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Name: Dave Bastos
Email: dbastos@ameriech.net
Age: 49
Occupation: Controller
NumberOfCruises: 4
TravelAgent: No
Ship: Celebrity-Galaxy
SailingDate: 2/28/98
Itinerary: Deep Caribbean
FoodDiningRoom: 95
CruiseDirector: 70
CabinComfort: 85
FoodRoomService:
CruiseStaff: 85
CabinAmenities: 85
FoodLidoDeck: 90
DiningRoomService: 80
CabinQuietness: 90
FoodMidnightBuffets: 90
CabinSteward: 60
ShoreExcVariety: 80
FoodVariety: 90
DeckService: 95
ShoreExcValue: 80
GoodForHoneymoon: 90
CasinoStaff: 85
PrivateIsland:
GoodForFamilies: 75
LoungeService: 90
TenderService:
GoodForSeniors:
BeautySalonStaff: 90
EntertainmentLounges: 90
WheelchairAccess:
ExerciseFacilities: 80
EntertShowLounge: 70
OverallPortsofCall: 85
BeautySalon:
EntertainmentPoolside: 90
CruiseActivities: 85
Casino: 90
AirSeaProgram: 95
MedicalFacilities:
ShipCleanliness: 90
EmbarkDisembark: 95
DiscoNightclubs: 90
DeckSpace: 95
Stabilization: 80
ShopsOnBoard: 80
SpaceRatio: 95
OverallCruiseValue: 85
Submit: Submit Review
Date: 23 Mar 1998
Time: 21:59:52
Remote Name: 206.141.246.229
Remote User:
Comments
I’ve never found a cruise I didn’t like, and this was no exception. We were
celebrating our wedding anniversary and a
couple of significant birthdays and were not disappointed with the experience. On the
other hand, Celebrity did not
measure up to the reviews and our expectations from most of the research we had done while
investigating our choices.
From all I read, until recently, I expected the Celebrity Galaxy to be a cut above any
cruise experience I had previously.
We’ve been on Costa and Royal Caribbean. All of the reviews I had seen until a couple
of months ago raved about
Celebrity. Within the last few weeks, I started to see some disappointing reports and,
after our return, I must concur.
Could it be that Royal Caribbean has attempted to change the product so quickly that it
has lost the core competency
that contributed to the success of Celebrity? Before the cruise, I didn’t think that
was possible, but I did not experience a
five star cruise from my perspective. We all tend to draw comparisons to prior
experiences, and although this was a
wonderful cruise, I would probably rank the overall quality of experience very close to
the trip we took on Grandeur of the
Seas last year. By the way, we are taking a cruise next year with our children and their
significant others (10 people in
all ranging from age 18 to age 50, single and married) and were looking for the perfect
line to satisfy all of us. Celebrity
is not it, but we would welcome input from anyone since we want to book soon for June
1999.
Let me summarize some of the very good impressions as well as the not so good:
Food, a most important component of any cruise, was very good. Most impressive were the
lunches in the dining room,
the buffets in the Oasis Cafe, and the midnight buffets in general. Although the food at
dinner was wonderful, the service
detracted from the experience somewhat. I’ll talk more about that more later. Lunch
offered wonderful selections at each
meal and service was always great. Since most lunches were open seating, we got to meet
many new people at each
sitting. By the way, the passengers were the most pleasant we’ve met on any cruise
we’ve taken. We’ve always preferred
the buffet lunches, but each time we ate lunch on board this cruise, except one, we made
it a point to get to the dining
room. Most buffets I’ve experienced on other ships seemed to be the same food
arranged a little differently each night.
On the Galaxy, the buffets were actually unique with great quality and presentation. By
the way, the food presentation
was excellent everywhere that we ate on the ship. The Grand Buffet, although wonderful,
was probably comparable to all
the others I’ve seen.
Dining room service at dinner was somewhat of a disappointment. Carlos, our waiter, and
Isasis, our busboy, were great
and tried to be responsive, but the entire dining room staff seemed understaffed and, as a
result, there always seemed
to be mass confusion. It took five days and a discussion with the headwaiter, Nuree, to
get ice coffee for three of our
tablemates every night. Nuree, by the way, was one of the highlights of the cruise. He
checked with us on a regular basis
and always corrected any problem immediately. He did what we needed him to do as a
headwaiter. Many of them want
to entertain or shmooze to impress and secure their gratuity. Nuree wanted to ensure that
we received good service.
Entertainment, at least in the main show lounge, was the worse I’ve seen. Sorry, but
all of their production shows
seemed to be the same. Seems like Celebrity came up with a cast of characters and tried to
build a show around them.
They focused on the technology and not the talent. I never figured out how Chinese
Acrobats and a U.S. Gymnast fit into
the production shows. We attended the first production show, left after ten minutes of the
second, and struggled through
the third, standing and ready for a quick exit. We missed the jugglers, although some
people said they were quite good,
and did see the variety show with the comedian (fair to good), the guitar player/singer
(should have quit with the guitar)
and a third act that escapes my mind at this point. Okay, but not the quality I expect on
a cruise line of this stature.
Quite frankly, I prefer good entertainers to the glitz, glamour and technology of these
production numbers. The deck and
lounge entertainment, on the other hand, was very enjoyable. Of special note, was Voltz,
the multi-talented group that
seemed to be everywhere and were wonderfully versatile. They did 50’s, country, rock,
reggae and just about everything
you could imagine. We were thoroughly entertained by their performances and enjoyed
dancing to them.
The cruise director was there but not terribly impressive in any way. I guess he did the
job, but was not a factor in our
cruise experience at all.
The shops on board provided the basic necessities and obligatory shops for clothing,
liquor and jewelry. None of these
was outstanding and the upscale shops were not as nice as those we experienced on Royal
Caribbean.
The public rooms were quite nice throughout the ship and we especially enjoyed the Savoy
Nightclub. This never seemed
crowded and was always a great place to go for a quiet drink with good entertainment. We
did the martini bar once and
found that to be very pleasant. The only crowd we ever experienced was in the Ronde-Voux
lounge before the farewell
dinner. This wasn’t even bad, though. The entire ship always seemed spacious and we
often felt like we had the whole
place to ourselves.
Deck service and the entire lounge staff was great. We had always experienced deck service
and lounge staff that were
very pushy, always pushing the ‘drink of the day” or drinks in general. Not on
the Galaxy. We really enjoyed the relaxed
atmosphere and the fact that wait staff was close and responsive when we needed them, but
in the background when we
did not. Thank you for this.
Exercise facilities and the aqua-spa were both well equipped with competent staff. The
exercise program was available
and sufficient but not obtrusive (we didn’t have to endure crowds of T-shirt clad
exercise worshippers all over the ship). It
seemed that a lot of the equipment was in need of repair or in the process of being
repaired all the time.
Our room was quite pleasant and efficient. We had a veranda and I’m not sure that
I’ll ever be able to cruise again
without one. This was our second veranda and we found that the room on the Grandeur seemed
to be larger and a little
more efficient, although we liked the veranda on Galaxy better. Our tablemates were our
neighbors on both sides and
that was actually very pleasant. We would frequently visit over the balcony. I did make it
a point to rise early each
morning so that I could tape and appreciate each port as we sailed in. Really the worth
the effort.
The most disappointing thing about our cruise was the cabin service. Everything I read
said that the cabin service was
outstanding, but ours was horrible. Speaking to other passengers, we may have had bad luck
of the draw. Others did not
have such bad service, but speaking to our neighbors, they had the same experience with
our cabin stewardess. She was
very intent to experience every port every time and discarded her duties. I had to call
for shampoo and soap three
times. The sheets were not changed daily. Glasses in the room were not always removed or
changed. We left a soda can
in the room once, which was not removed. Stupid, but there was only one chocolate on one
pillow one night. The
traditional ‘I left the room and somehow it was made up when we returned’ was
not the case here. She made the room
once when we left in the morning and again when we were at dinner. Otherwise, the room
stayed as it was, no matter
what happened. She told our neighbors, who enjoyed sleeping in, that if they were not out
by noon, their room would not
be cleaned until dinner. Unacceptable, and we made our displeasure very clear in our final
review.
Ports were good and we still like St. Thomas the best. Shore excursions seemed sparse in
all the other ports but usually
adequate.
I don’t want to close on a negative note because this was a great experience and
cruise, so I’ll speak about the pre/post
cruise services. I had seen some horror stories about air/sea programs and
embarkation/disembarkation, but ours all
came off without a hitch. Our flights were direct between Detroit and San Juan without
delays, the bus transfers were
easy and quick, and our disembarkation was early and painless. No complaint here at all.
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