mahdnc

That is a nice video indeed. If you look closely at the photo of my underwater housing, I have a red filter threaded on. I use it mainly for shadow reef diving which is where it is most effective. My wife shot video with a GoPro and we have yet to review the footage as she had to go back to North Carolina because her mom passed away this weekend.

I got a couple of questions about my camera equipment. I carried a full frame Nikon DSLR with three zoom lenses: 16-35 mm (attached to the camera in the photo), 80-400 mm (left), and a 28-300 mm (right). @prmssk carried the same first two mentioned lenses along with a cropped sensor camera which is ideally suited for telephoto work (and she put it to good use). Changing lenses in a sandy environment is a bit of risky proposition when done frequently. Plus it takes agility and time. I found myself leaving the long lens (80-400 mm) attached to the camera body while ashore on the islands and I would pull my iPhone 15 Pro out of my pocket for any wide shots (landscapes, groups of people, etc). The 16-35 mm lens was used a lot in Quito for landscapes and interior photos. I found myself using the all purpose 28-300 mm lens during the days we were in seeing the tortoises are were in town (Puerto Ayora). I noticed a couple of passengers had DSLR cameras with kit lenses. I saw one of the naturalists carrying a Sony mirrorless camera. Most passengers used their iPhone. I found that an iPhone does real well in the Galapagos. The iPhone will take excellent landscapes with depth of field. You will also get good photos of the larger land animals such as the sea lions, tortoises, and iguanas. Here are some uncropped photos taken from my iPhone to give you an idea: The only thing the iPhone is lacking is getting consistently good bird photos because the iPhone lacks good telephoto capability. This means that it is difficult to get a good bird-in-flight shot with an iPhone. Here are a couple of photos that I took with my DSLR with my telephoto lens pushed to 400 mm: But the iPhone can take good bird photos if you can get close enough. Using her iPhone, our naturalist (Vicky) was able to snap a nice photo of an elusive Red-Billed Tropicbird chick hidden amongst the rocks that we saw on Santa Fe Island. A few other comments: I brought a tripod with me on this trip for my camera. It comes in handy for landscape shots where I want a large depth of field (things near and far are all in focus) or for night shots which is a different matter. The naturalists said that I could bring it ashore onto the islands. The problem with using it as it turned out was time. You need time to set up the tripod, put the camera on it, compose the photo, and get the camera settings right. That kind of time would cause you to be left behind by the group which I got the feeling was not real cool since the naturalists are supposed to keep an eye on you to make sure you aren't doing anything evil. So I didn't want to be "that" guy and I didn't bring the tripod ashore. I got some decent night shots in Quito with it, but in the end I should have left it at home. I had read differing accounts about the need for bringing a dry bag to protect your camera gear in case it fell into the water--or in case you fell in the water with your camera equipment. Consequently I purchased and brought a couple of light weight dry bags for this trip. From my experience during this trip, the dry bags were not necessary although you have to be careful. All of the wet landings were on a sandy beach which was easy to negotiate. Also the crew would often hold your stuff (camera or backpack) for you to allow you to use your hands to help you get on or get off the zodiac. So the danger of getting your equipment soaked was extremely minimal from what I saw during our trip. Incidentally your biggest risk of getting your equipment wet was getting back into the zodiac during a wet landing. We had a couple people lose their balance as they shimmied backward onto the zodiac and they slid right into the shallow sandy water. My wife was one of those people. It's good that I don't have pictures of that. During the week at the Galapagos, I shot in RAW +JPEG with my Nikon camera. By the end of the cruise, I had completely filled up a new 128GB SD card. Finally, I did bring an underwater camera set up. I used a small Canon PowerShot S120 camera with a custom underwater housing. The camera is old by today's digital standard and my iPhone is better. But either way it's difficult to get good underwater shots. You really are at the mercy of the lighting and visibility if you see something worth taking a photo of. The best you can hope for is a nice bright sunny day and some luck. I'd say about 25% of my underwater photos were any good on a technical basis and some of that was due to my lack of skill and not just the conditions.

Then forget what I said!

So I would think that if you wanted to book an aft balcony cabin from which to watch the canal crossing, that the westbound sailing has the advantage of sun placement. The westbound cruise has the ship traveling in a generally southern direction across the canal. So if you are in an aft cabin looking out over the stern, the sun is "behind" you which makes it more likely that you will be sitting in the shade depending on the overhead coverage.

Not sure what you meant by your question. If calling it in allows you to make reservations ahead of time, then by all means I would do it.

No overnight is necessary to do that shorex. It is offered for our port stop at Colon and we do not overnight there.

It is available for our 14 night canal sailing (and bookable). However the cruise is on Summit where the restaurant choices are limited.

According to @DaKahuna, last year when Millennium sailed through the old locks, the helipad was open to everyone. That would be a nice spot although it is very exposed. If you are a real canal enthusiast, you may also want to supplement your trip by taking the shorex (Colon) where you ride a ferry through the Pacific side locks (Miraflores and Pedro Miguel). It makes for a very long day but you get a real closeup view of the locks and you can even touch the walls.

This Galapagos marketing video was published by Celebrity last month: The Web of Life Galapagos Video. It focuses solely on the wildlife. No ship information.

Here is the post cruise information and instructions that we received when we returned to Quito:

There have been questions about whether you can leave a suitcase behind at the JW Marriott and then pick it up when you check into the hotel after the cruise. The answer is yes. There is at least one couple on our sailing that did it. By the way, you can email the hotel at this address: guest.relations@marriottquito.com. Also there is no concierge desk at the hotel--so no email address there. 10 night cruise tour guests who had an early flight home out of UIO were given a room at the EB Hotel which is right at the airport. I am told it is a nice hotel. We purchased the 11 night cruise tour which meant that we spent two nights in Quito after the cruise. We were assigned the JW Marriott even though our flight out of UIO was at 7am. Our cruise tour package included ground transportation to UIO. So on the day of our flight, a car with a driver and a guide came to the hotel at 4:30 am to take just us to the airport. The car however was barely able to hold our luggage along with its 4 occupants.

You may not gain weight on your Flora trip either!

Before the cruise, we received the customary MoveUp email from Celebrity. The RS was still available for our sailing although the PS was booked even though it was included in the MoveUp options. There was a very nice couple on our sailing who were celebrating a wedding anniversary. They also had booked an XS cabin and had bid the minimum ($500 pp) for the RS but it was never accepted. As many of you know, stateroom assignments are controlled by Miami before a cruise, but after the cruise starts, the ship has control. So once on board, this couple talked to Xpedition's Hotel Director, Andres, and they were able to secure the RS for $500 total. Nice.

Yeah. Actually re-pack since everything is not put away.

Good to read. We were on Constellation in Oct 2022 and we enjoyed the cruise immensely.

During our flight to Baltra, you could see San Cristóbal Island from our window as well as Kicker Rock (2nd photo).

Surprisingly (to me), there were several passengers on board who had time to pleasure read. If you are interested in the ship's library, here is the photographic tour.

Second Officer Julian told me that the stabilizers were really too small to be useful. Reminded me of this.......

Here is a tour of the Xpedition Gift Shop. Because it is so small, it is devoid of the usual cheap logo'd items such as key chains and shot glasses. Instead it carried a large variety of different clothing ideally suited for the Galapagos of course. I did not bring a long sleeved shirt and realized half way through the trip, that I needed one--gift shop to the re$cue. If you were not happy with the headwear you packed with you, the Xpedition Gift Shop was ready to take care of you. Of course, jewelry was also for sale. and chocolates...... ...and socks

Before our bridge tour that day, Xpedition got a surprise inspection visit from the Ecuadorian Navy and the Galapagos National Park Service.

You can request a bridge tour at Guest Relations. It is not publicized. There are several dates/times from which to choose. The maximum group size is six. My wife and I signed up for a 3 pm Friday tour (Espanola Island). It turned out that we were the only ones that signed up for that time slot. The entrance to the bridge is on Deck 5--the same deck our cabin was located. The door is at the end of the hallway, all the way forward of course. We were escorted to that door from Guest Relations. The tour lasted about 20 minutes. When we arrived, the Second Officer, Julian, was on the bridge. Julian patiently proceeded to show us pretty much every inch of the bridge. I was quite surprised to find out that Xpedition is outfitted with stabilizers. Based on all the rocking and rolling during our sailing, it didn't see like the stabilizers did much (that was feedback I kept to myself). The ship's steering control is performed through the small joystick in the lower left hand corner of the picture below. The periscope mounted to the ceiling in the picture below is to allow a person to read the magnetic compass which installed above the bridge. While on the bridge, Julian acknowledged by radio one of Xpedition's zodiacs coming back from Espanola Island (photo below). This was several hours after all of us passengers were already back on board. When I inquired about it, Julian told us that those crew (naturalists?) were responsible for performing a required inspection on Espanola at the conclusion of the land tour to make sure that everything was in order. I presume he meant that nothing was accidentally left on the island, etc. Xpedition's captain, Nathaly Alban, came to the bridge towards the end of our tour. She explained to us that there is a designated "parking" spot for Xpedition for each island visited. The spot is the same each time. Captain Natalie has spent time on all the Galapagos ships in Celebrity's fleet except for Flora. She served as first mate on Xperience and later as Xploration's captain (press release). Captain Nathaly harbors career ambitions of serving on the ships in Celebrity's main fleet.

We have done it several times pre-COVID when it was significantly cheaper. We thought it was well worth it.

Here is a photo of the wet suits that were handed out. There were plenty of each size for everyone. Getting in and out of them can be a bit of a trick, but there was plenty of crew ready to assist you at all times. The distribution of snorkeling gear (mesh gear bag, mask, snorkel, fins, wetsuits, and optional flotation vest) is a very orderly process. It is done once at the beginning of the cruise and the equipment is dedicated to you until the end of the sailing. The system for cleaning/rinsing and stowage is also systematic and well organized. Celebrity has that down to a science.

A year ago, we booked this Summit cruise for this coming April. We have our favorite aft balcony and am really looking forward to it.

I thought you were sufficiently busy taking down the casino with your favorite slot machine.