme to post the updates. Was the dome train worth it???

[luv2cruise123]

Did you get to see the canal locks, etc. BEFORE going on your train excursion? What about afterward? Where did you get back on the ship? Do you "miss" anything by doing this excursion the day you are "cruising" the Panama Canal?

[carkosh]

Hi All Again, We started the train excursion after going thru the Gatun Locks at 6 am. We tendered to land, got on buses to drive to Colon where the train was. (Btw, this has been our only tendering yet.) The train took about 45 min, then we met buses again at the depot & were shown the areas around Panama City. The buses took us back to the train for the ride back up to Colon. Once we got to Colon we boarded buses again for the very short ride to Cristobal Pier. The pier has a great terminal with lots of entertainment & shopping.

 

The ship does use the port's gangways which went up to the fifth deck & were very steep. Didn't bother us but there are many older people on board; don't know how they got up the gangplanks with their canes. Hopefully by next cruise they will have figured this out as I think Galaxy got alot of complaints about the steepness of the gangplanks.

 

Tomorrow is Jamaica...the captain swears the weather will be great there as it hasn't been for the last few days. No matter though, we're still having a great time...the crying starts for me in a couple of days LOL.

 

Ok, off to Bingo!

 

Carol

[luv2cruise123]

I also wish you luck at bingo! You are so nice to post LIVE! What excursions did you do in Costa Rica?

[Bookit]

Carkosh,

 

Really nice of you :) to post while onboard. I'm anxious to hear your impressions of the Galaxy. Was it up to your expectations? How do you rate the RS?

 

Sorry about the bad weather .... know that you are the seasoned traveller, and I'm sure you found many things to enjoy around the ship ...

 

A side note: Perhaps it was meant to be that we decided to cancel :rolleyes: -- SO's 85-year old mother (he's an only child) wound up having heart surgery a few weeks ago ... hospitalized twice afterwards ... I suppose he would have had to fly back home at some point during the cruise...

 

I hope we get to meet you sometime, some cruise again.

[sddiver]

Per the itinerary it should be at sea on it's way back to Galveston, did they go to Key West?? somewhere else????

 

 

Rich

[sharonfromtexas]

Would appreciate shopping tips. We'll be in RS1029 in December & your info is helping.

[chessbriar]

They are in Key West today replacing Grand Cayman. They were in Jamaica yesterday

[CanTex]

Yikees! Did it take until almost 2:00 p.m. for Galaxy to unload their previous passengers & luggage? OMG, I sure hope not, a lot of us will be missing flights home. Sure hope they get this embarking & disembarking problem fixed real soon.

We were debarking that day and the delay was mostly due to delays clearing U.S. Immigration. By 08:00 the line stretched from the theatre all the way aft as far as it could go on deck 7 (with the line doubling up in some places!) 08:00 was the time we were supposed to enter the line, but instead we went for a leisurely breakfast until the line shortened up to something more reasonable(after 09:00). We had no rush to get off as we were spending time in Houston until the next day, so we were part of the last group to get off around 11:00.

 

Further delays were caused by extremely heavy rain in Galveston and a very poorly done temporary ramp for Terminal 2 (slippery and not covered -- we were all soaked by the time we got to the terminal.) I understand they're making some major improvments for this terminal in Galveston, but there was no excuse for the crappy structure they built out of scaffolding.

 

If you have an early flight, just make sure you're in the earlier debarking groups and get to U.S. Immigration by 07:00 -- or even a little earlier.

[GATKLT]

Sharonfromtexas - Interested to see you are RS 1029 on Galaxy in December. We are in the same suite on the May 7 transatlantic, and are really excited about it. Please let us know what you think of the RS when you get back. Thanks for the info! And, we are envious that you're leaving in only a month!

 

Karen & Alex