Pamela McDonald

Age: 35
Occupation: Clerical
Number of Cruises: 2
Cruise Line: Celebrity
Ship: Galaxy
Sailing Date: April 5th, 2004
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

My experience with Celebrity was not good. I cruised on Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Seas in May of 2002 and had a fabulous experience. I assumed that since Celebrity is now owned by Royal Caribbean, I would enjoy another fabulous cruise. This was not the case!

The crew on Celebrity's Galaxy is so overworked that they truly do not have the time or energy to socialize with the passangers the way that they should. It is no fault of the overworked crew, but something that needs addressed for the benefit of the passangers. The atmosphere was not nearly as warm as it could be.

The food was not good. The main dinner was not worth dressing up for. The breakfast and lunch buffets were basically the same every day. They did have a "mexican lunch buffet" one of the days that was no better than Taco Bell.

The swimming pools were filled with ocean water at the boarding port in Baltimore. The air temperature in Baltimore that day was 45 degrees. The water was not much warmer. It took 4 days for the water to get warm enough for my restless 10 year old to be able to swim.

The pool was like a hold that you had to climb down into. My 67 year old aunts had a very hard time even getting their feet wet. It was impossible to get any other body part wet without falling in.

The pizza and hamburger place next the pool area may have been a nice thought but what about the french fries laying all over, stepping in ketchup, flys and general unsanitory conditions? It was hard enough to find a lounge chair on the small crowded pool deck. Now you have to find one without food all over it.

What happened to the delicous tropical drinks that the crew used to bring to you? I tried 1 pina-colada after standing in line for it and it wasn't good at all. It tasted like a coconut slush puppy.

The ship looked like it was built in the early 80's. I was shocked when I learned that it was built in 1996. My grandma had a hair dryer just like the one in my cabin (the one with the long hose). The handle got so hot I had to wrap a washcloth around it to dry my hair.

We went to Charlston S.C. for our first excursion day. It was beautiful. When we went to reboard the ship at 2:30pm, we noticed that it had gone out to sea without us. We were confused because we were not required to rebourd until 4pm. A crew member finally informed us (as well as 200 other stranded passangers) that the Galaxy did not have approval from the US Coast Guard to dock in Charlston and was ordered out to sea. The good news was it would return at 7pm to pick up the stranded passangers. My 65 year old aunts both had oxygen tanks in their cabin on the ship which did the no good in Charlston. They were in no condition to walk around Charlston so we sat in the terminal for almost 5 hours. My 10 year old was extremely bored, but didn't compain too much.

As a reward for our patience in Charlston, the captain gave everyone on the ship free alcoholic drinks for 1 hour. I had already scheduled an appointment for that hour so it was not very satisfying to me. My 10 year old son didn't enjoy the "Happy Hour" either. The only thing guest relations could say was "there's nothing we can do about it".

Final Comment: Don't choose Celebrity!

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