Silver Galapagos Near to Sailing

We are paying $50.00 more to be flown back directly to Quito, not sure if that would work for you but our returning flight is from Quito so this was much better for us. Silverseas was lovely about this and said they much preferred this as opposed to us booking our own flights. There is no day room but we hired a driver to take us around our the day for a bit of sightseeing before our flight back through Houston.

We are paying $50.00 more to be flown back directly to Quito, not sure if that would work for you but our returning flight is from Quito so this was much better for us. Silverseas was lovely about this and said they much preferred this as opposed to us booking our own flights. There is no day room but we hired a driver to take us around our the day for a bit of sightseeing before our flight back through Houston.

Interesting this- we were offered no discount to begin in Guayaquil as we are taking the Tren Crucero from Quito to Guayaquil before the cruise. I may do a bit more prodding and point out this info.

And we too are in whatever the reviews- past our final payment date and all. And looking very much forward to it.

Very interesting! I would happily pay $50.00 more to fly to Quito from Baltra. If we fly from Guayaquil we fly first to Quito as flying from Guayaquil through Panama City adds 6 hours to the trip. I will look into this tomorrow.

We are actually stopping in Panama for a couple of days- anything to avoid overnight flights! Although it means that we are going to have to get our yellow fever shots, I think, to enter Panama from Ecuador, a serious hitch in what seemed like an easy plan.

Swaldos, my Grandson and I will sailing the Silver Galapogos 12/14/13. Only reservation, is it the largest ship in the islands. Wonder way SS is not including" free laundry benefit". Hope it is environmental issues, and not something they just choose to eliminate for these voyages. Let's all hope this will be an adventure of a lifetime for many people. If anyone sails prior to our voyage, please post a review.

I will be on the same sailing,,,I have sailed SS to Arctic and was great,,,,So hopefully it will be a great cruise and I think SS food is really good, So we will see....

LuckyD - in order to qualify for "free laundry" one must have spent 100 days on Silversea ships and they do it for you. I don't know if the Galapogos will have a "laundry room" where you're "free" to do your own or not.

ANYONE going with General tours on the Galapagos Journey 12/14.....Please let me know...:)

ANYONE going with General tours on the Galapagos Journey 12/14.....Please let me know...:)

Yes we are going with General Tours, I was on Prince Albert (Before the name change and it was great) I hope this will be as good, we will meet you with the Tour...Where are you travelling from we are from Florida....

Quote:

Originally Posted by frenchtwist View Post

ANYONE going with General tours on the Galapagos Journey 12/14.....Please let me know...

Yes we are going with General Tours, I was on Prince Albert (Before the name change and it was great) I hope this will be as good, we will meet you with the Tour...Where are you travelling from we are from Florida....

Uh- frenchtwist- I think you may be talking to yourself here?

Yes WOW I better get it straight before I do any more posts....:o

Yes WOW I better get it straight before I do any more posts....:o

;) At least you know you'll be sailing with folks you know and love!

ps- I've done the same.

Yes, French Twist, I and two girl friends are going with General Tours on Dec. 14, or Dec. 12 into Quito. We live in New Smyrna Beach Florida. See you then.

;) At least you know you'll be sailing with folks you know and love!

 

ps- I've done the same.

5waldos -- good one! your sense of humor appeals - ;)

We were on the cruise ending yesterday nov 23. Without repeating information from earlier reviews the service and food situation are broken. We had many of the experiences reported and other unique ones (such as having to get Christian Frey the hotel manager give us a handwritten receipt for on board charges because the front desk staff couldn't produce one and he early didn't have a clue). It would 't be a big deal if this was an isolated incident, but every meal and every service request was a challenge.

The insitutional quality of the food has nothing to do with the Ecuadorian source. It was the cook in the kitchen and the inability of the wait staff to deliver it before it was cold which caused the problem. There was fresh food in the grill which you effectively cooked youself-at least that part (the fish and meat) was ok if the waiter didn't loose the order. Chaos at meals was just around the corner-some meals worse than others. Ramon and Douglas tried but they couldn't do it all.

At least on our cruise 4 And 5 day trippers were not the problem as was reported in earlier posts. As best i know there were none. There was general outrage by nearly all passengers-both old Silver Seas hands and others. Enough for now. I am not optomistic the situation will get fixed -the staff in general doesn't get it and the onboard management at best gives happy talk with no follow through.

If you have another option give it careful consideration.

Wow! It is such a disappointment.

:-(((

This does not sound like a happy experience. But I still don't understand how it was such a good ship before (I have read Galapagos Explorer II reviews) and so apparently terrible now. You all really do have me nervous about this- we have mostly done kid's cruises on Carnival and never had the kind of complaints I am seeing here. It would be rather ironic to discover that Carnival wins over Silversea in the service department and food. This was supposed to be our grownup luxury cruise.

And I don't think it can be blamed on the restrictions in the Galapagos- other ships seem able to pull it off. Although it may be that you can't simply fire everyone and start again, which is what it sounds like they need to do.