Just back - Celebrity Flora - Galapagos / Machu Picchu 16 night trip

[Shiba_Lover]

Just back from the 16 night Celebrity Flora Galapagos / Machu Picchu 16 night trip.  Here's a few notes and some packing tips.

 

We were on the 16 night package.  Note if you book cruise only and not a package - transportation, charter flight, park entry, other flights, etc may not be included.  Also - this was for Flora, so some things may be different on the other 2 ships.

 

We left a day early for the trip (which officially started on a Saturday with a tour of Quito).

we flew out on a Thursday and arrived in Quito around 11:30 PM.  Celebrity picked us up and transferred us to the JW Marriott, which is the hotel where you stay if you have booked the 10 /11 or 16 night package.  We booked the extra night on our own.  You can have Celebrity tie your personal reservation to the one they make for you so you won't have to actually change rooms.  If you want to book your own room of the same type - just be sure which type of room you are booked into by Celebrity (it will depend on the type of cabin you have on the ship).  We had an infinite veranda on the Flora, so we had a deluxe room in the hotel.  If you are in a Royal or Penthouse on the ship, you get a pretty big suite in the hotel.  Your TA can help you with this or the Galapagos desk can help you - Celebrity Galapagos desk is 1-888-751-9303.  If you are arriving a day or more early - you will also need to make sure they know about it so they can pick you up early.

 

We did a private tour on Friday on our own - the Telerifico cable car, and some city sights and foodie stops (small bites) and an artisan/craft market.  It was great.  The tour guide was named Gabriella through Tours by Locals.  she arranged things not to overlap with what Celebrity does on their tour on Saturday.

 

Saturday - The Celebrity tour started.  They split everyone into groups of 10 - 16ish people each with their own bus and guide and "guard".  Not really a guard, but someone to watch from behind to make sure everyone is together and keep lookout for pickpockets, I think.  The tour went Itchimbia park, with great views over the town, including a great photo opportunity in a Quito sign, old town Quito, the Equator museum - which has some really interesting presentations, a church, and a few other things.   After some time back at the hotel, there is a dinner provided at La Gloria restaurant in town and they will transport you to/from the restaurant.  You will need to take your CHECKED luggage downstairs sometime Saturday night (around 10PM) and you don't get it back until it is in your cabin on the ship.  So you pack up everything you don't need after this time that's in your checked luggage.  It is to do with agriculture inspection (seeds/nuts/fruit is forbidden - you will get more info).  You can keep carry on luggage and your toiletries/electronics/valuables - those will be hand checked at Baltra.

 

Sunday - depart for the Galapagos.  You will be given your boarding passes for a private charter flight to Baltra.  You CAN take your liquids on the plane.  There are some weight restrictions 44 pounds for checked, 22 for carry on, but these are not super stict.  They said they can be a little over.  It is a regular plane, like a 737 or something similar.  You are seated with one empty seat in the middle.  They serve a lunch, but then there is an embarkation lunch onboard, so you may want to skip the plane meal.  If you have priority pass, you can go into the airline lounge in Baltra.  At some point, we are also given the Galapagos park entry tickets and exit tickets.

 

After arrival in Baltra, you go through an agriculture inspection for hand luggage.  You board a bus to the ship, and get on tenders.  Then you are onboard!

 

There's a safety briefing, distribution of snorkel equipment (mask, fins, shortie wetsuit - don't worry - they WILL have your size) and embarkation lunch.  Lots going on.

 

I won't go into detail on each day - but just a summary.

 

Each morning is a breakfast buffet with hot and cold items, cereal, cold cuts, yogurt, and an egg/omelet station.   They also have some pastry set up in the bar area where you can get that very early (before breakfast starts).

 

Every day lunch is served as a buffet in the dining room which changes theme (Italian, Mexican, Asian for example) or outside as a grill with chicken/burgers.

 

Every night dinner is served in the dining room with a menu that changes (posted each day) or outside as dinner under the stars with the same menu.

 

Each evening there is a briefing explaining the next day's excursions.  There are excursions in the morning after breakfast and then again after lunch.  Nobody is allowed on the islands from noon to 2PM or from 6PM to 6AM(Galapagos regulations).   You sign up for the excursions you want at this time.  Don't worry about it "selling out" - its not a problem.

 

We did snorkeling, kayaking, tender rides and walking.  The long walks are not very long, and the advanced deep water snorkels are not too difficult.

If you are in doubt about anything - just talk with the guides about it and they can help you decide if you can do it.  

 

Is there a lot of downtime?  Yes and no.  You start pretty early - but there is about 3 hours in the middle of the day.  lunch is pretty quick because it is a buffet or a burger/chicken from the grill.  And you may want a shower and to change from morning to afternoon.  But it all goes pretty quick.  When you get back from the afternoon, there is time to change/clean up before dinner, and head to the bar to have a drink before the presentation starts.  Also - you will make some ship friends pretty quickly, especially if you were on the package and assigned to one of the busses - so you'll be meeting up with them for lunch or drinks.  So there's not a lot of "down" time.

 

One thing to note - you can do a bridge tour.  Sign up for this at guest relations.  The ship must be "anchored" to do the tour.  Be sure to sign up early if you want to do it.   You can take all the pictures you want, sit in the captain's chair, meet the captain if he's there and ask him questions (he was on our tour), etc.   (NOTE - I know it doesn't typically anchor, but I mean it can't be in motion, it must be still)   

 

Flora - ship is really nice.  It is in dry dock now for a refresh of interior and of course all the maintenance stuff.  Food was good - with exception of the beef, staff were really nice, service good.  The naturalists were all fantastic.  Just go with the understanding it is a SMALL ship with food regulations in place due to restrictions set by the Galapagos.  You won't find 10 choices of appetizer and 10 choices of main course.   The beef must be raised in the (I think they said the islands??) - everyone that had it said it was tough and not very good.

 

Disembark day - you will be out of your room and onto the tender ride to the airport.  You are given boarding passes and a bus ticket for the bus back to the airport.  Don't forget to have your park exit ticket handy.  Once you get back to the airport, you need that.   You will take the charter flight back Quito.  We were going on to Lima for Machu Picchu and we had a late flight to Lima so we were provided a day room at the EB Hotel in Quito.

 

Packing Tips

I would suggest 

2 swimsuits (sometimes there are opportunities for morning and afternoon water activities)

2 rashguards

water shoes

then pack as light as you can 

You do get to do laundry twice, with up to 20 items for each person

 

I did not take hiking boots only tennis shoes and I was fine.  However, I only took one pair of tennis shoes.  I did tear the side of them on a lava rock.  They were still usable, but it made me think what if they had been damaged more.  There's really nowhere to obtain more shoes.  So just consider bringing 2 pairs of shoes.  Next time I do something like this, if there is no opportunity to purchase shoes, I will bring 2 pairs.

 

Dressing for dinner - some people dressed in the same types of clothes they were for touring the islands, some people dressed up.  Just do what you are comfortable doing.

 

If you are going to Machu Picchu - you start out staying at the Westin Lima.  That's the first 2 nights.  You also come back there before you fly home.  You CAN leave a bag there so you don't have to take it along on the Machu Picchu portion.  

 

I'll skip the Machu Picchu portion since it's not "cruise related" - but it was fantastic - highly recommend doing that as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Shiba_Lover]

Few pictures 

[Trent0341]

Thank you!  I've always been curious about these cruises and appreciate the information!

[Texed]

Excellent!  Thanks for posting.  😊

[Shiba_Lover]

Just an example of excursions 

[Shiba_Lover]

In this example, for "Morning" - you could do either option 1 or option 2, then return to the ship and grab snorkel gear then go for the deep water snorkel at 10:30.

 

[cgolf1]

Thanks for posting this. We go next year, and a quick read you have information I haven't seen before. Will do a much more thorough read through tonight.

[Shiba_Lover]

28 minutes ago, cgolf1 said:

Thanks for posting this. We go next year, and a quick read you have information I haven't seen before. Will do a much more thorough read through tonight.

let me know if you have any questions about the trip

[prmssk]

Thanks for sharing!  Great photos!  We are less than three weeks away from our 10 night trip on the Xpedition.

[Barwick Cruiser]

Thanks for posting this, so much great information. I’m eager to do this itinerary it’s just a matter of deciding which ship to do it on. Are you given life vests for the snorkeling? The advanced snorkeling excursion, is it advanced because of rough water or what specifically? If you went snorkeling was there a lot of marine life to see? 

[Ciaranaman]

Thank you for posting this.  Lots of excellent info!  And great pics!  Did you see a lot of wildlife?  I, for one, would love to see more pics if you care to share.

~Bernadette

[Ken the cruiser]

Thank you for posting your recommendations! They will definitely come in handy when we start preparing for our Flora cruise in early December. One question. How was the internet service onboard? I plan on posting to a Live From thread to include uploading photos while we’re on our cruise. 

[Shiba_Lover]

1 hour ago, Barwick Cruiser said:

Thanks for posting this, so much great information. I’m eager to do this itinerary it’s just a matter of deciding which ship to do it on. Are you given life vests for the snorkeling? The advanced snorkeling excursion, is it advanced because of rough water or what specifically? If you went snorkeling was there a lot of marine life to see? 

They did have some type of special snorkel vests, which were different than the life jackets we wore on the tenders.  I saw a few people using them.  The"advanced deep water" snorkels meant that you entered the water from the tender and you must swim or tread water the entire time.  You can't touch the floor like if you walk off the beach.  The current may be strong as well.  Of course, the tender boats are near, so if you get tired you can signal for them that you want to get back on.  We saw lots of different fish, sea turtles, some manta rays, one shark, starfish, sea lions and penguins!  Well worth doing.  I have some video we did with a go pro.  I will try to post some soon.

[Shiba_Lover]

7 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thank you for posting your recommendations! They will definitely come in handy when we start preparing for our Flora cruise in early December. One question. How was the internet service onboard? I plan on posting to a Live From thread to include uploading photos while we’re on our cruise. 

Internet seemed fine.  We were able to use it without issue.  I was able to post a few pics to Instagram without issue.

[Shiba_Lover]

52 minutes ago, Ciaranaman said:

Thank you for posting this.  Lots of excellent info!  And great pics!  Did you see a lot of wildlife?  I, for one, would love to see more pics if you care to share.

~Bernadette

We saw quite a bit.  It's a lot of wildlife, but also a lot of the same wildlife if that makes sense.  Like lots of iguanas, lots of tortoises, lots of sea lions.  

[Shiba_Lover]

1 hour ago, prmssk said:

Thanks for sharing!  Great photos!  We are less than three weeks away from our 10 night trip on the Xpedition.

You will live the trip!

[yoshi]

thank you for the review, sounds like an awesome trip!

[JerseyGem]

Thanks for posting.  We are on the Xpedition in February.  I know the ship board activities will be different, but I appreciate your information about Quito and the Galapagos in general.  Your pictures are gorgeous!

 

[cgolf1]

18 hours ago, Shiba_Lover said:

let me know if you have any questions about the trip

 

I was really glad to see the 22lb limit on the carry on. Over the phone I had been told 15lb and I was getting worried. I have an under seat bag that will carry my cameras, lenses and my CPAP. 

 

I am trying to avoid putting my CPAP in its own case and have 2 carry on bags. Leaving it home is an option I may take though.

[slewis7]

Thank you for a great review with some very helpful tips.  My wife and I will be on the Flora in 2024 doing this same itinerary and your write up will come in handy!

[travlr21]

Thanks for the report. We are B2B on the Flora, Nov 5 & 12, followed by Machu Picchu. (Assuming it happens as planned, Celebrity's system can't seem to handle this, looks like we are on the Flora and at MP on the 12. We'll double check when we board on the 5th that all is well.) Interesting about the dry dock, I was not aware.

[Shiba_Lover]

3 hours ago, travlr21 said:

Thanks for the report. We are B2B on the Flora, Nov 5 & 12, followed by Machu Picchu. (Assuming it happens as planned, Celebrity's system can't seem to handle this, looks like we are on the Flora and at MP on the 12. We'll double check when we board on the 5th that all is well.) Interesting about the dry dock, I was not aware.

you should be getting back onboard with the boat in pristine condition!  (I mean, it already was, but it should be like new now)

[cgolf1]

On 10/23/2023 at 9:12 PM, Shiba_Lover said:

We saw quite a bit.  It's a lot of wildlife, but also a lot of the same wildlife if that makes sense.  Like lots of iguanas, lots of tortoises, lots of sea lions.  

 

Great pictures. I am curious what you used for lenses. Currently I am leaning towards my 400 max zoom lens, but would love to take my 300 instead. The 300 is over a 1 lb lighter than the 400. I can make it work, but I had shoulder surgery and working with the heavy lens is still a challenge. Hoping by the trip the shoulder will be good enough. 

[Shiba_Lover]

4 minutes ago, cgolf1 said:

Great pictures. I am curious what you used for lenses. Currently I am leaning towards my 400 max zoom lens, but would love to take my 300 instead. The 300 is over a 1 lb lighter than the 400. I can make it work, but I had shoulder surgery and working with the heavy lens is still a challenge. Hoping by the trip the shoulder will be good enough. 

The photos here are just from my phone, a Samsung S20.  My husband took a Sony A7RII with a g master 100-400 lens.  He used a special strap he found for the camera.  You might like to check this out.

 

https://www.blackrapid.com/sport-left-breathe/

[Hawaiian Mongoose]

Aloha Shuba_Lover,

 

Thanks for the in depth review.

 

We are leaving for our cruise in a week.  I am confused by the information out there on insect spray and sunblock.  Are there any restrictions on either insect spray or sunblock?

 

Thanks,

 

Patric