Celebrity Cruise Line
Galaxy
Panama Canal

Phyllis

Embarkation: Score 99%
We needed additional luggage tags, so I used our color copier and made extras. These worked perfectly. We checked 5 suitcases and 1 case of bottle water. We arrived at the Port of Galveston at 12:45. We were dropped off by a friend, so we didn’t utilize their parking facilities. Through security, (no line) and then in line to check in . Suite line was empty so we walked right up to the counter. We checked in with our Express Pass, we handed the agent our ID document, our signed Express Pass and our credit card and waited 5 minutes for processing. We received our Sea Pass card and headed onboard. A quick welcome aboard photo and then we were on the ship. Cool bubbling glass of champagne on the way to the elevator! We went straight to our cabin to drop off our carry-ons and then we headed out down to the Oasis Café for lunch. Our luggage arrived in our cabin at approximately 3pm.

We had read lots of mixed reviews about the condition of the Galaxy. In a word, beautiful! The public areas of this ship were beautiful. Of course, if you looked hard enough you could find a stain on a chair or a ding in a piece of furniture…but the Galaxy shows as well as any M-class ships. There exterior of the ship is where you see her age. This did not detract at all from the beauty of the ship. Our cabin was great. The balcony was huge (not cutout like some of the Sky Suite balconies). The jetted full size tub was nice and there were 17 drawers in this cabin!!!!!!!!!! Plenty of room for anything you want to bring. The hallways and elevator foyers of the ship were warm. All other areas were cool and comfortable. We were seated on the lower level of the dining room in the middle of the dining room, so we had a great view of the entire dining room.

Ports: Score 99%
Cozumel – we were the first ship back to Cozumel after Hurricane Wilma. We had priority tender tickets (suite amenity). My husband and I were the first passengers off the first tender and were treated like royalty. In addition to meeting with the mayor and governor, we rec’d a weeks vacations in Cozumel! We tendered to the ferry pier at the Downtown Plaza area. This city has been devastated, but they are rapidly recovering. We has a great day at Paradise Beach ($12 cab ride for four each way) and then shopped downtown before tendering back to the ship.

Costa Maya – this is a 5 hour stop and since we had been there before, we chose to use this time to buy some tshirts and other souvenirs.

Costa Rica – we toured with Charlie Soto at okeydokeytours@hotmail.com. The highlight for us on this tour was Ziplining at Brisas. We highly recommend this. It requires some upper body strength to harness on to the cable, but other than that – just about anyone could do this. It was great. We did a tour of the canals, had lunch at a beach, visited an animal rescue center and then stopped in town to purchase some coffee and souvenirs.

Panama Canal – we elected to go fishing on the ship’s excursion. Great time, beautiful lake and we caught several Peacock Bass fish. We met the ship back at Colon terminal and did some shopping there.

Jamaica – we went to Doctor’s Cave beach ($4 per person cab ride each way) and soaked up the sun all day!

Grand Cayman – we elected to go on the Spanish Reef Resort excursion. That was a mistake. We had expected to be on a beach were we could wad in the water. This was a reef and there was no beach access to water unless you were snorkeling. We chose to leave this resort as soon as we got there and went to the Public Beach at 7 Mile Beach. Great beach, beautiful water and great weather.

Extras:

Butler – we had Elvis who was just returning for a new contract on the Galaxy. He was splendid and we relied on him for information and room service.

Spa – we did visit the spa and used the Thalassotherapy pool (free for suite passengers). This was great and very relaxing. We also booked a couple’s massage in suite (actually on our balcony). This was by far the coolest massage ever on a ship!

Casino – we visited here nightly…but alas all we did was donate!

Nightlife – this was the single downside for this entire cruise. Spent several nights in the disco talking to the DJ – since he was the only one there! The average age of cruiser was so high, that the disco was deserted most nights.

Dining Staff – the food was good and the service was good. We’ve had better service before on Celebrity but did as a whole we thoroughly enjoyed each meal. We ate in the Oasis café each day on board for lunch, usually a sandwich and salad. We had our Butler deliver breakfast to the cabin each morning – this was terrific, especially when we had breakfast on the balcony as we sailed through the Panama Canal.

Disembarkation – we received priority disembarkation. We arrived at the Cinema at 9am as instructed and were immediately escorted off the ship. We collected our luggage and hailed a porter. We waited in a long line for about 20 minutes to go through Customs and then we were standing outside the terminal waiting for our ride.

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