Live: Nov 18 2023 Xpedition Galapagos Southern Loop

[JerseyGem]

  We're on the Xpedition in February and will be following your posts! Thanks for doing this! 

 

[vickykay]

Hi David.   Can’t wait to follow along.  Have a wonderful time.

 

Vicky

[mahdnc]

I have had technical difficulties that have prevented me from updating until now.  Sorry.

 

Our MIA to UIO flight got in on time (10:30pm).  It turns out that Miami was being treated to a wind and rain storm that wreaked havoc across the area.  Fortunately it did not cause us any problems other than our checked luggage got wet--like it sat out in the rain for a spell. 

 

Getting through baggage claim and two separate customs & immigration check without any problems.  We left the secure area of the airport at about 11:15pm.  In 15 seconds, we found our Celebrity representative, Eduardo (wearing the blue blazer and standing left in the photo).  He is a polite, soft spoken man with excellent English as he spent some time in the United States for college.  He told me that we were the only two passengers that were going to be picked up.

 

 

We were quickly relieved of all our bags by a Celebrity supplied porter as they were placed on a cart which is in the foreground of the above photo.  Our ride was a mini van which also included a driver as well as Eduardo.  By 11:25pm, we were on our way to Quito.

 

 

By 11:55pm we pulled into the JW Marriott hotel where there was a uniformed (with hat) bellhop/doorman who was there to greet us and he collected our luggage.  There is an impressive vaulted glass ceiling lobby with Christmas decorations already put out.

 

 

My wife checked in at the front desk and then the bell hop took us to our room.  This evening's stay was arranged by us.  We used 25,000 points to reserve a king guest room.

 

 

By the time bellhop left our room was 12:04am.  I took a photo of the clock to celebrate the event.  After munching on our snacks, we unpacked a little, got cleaned up and were in bed by 1:45am.

 

[mahdnc]

The whole passenger receiving process was seamless and perfectly executed by Celebrity.  The only confusion on my part was whether to tip the baggage handlers and driver or not.  I did end up tipping them, but my wife told me that Eduardo said that tips were already taken care of.

[mahdnc]

This few posts is specifically written with Marriott loyalty club members in mind such as @mahasamatman or certain passengers such as @prmssk who had a Penthouse Suite on Xpedition (Royal Suite gets access, too).  I believe all Flora passengers get access as well.  My wife is Lifetime Platinum member and among the benefits are a welcome gift and access to the Executive Lounge. 

 

As I mentioned earlier, we booked a regular room using award points for the 1st night.  Celebrity would be taking care of the 2nd and 3rd nights before the cruise.  I had questions about how my wife's benefits would be handled.

 

When she checked in, the Front Desk offered her a welcome amenity.  Lately. many full service Marriotts that we have been to have watered that gift down to something trivial or 500 loyalty club points.  She was pleasantly surprised to be given a menu card which had many options listed.  Among them were a cheese and cracker plate, or a fruit and nut plate, or ice cream.  There were a couple other options (I think you could get 1000 points instead) which I cannot remember because my mind really lost focus when I heard ice cream as an option.  She order the cheese plate because we were pretty hungry since the last time we ate was at Miami.  The front desk clerk also got us a couple of bottles of water which I think we got simply because we were guests.  The cheese and cracker plate that was delivered to our room was nice and it reminded me of the way things used to be several years ago.

 

 

Presumably because of my wife's status, we were assigned a room up on the 9th floor where the Executive Lounge was located.  In fact our room was located right next to the Executive Lounge which was very convenient although there was a little noise from there early in the morning.

 

 

 

 

[mahdnc]

The 9th floor Executive Lounge is pretty nice.  It required your room key card to get in through the front door:

 

 

It was staffed by a couple of friendly Marriott employee.  You signed in with them for each trip to the lounge.  Since my wife was a Platinum Elite member, I was allowed access as the trailing spouse.  For families, I am not sure how many people one Platinum Elite (or above) member can bring in with them.

 

 

Here were the posted rules and hours of operation:

 

 

[mahdnc]

The Executive Lounge was not crowded today.  We will see what it looks like tomorrow when all of the Xpedition cruise tour passengers have arrived.  I imagine it may be even more crowded if there are Flora cruise tour passengers staying the hotel because I believe they all get Executive Lounge access.

 

The lounge has a living room area with a large screen television:

 

 

There are a small variety of board games available there:

 

 

There are quite a few seats for eating in the dining area.  Many two top tables were line against the wall of windows in the left of the photo below.  There also is a small outdoor (shaded) eating area which is in the very back of this photo.  We had breakfast there this morning.

 

 

The views from the Lounge are nice but not spectacular.

 

[mahdnc]

Here were the beverages that were readily available in the self-help area:

 

 

 

 

 

The coffee machine is on the left in the above photo.  I believe the black appliance in the middle of the photo was for espresso,

[mahdnc]

Wine and beer were available for free.  Whiskey and gin could be purchased by the glass or bottle.

 

[mahdnc]

Here are photos of the breakfast buffet.  It included continental choices including rolls, fruit, oatmeal, hard boiled eggs. 

 

 

There were self serve pans of scrambled eggs, sausage links, and bacon strips. 

 

 

There was a made to order omelette station which is nice.  I will have to try that tomorrow.

 

 

I did not see pancakes or waffles or even Belgian waffles.

 

[mahdnc]

There was a sparse offering of snacks in the middle of the day:

 

 

There was a whole fruit availavle and a station to make a mix of nuts, etc

 

[mahdnc]

Hot and cold hors d'oeuvres were served at 5:30pm. There was enough food to ruin your appetite for dinner.

 

Shrimp skewers (left) and mini filet mignon (right):

 

 

The three signs in the next photo say (from left to right): Vegetarian Option, Skewer caprese, and Salman canape:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the food that I grabbed (and ruined by dinner appetite with):

 

 

[mahdnc]

To my surprise, Ecuador has a thriving year round rose growing business.  And so the lobby of the JW Marriott hotel has rose arrangements throughout.  They roses are perfectly placed and shaped.  When I first saw them I was convince they were artificial.  My wife convinced me otherwise.  I was too tired to notice them when we checked in late last night.  I am sure I walked right past them.  The last photo has the front desk in the background.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 17, 2023 by mahdnc

[prmssk]

Glad you are enjoying your stay!  We didn't get to explore the Executive Lounge much outside of breakfast (or to grab a water or soda) because of the Quito day schedule but hope to make more use of it on return there this weekend.   

 

Yes, the roses are a huge industry and so beautiful.  At one point during our stay, a hotel staff member knocked on our door and gave me one for our room.  My husband who was relaxing further in the room when it happened was quite puzzled by the whole exchange which happened in Spanish (I once was a Spanish teacher and then did some interpretation although it has been quite a few years so I'm rusty).

 

By the way, I don't think all Flora guests get access to the Executive Lounge.  I think it is still only the Royal and Penthouse Suites (and anyone with loyalty like you).

 

We took advantage of the pretzels and fruit amenity option with a few sodas which was good.  (My husband made Platinum Elite this year.)

[mahdnc]

1 minute ago, prmssk said:

Glad you are enjoying your stay!  We didn't get to explore the Executive Lounge much outside of breakfast (or to grab a water or soda) because of the Quito day schedule but hope to make more use of it on return there this weekend.   

 

Yes, the roses are a huge industry and so beautiful.  At one point during our stay, a hotel staff member knocked on our door and gave me one for our room.  My husband who was relaxing further in the room when it happened was quite puzzled by the whole exchange which happened in Spanish (I once was a Spanish teacher and then did some interpretation although it has been quite a few years so I'm rusty).

 

By the way, I don't think all Flora guests get access to the Executive Lounge.  I think it is still only the Royal and Penthouse Suites (and anyone with loyalty like you).

 

We took advantage of the pretzels and fruit amenity option with a few sodas which was good.  (My husband made Platinum Elite this year.)

 

I have to catch up and read your live thread.  It's a lot of work!  You are doing a great job.  I was thinking today on how you are able to do it.

[prmssk]

Just now, mahdnc said:

 

I have to catch up and read your live thread.  It's a lot of work!  You are doing a great job.  I was thinking today on how you are able to do it.

It is a lot of work!  And some days are harder than others.  But it forces me to keep up with reviewing, sorting, and editing photos and putting my thoughts down somewhere which I hope will make writing my blog at the end a lot easier.  I have taken I think about 2,200 photos on my Nikon and I don't know how many photos and videos on my iPhone (plus I often incorporate some of my husband's iPhone photos and videos in my final blog).  That's a lot of content to go through!

[mahdnc]

Just now, prmssk said:

It is a lot of work!  And some days are harder than others.  But it forces me to keep up with reviewing, sorting, and editing photos and putting my thoughts down somewhere which I hope will make writing my blog at the end a lot easier.  I have taken I think about 2,200 photos on my Nikon and I don't know how many photos and videos on my iPhone (plus I often incorporate some of my husband's iPhone photos and videos in my final blog).  That's a lot of content to go through!

 

I was going to ask you how many photos a day you were averaging on your D500 on this trip. I also assume that you are shooting in RAW + JPEG which takes up a lot of space.  I brought with me a 2x128 GB (300 MB/S, $$$) and 2x256 GB (200MB/S, $$).  I am using each pair of SD cards in mirror mode so I effectively have 128GB + 256GB capacity.  I also have a pair of 256 GB (250 MB/S, $$$) that is full from another shoot/trip that I can reformat in a pinch to re-use.

[Ken the cruiser]

7 minutes ago, prmssk said:

It is a lot of work!  And some days are harder than others.  But it forces me to keep up with reviewing, sorting, and editing photos and putting my thoughts down somewhere which I hope will make writing my blog at the end a lot easier.  I have taken I think about 2,200 photos on my Nikon and I don't know how many photos and videos on my iPhone (plus I often incorporate some of my husband's iPhone photos and videos in my final blog).  That's a lot of content to go through!

But at the same time, it’s a lot of fun too. It’s amazing how much more in tune you become with nature, especially when there is an abundance of wildlife, when you’re on the hunt for that perfect shot. 😁

[prmssk]

23 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

I was going to ask you how many photos a day you were averaging on your D500 on this trip. I also assume that you are shooting in RAW + JPEG which takes up a lot of space.  I brought with me a 2x128 GB (300 MB/S, $$$) and 2x256 GB (200MB/S, $$).  I am using each pair of SD cards in mirror mode so I effectively have 128GB + 256GB capacity.  I also have a pair of 256 GB (250 MB/S, $$$) that is full from another shoot/trip that I can reformat in a pinch to re-use.

I am not a photo editor and don't enjoy working with RAW images so as shocking as this might be, I don't shoot in RAW.  I have an XQD + an SD card slot in my D500.  Each currently have a 64 GB card in them and are backing each other up (so one copy of every photo on each card).  I have a second 64 GB SD card (plus some miscellaneous smaller SD card) but the XQD cards are expensive so my second XQD card is only a 32 GB but I have not needed to change cards yet (I'm still on the original 64 GB).  My XQD cards are 400 MB/S.  My SD cards are only 150 MB/S.  So you should have plenty of space.

 

After every excursion, my camera and both our iPhone photos get backed up to my MacBook and at least daily all of that gets backed up on to my 2 TB portable hard drive.  Plus the photos I select as worthy of editing get backed up to Amazon Photos.  This may all sound like overkill but the last thing I want is to lose these amazing photos.

 

On some trips, I've switched out cards more often, leaving the used ones in a safe location but I'm doing enough other backups this trip so I'm not worrying so much about the original cards.

[mahdnc]

51 minutes ago, prmssk said:

I am not a photo editor and don't enjoy working with RAW images so as shocking as this might be, I don't shoot in RAW.  I have an XQD + an SD card slot in my D500.  Each currently have a 64 GB card in them and are backing each other up (so one copy of every photo on each card).  I have a second 64 GB SD card (plus some miscellaneous smaller SD card) but the XQD cards are expensive so my second XQD card is only a 32 GB but I have not needed to change cards yet (I'm still on the original 64 GB).  My XQD cards are 400 MB/S.  My SD cards are only 150 MB/S.  So you should have plenty of space.

 

After every excursion, my camera and both our iPhone photos get backed up to my MacBook and at least daily all of that gets backed up on to my 2 TB portable hard drive.  Plus the photos I select as worthy of editing get backed up to Amazon Photos.  This may all sound like overkill but the last thing I want is to lose these amazing photos.

 

On some trips, I've switched out cards more often, leaving the used ones in a safe location but I'm doing enough other backups this trip so I'm not worrying so much about the original cards.

 

In some ways, I am not surprised that you said you did not like to shoot in RAW because of the photo editing.  It can suck up a lot of time.  I used to shoot my son's travel baseball games.  I would easily shoot  600-1,000 photos per game because I was firing in continuous mode for many pitches (I made a CD album at the end of the season for each player).  I shot in JPEG only and not in RAW because I did not want to spend all my free time editing shots.  So I understand.  However I thought you might shoot in RAW + JPEG and get the best of both worlds (and you would make the memory card suppliers lots happier, too!).  My camera at the time did not have that option.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mahdnc]

We have hired a private guide for the two full days in Quito where we are on our own: Sun Nov 26th and today.

 

I took some of @Shiba_Lover's advice and decided to ask our guide today to take us to place around Quito that we won't see during tomorrow's Celebrity tour.  The tour was to start at 9:30am so we could sleep in and end around 4pm.  The cost was $100USD not including lunch or admission fees.

 

I was interested in taking the Quito TeleferiqQo cable car ride which is outside the city so we hit that first because it tends to get cloudier as the day progresses.  We got to the admission office a few minutes before it opened at 10am.  There was about 30 people already in line ahead of us.  The admission was $9/adult for the ride up and back down.  While waiting in line, I took this photo of an indoor mural:

 

 

The cable car ride was very smooth and takes about 20 minutes.  We got in the cable car at the base station which is 10,226 ft above sea level:

 

 

The ride up the car was pleasant and the views at the time were good.  Here is a photo of our guide talking to my wife:

 

 

The destination as the top of a ridge is at 12,949 ft above sea level.  At that level the air was very thin and cool.  Unfortunately when we arrived, it was totally cloudy below us and we could not see anything.  It looked like we wasted our $18.

 

At the cable car destination, there is an indoor area which housed a seated viewing area, gift shop, bathrooms, and a place to get a snack:

 

 

There are trails that lead away from the cable car station.  The trail initially has a good uphill climb which was difficult to walk as we labored with each breath.  However my wife was motivated to walk along the trail to visit a money-making llama station where you can pay a dollar to have someone snap a photo of you standing/hugging/etc two llamas.  

 

 

About 15 minutes later, the clouds lifted enough for us to get a clear view of Quito below:

 

 

In the next photo you can see one of the volcanoes that surround Quito.  The white peak is poking above the clouds in the upper left hand corner of this photo:

 

 

We then stopped to see Mirador Del Pululahua which is an old caldera now with farms in it.

 

 

Some pretty flowering bushes/trees that we saw there:

 

 

As we were driving around Quito, we crossed the equator a couple of times:

 

 

One of things I had forgotten was that Ecuador is an oil producing country and exporter.  Consequently their gasoline is cheaper than the USA.  Regular gas costs $2.40/gallon.

 

 

We stopped by a chocolate store in the Old Town for a chocolate tasting.  The tasting was informative and ok, although we were mixed in with a pretty fun group of people.  It was located very close to Iglesia y Convento de San Francisco:

 

 

We were going to visit a market not too far away from our hotel.  But we were pretty much done and decided to call it quits (3:30pm).

[mahdnc]

We got back to the hotel at 4pm where the Celebrity desk in the hotel lobby opened up.  Celebrity did a good job of giving it the Celebrity experience as we were welcomed with a nice drink and a hot towel.  Ana Maria was behind the desk to greet us.  She gave us our instructional paperwork and our prized Celebrity Xpedition refillable water bottle.

 

 

The refillable water bottles for all 3 Celebrity Galapagos ships were lined up behind her kind of like bowling pins.  Our names were printed on a label for each bottle.

 

[Ipeeinthepools]

Enjoy your trip, we’ll be following along.

[mahdnc]

11 minutes ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

Enjoy your trip, we’ll be following along.

 

Thank you!

[mahdnc]

On 11/15/2023 at 11:56 AM, Barwick Cruiser said:

Been a real lack of Galapagos reviews and now two! Have been enjoying @prmssk’s review which has set the bar pretty high David 🤣.
This trip is def on my radar and now it will be helpful to compare the two loops! Have a wonderful trip and I hope to hear about all the unique snorkeling adventures! 
Cathy

 

Thank you, Cathy.  I am sorry I didn't respond to your post until now.

 

David