SaltwaterLee

On 10/6/2019 at 1:14 PM, galapagosbound said:

Hey everyone, our trip to the Galapagos onboard Celebrity Flora is getting closer & closer, and we're very excited, but also getting anxious about some aspects of the trip we're unaware of. I'll post some of these questions below and please provide any info you may have based on your experience.Please keep in mind that we're on the Flora, so if you've been to the Galapagos with Celebrity on a different ship that your experience may differ, so please specify if you were not on the Flora. Thanks for any help, tips, isights, answers and info anyone can shed on our questions:

1) Our main concern is wet landings/getting off the zodiacs and onto land/shore. I've read here that it's inevitable that you'll get your feet and part of your legs wet. How did you manage this? Did you have water shoes that doubled as hiking/walking shoes? Did you disembark into the shallow water with water shoes, then take the time to dry your feet and put your hiking shoes on? This is our first "expedition" type cruise, so we have no idea about these kinds of things. I've heard that the new zodiacs on Flora have a new design to make landings easier, but that you still have to step into water. Any insight is helpful. 

 

2) Is sunscreen part of the amenities provided onboard? With all the eco-concerns, do they provide hair conditioner in guest rooms on board?

 

3)In case we forget any important gear, does the boat have a shop where can purchase hats or sunglasses, etc?

 

4)Some people said to bring a long sleeve sun shirt/rash guard to put over the provided wet suits. Does this mean that the provided wet suits are sleeveless?

 

5)Does the cruise line disinfect scuba gear or should I bring my own sanitary wipes ?

 

6)What is the dress code for the dining room? We tend to be on the more formal side and I'm considering bringing a jacket for the dinner, but I've from a cruiser on another boat that he was in jeans and a t-shirt. I'm assuming there is no enforced dress code nor a formal night, but in general how do people dress for dinner? 

 

Any info or tips are helpful. Thanks for your time.

Just left the Flora yesterday so here is what we had on our trip.

1. Wet landings, there are some, and it can vary how wet they may be depending on conditions. As for did people have shoes that were good for wet landings and keep them on, or change to dry shoes, it went either way. I had shoes that were good enough to do the hikes on the wet landings without changing, but some did change. Your choice really.

2. Sunscreen is not provided, they do give you a small lip balm as part of your welcome gifts, but no other sunscreen is provided. And do bring some, you'll need it.

3. There is a small boutique area on deck 3 that has some clothing items and a few other things, I did see hats, but not sure on sunglasses. We didn't really shop on board, so we walked by a few times but didn't really look too hard at what they had. Maybe someone else can provide more insights here.

4. Wet suits are the "shortie" variety. So if you want to wear a rashguard that is fine, and it helps keep the sun from burning when on the snorkels as well.

5. They do clean all the gear between cruises. They had all the snorkels/masks soaking in some sort of solution after the last snorkel trip. But you can always clean them again if you'd like.

6. Dress for dinner.  It was pretty casual, with few jackets for men if any. No formal nights, and I don't think they would deny anyone dinner unless maybe you showed up in a wet swim suit.

For other details check out the "Recently Returned" thread which has a lot of tips for the Flora. 

We were on the Edge at the beginning of March and there were no plastic water bottles. The water was in screw top aluminum "bottles" which I'm hoping they were recycling, as aluminum is profitable to recycle in most cases compared to plastic which is hard to recycle and often thrown away instead. We had a pretty normal infinite veranda cabin and it had dispensers for shampoo and such. No plastic straws on board either, all paper. I think I remember a paper itinerary for the next day left each night, but you could get the same information on the phone App they have on the Edge, so if we had thought about it we probably could have told our cabin steward to skip it since we had the App. We are booked on the Flora later this year and that ship is said to have filtered water in each cabin so no bottled water is available, but it's a much smaller ship and was designed due to the destination to be a very eco friendly ship.