galapagos cruises

[oldmancurtis]

do you get single or double points for a galapagos cruise.

[mahdnc]

For Xpedition it was 5 points per night for oceanview, and 12 points per night for Xpedition Suite.  

[marieps]

Who cares?  Xpedition was the most memorable cruise of my life.  Do it, points or no.

[DrKoob]

3 hours ago, oldmancurtis said:

do you get single or double points for a galapagos cruise.

Really not sure why that’s important anymore? Pretty much everything I used to get as an Elite Plus is now included since X went all-inclusive. No real reason to move up any further. 

[4774Papa]

We were looking a doing the Galapagos islands with Celebrity or a tour company.

 

Even with a discounted price, Celebrity is very expensive.

 

I have found other options for less, and even one tour (not on a cruise ship) that included days on the mainland and 2.5 days in the Galapagos for a small fraction of the cost.

 

The company is PeruAgency.com that we have used before and they are excellent.

I have some questions for people that have done the Galapagos with Celebrity:

1) Spending a week there, does the cruise reveal so many more lifeforms than what you would find on a tour of 2 days?

2) What makes Celebrity's cruise of the Galapagos so special?

 

[Host Kat]

1 hour ago, 4774Papa said:

... I have some questions for people that have done the Galapagos with Celebrity:

1) Spending a week there, does the cruise reveal so many more lifeforms than what you would find on a tour of 2 days?

2) What makes Celebrity's cruise of the Galapagos so special?

 

Howdy @4774Papa!!  

 

There is a pinned thread on the Celebrity Flora Roll Calls forum titled Recently returned on Flora. It is for Cruise Critic members that have sailed on the Flora to communicate their experiences, post pics and answer questions. Perhaps someone there will be able to help you with the information you seek.

 

Hope this will be helpful and glad to have you aboard Cruise Critic! 

 

Happy sails,

 

Host Kat  

 

[ECCruise]

1 hour ago, 4774Papa said:

We were looking a doing the Galapagos islands with Celebrity or a tour company.

 

Even with a discounted price, Celebrity is very expensive.

 

I have found other options for less, and even one tour (not on a cruise ship) that included days on the mainland and 2.5 days in the Galapagos for a small fraction of the cost.

 

The company is PeruAgency.com that we have used before and they are excellent.

I have some questions for people that have done the Galapagos with Celebrity:

1) Spending a week there, does the cruise reveal so many more lifeforms than what you would find on a tour of 2 days?

2) What makes Celebrity's cruise of the Galapagos so special?

 

We loved the Galapagos when we did it on the Xpedition.  And yes, the scenery does vary from day to day.  Not sure if it would be considerably more than 2.5 days in the islands.

 

However, looking at current Xpedition and OMG Flora prices, there is no way we would repeat on Celebrity.  Especially Flora, since we are hard pressed to see the value of a butler on a traditional cruise, so would have no idea why you would need one when you are nowhere near your stateroom except to sleep 90% of the time.

[oldmancurtis]

I was just wondering as we are both retired now and it is on bucket list. I know it is all fixed into the price but it is all inclusize pre and post cruise and not wanting to doing my own flights in and out of airports in a forgien country so we are good. W e look at our bucket list items as the are only getting done once, unless powerball comes in.

[marieps]

Personally I don't think 2.5 days is enough, although I agree Flora is very pricey.  We did Xped right after dry dock and much of the ship was still closed, but we still had a wonderful time.  The ship is not the attraction with this cruise.

[dani negreanu]

23 hours ago, 4774Papa said:

Even with a discounted price, Celebrity is very expensive.

 

I've done it in 2012, travelling with my cousin, since for DH it was not a life time cruise, like for me. 

Xpedition then held 96 pax. I've booked in November 2011 the last and cheapest room, it was 4K pp for the 10 days deal, everything included. A huge financial expense for me. Got value for my money. 10.

 

Everything was well done and organized, from the moment we joined the others at the Marriott hotel in Quito. Since travelling from Israel, we decided to be on the safe side and arrive a day earlier and booked a cheaper hotel than the Marriott for the extra night.

 

We had a very nice tour of Quito the day before the cruise, every thing very well organized - tour, meals, luggage. We had our own charter flight to Baltra, smooth, didn't see our luggage until it was waiting in our cabin. For 2 "grown up" women, it was excellent. Not worth it checking the option of arriving to Baltra independently....

 

The tours with the naturalists were in groups of 16, very well timed. We had 2 options of 2 tours morning and afternoon, with another option for mid day for snorkeling, etc., which we didn't take.

 

It was a top notch experience, which left me with "I'd like another cruise on a different itinerary this time, please", and therefore I kept reading reviews, checking out cheaper options. BUT, I didn't want a small group, since reading others' experiences, it was clear that, sometimes, with a small group, if you don't fit -- age, nationality, mentality -- it can turn in a bad time....

 

With a larger ship, you can easily find the people you'd like to spend the cruise with. For us, the 96 pax was an excellent fit. BTW, the food was excellent.

 

I think that a tour of at least 10 day IN Galapagos will be the best. No less. Don't forget that you loose time traveling to and from.

 

[kathynorth]

On 12/9/2020 at 2:29 PM, 4774Papa said:

We were looking a doing the Galapagos islands with Celebrity or a tour company.

 

Even with a discounted price, Celebrity is very expensive.

 

I have found other options for less, and even one tour (not on a cruise ship) that included days on the mainland and 2.5 days in the Galapagos for a small fraction of the cost.

 

The company is PeruAgency.com that we have used before and they are excellent.

I have some questions for people that have done the Galapagos with Celebrity:

1) Spending a week there, does the cruise reveal so many more lifeforms than what you would find on a tour of 2 days?

2) What makes Celebrity's cruise of the Galapagos so special?

 

 

As with any cruise, 1st day of cruise is getting to the ship and acclimating. Last day is mostly spent leaving the ship. I can't imagine seeing anything of note with just 2.5 days on the water. You'd only be able to say you've been there. We are very cautious with our vacation spending, probably leaning to the thrifty side. Our 2016 Xpedition cruise was and will likely be the most expensive vacation we've ever taken. We thought it was worth every penny spent. 

Edited December 10, 2020 by kathynorth

[J18ktleo]

We are booked on the Flora, Galapagos 3.0 since we were originally on the Xpedition June 2019, cancelled due to government issues, moved to July 2020, Covid now July 2021, praying!!!

 

I remember reading some articles about doing the Galapagos from a hotel at one location and much of the issue was the tremendous loss of time traveling to and from each island.  We are lucky as we've just been transferring the $$$ we paid for Xpedition forward from year to year but for this trip of a lifetime I think doing it the right way is so important. 

We did Africa a couple years ago thru AMA, LOTS of money!  But it was so beautifully coordinated (and I'm truly a DIY person and organizer for everyone else too!), every little detail taken care of, all we had to do was fly in and out of South Africa...definitely made a huge difference!

 

If we do ever get the chance to go it truly might be Once in a Lifetime!

[Roxydog15]

We did the 10-day cruise-tour with the Xpedition in June 2018, Retirement celebration.

The tour package worked amazingly well.  We were even delayed by my least-favorite airline in Miami overnight.  I had to quickly coordinate with C locally to delay their pickup at Quito airport.  Their tourguide was wonderful, and with his driver managed to get us to the tour bus in time for the afternoon equator tour.  Crazy start, but all was handled so smoothly.  Plus as a tour group, all the immigration points were coordinated and stressless.  The flight to Baltra was great too.

The Xpedition while not the most glamorous ship, was really very lovely, and became our private yacht with a few friends.  Everyone mingled pretty well, a few became favorites, but all were great travelmates.  So I would not worry about number of passengers being limiting.  The shared experience overruled any concerns.

Anything less than the 7 days may not be enough, but anything more might be fairly exhausting. You are busy AM and afternoon.  We passed out by 9 pm each night. 

And makeup was only seen at dinner when some of us tried to up the game a tad from shorts, tee's, and wet hair!

The crew does an amazing job.  The meals were terrific, especially when you see the size of the galley or should i say closet.  Wine glass never emptied even though kept drinking.  All was great.

 

[Roxydog15]

Oh plus, when you go may depend on what animals you prefer to see, weather, season for babies, migrations, etc.  But I've read that any of the Loops are not terrible, just depends on preferences.  we the Outer Loop and thought the sea lions, boobies, penguins, iguanas, sea birds were great.  We saw abundant animals and up close.  Was absolutely amazing. 🙂