mahdnc

Yeah. Actually re-pack since everything is not put away.

Good to read. We were on Constellation in Oct 2022 and we enjoyed the cruise immensely.

During our flight to Baltra, you could see San Cristóbal Island from our window as well as Kicker Rock (2nd photo).

Surprisingly (to me), there were several passengers on board who had time to pleasure read. If you are interested in the ship's library, here is the photographic tour.

Second Officer Julian told me that the stabilizers were really too small to be useful. Reminded me of this.......

Here is a tour of the Xpedition Gift Shop. Because it is so small, it is devoid of the usual cheap logo'd items such as key chains and shot glasses. Instead it carried a large variety of different clothing ideally suited for the Galapagos of course. I did not bring a long sleeved shirt and realized half way through the trip, that I needed one--gift shop to the re$cue. If you were not happy with the headwear you packed with you, the Xpedition Gift Shop was ready to take care of you. Of course, jewelry was also for sale. and chocolates...... ...and socks

Before our bridge tour that day, Xpedition got a surprise inspection visit from the Ecuadorian Navy and the Galapagos National Park Service.

You can request a bridge tour at Guest Relations. It is not publicized. There are several dates/times from which to choose. The maximum group size is six. My wife and I signed up for a 3 pm Friday tour (Espanola Island). It turned out that we were the only ones that signed up for that time slot. The entrance to the bridge is on Deck 5--the same deck our cabin was located. The door is at the end of the hallway, all the way forward of course. We were escorted to that door from Guest Relations. The tour lasted about 20 minutes. When we arrived, the Second Officer, Julian, was on the bridge. Julian patiently proceeded to show us pretty much every inch of the bridge. I was quite surprised to find out that Xpedition is outfitted with stabilizers. Based on all the rocking and rolling during our sailing, it didn't see like the stabilizers did much (that was feedback I kept to myself). The ship's steering control is performed through the small joystick in the lower left hand corner of the picture below. The periscope mounted to the ceiling in the picture below is to allow a person to read the magnetic compass which installed above the bridge. While on the bridge, Julian acknowledged by radio one of Xpedition's zodiacs coming back from Espanola Island (photo below). This was several hours after all of us passengers were already back on board. When I inquired about it, Julian told us that those crew (naturalists?) were responsible for performing a required inspection on Espanola at the conclusion of the land tour to make sure that everything was in order. I presume he meant that nothing was accidentally left on the island, etc. Xpedition's captain, Nathaly Alban, came to the bridge towards the end of our tour. She explained to us that there is a designated "parking" spot for Xpedition for each island visited. The spot is the same each time. Captain Natalie has spent time on all the Galapagos ships in Celebrity's fleet except for Flora. She served as first mate on Xperience and later as Xploration's captain (press release). Captain Nathaly harbors career ambitions of serving on the ships in Celebrity's main fleet.

We have done it several times pre-COVID when it was significantly cheaper. We thought it was well worth it.

Here is a photo of the wet suits that were handed out. There were plenty of each size for everyone. Getting in and out of them can be a bit of a trick, but there was plenty of crew ready to assist you at all times. The distribution of snorkeling gear (mesh gear bag, mask, snorkel, fins, wetsuits, and optional flotation vest) is a very orderly process. It is done once at the beginning of the cruise and the equipment is dedicated to you until the end of the sailing. The system for cleaning/rinsing and stowage is also systematic and well organized. Celebrity has that down to a science.

A year ago, we booked this Summit cruise for this coming April. We have our favorite aft balcony and am really looking forward to it.

I thought you were sufficiently busy taking down the casino with your favorite slot machine.

At Guest Relations, there is a flyer for post-cruise shore excursions that you can purchase if you are staying an extra day in Quito. They include Mindo Cloud Forest ($145 pp, need min 6), High Andes Spa ($173pp with guide, need min 4), and Otavalo Market & Roses ($197 pp, need min 4). Here is a link to the flyer. It is quite cheaper to do these trips independently.

The Celebrity supplied mask and snorkel are being worn by a couple of models from our cruise, Tzipporah (left) and Stephanie (right). They are also wearing the Celebrity supplied flotation vest (optional). They are very interesting people and represented the younger passenger demographic. If any dancing occurred on our sailing, I would imagine that they would know about it......

As avid divers, my wife and I were interested in all the snorkeling opportunities during this trip. There were a total of five: 1. Day 2, Sunday afternoon, Santa Fe Island 2. Day 4, Tuesday morning, Floreana Island 3. Day 4, Tuesday afternoon, Champion Island (Floreana) 4. Day 5, Wednesday afternoon, Isabela Island 5. Day 7, Friday morning, Espanola Island. All five snorkel trips were pretty good in terms of aquatic life. There was always a lot to see. Water clarity/visibility was hit and miss. There were two snorkel trips that stood out to me. 1. The snorkeling around Champion Island (Day 4 afternoon) was the longest trip (time and distance). We swam along the rocky coastline with several sea lions watching us from the rocks (a couple eventually jumped in). I liked this snorkel trip because the sea bed was rocky and it resembled a coral reef. There were several starfish visible including a blue one and the famous chocolate chip starfish. The waters were teeming with fish with an occasional sea lion or sea turtle swimming by. Because of the length involved, I tended to fall behind and consequently missed out on much of what Jorge, our naturalist, was pointing out. The trip starts by jumping out of the zodiac and finishes when you climb back in. The zodiac drifted along with us to keep an eye out. It was the most exhausting of all the trips but quite worth it. 2. Our last snorkel trip which was on Espanola Island was also quite memorable. We were instructed by our naturalist to swim out to the rocky outcropping (red circle). Once we swam out there from the beach, we saw sea turtles (of course) and 2-3 sharks which was pretty cool.

Very soft. Actually too soft at Post Office Bay (Floreana). It was so soft your feet sunk into the sand a good 3-6 inches making it very laborious to walk On the other hand, the beach at Espanola Island was like being in Florida.

You probably thought I forgot about you. Here are a couple of photos of the ladder. One above water and a blurry one below water. There is a wooden step above the water. Below the water there are two wooden steps and a metal bar beneath them. Note that the ladder is hinged (red circle in the photo below) so that it can be folded upwards to be stowed when not in use. When you step on the wooden step above the water to get into the boat, your weight can cause the bottom of the ladder to swing out away from the boat. This causes the step that you are on to tilt which can be unsettling if you are not ready for it.

The short answer to your question is 9:40 am Galapagos local time. One nice thing about taking a lot of photos is that I have the time stamps to refer back to which helps giving you an accurate answer. I am going to give you the times for each event in local Galapagos time and not ship time which runs one hour later. 9:12 am: We get off Xpedition for the last time and board the zodiac with all our luggage. 9:19 am: We get off the zodiac at the Baltra dock. We then board the shuttle bus waiting for us. There are pelicans, lazy sea lions, and sea turtles there to say goodbye. 9:40 am: We get off the shuttle bus at the front of the airport (GPS) with all of our luggage. The terminal is small with zero car traffic. The front of the terminal is open air. When you get off the shuttle bus it is 20 steps to the ticket counter (photo below). You can see that the line to the ticket counter is very small. 9:55 am: We check in at the ticket counter and hand over our checked baggage. Our flight left out of Gate 4. There are a couple of short security checkpoints to navigate through to get to the gate. We wait in a lounge which we have access to through Celebrity (photo below). Gate 4 is in the background.

I just added some photos so you could see what people were wearing. If you go back and look at my earlier posts, I have photos of the slides that were shown to us onboard Xpedition. Some of them have the recommended footwear called out. Here are all the slides put together in one folder. The slides for each date are put in a separate folder although within the folder, the slides are out of order.

I had the same questions as you. I packed Keen hybrid shoes, a light hiking shoe, water shoes, and boat shoes to wear onboard. They all worked fairly well for their intended purpose. I found the water shoes to be more useful than I expected and the Keens not quite as useful although I am glad I brought them. To me, when I look at your list, the Tevas and waterproof sneakers are something that I would not bring. In the end, it's a personal decision made without a lot of experience for those of us that have not been there before! I noticed that the naturalists tended to go barefoot a lot unless the ground was rocky.

The masks on board Xpedition were fine. We brought our own for other reasons. My wife uses a prescription lens mask while I prefer a mask with a built in purge valve to make it easier to clear if it gets flooded because I wear contact lenses. Same thing goes for their snorkels and fins. They were fine and in good condition.

Snorkeling opportunities during this cruise were abundant. I believe my wife and I snorkeled four times. The clarity of the water varied in each case, but each spot was teeming with aquatic life. Full face snorkel masks were not recommended according to the presentation made by Cristina. I asked her why afterwards and she mentioned that there is a problem with carbon dioxide buildup in a full face mask which could cause the swimmer to pass out. There are two types of snorkeling offered. "Deep water" snorkeling is simply a snorkeling trips that is done from the zodiac raft. As divers, we call them boat dives. The other type of snorkeling is done from the shore where you simply wade into the water with your gear. As divers, we call them shore dives. There were large schools of fish in some of our trips.

Xavier was going to another ship after our sailing (not a Celebrity one). He said he just likes the variety.

As you know, the naturalists have the benefit of keeping a work schedule that suits them since they are freelancers. Vicky was getting off the ship after our sailing so she must have had only a one week stint. Another naturalist, Xavier, got on board with us and only intended to be there for one week. Here is the Xpedition Director, Cristina Bonilla, flanked by her team of naturalists for our sailing. They are at the airport (UIO) looking for the next sailing's passengers. From left to right: Xavier, Elmer, Cristina, Vicky, and Jorge

Maybe they are on to something.....