Silversea Origin in Galapagos - thoughts?

[Wayfairers]

Have you taken the Silversea Origin for a Galapagos cruise?  What did you like or dislike?  We are researching options and the Silversea looks interesting even though we’ve never sailed that line before.

[RELS]

We were on the southern route 8-day cruise in Feb 2023.

 

Definitely a luxury line! The food is excellent, the ship is lovely, and the service is top-notch. Due to the rules for the National Park, all crew is from Ecuador, all food and wine, also. Beef needs to be pre-cooked, so menus are heavy on seafood/fish and poultry. There were a couple of meals with goat (yes, I know :-).

 

The crew is great. The Expedition team is wonderful! You get in-depth information for all excursions. We were the last cruise that used the Whisper system audio guide for excursions, That system worked really well for us, but Whisper got tired of replacing equipment that was dropped in the water. I don't know what has replaced it, if anything has.

 

So you know, you are on the the go from early morning to late afternoon. It's exhausting, but also wonderful. Three excursions per day -- two in the morning, then the ship moves, and maybe you can catch a nap, then one in the afternoon. Everyone pretty much crashes right after dinner.

 

It's definitely one of the best cruises we've ever taken. Like nowhere else on Earth. You can probably get the guides and excursions on other lines, or on the smaller 16-passenger boats, but it's unlikely you can get the high-end service that Silversea provides.

[Wayfairers]

14 hours ago, RELS said:

We were on the southern route 8-day cruise in Feb 2023.

 

Definitely a luxury line! The food is excellent, the ship is lovely, and the service is top-notch. Due to the rules for the National Park, all crew is from Ecuador, all food and wine, also. Beef needs to be pre-cooked, so menus are heavy on seafood/fish and poultry. There were a couple of meals with goat (yes, I know :-).

 

The crew is great. The Expedition team is wonderful! You get in-depth information for all excursions. We were the last cruise that used the Whisper system audio guide for excursions, That system worked really well for us, but Whisper got tired of replacing equipment that was dropped in the water. I don't know what has replaced it, if anything has.

 

So you know, you are on the the go from early morning to late afternoon. It's exhausting, but also wonderful. Three excursions per day -- two in the morning, then the ship moves, and maybe you can catch a nap, then one in the afternoon. Everyone pretty much crashes right after dinner.

 

It's definitely one of the best cruises we've ever taken. Like nowhere else on Earth. You can probably get the guides and excursions on other lines, or on the smaller 16-passenger boats, but it's unlikely you can get the high-end service that Silversea provides.

Thank you for the great information.  We’ve never sailed with Silversea but did know it is high end.   We are adventurous eaters so goat on the menu wouldn’t bother us at all. 

[Moby_Spout]

We're looking at the Galapagos in 2025 and see there are two main circuits - north loop and south loop. Has anyone done both? Like b-2-b? Just wondering if it would be too much, too duplicative?? 

[57 varieties]

We did both about ten years ago when they were slightly different itineraries.  Two weeks was not too long and at the repeated stops we were offered alternative activities.  It’s a long way to go so we wanted to make the most of our visit. An incredible place.