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.

Not sure when you were in Japan, but they've had this law for many, many years. They don't stop everyone, but it is actually a law - foreigners / tourists are required to carry ID and can be stopped and asked to show it.

I think the issue is GTY cabin. If you originally booked a GTY, and that's no longer available, you now need to rebook, which involves a cancellation.

probably nobody can tell you if Celebrity will offer more excursions with any certainty. And yes, you probably will get suggestions of taking other operators. Many of us have done so without missing the ship. Lots of the private operators make their living off of cruise ship passengers and with social media being what it is - if they got poor reviews, people would not book. Read the reviews on Viator - if there are red flags from people not getting back on time - that's the sign not to book. Many offer guarantee that if they are late - they take the expense of getting you to the next port. I have done all of the ports you mention on my own and was not late back to the port. I used this company in Ephasus - Private Ephesus Tours - Ephesus Travel Guide (You can for example, see the reviews of this company on trip advisor to get an idea of how people rated them)

Now THAT would be quite the itinerary. Can they get an E class through the St Lawrence. If not, maybe if they just build an E class there, they could still do 3 or 4 day trips. Toronto / Hamilton / Rochester. That's about as exciting as some of the trips the Apex will be doing.

I think they are making more money by flipping the cabins on the short itineraries than on one long itinerary. I mean - if they can turn one cabin 3 times on a 3 - 4 day sailing instead of 1 cabin on a 14 - 16 day sailing, then they make more money. That is their new model. Younger people going on the sailings out of Florida instead of older people going on longer sailings out of Europe and South America. It seems to be filling the ships. And yes - I agree on the traditional business model - but today it is different. There is no loyalty - times have changed it seems. I mean seriously, look at the "perks" associated with the loyalty tiers. I'm not willing to spend 100K to get a second free bag of laundry, especially when I can have a cruise planned for over a year then poof - they decide "oh we decided not to do this trip, so we cancel it and move the ship from South America to Florida and too bad for you". Why be loyal to a company that has no regard for you?

Exactly - I'm not arguing. I said exactly that. They are trying to get new customers by making changes to ship offering and itinerary. So rather than complain if Celebrity no longer seems desirable - people either need to adapt or move to a different ship.

I think the thing a lot of people either don't see our don't want to see is this ... people keep talking about celebrity and listening to their loyal customers. Well, here the thing. They aren't. They want NEW customers. They don't care about the loyal customers. Yes, traditionally, in business the goal is to keep your loyal customers. They aren't doing that. They want NEW ones. They want a new market. If we don't like it, we can move on. If celebrity can still fill ships without us, they succeeded. If not, they failed. We either adapt and enjoy or find a cruise line more aligned with what we desire.

I've never personally had any issues. Everyone's bank as well as the account/plan's and associated fees, etc they have may vary. So, yes - agree - best to actually check with your bank.

If you want some Yen before you arrive - check with your bank before you go. For example, Bank of America can get me any currency I want for no fee, just the bank rate for exchange. If I am going to some obscure country where it is easier to use cash and difficult to find an ATM (or I am arriving in the middle of the night and don't want to bother) - I will sometimes get a little cash before I travel just so I have some.

I think the cruise ships excursion stop at Vatnahalsen from some YouTube videos I have watched for anyone following along wanting to DIY.... the place where they go for waffles is Vatnahalsen Høyfjellshotell ( Mountain Hotel) if anyone wants waffles. I may skip waffles as I think it would be very busy.

They seem to release tickets about 3 months out, so I am guessing the schedule will come out in October. (Just a guess on my part)

Thank you, that is helpful. I see what you are saying. Do you know where the trains from ship exists stop? I am trying to avoid a so excited as it is $250 US per person, and I can buy tickets directly for much less than that. It does not say where they stop. Don't necessarily need the waffles, so maybe we will just go to Myrdal anyway...

So 1 hour at the Myrdal is plenty to just walk around a bit then? Might be easier to just do the return trip and skip trying to hike. Thanks!

Does anyone know how to book a roundtrip ticket for the train, but have some amount of time between arrival and departure? By this, I mean - we want to depart from Flam, then remain for longer than 1 hour at Myrdal. If we want to spend some time hiking around, I am afraid 1 hour may not be enough. From what I can see for the booking, it is only a booking to arrive, then depart again for the return in 1 hour. If we wanted to return in 2 or 3 hours - is that possible?

Not a pole in the cabin, but on balcony. Which I can now see by looking up a picture. I've never had one either - guess I;ve always gotten lucky and had the outside of the 4. See below. The inner 2 have the pole centered in the balcony. The outer 2 in the group of 4 have no pole.

I remember some post about sky suite balconies on e-class with a post or something. You could identify this by counting off cabins by 4 from the closest non-suite. Anyone remember something like this?

If there's one thing about the agents that's consistent, it's that they are consistently inconsistent!

Probably better to speak to your doctor / nurse than seek medical advice on cruise critic. Your medical history is also a factor. I have been to all of the countries on this trip through work (and am doing this trip in Dec 2024) and the travel medicine nurse at my work explained WHY they were or were not recommended in conjunction with my medical history. You may have had tetanus in the last few years - it is often given if you've had a deep cut or scrape on something that is rusty/dirty.

Congratulations on retirement! Rather than focus on what there isn't, focus on what there IS. Enjoy everything that IS offered and don't worry about what is not. Have an amazing trip!

Looking forward to reading this report. Our next trip on X is on the Flora in October, which I know I can't really compare to the others, so won't be a good judge. I've got 3 more booked after that, but do wish I could really use this next one as a comparison.

I hope everyone's expectations are the same, regardless of which cabin they sail in. Everyone should expect friendly crew, good food, comfortable, clean public spaces. The answers to many of the common questions can be answered by anyone. Plus, lots of us like to hear about everyone's experiences and opinions, and don't really care where they lay their head at night.

Doing the 16 day in October on the Flora. ( was originally doing 10, but last month switched to 16). Will report back after with any updates.

Completely agree. There are so many ships with lots of kid based activities like water parks, roller coaster type things, mini golf. Not sure why anyone would pick a Celebrity ship when these other ships are an option.

March + April is spring break timeframe for many in the US, and a cruise out of Florida is highly likely to have kids on board. If you are looking to avoid kids or younger crowd - then best to avoid sailing when they are more likely to be sailing as well. Less likely than on RCCL/Carnival, but also more likely than in months where kids are not out of school.