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#1
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Calabrity Galaxy trip report (South Caribbean)
(This ended up being much longer than I planned. Sorry for the length)
The Galaxy.... First of all, it's a Big boat. I've never been on a cruise before and I was overwhelmed at the size of it. It was interesting comparing the size of the Galaxy next to other cruise ships we docked next to during the cruise. For the most part, it was usually the biggest one around. That was until Margarita Island when we docked next to the Queen Mary II. That thing is huge. Anyways... The Galaxy crew does a great job in everything clean. Thedecks areas, restaurants, rooms and just about all public areas were always clean and staff was constantly picking up after you and making sure the the place was spotless. We were in an inside stateroom which served it purpose well. We changed clothes and slept there. That's about it since it was a pretty small room. Regardless of it's size, our stateroom attendant (Edwin) was fantastic. He was always attentive when we needed something and the room was constantly being cleaned and re-freshed with clean towels and supplies. In terms of meals, the dinners were exquisite and our wait staff was top notch. Our waiter (Mauricio) and assistant waiter (Putu) made us feel like royalty and made the whole dining atmosphere fun. Our assistant Maitre'd was attentive, but we didn't make the same connection with him as with our main waiters. Maybe it was because of the amount of patrons he had to attend to, but he spent very little time at our table. The inside lunch meals were also good, but the outside 'Oasis Grill' was kind of 'tired'. By that I mean it was mostly pizza, burgers and hot dogs and they were usually lukewarm and dry. The Oasis cafeteria (which is inside) had a better selection. They usually had a theme to their lunches. Mexican one day, Asian cuisine another and Italian another.Our group made it a contest to see who could get the 'ice cream man' to smile. There was usually a cart with one gentleman scooping out ice cream. For some reason he never seemed to smile. He wasn't mean or rude, he just never smiled which was in contrast to the rest of the crew. Nobody won the contest from our group. (Saturday) St. Thomas - 4 of us in our group decided to do the snuba excursion. That was a blast. I'm used to snorkeling so the ability to swim and and explore the ocean without having to worry about air getting into a snorkel was a welcome change. Luckily, the only people on the excursion were the four people that I was also traveling with. According to our guide they usually have around 15 people so we had a small group compared to what they're used to. Since I've gotten back home, I've already started looking into Scuba certification. (Sunday) St. Kitts - The same group of 4 took the Mountain Biking tour of the Island. This time there were more of us from the boat. In total I think there were about 20 of us. Now, I've always thought that I was in decent shape though I could lose a few pounds. That excursion did a good job of showing exactly how out of shape I am. I did OK for the first part of the trip, but I slipped back at one point and was never able to catch up with the bunch. Part of that was that I was also stopping to take pictures. I finally gave up and got a ride in the 'chase vehicle' up to the next rest area. I did OK from then out. The tour itself went though the city and out through the sugar cane fields. Overall, it was very scenic and worth the money. In the afternoon we went over to Magen's Bay. Instead of taking the ship excursion, we rented a cab for $6 a person and had him drop us off at the beach. The same driver offered to come pick us up and take us back for the same rate so we got to stay as long as we liked. The ship excusion would have cost us $22 each and we would only have been there of rabout 3 hours. While we were there, the excusrion bus departed and the beach cleared out pretty fast. Except for some local activity, we were almost on the beach by ourselves. It was very peaceful and much quieter with everybody else already heading back to the ship. On the way back, the driver stopped at some places where we could take pics of the bay from up high. I haven't gotten those pics back yet, but it was a beatiful sight. (Monday) Barbados - Kayak and Turtle adventure. OK .. this one was kind of a let down for our whole group. The first problem was when our transport vehicle was late picking us up. The bus took us to a pier where we hopped on a boat that would take us to our Kayaks. The boat ride was just plain long. Once we got to the Kayaks, we hopped in, kind of raced up the coast for 30 minutes and then hopped back on the boat. From there, the boat took us to a location where we couple swim with the Sea Turtles. As long as the ships crew was throwing food out for the turtles, they were all around us. Once they stopped (after about 15 minutes) the turtles only swam by occasionally. Overall, the whole excursion was a let down. Next time, we'll just do the Sea Turtle swim and skipped the Kayaking part. That was a waste. (Tuesday) Marguerita Island, Venezuela - We were only in port here for about 7 hours so we didn't do any excursions. We just walked off the boat to the nearby beach and relaxed in beach chairs. There is some local shopping just off the boat. It's mostly local crafts and none of the discount jewelry/watches shopping that you see over the rest of the other islands. (Wednesday)Aruba - We didn't make any plans here either, but we did grab a local taxi and hae him give us a tour of the island. I had already been here before so there wasn't really anything new to me here. We had him drop us off in the high-rise area so we could swim on the beach and soak up some sun. (Thursday) 'Day-at-sea'. That was an experience. We experienced 30 knot crosswinds and some pretty heavy seas. The ship was rockin' and rollin' for pretty much the entire day. Made for a lot of 'sick looking' passengers. My stomach was rolling for most of the day. One crew member told us that the infirmary was full from people getting sick. Back in San Juan we had to dis-embark at 9:30 but our flight home didn't leave until 5:00. We hired a local taxi driver to gives us a tour of the old San Juan and the fort. That took up a good part of the day and we waited at the airport until it was time to go back home. Overall we were more than pleased with thecruise, the Galaxy and its crew. We're already looking to see when we can schedule an Alaska trip on the Galaxy. |
#2
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Calabrity Galaxy trip report (South Caribbean)
One correction.... The Magen's Bay trip was in St. Thomas and not in St
Kitts. I was writing that frommemory and just got the locatoin wrong. B "Byron Holston" wrote in message ink.net... (This ended up being much longer than I planned. Sorry for the length) The Galaxy.... First of all, it's a Big boat. I've never been on a cruise before and I was overwhelmed at the size of it. It was interesting comparing the size of the Galaxy next to other cruise ships we docked next to during the cruise. For the most part, it was usually the biggest one around. That was until Margarita Island when we docked next to the Queen Mary II. That thing is huge. Anyways... The Galaxy crew does a great job in everything clean. Thedecks areas, restaurants, rooms and just about all public areas were always clean and staff was constantly picking up after you and making sure the the place was spotless. We were in an inside stateroom which served it purpose well. We changed clothes and slept there. That's about it since it was a pretty small room. Regardless of it's size, our stateroom attendant (Edwin) was fantastic. He was always attentive when we needed something and the room was constantly being cleaned and re-freshed with clean towels and supplies. In terms of meals, the dinners were exquisite and our wait staff was top notch. Our waiter (Mauricio) and assistant waiter (Putu) made us feel like royalty and made the whole dining atmosphere fun. Our assistant Maitre'd was attentive, but we didn't make the same connection with him as with our main waiters. Maybe it was because of the amount of patrons he had to attend to, but he spent very little time at our table. The inside lunch meals were also good, but the outside 'Oasis Grill' was kind of 'tired'. By that I mean it was mostly pizza, burgers and hot dogs and they were usually lukewarm and dry. The Oasis cafeteria (which is inside) had a better selection. They usually had a theme to their lunches. Mexican one day, Asian cuisine another and Italian another.Our group made it a contest to see who could get the 'ice cream man' to smile. There was usually a cart with one gentleman scooping out ice cream. For some reason he never seemed to smile. He wasn't mean or rude, he just never smiled which was in contrast to the rest of the crew. Nobody won the contest from our group. (Saturday) St. Thomas - 4 of us in our group decided to do the snuba excursion. That was a blast. I'm used to snorkeling so the ability to swim and and explore the ocean without having to worry about air getting into a snorkel was a welcome change. Luckily, the only people on the excursion were the four people that I was also traveling with. According to our guide they usually have around 15 people so we had a small group compared to what they're used to. Since I've gotten back home, I've already started looking into Scuba certification. (Sunday) St. Kitts - The same group of 4 took the Mountain Biking tour of the Island. This time there were more of us from the boat. In total I think there were about 20 of us. Now, I've always thought that I was in decent shape though I could lose a few pounds. That excursion did a good job of showing exactly how out of shape I am. I did OK for the first part of the trip, but I slipped back at one point and was never able to catch up with the bunch. Part of that was that I was also stopping to take pictures. I finally gave up and got a ride in the 'chase vehicle' up to the next rest area. I did OK from then out. The tour itself went though the city and out through the sugar cane fields. Overall, it was very scenic and worth the money. In the afternoon we went over to Magen's Bay. Instead of taking the ship excursion, we rented a cab for $6 a person and had him drop us off at the beach. The same driver offered to come pick us up and take us back for the same rate so we got to stay as long as we liked. The ship excusion would have cost us $22 each and we would only have been there of rabout 3 hours. While we were there, the excusrion bus departed and the beach cleared out pretty fast. Except for some local activity, we were almost on the beach by ourselves. It was very peaceful and much quieter with everybody else already heading back to the ship. On the way back, the driver stopped at some places where we could take pics of the bay from up high. I haven't gotten those pics back yet, but it was a beatiful sight. (Monday) Barbados - Kayak and Turtle adventure. OK .. this one was kind of a let down for our whole group. The first problem was when our transport vehicle was late picking us up. The bus took us to a pier where we hopped on a boat that would take us to our Kayaks. The boat ride was just plain long. Once we got to the Kayaks, we hopped in, kind of raced up the coast for 30 minutes and then hopped back on the boat. From there, the boat took us to a location where we couple swim with the Sea Turtles. As long as the ships crew was throwing food out for the turtles, they were all around us. Once they stopped (after about 15 minutes) the turtles only swam by occasionally. Overall, the whole excursion was a let down. Next time, we'll just do the Sea Turtle swim and skipped the Kayaking part. That was a waste. (Tuesday) Marguerita Island, Venezuela - We were only in port here for about 7 hours so we didn't do any excursions. We just walked off the boat to the nearby beach and relaxed in beach chairs. There is some local shopping just off the boat. It's mostly local crafts and none of the discount jewelry/watches shopping that you see over the rest of the other islands. (Wednesday)Aruba - We didn't make any plans here either, but we did grab a local taxi and hae him give us a tour of the island. I had already been here before so there wasn't really anything new to me here. We had him drop us off in the high-rise area so we could swim on the beach and soak up some sun. (Thursday) 'Day-at-sea'. That was an experience. We experienced 30 knot crosswinds and some pretty heavy seas. The ship was rockin' and rollin' for pretty much the entire day. Made for a lot of 'sick looking' passengers. My stomach was rolling for most of the day. One crew member told us that the infirmary was full from people getting sick. Back in San Juan we had to dis-embark at 9:30 but our flight home didn't leave until 5:00. We hired a local taxi driver to gives us a tour of the old San Juan and the fort. That took up a good part of the day and we waited at the airport until it was time to go back home. Overall we were more than pleased with thecruise, the Galaxy and its crew. We're already looking to see when we can schedule an Alaska trip on the Galaxy. |
#3
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Calabrity Galaxy trip report (South Caribbean)
"Byron Holston" wrote in message ink.net... Overall we were more than pleased with thecruise, the Galaxy and its crew. We're already looking to see when we can schedule an Alaska trip on the Galaxy. Another one hooked!!! --Tom |
#4
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Calabrity Galaxy trip report (South Caribbean)
The Galaxy was our first "real" cruise, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
Sounds like you did too! Thanks for sharing your trip review with us. Jeff |
#5
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Calabrity Galaxy trip report (South Caribbean)
I really enjoyed your review. Please email me about it. Thanks,
Mary "Byron Holston" wrote in message link.net... One correction.... The Magen's Bay trip was in St. Thomas and not in St Kitts. I was writing that frommemory and just got the locatoin wrong. B "Byron Holston" wrote in message ink.net... (This ended up being much longer than I planned. Sorry for the length) The Galaxy.... First of all, it's a Big boat. I've never been on a cruise before and I was overwhelmed at the size of it. It was interesting comparing the size of the Galaxy next to other cruise ships we docked next to during the cruise. For the most part, it was usually the biggest one around. That was until Margarita Island when we docked next to the Queen Mary II. That thing is huge. Anyways... The Galaxy crew does a great job in everything clean. Thedecks areas, restaurants, rooms and just about all public areas were always clean and staff was constantly picking up after you and making sure the the place was spotless. We were in an inside stateroom which served it purpose well. We changed clothes and slept there. That's about it since it was a pretty small room. Regardless of it's size, our stateroom attendant (Edwin) was fantastic. He was always attentive when we needed something and the room was constantly being cleaned and re-freshed with clean towels and supplies. In terms of meals, the dinners were exquisite and our wait staff was top notch. Our waiter (Mauricio) and assistant waiter (Putu) made us feel like royalty and made the whole dining atmosphere fun. Our assistant Maitre'd was attentive, but we didn't make the same connection with him as with our main waiters. Maybe it was because of the amount of patrons he had to attend to, but he spent very little time at our table. The inside lunch meals were also good, but the outside 'Oasis Grill' was kind of 'tired'. By that I mean it was mostly pizza, burgers and hot dogs and they were usually lukewarm and dry. The Oasis cafeteria (which is inside) had a better selection. They usually had a theme to their lunches. Mexican one day, Asian cuisine another and Italian another.Our group made it a contest to see who could get the 'ice cream man' to smile. There was usually a cart with one gentleman scooping out ice cream. For some reason he never seemed to smile. He wasn't mean or rude, he just never smiled which was in contrast to the rest of the crew. Nobody won the contest from our group. (Saturday) St. Thomas - 4 of us in our group decided to do the snuba excursion. That was a blast. I'm used to snorkeling so the ability to swim and and explore the ocean without having to worry about air getting into a snorkel was a welcome change. Luckily, the only people on the excursion were the four people that I was also traveling with. According to our guide they usually have around 15 people so we had a small group compared to what they're used to. Since I've gotten back home, I've already started looking into Scuba certification. (Sunday) St. Kitts - The same group of 4 took the Mountain Biking tour of the Island. This time there were more of us from the boat. In total I think there were about 20 of us. Now, I've always thought that I was in decent shape though I could lose a few pounds. That excursion did a good job of showing exactly how out of shape I am. I did OK for the first part of the trip, but I slipped back at one point and was never able to catch up with the bunch. Part of that was that I was also stopping to take pictures. I finally gave up and got a ride in the 'chase vehicle' up to the next rest area. I did OK from then out. The tour itself went though the city and out through the sugar cane fields. Overall, it was very scenic and worth the money. In the afternoon we went over to Magen's Bay. Instead of taking the ship excursion, we rented a cab for $6 a person and had him drop us off at the beach. The same driver offered to come pick us up and take us back for the same rate so we got to stay as long as we liked. The ship excusion would have cost us $22 each and we would only have been there of rabout 3 hours. While we were there, the excusrion bus departed and the beach cleared out pretty fast. Except for some local activity, we were almost on the beach by ourselves. It was very peaceful and much quieter with everybody else already heading back to the ship. On the way back, the driver stopped at some places where we could take pics of the bay from up high. I haven't gotten those pics back yet, but it was a beatiful sight. (Monday) Barbados - Kayak and Turtle adventure. OK .. this one was kind of a let down for our whole group. The first problem was when our transport vehicle was late picking us up. The bus took us to a pier where we hopped on a boat that would take us to our Kayaks. The boat ride was just plain long. Once we got to the Kayaks, we hopped in, kind of raced up the coast for 30 minutes and then hopped back on the boat. From there, the boat took us to a location where we couple swim with the Sea Turtles. As long as the ships crew was throwing food out for the turtles, they were all around us. Once they stopped (after about 15 minutes) the turtles only swam by occasionally. Overall, the whole excursion was a let down. Next time, we'll just do the Sea Turtle swim and skipped the Kayaking part. That was a waste. (Tuesday) Marguerita Island, Venezuela - We were only in port here for about 7 hours so we didn't do any excursions. We just walked off the boat to the nearby beach and relaxed in beach chairs. There is some local shopping just off the boat. It's mostly local crafts and none of the discount jewelry/watches shopping that you see over the rest of the other islands. (Wednesday)Aruba - We didn't make any plans here either, but we did grab a local taxi and hae him give us a tour of the island. I had already been here before so there wasn't really anything new to me here. We had him drop us off in the high-rise area so we could swim on the beach and soak up some sun. (Thursday) 'Day-at-sea'. That was an experience. We experienced 30 knot crosswinds and some pretty heavy seas. The ship was rockin' and rollin' for pretty much the entire day. Made for a lot of 'sick looking' passengers. My stomach was rolling for most of the day. One crew member told us that the infirmary was full from people getting sick. Back in San Juan we had to dis-embark at 9:30 but our flight home didn't leave until 5:00. We hired a local taxi driver to gives us a tour of the old San Juan and the fort. That took up a good part of the day and we waited at the airport until it was time to go back home. Overall we were more than pleased with thecruise, the Galaxy and its crew. We're already looking to see when we can schedule an Alaska trip on the Galaxy. --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.614 / Virus Database: 393 - Release Date: 3/5/04 |
#6
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Calabrity Galaxy trip report (South Caribbean)
Make that another six! There were six of us travelling together and we're
already discussing the next one. "Tom & Linda" wrote in message . net... "Byron Holston" wrote in message ink.net... Overall we were more than pleased with thecruise, the Galaxy and its crew. We're already looking to see when we can schedule an Alaska trip on the Galaxy. Another one hooked!!! --Tom |
#7
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Calabrity Galaxy trip report (South Caribbean)
I was happy to share. It's too hard to keep quiet when you have that much
fun. There are some pics here if interested: http://www.holstononline.com/cruise2004/ Not the best pics, but I was rushing when scanning and posting. I'll go back and clean them up one of these days. "Jeff Coudriet" wrote in message ... The Galaxy was our first "real" cruise, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Sounds like you did too! Thanks for sharing your trip review with us. Jeff |
#8
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Calabrity Galaxy trip report (South Caribbean)
Byron Holston wrote:
I was happy to share. It's too hard to keep quiet when you have that much fun. There are some pics here if interested: http://www.holstononline.com/cruise2004/ Not the best pics, but I was rushing when scanning and posting. I'll go back and clean them up one of these days. NICE! How'd you get such good photos of those turtles?? Best I got was a blue on blue shadow... -- Jaime A. Cruz Secretary Nassau Wings Motorcycle Club http://www.nassauwings.org/ http://www.popsrun.org/ |
#9
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Calabrity Galaxy trip report (South Caribbean)
I'm not sure.... I didn't do anything special. I was using one of those
cheap Fuji underwater cameras. "Jaime A. Cruz" wrote in message et... Byron Holston wrote: I was happy to share. It's too hard to keep quiet when you have that much fun. There are some pics here if interested: http://www.holstononline.com/cruise2004/ Not the best pics, but I was rushing when scanning and posting. I'll go back and clean them up one of these days. NICE! How'd you get such good photos of those turtles?? Best I got was a blue on blue shadow... -- Jaime A. Cruz Secretary Nassau Wings Motorcycle Club http://www.nassauwings.org/ http://www.popsrun.org/ |
#10
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Calabrity Galaxy trip report (South Caribbean)
Byron Holston wrote:
I'm not sure.... I didn't do anything special. I was using one of those cheap Fuji underwater cameras. You were probably able to get closer to them than I was, then. On our excursion, we didn't get FLIPPERS and it wasn't easy snorkeling in that current trying to keep up with the turtles and getting close enough for a photo... -- Jaime A. Cruz Secretary Nassau Wings Motorcycle Club http://www.nassauwings.org/ http://www.popsrun.org/ |
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