Silver Galapagos- any updates?

[mrsm88]

Haven't heard anything for weeks, there has to be someone on cruise critic who has sailed.

Also have a question about how much money (cash) to bring? We are doing 2 days in Quito (using a guide) prior to the trip & 1 night in Quayaquil.

[joek]

Hi mrsm88,

 

I see in other Silver Galapagos posts that you are booked on the March 1 cruise. We are on the June 7 cruise. We too hope that there will be posts from those traveling before us.

 

I started a Roll Call in Silversea Roll Call and hope that we get some action.

 

So, anyone out there going on the Silver Galapagos, please post in the Roll Call board.

 

http://cruisecritic.com/rollcalls?cruise_line_id=35&ship_id=693

 

JoeK

[RachelG]

You don't need that much cash, actually NO cash while in the Galapagos themselves.

You will need cash to pay your guide In Quito. Really nice restaurants take credit cards, but the more casual don't. The US dollar is official currency in Ecuador, so not worries regarding changing money. But don't bring huge bills, no higher than 20s as things aren't that expensive.

[mrsm88]

You don't need that much cash, actually NO cash while in the Galapagos themselves.

You will need cash to pay your guide In Quito. Really nice restaurants take credit cards, but the more casual don't. The US dollar is official currency in Ecuador, so not worries regarding changing money. But don't bring huge bills, no higher than 20s as things aren't that expensive.

Thanks Rachel.

And Joe, it is so weird how quiet it is.

[NCCruzQueen]

And Joe, it is so weird how quiet it is.

 

I agree, mrsm88, I wish there are more postings about the Silver Galapagos. Maybe the cruisers aren't posters here in CC. Since we aren't cruising until August we have plenty of time for Silversea to get their act together. It just surprises me that Silversea took over the ship before they had all their practices/policies/staff training in place.

[RachelG]

We are wanting to do this trip in 2015, but I am waiting to book till I see reassurance that things are up to snuff. We have been to the Galapagos before and loved it.

[NCCruzQueen]

Rachel, We have a 6 day post-cruise trip to Peru already set, so we hope SS irons out all the kinks by August.

[beaujolais]

Have just returned,this week, from 2 weeks on the S Galapagos.First of all let me say that of all the concerns that previous posts concerning the ship,the cruise,the food the vast majority have been fixed.

We spent a few days in Quito before the cruise,1 day in Quito is ample and the next days there are plenty of day trips away from Quito as long as young are okay and have no oxygen problems with the heights

We were in a veranda suite on deck 5 and it was superior to the equivalent on the Explorer with ample storage for an expedition ship but the bathroom was on the small side but ample

The food offered for lunch on the grill deck was,I think, the best of all Silversea ships if you are into fresh fish with a choice of at least 6 items,including lobster,GIANT prawns,mahi mahi, sole.sea bass and salmon,all fresh.

Dinner was also very good with just a few minor hiccups,lamb with chocolate sauce being one.Another problem is that the menu repeated the second week

The wines offered were very good all from either Ecuador,Chile of Argentina,quite a few with gold awards.

For foot wear you need "closed toe" sandals Some of the wet landings have sharp stones underfoot so socks are no good but you are able if needed to put on other footwear if you feel the need.Closed toe sandals are fine for most of the hikes apart from the strenuous ones but the expedition staff will advise you the night before at the briefing when all details of the next days activities are given

For money all you need in the Galapagos is a bit of "walking about money" ie for t-shirts ($10 - $20) ,polo shirts ($20 -$30), booby earrings for the girls ($25-$40) as you see not expensive but bargaining is not generally done

This week is the last week of 4 and 3 day cruises which when they finish will certainly increase your experience on the S Galapagos

Again I will say that there are still one or two very minor hiccups but Silversea have it all in hand.This week Fred arrived,he's now staff training and last week Roberto (from Columbia) was there in the restaurant

RachelG book now. Silversea have a wonderful product here and with the Ecuadorian expedition staff and the Silversea product and the islands themselves you will have a fantastic time.I would recommend that you do both segments as they are both very different but do research into the time of the year that you go ie.,at the moment all the wildlife have their young and it's the dry season.

Edited December 25, 2013 by beaujolais

[RachelG]

Very encouraging to hear this. We were looking at the 1 vs 2 week option, so the fact that they are very different leads us more to the two week. As far as the rooms on the ship what do you think? Do we need to get the veranda or not?

[beaujolais]

Go for the veranda,it's great to be able to sit out and relax with a book and a tipple. Suites 509.510,516.517 are all just a slight bit bigger

[mrsm88]

Have just returned,this week, from 2 weeks on the S Galapagos.First of all let me say that of all the concerns that previous posts concerning the ship,the cruise,the food the vast majority have been fixed.

We spent a few days in Quito before the cruise,1 day in Quito is ample and the next days there are plenty of day trips away from Quito as long as young are okay and have no oxygen problems with the heights

We were in a veranda suite on deck 5 and it was superior to the equivalent on the Explorer with ample storage for an expedition ship but the bathroom was on the small side but ample

The food offered for lunch on the grill deck was,I think, the best of all Silversea ships if you are into fresh fish with a choice of at least 6 items,including lobster,GIANT prawns,mahi mahi, sole.sea bass and salmon,all fresh.

Dinner was also very good with just a few minor hiccups,lamb with chocolate sauce being one.Another problem is that the menu repeated the second week

The wines offered were very good all from either Ecuador,Chile of Argentina,quite a few with gold awards.

For foot wear you need "closed toe" sandals Some of the wet landings have sharp stones underfoot so socks are no good but you are able if needed to put on other footwear if you feel the need.Closed toe sandals are fine for most of the hikes apart from the strenuous ones but the expedition staff will advise you the night before at the briefing when all details of the next days activities are given

For money all you need in the Galapagos is a bit of "walking about money" ie for t-shirts ($10 - $20) ,polo shirts ($20 -$30), booby earrings for the girls ($25-$40) as you see not expensive but bargaining is not generally done

This week is the last week of 4 and 3 day cruises which when they finish will certainly increase your experience on the S Galapagos

Again I will say that there are still one or two very minor hiccups but Silversea have it all in hand.This week Fred arrived,he's now staff training and last week Roberto (from Columbia) was there in the restaurant

RachelG book now. Silversea have a wonderful product here and with the Ecuadorian expedition staff and the Silversea product and the islands themselves you will have a fantastic time.I would recommend that you do both segments as they are both very different but do research into the time of the year that you go ie.,at the moment all the wildlife have their young and it's the dry season.

So wonderful to finally hear some encouraging words. So glad to hear your positive words. Hopefully they will work out those hiccups for our March 1st trip- would have been incrediible to have the opportunity to do both segments but for now the north central is what fit our timing & the lush rainy season it is for us! Thank you for the foot wear & $ tips & we are doing a 1 day tour of Quito & then another day to Mindo cloud forest, etc with Lincoln. We actually leave 2 months from today! Please keep any other suggestions coming, much appreciated:)

[5waldos]

Thank you. You have relieved a lot of concerns- we leave for Ecuador in just over a month and it has been worrisome for sure. We are in one of your recommended suites on deck 5- glad to know that we will have a bit of time to enjoy it! As far as the occassional hiccup- that I can deal with.

 

Wondering how you manage wet landings- I keep having this image of putting sand encrusted feet into shoes. Is there a special trick to this?

[jpalbny]

Wondering how you manage wet landings- I keep having this image of putting sand encrusted feet into shoes. Is there a special trick to this?

 

There is no magic solution. When you do wet landings on the beach, you have to step through surf that contains suspended sand, and you have to walk across the beach with wet feet. Both of these activities are highly efficient in getting your feet completely sand-encrusted!

 

Some possibilities that may work (we went with X 2 years ago and tried all of these):

 

1. wear keens or similar, rinse your feet in the water as best you can while getting out of the boat, and hike in them. Keens were generally OK for most short-medium hikes. You will get some sand in them, because the leading edge of the surf always has some suspended sand in it, which washes into your shoes. The shoes will also be wet from the landing. They do dry, and most of the sand works its way out. But it you can't stand having any sand in your shoes, this may not be a good option for you.

 

2. land barefoot, walk across the beach, sit on a rock, dry your feet and rub off the sand with a beach towel (take one from the ship and put in your backpack), then put on whatever shoes you want for hiking. This worked for longer hikes. You can never get all of the sand off, but it was good enough for us.

 

3. land in water shoes, sit on a rock, dry your feet, and change into your hiking shoes of choice (which you brought in your backpack, along with dry socks and a beach towel). We did this on occasion, when the wet landing was a mixture of sand and rocks, and we didn't feel like taking a chance barefoot.

 

Everyone on our voyage did some variant of this and we all survived to talk about it. :) What a great trip - definitely worth some sand in your shoes!

 

BTW - our naturalists mainly hiked in Crocs and did the wet landings barefoot.

 

 

With X, you land and depart from the same site, so you can leave your wet shoes and towels there, and pick them up later after your hike.

 

One final possibility: if you pay for us to accompany you, I'd consider carrying you... ;) Would love to visit again! Fair trade?

[5waldos]

Dear Jpalbny-

I think that sounds like a perfectly reasonable approach but you are brave to volunteer sight unseen! A personal porter would definately work!

 

We do have lots of experience getting onto shore from wet landings- but the hiking part afterwards is new. Thanks for your multiple suggestions- I will consider them carefully. Of the options, #2 does sound like the best approach to me. Short of putting each leg into a large plastic bag (up to the knees or more) and then removing the bags when we are on dry land.

 

Sand between the toes is a nice fantasy but in fact is not fun for walking more than to the hammock, which I guess isn't what we will be doing. But we'll live- not going to be a deal breaker for sure!

[RachelG]

Even the "long" hikes in the Galapagos are not that long. The real need for hiking shoes is when walking on rough lava rock, but they will tell you ahead of time where that is to happen. There were a couple of nasty falls on the lava rock on our cruise, so good footwear is important.

[ppiew]

how about water socks and either crocs or walking (tennis) shoes for hiking?

[RachelG]

I had tevas and some good water sand les that are pretty rugged.

[5waldos]

Thought I would google S Galapagos and came up with this. I was quite excited- a non-SS video.

The only problem is- this is not the ship. I have no idea which ship it might be, but it is certainly NOT the SG.

[ppiew]

The exterior photo looks like it might be the SG but certainly not the interior shots. Much larger and more elegant than the photos i have seen. Interesting though, sure wish someone would place some photos on this site so we could see what it is all like in

'real life'.

[5waldos]

It is odd- no pictures, very few reviews although a number of people have talked about going this past fall. Some have even posted as they sailed away. As if people take a vow of silence as they board.

[joek]

Mysterious........maybe they don't ever return.

[noscare]

We did the Western itinerary a couple weeks ago and here are a few of our observations, in no particular order. Note we have not been on an expedition ship before, and haven’t cruised on a “regular” Silversea ship – just Crystal.

 

Transfers seemed well organized and someone was always there to answer questions should you have any. It was a smooth process from us flying into Quito to embarkation.

 

Cabins were not redone (I believe bathrooms were). Quite tired, and honestly, embarrassing for Silversea. That's really my biggest complaint - I mean honestly, 80s shiny wood paneling??

 

Butler/room steward - rooms were cleaned regularly (although for example they didn't check in the middle of the day if someone wanted their room cleaned - they stuck to morning cleaning / evening turn down – including chocolates on the pillow of course). They bring things when you ask them to, but don't necessarily anticipate your needs. E.g., the fridge had a Coke and Coke Light in it to begin with. We drank the Coke Light, but it was not replaced until we specifically requested more of it. On the other hand, one morning we were planning to grab a quick breakfast right before going on a tour, but we didn't realize that breakfast was finished already, and our butler was able to scramble and bring us some breakfast items that weren't actually on the room service menu. They were very good at refilling our water every time they came in.

 

Food - breakfast was a basic buffet with an omelette station. Lunch - buffet in the main dining room, which we only tried once, and a la carte at the Grill - largely grilled seafood that was fantastic (lobster, sea bass, prawns, etc etc) plus limited pasta/hot dog fare, a ceviche of the day, a couple desserts, ice cream. Dinner: hot rock grilling at the Grill (we tried this once, just not our thing, plus my fish had some bones left in it) and a la carte in the restaurant which was overall not bad. It's not what I would call gourmet, and I would not expect much quality wise from meat due to Ecuadorian restrictions, but most of what we ate was really quite tasty. Food presentation was clearly being elevated.

 

Service in restaurants/bars - we certainly did not experience 3+ hour dinners that some people were previously mentioning. Food came out quickly. You can tell the waiters are still learning but they are doing pretty well all things considering. Occasionally they would get confused but you can just ask again and they would figure it out.

 

Bar/alcohol - wine selection was all South American - all drinkable. Liquor selection in the bars was better than what we heard from previous posters. We were able to order basic cocktails such as negronis / cosmopolitans, and I saw them bring out back up bottles of liquors when they ran out.

 

Public rooms – so there’s 2 restaurants, a piano bar, the common area where you gather before tours/for the lectures, library, and spa/fitness/Jacuzzi area. Some common areas were redone, but nothing to write home about. Spa/fitness/Jacuzzi – we didn’t really use, no time really. Piano bar – the bar is fine, but the pianist didn’t play very often… During lunch he would be at the Grill and the waiters would actually occasionally sing, which would be highly amusing, but during the piano bar hours we heard him play maybe 10% of the time? Most of the time he was just sitting at the piano doing nothing. Library is small, but not bad for selection – don’t expect to sit there and read though, it’s tiny with 2 seats.

 

Lectures – we had maybe 3 or 4 lectures scheduled after lunches. We had a Silversea guest lecturer (I am blanking on her name, but she is Australian and a marine biologist potentially, and from what I understand a regular fixture on Silver Explorer) who was quite good.

 

Enrichment/tours – what we were there for!! Guides were great, each with a different style, and there was always a lot going on, be it snorkeling, hikes, zodiac tours, etc. If you are in decent shape you will get the most out of this. Not much relaxation time if you want to do everything – though of course nothing is mandatory. We thought the itinerary worked quite well in terms of its flow – there was always something interesting/exciting coming up next.

 

Odds & ends – There was a videographer on board and we purchased the video (about a 30 min video plus some high res pictures) which cost maybe $160ish, and in our opinion that was worth it. Laundry on board worked well. Wifi was decent speed considering it’s satellite. Shoes: we brought flip flops, strappy water sandals (not closed toe), hiking shoes and a pair of decent dinner/walking in town shoes and in my opinion that was sufficient. You do get 2 backpacks (not waterproof, but I don't think you need anything beyond that. If you think it's going to be too splashy you just put them down at your feet in the Zodiac) and 2 metal water bottles per couple. We threw them out after we were done, but they were certainly sufficient for the trip.

 

OVERALL: staff needs to continue training, though it would appear they have come a long way, and they need to redo the cabins, but food/service is good, you feel safe, and guides/animals are of course fantastic. I can’t comment on value proposition vs the Celebrity ship although clearly Celebrity’s staterooms are nicer.

Edited January 3, 2014 by noscare

[jpalbny]

Thanks for your update.

 

Was the lecturer Robin Aiello? She's fantastic!

[ppiew]

Thank you! This is long awaited. We will be going the first part of February have been a little concerned. For awhile I wondered if the past passengers were still at sea or did get back!! I too will be disappointed in the staterooms not being up to snuff - staterooms are big with me! But if the meals are decent and the rest of the tour good that will be ok.. Thanks again for taking the time.

[5waldos]

Curious- how do you know that the SG cabins are not as nice as celebrity . They certainly are larger .

 

But otherwise agree- thanks so much for update . There are sooooo few out there .

 

 

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Edited January 4, 2014 by 5waldos