We booked it only a week before traveling, but managed to get a 12 night itinery starting in Amsterdam and calling at Copenhagen, Waremunde (for Berline), Helsinki, Stockholm, Tallinn, Oslo and finally back to Amsterdam. We managed to get a Concierge Class stateroom for around £1400 (which was half price according to the travel agent).

I'm not a fan of all the glitz & glamour of eating in the main restaurant in the evening, so I went for the casual dining boulevard most evenings. The selection was quite poor - only pizza, pasta and sushi. There was also the free room service, which had to be used on occasion. The menu was extensive and ranged from a cup of coffee to 6oz steak with fries. Generally the room service was very good, but sometimes arrived an hour after order and sometimes with less items than expected. It was very good for the early morning excursions though, and avoided the busy breakfast time.

Half way through the cruise we got some engineers knocking on the door asking to come sort out the sofa-bed in the stateroom. I guess someone had fallen through the bed and threatened to sue unless the problem was sorted immediatly in all the staterooms. This was fine and took around 10 minutes, but they left pieces of metal all over the carpet until the attendant vacumned that evening. I thought this was pretty unacceptable and probable caused more a danger than a faulty bed.

I appreieiate its more premium, and the customers may be the kind of people who have house staff but I disliked the way the staff onboard went around unnoticed. It was like they were trained to be looked down upon and not smile! I much prefer the RCI style where they call you by your first name and have conversations with you if you see them around.

The entertainment was good, but I thought the theatre was a bit small. I appreiciate that I am used to the Voyager class after doing 4 cruises with them, but the small theatre on Century was more a dungeon. The seats on the upper "floor" had very poor views and little headroom. The shows were generally good and all the singers and dancer (or mingers and prancers as I like to call them) seemed like they'd been doing it for decades. There was one singer who was simply dreadful - Donald Cant (ironic name, he really couldn't). His first song (Phantom Of The Opera) could've easily been passed off as a comedian's parody. He said it was his first job on a cruise ship, and I can't see him being there much longer.

The cruise director (Alan King?) wasn't the best I've seen. He wasn't around much on the ship, to be honest I only saw him once in the whole 12 days. Even at the start of shows, he just said his bit from behind the curtain, only once coming out on stage. He looked a bit like 90's UK quiz show host Roy Walker too - which was odd.

Again going back to it being more premium, I noticed that the people onboard were have ego battles with each other. "Oh yes, we've done QM2 this year" "We did the maiden voyage!" I found this draining as a holiday is simply fun. I guess the battling ego's are one of the remaining stereotypes of cruising.

Although this year there wasn't the fun of rescuring someone at sea, there were a few odd things that happened. The most impressive was when we were in Germany. The ship was moored one village along from where Bush was meeting with Merkel and just before the ship set off for Finland, 14 helicopters flew over in formation then I saw on CNN that he had just left the talks. That was kind of interesting. Also, a fighter plane circled the ship once on a sea day. It wasnt mentioned again, but I thought it was quite strange.

Overall I did enjoy it, but I don't think I would've been happy should I have paid the full fare. The lack of personal touches with the stateroom attendent did spoil it sadly, and I don't think I would cruise with Celebrity again.

If you read through all that, you've almost got an idea as to how tedious Donald Cant was.

From seeing the TV show featuring Island I wouldnt dream of even considering them. They had drunk high ranking staff members, endless toilet problems, and the people onboard weren't people that I would enjoy being around.

The reason for eating in the 'cafeteria' (I do like the way you put it! ) I believe a holiday is a time to let your hair down and not to dress up and pretend to be something your not. I do appreiciate that some people enjoy the dressing up though, and if they enjoy it thats their business.

I guess the next question is why choose cruising? One reason is that I love boats. I grew up on the island of Mallorca right behind a busy marina and saw ferries and cruise ships all the time crossing the horizon. I also like the places and the fact that every day (usually) you have a different view from your balcony.

quote:

---

Originally posted by MOORHOUSE:
[QB]
From seeing the TV show featuring Island I wouldnt dream of even considering them. They had drunk high ranking staff members, endless toilet problems, and the people onboard weren't people that I would enjoy being around.

[QB]

---

This was aired in France too.
My parents live in Ajaccio where Island Escape calls regularly. They nicknamed it "overflowing toilets".
So I hear sentences like this : "I saw overflowing toilets in the port, Today" or "Pascal, overflowing toilets is departing", etc...

I wonder why RCI allowed a TV team on a ship which obviously had huge teething problems. This was bad publicity for them.

[ 07-26-2006: Message edited by: Pascal ]

Island cruises came across worse than easyCruise which is saying something. It's hard to believe but Century will probably be an Island ship in 20 years time! hah

Did you use your balcony much? We had a (non-balcony) window cabin on Galaxy, but we're wondering if, when we do the Baltic (summer 2008? 2009?) we might go for a balcony cabin.

I understand your point about booking at short notice and having a reduced choice. I remember seeing the casual dining setup on Galaxy this summer, and as you say the menus weren't very long, nor were there many waiters around. But I suppose most Celebrity cruisers will be people who definitely enjoy the dressing-up thing; I know we do!

Interesting also to read your comments abot the theatre. We thought the theatre on Galaxy was pretty spacious - mind you, that's comparing it with MSC Sinfonia. So how big is the theatre on VotSeas?

I think that having a balcony is something that you would like. I wouldn't do a cruise where I couldn't get a balcony stateroom now because it's a very pleaseant place to be.

On Century the theatre is like one and a half floors. On ExplorerOTS it's a full two floors and seems a lot higher. The theatre was nice, but its all about the shows really. There was one rough day which also was the day of a show. I wouldn't want to spend an hour in a dark dungeon in rough weather!

Someone that was said in a thread I made before going was that Waremunde (I still cant spell it) wasn't a marketable port for Berlin. There was a train specially chartered for the ship and they gave out sandwich packs both going down to Berlin and on the way back. There were also tea/coffee making facilities and a bottle of water in every compartment (which held 5). It was quite pleaseant on the way down but by the time we'd been in Berlin all day it felt like ages coming back. Overall it was an enjoyable day though.

Thanks by the way. What did you think to Galaxy?

quote:

---

Thanks by the way. What did you think to Galaxy?

---

Well I posted a review here:-

http://www.cruiseserver.net/travelpage/yourfav/yfc_cb_galaxy_11.asp

And there are some pictures in the Photo Gallery.

Basically, I think she's a fine example of a ten-year old ship. It's obvious that cruise ship design suddenly moved on in the years afterwards: lots more balconies started appearing in the late 90s, and lots of alternative dining choices have started appearing in more recent years. Galaxy doesn't have any of these, of course, because of her age.

quote:

---

Originally posted by MOORHOUSE:
The cruise director (Alan King?) wasn't the best I've seen.

---

Nice review Moorhouse.

I saw Alan King in 1998. He was middle aged and cheasy then. He must be elderly and even more cheasy now! I think he was Canadian but thought he was a Scott?

It sounds as if you prefer the ‘mass market’ syle of cruising (NCL, Princess etc). Let’s not forget that Century, Galaxy and Mercury are no longer state-of-the-art, however much a refit may cost.

One of the main attractions of Celebrity is their better than average dining room food (too fussy for me) and service. The ships are also pretty spacious. In fact they remind me of a more American version of Cunard.

As you are not into formal dining or the more formal style of service, I suppose it is not surprising that they did not exceed you expectations.

In terms of entertainment RCI certainly knock the spots off Celebrity. Although I do find RCI ships rather crowded, they lack any upmarket pursuits (enrichment lectures) and really hard-sell those inches of gold etc.

However, RCI do tend to be good value in the states, but not from the UK. Mind you, your fare was really good too!

[ 07-26-2006: Message edited by: Malcolm @ cruisepage ]

Thinking of Celebrity as an American Cunard is probably a little far fetched, but I do get where your coming from. I would like to try QM2 because of the interior design and 'heritage' that has gone into her. I feel as though I would end up feeling the same way though, so maybe if another half price offer comes along!

The hard sell is really the one thing that I hate about cruising. What kind of losers actually go to all the seminars about getting the best offers? They are just selling you the same tourist tat that you can buy anywhere, but show your cruisecard and you can win a delightful crystal figurine - no thank you. Celebrity were just as bad as Royal Caribbean in this respect, with the atrium almost always stocked full of fake jewelery.

The last thing is what happened with the muster drills? I remember always just going to the station and sitting through some blonde women try get the thing over her chest, but with this trip we had to go out on deck and stand in lines outsides the lifeboats. Is this now commonly done?

Maybe, but their are similarities; both are upscale and Cunard actually offers an anglo/American experience and NOT a strictly British one.

I would like to try QM2 because of the interior design and 'heritage' that has gone into her. I feel as though I would end up feeling the same way though..

She is a wonderful ship but more formal than most. I actually find Cunrd less fromal than I imagined, but compared to RCI, they are.

For example of 'Explorer' (Carib Aug 2005) about 200 pasengers lined up to shake hands at the Captains Cocktail party. On the QM2 it felt as if all 2000 attended! On 'Explorer' the formal dining evenings were only 50% attended! On the QM2 it is more like 99%, complete with lots of Tux's.

The hard sell is really the one thing that I hate about cruising.

quote:

---

Originally posted by MOORHOUSE:
..but with this trip we had to go out on deck and stand in lines outsides the lifeboats. Is this now commonly done?

---