This was my first cruise holiday, although I felt like I was well up on the whole cruising experience. I am in the entertainments industry and my partner, now choreographer, used to be a dancer onboard various cruise ships, including Celebrity's 'Century', the sister ship to the Galaxy, and had visited the Galaxy on many occasions as the entertainment's crew from both ships all knew each other. I had also seen many videos of cruise ship life and seen the BBC fly on the wall series about life onboard the Galaxy - the show that made Jane McDonald famous.
Anyway, back to my review - hope I don't bore you too much.

The 2 main reasons for choosing this particular cruise on this particular ship was originally the itinery and the fact that my girlfriend had visited the ship about ten years earlier and watched it's inaugral cruise.

Itinery:
Day 1: Board in Rome
Day 2: Sea day
Day 3: Mykonos
Day 4: Rhodes
Day 5: Santorini
Day 6: Istanbul
Day 7: Istanbul
Day 8: Kusadasi
Day 9: Piraeus
Day 10: Sea day
Day 11: Naples
Day 12: Rome / home

I must admit, that prior to boarding, I did have a few reservations about the holiday. At the time, I was 31 years old and thought that the holiday would end up being quite claustrophobic and I would be constantly surrounded by 'old people'. Although, the majority of passengers were at least ten years older than me, I always felt that that I had plenty of personal space, and also met many really nice people.

We had organised the whole trip ourselves and it had all gone really well, getting to Rome, and taxi from the airport. Once at the cruise ship terminal, I thought we would spend ages in long cues in very hot weather, but because we had already filled in our boarding details online, we were onboard within 5 minutes of arriving - very impressed!!! Especially with the free glass of champagne as we boarded.

First impressions were that it was empty and big!! I had been on a much smaller ship while involved in a show the year previous, and although the Galaxy is regarded as a medium sized ship, it still looked pretty big to me. The decor wasn't as dated as I somehow remembered from seeing it on tv and it was all very clean. We were quite early boarding and there weren't many people around as we wandered round getting our bearings.

Our room was pretty much exactly how I had expected from seeing pictures in brochures, although to my pleasent surprise, the room had a double bed instead of 2 singles which we were expecting - yet another plus!! The room was small, but very clean and tidy, as you'd expect. Nothing special, but as it was only a standard room, I didn't expect anything else.

We had chosesn to eat in the first sitting, as we wanted to see the first show of the evening in the ship's theatre. We were at a table for 6, but for some reason only had 2 other people sharing our table. We found out that we had lots in common with them and it was a pleasure to eat with them every night. By about the 3rd night, the 2 ladies who were sharing our table had become friendly (not in that way!!) with the 2 male dance hosts, who also joined us at our table for some evenings.
The food was better than I could have ever imagined. I had heard that food onboard Celebrity ships was good, but that is an understatement, it was fantastic. Although was 5 course every night, they served just enough so you were pleasently full rather than bursting at the sides. The price of the cruise was worth it just for the standard of food every night!!

We soon started to become familiar with the staff who couldn't do enough for you, they were all so friendly and helpful and nice. Although I have to admit that they were even more friendly and more helpful on the last few naights of the cruise, making sure that you knew their names as it was getting close to fill in the report cards and rating staff and facilities.

I loved the fact that there was a show on every night, working in theatre, this was one of the things I was really looking forward to. The first night, there was a sort of welcome night, with free glass of wine or champagne as you entered the theatre. The show production team did a few routines, there was a speach from the captain and a bit of music. I'm sure it wasn't the best show in the world, I was really disappointed with the choreography, as the dancers and singers were actually pretty good, but I still really enjoyed the show.
The other shows throughout the cruise varied in quality. There were 4 production shows and various fly n acts (a couple of singers, a comedien / musician and a pianist). Again, I really enjoyed the production shows, but knowing what technical facilities they have and knowing the standard of the performers, I just kind of felt that they weren't as good as they could have been or 'should' have been. I have seen videos of shows onboard the Century from nearly 10 years earlier in the theatre that is almost identical to that of the Galaxy, and they were much better. In 10 years, you expect the quality to get better, not worse. Saying that, they were still very enjoyable.

As mentioned before, the itinery was quite important. It was a mixture of place that we had been together before, place my girlfriend had been and I hadn't and places neither of us had been.
None of the places let us down. We were a little bit unsure for a while if we would be able to get off the ship at Myknos due to the wind, but eventually we were. We'd have been really disappointed if we hadn't have been able to, as we have been to Mykonos a few times and love the place.

One of the highlights of the holiday was as we were leaving Mykonos. It was near midnight, there was a Greek themed party going on on deck, but we had our own special party near the funnel of the ship, looking into the night's sky, saying goodbye to an island that we love. On a ship which must have had approx a thousand people onboard, at that moment, there was just us and a bottle of wine....it doesn't get much better than that.

Originally, I thought I would be bored on Sea Days, but I wasn't bored for a second, there was always plenty to do, either on deck or inside. It was slightly disappointing that the jacuzzi's weren't working, but it was no big deal.

The casino was fun, although I must admit, we didn't spend much time in there. I had it in my head before I went that I wanted to play craps in the casino (even though I have no idea how you play it) but for some reason, I didn't get round to it - maybe next time.

I was also really impressed with the onboard art auctions. I'm not a huge art fan, but I certainly appreciate a good piece. What surprised and impressed me was the fact they had pieces by the likes of Picasso and Dali.

Before I sign off, I must mention 'Michael's Bar'. I don't know what it was, but there was something special about it. Very often, we were the only people in it, other times it was never packed. There was a pianist playing away, taking requests and the bar man was a really nice guy. There were other bars onboard, all of which we frequented, all were really nice and friendly, often with music being played. The onboard bands were really good too, although by the end of the week, it was becoming a bit predictable what the main house band were going to play.

I could go on for ages telling you about my holiday on the ship, but I think you get the general idea and I've probably gone on for long enough.

After being unsure of if a cruise was for me, I now can't wait for my next one. I think for my first cruise I was spoilt. The next ship is going to have to be as good as, if not better than the Galaxy. I would certainly travel on the Galaxy again and recommend a holiday onboard to anyone.
Cheers
Wills

Overview:
A very enjoyable cruise on a medium-sized liner, with an experienced crew offering a high level of service, going to beautiful places.



Public areas:
These consist of the usual areas you find on a decent-sized cruise ship: a large restaurant, several lounges nightclubs and bars, a theatre, a cinema, a large buffet area, the open decks, and of course functional areas such as the Guest Relations desk, Future Cruises/Captains Club desks, library and card room. Oh, and shops and a casino which we didn't use.

Mostly these are in good condition given that Galaxy has now been inservice for just about 10 years. I was particularly impressed with the main dining room, which is well-decorated and has a stunning centre-piece staircase down which to make a grand entrance. The theatre too was especially impressive; no signs of wear or tear, good decor, excellent sightlines; we enjoyed it. The bars and lounges were perfectly OK; good seating, good decor, in a generally restrained manner - Galaxy could never be mistaken for a Farcus-designed ship! The only area that looked worn was the Stratosphere lounge (the forward-facing observation lounge, up high on deck 12) in which a number of the super-full-hight windows were clouded with corrosion. The buffet areas seemed to be rather less crowded than on other ships I've been on. The open decks were pretty much as normal; crowded on sea days, much less so on port days. The promenade was not walk-round, but you could walk from just aft of the bow on one side, round the stern, to the equivalent starting position on the other side.



Food & service: Varied between 'very good' and 'excellent'. There are no speciality restaurants on Galaxy, and we ate in the main restaurant, second sitting, on each of the 10 nights. There were 5 courses, with good choices for each of: appetizer; soup; salad; entree; and dessert, with coffee served with the latter. The main flavours were italian - lots of italian appetizers and entrees - and american - lots things such as Prime Rib (twice, I think) and of course the lobster on the final formal night. I remember one night they served 'english-style' roast beef, saying that it was 'thinly sliced'; well, actually it was still thicker than I would have expected (tho' very good). And only the most curmudgeonly Yorkshireman would complain about the Yorkshire Pudding being served with the entree, and not on its own as an appetizer.... But the meals were very good; I particularly enjoyed some italian dishes I had which were excellent. I happened to be sitting with a group of italian-americans, and they were approving of the pasta. Service in the restaurant was good, and we weren't hurried. On one or two occasions we found ourselves being 'cleared-up-around', but this was because we still sat at the table talking after 11pm when the restaurant was otherwise almost empty. But even then we were never actually asked to leave.

The buffet was also good, much better than on Sinfonia last year. For a start, the hot dishes were hot! There was always a wide choice, and it seemed well-prepared and fresh. The all-day pizza was good on the one occasion I had some, as was the burger I ate one afternoon - definitely made from decent-quality beef.

We also ate a few ice-creams, which were perfectly OK. It was just unfortunate that we also had ice-creams from shore-side gelaterias in Taormina and Capri, and those were ice-creams to die for.



Cabins:
At 170 sq feet, they were roomier than we had experienced on Sinfonia in 2005. We had a category 5 - 'Deluxe Outside', which meant a larger window but no balcony. There was plenty of room, with a very welcome small seating area next to the window. The wardrobes were big; we had no problems storing clothes for 10 days, including gowns & dresses, plus a dinner suit & dinner shirts for three formal nights. One suitcase went under one of the beds, the other one could have gone under the other bed but instead we chose to put it in the wardrobe.

The bathroom was efficient; the shower was certainly a bit bigger than on Sinfonia, I wasn't constantly getting the shower-curtain wrapped around me. There were some marks of wear and stain in the wash-basin, but other than in appearance these made no difference. Everything in the bathroom area worked.

Overall we were pleased with the cabin, and we found it significantly roomier and more comfortable than the cabin in Sinfonia. One thing - the air-conditioning was a bit loud, louder than on Sinfonia, and it took us a few nights to get used to it.


Entertainment:
We went to two shows in the theatre, both featuring the Galaxy singers & dancers. Not surprisingly, these were typical 'singing & dancing' shows! In addition to the normal troupe, there were a couple of guest artists - a pair of very good dancers from Hungary, and an aerialist who did amazing things with a hula-hoop. The english-language bias of this cruise showed very clearly in the entertainment: the shows were all in english, there was also an english comedian, and an english guest singer who did several sessions in the theatre and the Rendezvous Lounge.

There were some other acts: a lounge duo in the Rendezvous Lounge early on most evenings who went down well, a lounge pianist who was struggling a bit in the Martini Bar area, and at least one other band late at night who didn't have much of an audience. But the quality of all the acts was at least good, and generally very good.


Activity & Itinerary:
This was a 10-day cruise, Rome to Rome, with 3 days at sea and 6 ports of call. The schedule was as follows: embarked at Rome; Naples; day at sea; Mykonos; Santorini; day at sea; Messina; day at sea; Cannes; Livorno; Rome. We did excursions at Naples, Santorini, and Messina, and at the other ports of call did our own thing. All the stops were 'full day' except for Mykonos which was scheduled to be noon till midnight. In the event we got there at 10:30 so had an extra 90 minutes. The schedule seemed to be a good mix of busy days and quiet days. On reflection, we chose a hard excursion for Naples, the first day after embarkation, given that we were travelling all day (4am start) the day before: the Naples excursion had us up at 6am, and in the theatre to form our group at 7:45. But other days were very quiet: I remember our hours on Mykonos with great pleasure, and Santorini. In general getting on & off the ship was easy: while excursion-goers were prioritised in most ports, these tended to start so early that on most occasions by the time we were ready to go ashore, they had announced 'Open Shuttles' or tenders. The only exception to this was at Cannes, where we had to get a ticket for the tender and wait in the theatre until our tender was called, as late as 11:15 or so.

The sea days were pretty quiet. I went to a lecture and disgraced myself by falling asleep! We also went to a trivia quiz and a wine tasting. They were OK - we didn't bother with any more of the wine tasting programme. Most of the ship activities were of the art auction/napkin-folding display type. We didn't really bother, and took the opportunities to rest on deck.


Who goes:
I would say that the clear majority of cruisers were american, with a bias towards the elderly, although there were younger people - at least one pair of honeymooners. Then there were a fair number of Brits, and we did come across a German couple. But I would say that it was perhaps 75% american. Ages were generally middle-aged or older, but there were some younger people, mainly in family groups. There were very few children or adolescents, and I don't remember seeing any infants or babies at all. Everyone seemed to be enjoying it.