Earlier this year I decided that a cruise through the Inside Passage
might be a nice idea since the summer is so hot and humid here in
Washington, DC-a cool little getaway. We booked this cruise around
February or March and who would have known that this summer was going to
be so cool and rainy! Nevertheless, it was a wonderful vacation.
We had previously sailed on the Galaxy out of San Juan in December
1998. It was interesting to compare cruising on her in Alaska to the
Southern Caribbean. Although both were great cruises, I'd honestly have
to give the edge to Alaska based on that state's remarkable beauty.
Having a few more days at sea (two sailing the Inside Passage and �
after visiting Hubbard Glacier versus the one sea day on the S.
Caribbean route) allowed us to explore and enjoy the Galaxy more this
time without rushing around to go into a new port every day. I'd say we
got to experience the staff somewhat more again and were nearly
universally pleased with the experience.
Day One - Vancouver
We arrived at Vancouver airport after flying direct on Air Canada from
Washington, DC. It was a clear day and I enjoyed seeing the Black Hills
of the Dakotas and the Rockies and Cascade Mountains from high above in
the plane. It took a while to clear customs in Vancouver and we hopped
a cab to Canada Place. I was intrigued that Vancouver didn't have a
highway that went from the airport to downtown. It was just a regular 4
lane street with stop lights, so the ride was a good 40 minutes or so.
Getting to Canada Place, we were momentarily confused about where to go,
but stopped a Celebrity representative and mentioned the magic words
"Captain's Club" and she directed us to the right place where we
received number "0" for boarding. Boarding was to begin at 1 pm so we
walked around Canada Place for a while. The Mercury was docked on the
other side so we went and looked at her a while as well. We showed up
to board maybe 5 minutes before 1 pm and they were already on number "3"
so we went right ahead and then went to the Captain's Club check in to
do our paperwork and all that. We skipped the embarkation photographer
and zipped our way up the ramp to the lobby of the ship. There we were
met by a multitude of white gloved staff, one of whom whisked us up to
our Cat. 2 stateroom on the Vista deck.
Two years ago we had stayed in a Cat. 2 (again with a veranda) on the
Penthouse deck and liked this cabin very much. Our cabin was on
starboard side so we would see much scenery on our veranda for days to
come. The cabin was clean, and the beds were made up as a king as
requested. Our cabin stewardess was Maggie from Poland, but I don't
think we saw her at all that first day. I noticed just a tad of wear
and tear--a missing strap on one of the veranda chairs, a slight
deliberate scratch on the marble desk, a slight deliberate scratch on
the wooden headboard of the bed. Who would do such things? In any
case, they did not detract from our enjoyment of the cabin. We had some
additional paperwork waiting for us (have you sailed in the past kind of
thing) so we filled that out and we had our table assignment for
dinner--second seating on the upper level of the beautiful Orion
Restaurant. We seemingly received invitations for different parties all
week-some of which we went to and some we didn't. We dropped off our
paperwork at guest relations and went upstairs to the Oasis Cafe for the
buffet, which was good.
The lifeboat drill was at 5 pm and our station was in the Casino--sadly
the slots weren't working yet! After a demonstration of how to put on
the life jacket (in about 5 languages) we then proceeded to go out to
the promenade area in no particular order--not nearly as organized as on
Holland America I must say, but we memorized where our lifeboat was so
we could be prepared to jump from our veranda if necessary! Our
sailaway was at 5:45 so we went up on deck to watch the Galaxy pull out
of Canada place, make a big turn, and head out under the Lions Gate
Bridge--what a wonderful sight that was. At 7 pm we went up to the
Stratosphere Lounge, on deck 12 forward to meet up for cocktails with
some folks I had met on the internet. It was great meeting Alisa and
her gang from New Jersey! The Stratosphere Lounge is a gorgeous room
(in my humble opinion) which is perfect for an Alaska cruise. Huge
windows for sightseeing during the day. The cool blues of the carpet
and upholstery and the warm woods of the decor make for a very favorable
impression. It is one of my very favorite rooms on the Galaxy and I'm
glad we spent more time there this cruise.
At 8:30 we went off to dinner, table 686, in the Orion Restaurant. Our
waiter was Mario from India and asst. waiter was Kumar, also from
India. At our round table for six were a family--the parents in their
50's (?) and two sons, aged 18 and 23. They were very pleasant company
to spend the week with. Our sommelier was Toni from Croatia (I think!)
and the cocktail waiter we really didn't get to know since none of us
did cocktails at dinner particularly. Our maitre'd was John from
Columbia-he did the usual things like coordinate the anniversary cake
for Ed and Angie and freed the lobster from its tail. All I can really
remember from dinner that night was the Swan Puff at dessert (of
course!) and that I ordered iced tea at dinner and decaf with
dessert--which Kumar delivered promptly ever night thereafter without
prompting. He was great. Also that first day we met the onboard
lecturer, Phyllis, a native of Ketchikan. She was to provide commentary
over the PA system throughout the cruise and she was just wonderful,
approachable, knowledgeable, and articulate. Since we are big fans of
Celebrity's policy of few onboard announcements, this type of thing
could run the risk of being intrusive--but Phyllis' voice and manner was
so soothing, somnolent to some, but we found it quite pleasant and
enjoyable. We also enjoyed running in to her on the ship and chatting
and she happened to be sitting at a table near ours for dinner as well.
She was joined on this cruise by her daughter who was from Washington,
DC as well and we knew some folks in common--small world!
Day Two - Inside Passage
I could easily live at sea without ever visiting a port--and certainly
today was perfect proof of that. The scenery of British Columbia and
the Inside Passage is just gorgeous. Mountains on your starboard side,
mountain islands on your port side quite often. I really felt having
the veranda was worth every penny--even if it was a bit chilly out
there. Up on the outside decks they of course had nifty blankets to
wrap yourself with. Today was a sunny day and there were even kids in
the pool, and adults (and some kids) in the hot tubs. One thing I did
notice about this cruise was that the Oasis pool in the back of the ship
(the covered one) was often a popular spot for families to relax with
children splashing about. Nice to have a covered pool area in Alaska,
that's for sure. Today they had all sorts of activities as one would
imagine on a day at sea--an Alaska lecture with slides, various spa
demonstrations and fitness classes, a wine tasting, a cocktail mixing
class, movies, trivia challenges, etc, etc, etc. It was nice not having
these type of things announced over the PA. I did notice on this cruise
more signs of the onboard art auctions in the aft area of the casino,
which had hovered over the foyer to the dining room, had now been
converted to an art gallery space--which I think it is a good move. The
old slot machines that used to be there made too much noise for that
foyer space. Good move Celebrity!
We were also invited to a party for honeymooners and anniversary people
but we skipped that. They noticed we weren't there and sent us another
handwritten note inviting us to another anniversary party, which I
thought was nice of them, but we skipped that as well! Somewhere along
the way I bought a very nice flower bouquet for our cabin at a flower
stand they had set up near the shops--beautiful (and fragrant)
Casablanca lilies, white roses, and other white flowers, which I put on
the glass table near the loveseat in our cabin. It lasted the whole
week and filled our cabin with a wonderful scent. Now that it seems
both Millennium and the Infinity are going to have flower shops, and all
that, it was nice to see that they added a little something to the
Galaxy as well. I did notice the ship seemed to have more live plants
and flowers than it did 2 years ago in the S. Caribbean.
Tonight was going to be a formal night so there was the Captain's
Welcome Aboard cocktail party in the Celebrity Theater so we got all
dolled up and headed over to that--skipping (again) the photographer who
was standing there to snap your picture with Captain Iordanis Adamidis.
We headed straight for the balcony seats and a waitress promptly offered
us a selection of drinks--we took a glass of champagne each. Apart from
absolutely loving the decor of the Celebrity Theater, I also love the
bench style seating and would be appalled to see drink holders like in a
stadium on each seat and I love the little cocktail tables they have
installed there with the light coming up through the table's shaft to
the glass table top. When the tri-folded cocktail menus are put on top
of these tables they almost look like japanese lanterns or some such
thing. This type of seating is also great for nuzzling up with your
loved one during the show. I did notice some definite upholstery
cleaning that needed to be done in this room since both the seats and
the carpeting are such a light color--but it looked like they were
either doing that or replacing the upholstery and carpeting in places as
parts looked brand new. At the party the Captain introduced the staff
and all that usual stuff.
We left to go to dinner and stopped in the Rendezvous Lounge for a bit.
Every night a duo from Argentina, Loa and Piero were playing there. I
found them a bit...hmmm, how to describe it? Only semi-talented. Loa,
the lady singer, also played the bongo drums. Quite a talent I must
say. In any case, they were humorous to laugh at I suppose. If you
ever seen the movie "The Ritz", remember the character Googie Gomez and
you have a picture of what Loa is like. Far better were the acapella
group, the High Cs, and the harpist Colette, who often played up in the
Stratosphere Lounge before dinner and in Michael's club after dinner.
We went to dinner but I didn't write down what I had at all although I
will say on this cruise there was no shortage of Alaskan seafood, from
copious amounts of salmon, to King Crab, halibut, char, and all sorts of
other things. Seafood eaters seemed to be in heaven and 2 of the late
night buffets featured Alaskan seafood as their highlights. We were too
late from dinner to make it to the Broadway trivia contest at 10:15 (I
guess we enjoyed dinner) but I noticed the questions I did hear were
virtually the same as on our Horizon cruise to Bermuda last
September--which we won! Oh well, maybe next time. Tonight's show was
"Broadway Express" which was about par for the course on these type of
things. One of the white male singers started chanting in Swahili as
they started their "Lion King" numbers, which was slightly disconcerting
to me..., but it was a halfway decent show nonetheless. It just didn't
say "Lion King" to me somehow. Tonight was going to be a "Gourmet
Bites" night, which our waiter hilariously in his broken English
referred to as just "bites". Was he trying to send us a message? In
any case, we didn't stay up late after the show so we didn't get to
partake. There was a midnight champagne dance going to be held in the
Savoy Night Club but we were too pooped to party at that point.
Day Three - Juneau
The Galaxy was to dock around 10:00 am but we had no shore excursion
plans for Juneau as it seemed easy enough to wing it on our own--and we
were right. At the docks there were plenty of tour companies waiting to
entice you in one way or another. Really I think you can easily get
along in any of these ports winging it on your own. Also at the docks
was the Mt. Roberts tramway, which I would return to later in the day.
We nosed around a bit and found this bus company, Mendenhall Glacier
Transportation, which had a "Glacier Express" bus for only $5 one way.
It leaves the docks every hour on the hour and returns from Mendenhall
Glacier every half hour on the half hour. A bargain. So we nosed
around some stores downtown and returned a little bit later to get on
the bus. It's a 20 minute drive or so to Mendenhall Glacier and we went
through this wetland area where we saw a stream just jumping with
salmon. The bus pulls right up to the Forest Service facility at
Mendenhall Glacier where you can get a nice brochure outlining some
hiking paths and things of that nature. So we spent some time there
looking at the glacier and hiking around. It was really spectacular and
we enjoyed it. Didn't see any calving of the glacier into Lake
Mendenhall but that was ok. The Forest Service facility there was
pretty decent and we paid the $3 to go look at the modest exhibits about
glaciers. A modest sum to help support one of our national park areas I
think. The gift shop seemed rather well outfitted with interesting
things rather than the usual tourist junk. We caught the bus back into
town and decided to split up and go our separate ways.
Robert walked over to the Alaska State Museum, which he enjoyed, and I
went up the tramway to Mt. Roberts. He wasn't wild about the concept of
getting on the tram! At the top of the tram, which I guess is about 2/3
way up Mt. Roberts there are a number of trails to follow, including one
that goes near the top of the mountain. Not being particularly inclined
to climb upwards, I decided to hike down the trail back into town. They
had warning signs about some bear sightings, and they warned that the
trail down was physically challenging and that hiking boots were
recommended. In short, they were right! It was definitely physically
demanding! Downhill sounds easy doesn't it? Well imagine going
downhill like a mountain goat!! That trail was STEEP in places, and
muddy too in parts. But honestly, I thought it was a heck of a lot of
fun, it was off the beaten path of the tour buses, and I got to see some
nature up close and personal. In short, I greatly enjoyed it. This was
one of our few truly clear days but in the forest it was rather shady.
Nonetheless I had to take off my sweat shirt as I was getting a very
good workout going downhill. Along the way I saw some nice plants on
the forest floor, including wild blueberries (I thought I'd save them
for the bears!) and the 2 mile trail took me about 1.5 hours, just as
the sign said at the top. I would not recommend this trail for small
children or anyone who is not in decent physical shape. Along the way I
met a Juneau resident, I would say a late 50's male, who stopped and
chatted for a bit. He was somewhat surprised to see a cruise passenger
on this trail! In any case, I felt good about doing a non-tourist thing
and went on my way. I must say, the sounds of helicopters sometimes
rudely intruded upon the peace and quiet of my forest journey--I
certainly sympathize with the folks in Juneau who don't like all of the
noise these things sometimes generate. At the bottom of the mountain
the trail comes out at 6th Street and you have to walk a bunch of wooden
stairs to get onto a paved street as Juneau's streets sometimes become
stairs! I was quite hot and sweaty by the time I finished (next time
I'll definitely wear shorts!) and so I went to this building downtown
that had a bunch of stores in it (and an internet cafe) to go use the
restroom and at least wash my face--I wanted to look semi-respectable
for a little shopping. After nosing around the stores a bit I went back
to the ship--truly exhausted by my hike-everything from the soles of my
feet to my lower back ached for several days.
That night was an informal night at dinner and the ship wasn't going to
sail until 10:45, so if you wanted to eat dinner in Juneau or knock back
a couple beers in town you could. We ate onboard and went to the
"Ultimate Trivia" after dinner, which we won! We got little metal
Celebrity key chains. The show tonight was Jacob Konviser, "From Russia
With Love", who I guess was some sort of violinist. We ended up going
to gamble instead! They held some sort of Tropical Swing Dance party in
the Savoy Night Club but we skipped that as well.
Day Four - Skagway and Haines
We were slated to arrive in Skagway this morning. Did I mentioned we
tended to eat breakfast and lunch in the dining room--which were open
seating on port days and assigned seating on sea days. We enjoyed this
very much and I generally don't like buffets--too cafeteria like, as
nice as the Celebrity buffets are. We often managed to get out of the
dining room in � hour for breakfast and 45 mins for lunch. You don't
have to order everything on the menu after all! In Skagway we only had
plans to take the White Pass and Yukon Railroad in the afternoon so we
took the morning to walk around town which seemed to be like a well
preserved frontier town that it was. We stopped by the National Park
Service building to pick up some self-guided tour brochures and were off
on our way-although they lead free walking tours nearly every hour. It
really is very small and easy to see on your own. Soon it began to
rain...a little at first and then harder. Robert got a bit soaked but I
had an umbrella. At some point we decided we had seen enough and didn't
need to buy any tourist junk so we walked back to the ship for lunch
knowing our train ride would be in the afternoon.
After lunch we went to the train--which was parked right by the docks
and climbed aboard. Many of the cars are restored cars from the "olden
days" and others are reproductions of period cars. They were nice
enough and I marveled at the woodwork and design of the cars. While
still in Skagway you passed an old cemetery, and the railroad yards
where you could see some old cars and steam engines. Soon we began our
climb into the mountain and although it was still rainy and somewhat
foggy I must say it was spectacular. I often stood out on the train
platform between the cars to take pictures. When you looked down you
were often looking straight down a high cliff--not for the vertiginous!
I guess all told the train ride was 3 hours or so total and quite well
worth the money we thought. If it were a clear day I would have
entertained doing the shore excursion that involved a ride up in the
train and a ride back downhill by bicycle, but not in the heavy rain
like today. That is one advantage to not "booking up" to early--you get
to see what the weather is like and what your mood is like that day.
At 6 pm or so we sailed away for Haines, which is only about 15 miles
back down the Lynn Canal. We decided to hop upstairs to the
Stratosphere Lounge for a good view. This was a room which was very
well utilized on this Alaska itinerary. It was like having a big
picture window on all that spectacular scenery. The bar staff was also
friendly and efficient. Since it was still pouring out we didn't decide
to go into Haines that evening and just hung out and prepared for
dinner. Tonight (and last night) which were both late nights in port
there was alternative dining available by reservation up in the Oasis
Pool area. Not wanting to miss the wonderful experience of the Orion
Restaurant we did not bother with alternative dining on this cruise and
I didn't hear of anyone who tried it. Often during dinner our table
mates described their adventures during the day, which we enjoyed. They
also seemed to enjoy the Aqua Spa treatments quite a bit, which I
skipped this time around as I could not find my bathing suit while
packing!
Day Five - Hubbard Glacier
There are actually 2 glaciers to be seen today--Hubbard Glacier, which
is the star, but right next to it is Turner Glacier as well. Hubbard
Glacier is the largest tidewater glacier in the world--6 miles wide and
300 feet high above the water. It is a big sucker! I very much enjoyed
the morning sail through Yakutat Bay to get to Hubbard Glacier. Having
the veranda once again was a pleasure as I ordered coffee and hot
chocolate (out of a packet, sadly) to enjoy out on the veranda as I
watched the scenery go by. Such a marvelous unspoiled place. Like a
chilly Lost Horizon! Nearing noon we started pulling up to the face of
Hubbard Glacier (and watching the Nieuw Amsterdam pull out--what a
graceful old gal! This must have been one of her last trips to Alaska
under the Holland America flag!) We spent a good hour or so right at
the face of Hubbard Glacier and it really is breathtaking. It had been
a somewhat misty rainy day but it cleared up for some sunshine at the
glacier itself. We watched it calve numerous times and then Captain
Adamidis turned the ship around so the port side could get a good look
as well. This is when I ran upstairs and went up on deck to watch it
some more. It truly was special. While the Galaxy does not go to
Glacier Bay, I began seeing this cruise to Alaska as a first visit
rather than the last, so I figure we'll get to see Glacier Bay as well
one day. We began our sailaway and it was nearing lunch time for us
second seating people. The narration which Phyllis provided today was
especially interesting and welcome.
The rest of the day there were the usual sorts of activities, but I
think I found a cozy space somewhere and continued reading my book.
Robert, who discovered Tastings several days ago, would settle down
there and have an espresso or two, which he said was the real thing,
unlike at the Java Cafe on the Rotterdam. In the early evening was a
repeaters cocktail party in the Savoy Night Club, where I enjoyed a
glass of champagne and chatted for quite a while with the cruise
director, David Cole. David was our cruise director last September on
the Horizon and while I find all cruise directors to be overly peppy and
fairly cheesy, I must say I enjoyed talking to him greatly and he seemed
much more genuine in person, of course. That must be such a hard job I
can't even imagine! There's not enough caffeine in the world for me to
do that job! The Savoy Night Club is a beautiful room-very art deco.
Went there for drinks a few other times but wish they had the Celebrity
Orchestra there to play some old standards rather than the "all purpose"
band they had there most of the time. They were fine as others seemed
to enjoy them.
Somewhere along the way I went down to guest relations to pick up an
Infinity brochure and a brochure for the Mercury sailings in South
America. The Infinity looks like it will be a stunner. Before dinner
we stopped by the Celebrity Theater to see the "Newlywed, Not So
Newlywed Game". I always think that's pretty funny even though people
really do embarrass themselves and its cheesy. Off to dinner we went
and the show after dinner was Mark Preston, who was a member of the
Letterman (more our parents' generation I think!) In any case, we know
some folks who went who loved it. We went to see "Who Wants To Be A
Gazilloinaire" which was a very clever and funny spoof of the TV show
and the contestant was basically given all of the answers in creative
ways. They mimicked the lighting effects of the show to great benefit.
I'm easily amused!
Tonight at dinner, Angie the mom at our table was sick. Basically after we left Yakutat Bay we sailed out into the Gulf of Alaska for our
overnight sailing to Ketchikan. It was stormy all day and some folks
missed dinner. It seemed to get more stormy as the night went on. I
loved it! I like a little "ship" action! The ship was crashing into
some big waves and I could hardly stick my head over the railing of the
veranda without getting my head blown off. So that was a lot of fun and
neither of us got remotely sick, but I did make sure not to overeat at
dinner or drink too much--wouldn't have been a good idea. After the
Gazillionaire show we went up to the Stratosphere Lounge (the top and
forward most point on the ship basically) so we could feel the ship
"rock and roll" a bit. We were riding some good sized waves and I was
loving it. They were having the 50's sock hop up there at the same time
and it was actually amusing to watch people competing in the twist
contest. I am always amazed what a few drinks will get people to do.
In any case, their job was made harder by the ships motion that night!
Day Six - Ketchikan
We docked after noon in Ketchikan, about an hour late, but we had no
immediate plans scheduled. It was raining a bit and I started to get a
bad feeling about my 3pm float plane trip to Misty Fjords. We walked
around town a bit and went over to the marina and walk up Creek Street,
which was charming, although filled with tourist trap stores in those
nice wooden buildings on stilts. We saw the fish ladder on the creek
and saw some salmon flopping around there which was nice and then walked
back down the hill through town peeking into some stores every now and
then. There is one very nice Tlingit art gallery there--and way past my
price range! Every here and there you would see a totem pole in town.
We decided to go back to the ship and see how they weather turned out
for my plane trip and gave some thought to the Lumberjack Show as an
alternative. The afternoon wore on and the weather only got worse. The
rain was coming down sideways and the wind was pretty serious, so I
decided to blow off the float plane adventure and forego the $188 it
cost me (Robert was not going--there is no way he'd get on a little
plane). I walked down to guest relations to see if anyone was at the
shore excursion desk to give back my ticket if someone else wanted to
use it for free. There was no one there (and the desk wasn't scheduled
to be open) so I just went back to the cabin to get my book and find a
quiet place to read. As it turned out, the float planes had been
cancelled that afternoon and I got a credit on my account for the $188
which was nice.
I decided to hang out in Michael's Club that afternoon, which wasn't
open for service then, but it was very near Tastings in case I wanted a
hot chocolate (they had the real stuff there) and it was very quiet. We
have only been on the Horizon and on the Galaxy now twice, but from
pictures and personal experience this is my very favorite Michael's
Club. It is very modern and a wonder to the eyes--sleekly designed. I
love the round wood paneled room with the portholes and the curved
velvet sofa and I love the steel framing and leather doors of the
exterior. It's a design masterwork imho. Most of the other Michael's
Clubs seem to be faux Gentlemen's Clubs of the olden days--this one is
forward looking and thus less of a cliche I think. Tonight was a formal
night so we did all that.
I don't know where I'm going to write about the food but we found it as
good or better as our 2 other Celebrity cruises, and far better than our
1 Holland America sailing. Not that Holland America is good, it was
well done, fresh, and tasty. But it was dull. There is just something
about the creativity and presentation that is excellent I think on
Celebrity. While there were many recipes we recognized from past
sailings, I must say the beefs, veals, and porks were all quite good and
cooked to order (I'm a meat eater) and Robert was very happy with the
seafood and had it every night, as well as at the 2 seafood oriented
buffets. One interesting new dessert I had this time was a camomile
sorbet--what a treat and very interesting. I found the quality and cuts
of meat better than on the Horizon last year. In fact, most evenings we
ordered multiple entrees to share and most of the desserts just to
"taste". Our wait staff had no problem with these requests whatsoever.
The family seated at our table caught onto this after a couple of days
and started to do likewise. It was like one big food tasting party
every night! None of us weigh 400 pounds so we're good during our
civilian lives!
Tonight was also the "Cirque du Galaxy" show which we enjoyed once
again. This was our favorite show the last time on the Galaxy and was
again. Those chinese acrobats are amazing. The Grand Buffet was also
tonight but we didn't make it that long! On this cruise we really
didn't get up to afternoon tea at all or order the pizza from room
service--we were just too stuffed from meals (as you can see above!)
Day Seven - Inside Passage
Magically, the clouds lifted somewhat today and we had some sunshine.
That was the only sunny thing about the day since I was already getting
very sad about having to get off the ship tomorrow--it's just not fair!
Our cabin stewardess Maggie promised to help us stowaway on the next
sailing...a nice gesture on her part, but sadly it was not to be.
Although we had 2 extra days in Vancouver to look forward to, we would
have to forage for our own food and other ugly thoughts like that!
Other than reading my book, and taking a tour around the ship with my
camera, I did not do much today other than try to pack before dinner so
I could enjoy the meal and one last night aboard the ship. The scenery
of course was beautiful. I can't imagine a more magnificent setting for
a cruise than this.
On my little tour of the ship I looked closely at a number of things
that had "caught my eye" earlier in the week, and took pictures of some
of them. One was some of the dirty upholstery in the Celebrity Theater,
an otherwise gorgeous room. It did look like they were replacing the
upholstery and carpeting where necessary and I was glad of that.
Between the deck 6 entrance to the Orion Restaurant and the Rendezvous
Lounge there are 2 alcoves on either side which house a 3-4 foot "tree"
made out of red silk roses....about 2/3 of the silk roses on each tree
have been picked off and "appropriated" by rude cruisers. They actually
didn't look bad and I'm sure not many people noticed and maybe they
thought that was "part of the design" or something (given the wild
modern art on this ship.) But I knew otherwise. In the Grand Foyer
(the G is back!) there is a waterfall running behind the BIG picture on
the wall--but no water! I never asked why, but hopefully it is being
cleaned and rehabbed. In our cabin I noticed a deliberate scratch on
the marble desk tabletop and on the wooden headboard. Minor and really
not very noticeable, but that they looked deliberate was disturbing.
Did any one these issues affect my enjoyment of the cruise--not one
bit. Celebrity seems to do a good job at upkeep and upgrading (as our
trip on the Horizon last September proved) and so I'm confident they
will be taking care of such things on a regular basis. On this same day
I immensely enjoyed going around the ship and looking at the art
installations one more time. I'll take Robert Rauschenberg's over
plastic dancing starfish any day!
Tonight was "tip night". We didn't see Maggie on our way out of the
cabin for dinner so we left her envelope on the bed with a thank you
note, of course. She was great. We had envelopes for Mario, the
waiter, and Kumar, the asst. waiter, and tipped Kumar almost the same as
Mario, who got the recommended amount. We would have given Mario more,
as he was an excellent waiter, but he made "the pitch" for an
"excellent" recommendation on our comment card--which is something I
personally can live without hearing on vacation. I, in fact, ended up
writing on our comment card how much I disliked this practice and asked
Celebrity to not have waiters do this. Was it a huge issue for me? Of
course not, but somewhat annoying nonetheless. It in no way compared to
our bad experience on the Rotterdam last year--we didn't see our cabin
steward the night before so we hung onto his tip until the morning of
disembarkation--and he was our rude wake up call at 7:45 am pushing his
way into the room while we were in our underwear begging for the 15
minutes more we had--he wouldn't leave! Now Holland America heard about
that one from us you can be sure! Unlike others who have had bad
experiences, this has not lead me to trash Holland America until my
dying day.....and yes, we'll sail them again someday, perhaps when we
come nearer to retirement age.
Day Eight - Disembarkation
I truly hate getting off ships, did I mention that? We toddled off to
breakfast for one last time in the Orion and had a leisurely breakfast.
My last Eggs Benedict of the week--boo hoo! Our table mates never made
it--but they weren't big morning people! We only saw them a few times
for breakfast this week. Even though we are Captain's Club members, we
received #9 or something like that since we were staying on in Vancouver
and truly I was in no rush to leave (i.e., they had to pry my cold dead
fingers off our veranda railing...) Much to our surprise, after we
finished breakfast, #9 had already been called--it couldn't have been
much past 8:30 am so things were moving quickly. We quickly found our
bags in the terminal at Canada Place (they were nearly standing alone
since our cohort had been called some time ago) and we quickly got a cab
to whisk us to the Hotel Vancouver on Georgia Street. The hotel is one
of the old Canadian Pacific hotels and now a grand dame of the Fairmont
Hotel chain. We were able to check in right away and get to our room
within 20-30 minutes or so. The room was quite large and had a nice
marble bathroom. The nice breakfast buffet was, thankfully, included so
we didn't have complete food withdrawal.
On this day (Friday) I had started coming down with a nasty cold, so we
took it a bit easy but walked around downtown Vancouver quite a bit,
looked at the stores on Robson street, walked around Gastown and
Chinatown (and visited the nice Dr. Sun Yatsen Chinese Garden), and we
walked to Granville Island and took a nifty little water cab back to
downtown and walked along English Bay and back into town along Davie
Street. All and all, Vancouver is a beautiful city that we would enjoy
visiting again. We didn't particularly buy anything but I did notice
that the selection of native crafts seemed to be much better and of
higher quality than in Alaska! I bought one framed native print in
Ketchikan and some candy and birch syrup but other than that nothing
else. I guess I'm not a big t-shirt or tanzanite person!
Conclusion
A great cruise. A 10, even with the rainy weather, perhaps our best
yet. Alaska is so beautiful. I still think I like the cathedrals and
museums (and everything else) of Europe better, but Alaska is one of
Mother Nature's cathedrals-and magnificent at that! The Galaxy is a
gorgeous ship and very much to our tastes-interesting food and good
service and a very contemporary modern design with interesting art. I
was glad we had some more time at sea to enjoy her more this time
around. I would say we found the food as good or better than our other
two Celebrity sailings, and although there are some definite maintenance
issues, they do seem to be taking care of them. I had gotten
information from Sonya down at the "future cruise bookings" desk about
Celebrity itineraries for the next year and it looks like the Galaxy
will be assigned to Europe next summer-especially for 7 day Baltic
sailings out of Stockholm. We have been to that part of the world twice
before and loved it. Perhaps a third time on the Galaxy next year?
Hmmmm.....why not!?
