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Ken, I’m sorry that Bartolomé Island was canceled. That was an island I wish we had visited last month.

I did not know it at the time, but I was looking straight at North Seymour Island from my window seat as our chartered flight was making its approach to the Galapagos airport (GPS) on Nov 18. Judging from the presentation that Cristina would later give us, Xpedition would take us to a landing spot located to the right of the long crescent shaped sandy beach near the bottom of the photo. The island looks inhospitable from the air.

One big planning question that some will consider is whether to buy one of the Celebrity cruise tour packages or whether to book the 7 night cruise only. When I went on line to do a mock booking for a Nov 29 2025 Xpedition cruise, here are the choices (not including Machu Picchu): So you can save $4,000 by foregoing the cheapest cruise tour package and buying just the cruise and then paying for your own arrangements. Here are my observations: 1. Most people buy the cruise tour. I have data from 2 cruises. There were 15 passengers out of 47 on our Xpedition sailing that went the cruise only route. That is 32%. @Ken the cruiser reported that out of 98 guests booked on the Dec 10 2023 Flora sailing, 86 booked the cruise tour. If we assume that no one booked a B2B, we can assume that 12 passengers went the cruise only route (12%). 2. I had a chance to talk to 6 passengers on our Xpedition sailing who booked cruise only. They reported that it was very easy for them to make their own arrangements including flying to the Galapagos airport and back. One group of 4 spent some pre-cruise time at Santa Cruz Island which allows you to extend your time at the Galapagos beyond the cruise. 3. Although the package is expensive, the cruise tour is well done (my observation). The quality of the tour is first class. The chartered flight from UIO to GPS and back is lightly loaded and is probably the where the majority of Celebrity's expense comes from. Everyone is assigned either a aisle or window seat. Many rows of seats were unoccupied. The food quality was better than standard airplane food and it was served on real plates. The flight is nonstop while most of the commercial flights have one stop at GYE in each direction. The ground transportation to and from UIO is excellent. My wife and I had what amounted to private car transportation from UIO to the JW Marriott when we arrived from Chicago. The same was true in reverse. The tour of Quito is done very well. Everything is taken care of, every detail was addressed. At no point did I feel that I was not get my money's worth. So to me the bottom line is: if you want to save money and just buy the cruise from Celebrity, you should not be afraid to do it. You need to be the type of person that is comfortable with making independent arrangements for air and hotel (which is how we do our cruises normally). If you don't want the hassle of making your independent arrangements and the planning/coordinating that goes with it, by all means purchase one of the cruise tours. You won't be sorry nor will you feel that you overpaid based on the service and accommodations that you will receive. When you are off the ship but in Celebrity's hands you will never feel lost or confused as there is always a Celebrity rep with you--even on the Galapagos flights. Just so you know where the numbers came from in the above table and the discounts used in the fare calculation, here is the breakdown for the 10 night cruise tour in an Xpedition Suite for the Nov 29 2025 Southern Loop sailing: "Special Offer" = $500 discount per passenger for not getting their air through Celebrity. "Post Cruise Offer" = $750 discount per passenger for Captains Club Elite members "Special Offers" = 20% discount per passenger (20% calculated after other discounts are subtracted)

I don't know the answer to that other than saying I drank a couple glasses of wine for dinner each day and did not suffer from any adverse affects. When I google it (the patch is called scopolamine) there are varying opinions about the interaction with alcohol. I guess you may have to be the judge.

I guess there was a tradeoff between our two visits.

Yes, their business card is visible in this photo. Here is the gallery's web page devoted to the artist, Jorge Espana: link. They are located at Puerto Ayora.

classic pahoehoe!

As I have gotten older, I have become more prone to motion sickness. I was seasick for 3 days during our transatlantic cruise in Oct 22 and I have read numerous reports of Xpedition doing a lot of rocking and rolling. So for our Xpedition sailing, I was armed with the usual dramamine, bonine, and wristlets. 2 things I have not tried are the prescription patch and these weird glasses. I couldn't bring myself around to wearing the glasses, so I didn't buy any. However I did get my doctor to prescribe the patch for me. It worked like a charm as I never got sea sick during our 7 night cruise--which I was subjected to the worst rocking and rolling compared to any other cruise we have taken. There was a young woman on our sailing who got very seasick. I had a spare patch (good for 3 days) and I gave her one to try. It cured her instantly--until 3 days later, then it came back. So I am now a big believer in the patch and I have a set of refills that I am bringing to our Asia cruise next week just in case I need it.

We hiked along the beach and went inland a bit. Can't compare it with what you did, but I would not be surprised if it was shorter than what you did because we started do late in the day. Although we saw many blue-footed boobies and frigate birds (how could you not see them), we did not come upon any nests. So we missed out on seeing eggs and chicks. I am glad that you got to see them since I am sure you were disappointed with missing out on a Genovesa stop.

We were on Xpedition last month which was a smaller ship. It rolled a lot at night while we were anchored. Actually it rolled a lot day or night.

I never posted presentations made for our first shorex, North Seymour Island. I found them in my other iPhone, so here they are. This trip was done within hours of embarking on the ship for the first time. As such, I wasn’t really expecting a whole lot. I was wrong. Looking back on it, I think this was my favorite island of all the ones visited. There was so much wildlife, it was astounding. And the sun was setting which made for magnificent lighting for the visitor and camera to see. As we rode back to Xpedition in our zodiacs, the sun was dropping below the horizon giving the evening sky awesome orange colors with two little islands silhouetted against it. Your thoughts were “this is the first day (and a half day at that)? What will the rest of the trip be like?” I was stoked and could not wait for the next day! @cruisingsfun, note again that there were two choices for North Seymour Island--a hike or a zodiac ride--which handles a wide variety of passenger physical capabilities. Although we did the hike, there is no doubt in my mind that the zodiac ride would have been awesome.

Nice!

You're going to need your own Cruise Critic forum....

Ship: Xpedition Length of Cruise:7 nights Cruise Sail Date: Nov 18, 2023 Date email offer received: Sep 30, 2023 Captain’s Club Tier [“PREVIEW” = first Celebrity Cruise]: Elite Booked through Celebrity Direct OR via TA: TA Current Cabin: XS Bid? Yes/No: No If YES - Bidding Details: Cabin Category: Bid Offer: Notification Date: Accepted / Rejected: Comments: Min bid for RS was $500 pp and for PS it was $600 pp. A couple of passengers who were in an XS on our sailing bid $500 pp for the RS. It was not accepted. The cabin was still available when we all boarded. They talked to the Hotel Manager, Andres, about upgrading and he charged them $500 total to upgrade from XS to RS.

Ship: Solstice Length of Cruise:12 nights Cruise Sail Date: Dec 22, 2023 Date email offer received: Oct 8, 2023 Captain’s Club Tier [“PREVIEW” = first Celebrity Cruise]: Elite Booked through Celebrity Direct OR via TA: TA Current Cabin: V1 Bid? Yes/No: Yes If YES - Bidding Details: Cabin Category: A2 Bid Offer: $500 pp Notification Date: Nov 20, 2023 Accepted / Rejected: ACCEPTED Comments: Min bid for AQ was $250 pp

Your cruise fare includes WiFi. Xpedition is outfitted with Starlink which is famous for bringing broadband to the globe via a network of low earth orbit satellites. This is the first cruise that we have experienced Starlink. Because all passengers received free WiFi, access was easy as it wasn’t overly controlled. You didn’t have to create an account like you do on other Celebrity ships. Between my wife and I, we had five devices connected (laptops, iPads, and iPhones). WiFi speeds were quick enough to get all things I needed to do on the Internet complete without issues. Here are speed test result’s performed at 3 different times: Nov 20 late evening: Nov 24 late morning: Nov 24 early evening

I've lost track. Does Fall 2026 westward TP sailings get released now or a year from now?

I’m following as well. We will be on Summit in five months.

Yes, usually you get an email. Also fellow roll call members will also alert you to any sales.

Forgive my perfectionist ways, here is a better comparison to the statues:

Looks like you had very nice weather today.

Some other notes: Xpedition is not in the Celebrity app, so it is of no use when you are onboard. There is no formal embarkation check in that I can remember. If we did it, it was likely at the JW Marriott. Wherever we did it, it was effortless and easy. Our cabin key card had a blue footed booby on it. Your passport gets stamped by Ecuador when you enter and when you leave the country at the airport. There is also an additional immigration-like process that you have to go through when you land in Baltra. Your passport receives a Galapagos National Park stamp for your trouble. My wife and I each brought one checked bag, one carryon bag (that went into the overhead compartment), and a backpack that stowed under the airplane seat in front of us. My backpack contained all my precious camera gear and it was pretty heavy. When going to the Galapagos, Celebrity limits you to one checked bag at 44 lb (20 kg) and one carryon bag at 22 lb (10 kg). Our bags were not weighed when we flew to the Galapagos (that I could see). However when we checked in at the Galapagos airport to fly back to UIO, our checked bags were weighed by the agent at the ticket counter. My wife, I mean “we” accidentally locked us out of our cabin safe. 15 minutes later, Guest Relations opened it with their master key. Flamingos, Flying, Floreana

You are welcome. When you click on the Cruise Planner for your Galapagos sailing, you get this response: Celebrity is basically saying: "Relax! We got this!!" And that is so true, they really do. There was a nice couple on board where the husband came down with a virus in the middle of the cruise. The medical department confined him to his cabin for a day or two. Fortunately for them, they were staying in an Xpedition Suite which has a balcony..... BTW, Xpedition has two medical doctors on board which is impressive--they are staffed to give you a second opinion! Anyway I digress. .....the couple told us that without asking for it, Celebrity issued them a credit for one day of the cruise (or maybe it was two days, I can't remember) and it was for both of them even though only one was sick. Given the cost of this cruise, I was impressed. So, see, Celebrity really does a good job of watching out for you.

After filling out your Xpress Pass information, it takes a few weeks before your cruise documents appear. The luggage tags will be one of the links. The other link is for your Guest Ticket Booklet and the luggage tag is on the last page.