Fedic

Thanks. Glad the review was helpful! I don't believe there was an option to change seats on the charter flight to/from Quito. They already have the boarding passes printed and hand them to you at the Marriott right before you board the bus to the airport and on the Flora as you are preparing to leave via tender. They seem to group everyone by cabin number. We were in 518 and the occupants of 517 and 519 (who we also shared a table with the night of the Quito tour) were in the rows around us. It's an AirBus A320 and the space between rows seemed to be more generous than typical these days. My knees were not touching the seat in front of me like they are on some flights. As to the hotel, I am a Hilton person, so I have no status with Marriott. But if you have any Marriott status, I have seen reports from others who called the hotel in Quito ahead of time and gave their Marriott # and was rewarded with higher category rooms. I suspect you would have a better chance of getting your preferred location at the hotel than with the flight. If you are getting an extra $500 in credit towards flights by booking through Flights by Celebrity, that sounds like the better way to go. I used them once before and they waited until the absolute last minute to fully ticket the flights, so I couldn't pick seats until then. Probably not as big of a deal with business class.

Thank you so much! I was a little apprehensive when we booked the trip because it is far removed from what I think of as "normal" cruising. But it truly is a magical place.

I had purchased these Salomon hiking boots last year before we went to Alaska: https://www.salomon.com/en-us/shop/product/x-ultra-4-mid-gore-tex-21.html#color=47953 They might be overkill for the Galapagos because you don't really need waterproof for the dry landings, but they did the trick. Great grip for the lava rock walks. Never felt in danger of falling.

Here are a few misc. things that didn't make it into the review, but might be useful: If you are Team Pepsi, you are probably out of luck in Ecuador. I only ever saw Coke products. They must have a Coke bottling plant in country. And I mean the "bottling" part. All of them were in recyclable glass bottles with pry-off caps. They had Coke Classic and Diet Coke, or what everyone there refers to as Coke Regular and Coke Light. The fridge in your cabin on the Flora has Coke, Orange (Fanta?), Diet Coke and a local Pilsner beer. Your cabin attendant will refill when you drink them. All are included in your fare. Consider avoiding beef unless it has been marinated or slow-roasted for many hours. Otherwise, the beef is generally tough. I have no idea if this is true or not, but one of the waiters said that Ecuador doesn't have much flat land, so the cows have to climb hills to graze, which builds their muscles and makes the beef tougher. How close can you get to the animals? Within a couple of feet. Most of them do not care in the slightest that a group of humans are in their midst.

We had 2 excursions that were wet landings. Wore these Keen water shoes (no socks) for the landing and the walk: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07T9TLQN9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 In the excursion briefing the night before, they tell you if you should change or if the water shoes are fine for the walk. Both times it was a beach walk and no issues with the Keen's.

Avianca definitely weighs your checked bag. Neither one of ours was over 44lbs, so I have no idea if they would have stopped us or not, though. They do not weigh your carry on. I had a backpack, my wife had a hard-shell roller bag. Celebrity had her roll it down to the Zodiac dock in Baltra. Then they loaded it (to the center of the Zodiac) and unloaded it once we got to the Flora. I carried my backpack, but they would have taken that, too, if I wanted. I would imagine the procedure would be similar for the Xploration.

Toilets are available during the two full-day tours (Quito city tour and Santa Cruz). Although, some require you to pay to get out and some have no toilet paper. No facilities of any kind on the other islands. Typical morning and afternoon excursions are in the 2-3 hour range. If you need to go, they just ask that you let your naturalist know you are stepping off behind a bush so they don't think you've wandered off.

Tough question to answer without having experienced the other two ships. I will say I think the amount we paid was a fair price based on everything that Celebrity provided for the 10-day package. Just took a quick look at pricing and the 10-day on Flora for April 2026 is still about the same price we paid. So it appears Galapagos cruises have been spared from the price hikes so far.

Boss lady says best prices were at Puerto Ayora, Of the two airports, selection was better at Baltra since they have local vendors. Quito airport had more mass-produced items. As far as doing anything differently, I would have had altitude sickness meds on standby for Quito and drank even more water on the cruise. I also probably would not have picked the 6AM flight coming home from Quito. I could have used some sleeping-in time that morning. You definitely need jeans and a light rain jacket for Quito since the temperatures in the mountains are 20 degrees colder than the islands. There's absolutely no need to pack any fancy dress clothes. This trip is very casual. I would recommend having the close-toed Keen water shoes for the wet landings. They're so popular that the excursion director called them out by name in the nightly briefing several times: "If you are wearing Keen water shoes for the wet landing, those are fine for the entire walk. No need to change shoes on the beach." I've seen lots of debate on whether or not you need hiking boots. We had purchased new Salomon boots last year for Alaska and packed them for this trip and I'm glad we did. I saw three or four people fall on the lava rock and every one of them were wearing tennis shoes. Do pack bug spray. We had some issues on a couple of the islands and I'm glad we had spray. Celebrity provides a tube of sunscreen when you get to the Flora and said they would replace if we ran out. You'll need some for days before you get to the ship, though. I packed reef-safe spray sunscreen that I bought from Costco and ended up using an entire can on this trip. Oh, one last thing... Get magnetic hooks and/or chair clips. Wet clothes take a long time to dry fully and there aren't a lot of places to hang. We clipped ours to our balcony chairs and that worked well.

Thank you very much!

I would have sworn when I did my initial research in 2022 that April was the beginning of the dry season, but looking at it again now, I must be mis-remembering. From https://www.nathab.com/know-before-you-go/galapagos-islands/best-time-to-travel/ We wanted the warmest possible water temperature for snorkeling, which narrowed it down to Feb-Apr. The general consensus seemed to be that you can't really go wrong with either the inner or outer loop, but the outer loop seemed to be slightly favorited. I don't believe the inner loop visits the Post Office barrel. We ended up only having rain for a little bit in Quito and none at all in the islands.

Day 11 – Travel home Monday, April 15 We managed to roll ourselves out of bed, shower, get ready, pack everything back up and make it downstairs before 3:30AM. Here are the flights we chose to get back to Tampa. The American Airlines website kept warning me to note the "Long" layover we had in Miami (one hour and 36 minutes). Apparently, whoever wrote the algorithm that calculates that has never actually flown internationally into Miami before!! Wifey wanted me to note that (surprise!) there are shopping opportunities at the Quito airport (and you don't need to keep your checked luggage under 44 pounds on the way back). Rejoice! We landed in Miami right on time, but the promised long layover was a lie. We made it onto our flight to Tampa with literally minutes to spare. Miami, even on a Monday, was a horror show of a 40-minute long Customs line, followed by walking about 2 miles to 1) collect your checked bags so that you can roll them 200 ft and 2) put them on a conveyor belt to go to your next flight. Why? But wait, you're not done yet. Now you stand for 40 more minutes in a TSA line. As awful as the experience was, I guess I should actually be thankful. I read the next weekend that the line in Miami the following Saturday was over 6 hours long! WRAP UP: The Galapagos trip was absolutely amazing; the islands and waters teeming with wildlife, the beauty of the stars in the pitch-black night, the crystal clear waters. Plus the Celebrity team is top-notch and took care of us from the minute we landed in Quito throughout the entire experience. I wouldn't hesitate to do this trip again, or to choose Celebrity Cruises for the Galapagos Islands. Final step count for Day 11: Final step count for this trip: 126,528 (67.5 miles)

After the 2-hour flight, we collected our luggage in Quito at baggage claim. Most people with the Celebrity package go back to the JW Marriott, but because our flight out the following morning was at 6:00AM, we were assigned to the EB Hotel at the airport. We found the Celebrity guide with the EB sign, loaded onto the bus and quickly arrived at the hotel (it's about a 5 minute drive as opposed to about an hour for the Marriott). The EB Hotel doesn't exactly look fancy on the outside, but it actually is very modern and nice inside. We were pleased with our room, the dinner and our stay. Like the Marriott, there was a special check-in desk just for Celebrity guests. We quickly received our room keys and this welcome letter: Our room on the 4th floor: Pool area and hot tub: There is a grass walking path around the outside of the hotel: I'm guessing the airport area where the EB is located is not the safest location? I've never actually seen an electrified fence around the perimeter of a hotel before! Dinner at the hotel's restaurant was included as part of our package. Here is the menu: After dinner we walked around the outside of the hotel a little more, but then decided to call it a night since our bus to the airport was scheduled to leave in the morning at 3:30AM. Final step count for Day 10:

Day 10 – Cruise End and Travel to Quito Sunday, April 14 I woke up the next morning feeling rejuvenated and ready to roll. Unfortunately, the cruise was over and rolling meant checking out of our cabin for the last time by 7:30AM and then sitting around waiting for 2 and a half hours to leave the ship. But we had some catching up to do with our friends and Celebrity played a Galapagos documentary narrated by David Attenborough, so the time went by fairly fast and then we were called up to be assigned a group and given our boarding passes for the flight back to Quito. After the tender ride and the short bus trip back to the Baltra airport, we located our bags and wheeled them inside, checked them with Avianca, then passed through security. At this point there are multiple shops with merchandise from local vendors. My wife had no interest in these (HA!). So after we went through every. single. shop in the Baltra airport, we made our way to the VIP lounge, which everyone from the Flora has access to; the flight to Quito actually leaves out of Gate 4, which is inside the VIP area. Special mention to this little guy, who was also here to greet us when we arrived a week ago: Old school boarding from the rolling stairs at both the front and back of the plane: For lunch, we were given caprese salad, a choice of either Cobb salad with turkey or Ecuadorian shrimp, and dessert of a fig cheesecake:

Day 9 continued: We finally made it back to the pier, and somehow on time, but I realized that if I got onto the bus to the Highlands, I would be locked into this excursion until after 3:30. I wasn't feeling like I was going to be able to make it another 4 and a half hours in the sun, so I asked if it would be possible to return to the ship instead. Fortunately, one of the tenders was at the pier and they were actually taking some other people back, so I headed that way. I tried to talk my wife into continuing on without me, but she refused and came back with me (which was a very sweet thing. Also, the credit card was probably maxed). We returned to the Flora before 11:30AM, and I debated going to Medical, but I was convinced that I was just dehydrated and could resolve my issue. I finished the Gatorade, drank a Ginger Ale for the nausea, and continued drinking as much water as I could take. For the next several hours, I slept and sipped water and started to feel better... Until. Look, this is a happy little travel blog, and I don't want to dip into the realm of TMI, but a certain pea soup scene from The Exorcist comes to mind (if that scene happened to go on for like 5 minutes straight). That was the turning point where I decided to give in and schedule an appointment with the doctors. We spent the next 4 hours in Medical, where I was subjected to blood work, multiple EKGs, and several tests. Finally, they decided I was probably just dehydrated, so I was given an IV with a bag of fluids and some Tylenol. At 8:30PM, having missed the Departure Briefing and dinner, they told me to eat some chicken soup and see if I could keep it down and report back to Medical at 10:30PM to make sure I was feeling better. My wife ran into Zarella, our waitress from Glamping and asked her about the soup. When they brought it to the cabin at 9:15PM, I realized that chicken soup is not on the menu for the Flora. And they didn't just open a can of Campbell's and heat it up. No, I'm fairly certain they whipped up a batch of chicken soup from scratch just for me. Thankfully, I felt much better and when I reported back to Medical at 10:30, they checked me out and decided I was going to live. They asked wifey if she had eaten anything, which she hadn't since lunch, so they called Boris (the Maitre D) and gave her the phone. She said she would just order room service, which normally runs until 11PM, but apparently it stops earlier on the last day of the cruise. Boris asked what she wanted and said he would take care of it. We got back to the room and about 45 minutes later, there was a knock on the door and Boris himself delivered her order. I think maybe he got someone out of bed to cook it. Just incredible service from the Flora team. Final step count for Day 9: