TRANSATLANTIC EAST TO WEST
Review of Celebrity Celebrity Galaxy by upwarduk (12 Jun 06)
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Overall Rating
Jackie & Adrian’s Tranatlantic Cruise
Rome to Galveston 17.-31 October 2005
Rather long I am afraid.
We walked from Beweley’s hotel where we stayed overnight, to Terminal 3 at ManchesterAirport ( about a ten minute walk with heavy cases on a trolly). There was a huge queue when we arrived at the BA desk, so we asked one of the airport staff to help us check in on line, which we could do as we had an E- ticket and a credit card with us ( to verify who we were.) We then had to check our luggage in and both cases were slightly overweight, but we did not incur a surcharge- fortunately.
We had a good flight from Manchester to Rome, leaving 40 minutes late, but arriving on time. The lady pilot did a good job.
There were some wonderful views across the Alps; I hope the views that I took look as good as I think they will.
The transfer to the ship went smoothly; the Celebrity rep at the airport searched for us by the luggage carousel and as soon as we had found our luggage, it was loaded on to a wagon which transported it to the ship . We were escorted to the first bus to transfer us from Rome to Civitavecchia where we embarked . The embarkation process was smooth as we had already filled in an Express Check In form on line; but so had most of the occupants of the bus..
We were shown to our mid-ships cabin 4080, and then we made our way to the Oasis café where they served lunch which was very welcome as we had only had a croissant and coffee on the plane.
We then had a tour of the Aqua Spa . I signed up for the Thalassotherapy sessions at a favorable rate for the 2 weeks. I thought that if I did that it would ensure that I got plenty of exercise for my knee, which had recently been replaced.
Tuesday- 2 sessions in the computer lab, one a hands on session about organizing photos, and another about digital photography( mainly as info for husband, Adrian) but I did pick up a tip or 2- different ways to do the same process; especially as they had lap top computers, but which are set up with a mouse. We signed up for 2 Excel courses, for the beginning of the 2nd week.
Wednesday
We arrived in Malaga at 10.30 am to find that Celebrity’s sister ship ’Century’ was already docked. We were the first tour to be allowed off the ship and were away in good time for our trip to the Alahambra Palace. We arrived in time for a 5 course lunch.I could not believe it, as course after course was served.
At 2 pm we were allowed to go off for our visit with an Alahambra guide, who was excellent. He knew a great deal of information. I took loads of pictures as we might never pass that way again. We were the envy of one couple from Texas ( who had spent the previous cruise on board visiting the Greek Islands) because we live so close to all the ancient civilizations . I had never thought of it like that before. They apparently can drive for 13 hrs and still be in Texas.
We completed the visit with a very short visit to a tiny book shop, but there were so many people in it that it was impossible to get to the counter , so I left without buying even a guide book .
Thursday
Another sea day. We went to a lecture by John Maxtone- Graham, entitled \'Titanic Survivor\'. It was very interesting and also understandable as the lecturer had been educated at Sedburgh public school ( North Yorkshire) He had not lost his British accent even though he has lived in New York since the late 30’s. He is very interested in cruising and has also published other books including one for Cunard on QM2
Adrian ended up buying his book- Titanic Survivor.
Friday
We docked in Madeira early and were one of the first for breakfast. We were off the ship by 09.00 and took the shuttle bus into Funchal, where we visited the market , which being Friday was very busy with locals who had taken their fruit & vegetables in to sell .It was a colourful display , especially the flowers. We then went on to the Cable car station where we saw some of our table companions who we had advised to take the toboggan run. We ourselves walked into the old town, then back tracked and ended up at Blandy’s where we bought 2 small bottles of Madeira wine ( for Christmas possibly)
Lunch at the Red Lion ( opposite the Carlton Madeira hotel where we have stayed in the past) We then spent 2 hrs sitting on their loungers by the garden pool , reading and sleeping. We had an excellent view of the harbour and the ship, which we returned to by foot in good time for sail away at 6pm.
Unbeknown at that time, the Captain left the ship in Madeira to fly to Miami, for a conference.
6 SeaDays.
Saturday- Thursday
Plenty of time to get some computer classes taken. Adrian attend his first ‘Adobe Elements’ class , but I have taken it before. Unfortunately ‘setting up a web site’ was not available, although advertised ,so we are both took Excel.
We had some very high winds most afternoons. Sunday was the worst, causing water to slash out of the swimming pool; I would not attempt getting in with the movement of the ship.
I also had problems with my camera. They started on Sea Day 4 ( we were just south of Bermuda) when I was given a message to say ‘ corrupted disc.’ I took the “full’ disc out of the camera. I had the same message with the new disc, so took it to the computer lab, where they showed me how to format it. This initially seemed to be the solution, but overnight another problem surfaced- when we turned the camera on, it turned itself off. Another trip for help, this time to the photo shop. This resulted in them charging my battery in the lab through a transformer; it was thought that it might be that the battery was not fully charging due to 110 volts on the ship instead of 240v which we have at home. This did not solve the problem, so they decided to ask the manager. He had a good look at it ( by this time the battery was working, after having sat in a tray all day, but the cards were still giving the same information) He re-formatted the memory cards and took 3 images & apart from problems with the first image, all seems to be OK. WERE the problems caused by the Bermuda triangle? It remains to be seen.
Friday-Nassau
We booked a short 2hr trip to Nasssau and Paradise Island as we were only supposed to be in port until 2pm. However the evening before we arrived , we were informed that we would not be visiting KEY WEST so we would not leave until 6pm. We therefore returned to Paradise Island on the ferry and spent more time at the Atlantis complex. It had a money feel about it, quite different from down town Nassau which was bustling with people from 7 cruise ships- 2 Celebrity, Century & Galaxy, 2 Carnival, Fantasy & Inspiration, Disney Wonder, Zuiadam ( Holland America) and a small ship from the Imperial line, Royal Empress. We enjoyed our time on land, but were glad to return ‘home’ by 4pm.
As time restrictions prevented us from visiting any other island we set sail once again for another 2 sea days. By this time I was feeling very lazy and only attended the 2 final lectures
by John Maxtone –Graham. An extra lecture had been added, ‘The Telephone Book.’making 9 in all.
The only way to Cross 1-4
Titanic Survivor
Liners to the Sun 1-2
Tales for Travelers
The theatre was full every day. John’s lectures were so popular and amusing, all delivered without a note, but he did occasionally read excerpts from his books. He is also cruising on the Millenium in November ,for her Transatlantic repositioning.
Food
We choose to have breakfast served in the Orion restaurant every morning. That way we hopefully did not over eat and we met a large number of people, but we went to the Oasis café for our lunch, as we found lunch was protracted if we ate in the restaurant. The food was excellent, could not fault anything. We did not attend any buffets ,as we were on late sitting.
We were seated on a table of 8 in the evening ,all the other occupants were American, which initially was rather daunting as they spent the first night talking about baseball- we understood nothing. However the next night we were asked to explain the game of cricket, so the ice was broken. We spent many an informative evening, with a writer, a pilot and a travel agent and her husband. The other couple moved tables, they had asked for a table for 2 when booking. We were treated like royalty by our waiter Laze & his assistant Alana, who had just joined the ship from the Millenium.
Disembarkation
This was a protracted exercise, as the ship had entered the US from Europe. We had booked a 4 hr tour of Galveston City. This ended up lasting for 1 hr only, before being taken to the airport via Nasa ( we only passed by on the road) All people on the tour were unhappy that we had not been allowed off the ship sooner.
I must say that it was our only cause to complain during the 2 week cruise. I e-mailed Celebrity tonight expressing my concern and we were refunded £45, but I suspect that was because we had already paid for airport transfers in our fly cruise package. We were told on the ship that transfers were free as we had the flight package, however aftre my written complaint, we were refunded the money, probably because we met people at the airport who had their money refunded- good PR for Celebrity.
Our flight home was long, especially as we were delayed by a thunder storm in Houston. This meant that we missed our connecting flight from Gatwick and had to wait 4 hours for the next one ( Nov 1st – Winter schedule, less frequent flights!)
I am wondering about cruising from Britain in the future, as have been put off by the long flights.
Upwarduk ( Jackie Calverley)
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