Galapagos Xpedition July 2013

[drfun48]

thank you for all you are telling us...it is fascinating...

 

I am a non swimmer, in fact in our group there may be a few that will not snorkel....can I still take part in wet landings? were there others that did not snorkel?

 

Wet landings are most often in less than a foot of water,so yes you can.

[drfun48]

Can I ask when is the best time to do this trip?

I would not go Jan-April when the waved albatross is not present.., Although now with a and b itineraries they can only be seen on A. Some naturalists have said May is a good time.

I think a new moon faze is important for great star gazing and I am going next week for the fourth time during the Perseid meteor showers for the sky show. Previously I went twice in July and once in December.

I preferred July.

There is no winter at the equator,temperatures vary little with simply a very minor increase in showers during their so called wet season.

For more info on climate check this---http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/galsite/research/projects/ader/

[ginal]

My mom didn't snorkel, but she enjoyed strolling on the beach, dipping her feet in the water, taking pictures all along the shore. Bring towels from ship and just sit and enjoy. There are some different shells on the beach. We found 2 starfish to take pics. of. Sea lions were always posing. Kids (and dads) on the last beach were building sand castles and letting the waves fill the moat. Plenty to do-it is amazing how quick the time passes. If anyone is ready to go back the pangas come and go. As the other person said-wet landings are in 1 ft or less of water-sometimes right on sand-so everyone can enjoy the beaches.

[ginal]

DAY 7

Morning Excursion-Santa Cruz, Bachas Beach: Again Option 1 and 2 are the same except the walk is longer on Option 1. This was a wet landing and a beach walk to see the flamingos. Easy walk and gorgeous beach. Then snorkel or go back to ship on pangas.

 

Advanced Deep Water Snorkel- same as Day 5

 

Afternoon Excursion- North Seymour Island: The dry landing here was very tricky, but you can do it. You’ll encounter a few rocks in the trail at the first and then sandy for the rest of the way. <First, let me explain that the Galapagos is not, was not on my ‘Bucket List’. I brought my mom who has always, always wanted to visit the Galapagos on this trip of a lifetime. I had no expectations, I was just going to enjoy everything.> This turned out to be my ‘Oh My Gosh’, Wow, Really excursion. On this island we got to see Blue Footed Boobies (which I didn’t even know what was) doing their mating dance. We also saw Frigate Birds (which, again I didn’t even know what was) doing their mating dance. I took video and was just entranced to be a part of this. It really did make this a trip of a lifetime. So take advantage of everything because you don’t know when the wildlife will really put on a show.

 

Turn in Snorkel gear.

[ginal]

DAY 8

Morning Excursion-San Cristobal Island: Option 1 is a long walk, a museum about the Galapagos’ history, then town time. Option 2 is the museum and then town time. The museum is well worth taking a minute or 5 to read about the Galapagos. It tells about the pirates, the local economy, the wildlife. Then you have a chance to so a little souvenir shopping. This is mostly the basic souvenir town, but we enjoyed walking the waterfront street. We bought T-shirts, postcards, etc.

 

Afternoon Excursion-San Cristobal Island: Only Option 1. Beach walk and swim. The beach was nice and long for a stroll. Sea lions and sally light-foot crabs everywhere. Postcard blue water and lava rocks made for nice pictures. Some hardy souls and kids played in the water. Turtle tracks up the sand dunes, but you could not follow them. Pangas went back and forth, so you could stay 30 minutes or 2 hours.

 

This brings me to my only negative of the whole trip. Entertainment was non-existent, except the following two things. *Galapagos Trivia at 6:45 was fun. This was the only game of the whole week. *Karaoke at 9pm. Only nighttime entertainment worth going to, the rest were pretty sad. Everyone is the lounge sang every song. We had loads of fun.

[ginal]

DAY 9

Morning Excursion-Santa Cruz: Only option is to the Highlands to see the Tortoises in the wild. You land in Port and are transferred by bus to the Highlands. It takes about 45 minutes to get there. HINT: if it is wet they have rubber boots for you to wear. This is an easy walk to see the tortoises. You can do ½ the walk and wait in a nice covered pavilion. They serve you a snack after the walk and of course all the water you want. HINT: Try to get on 1st panga and 1st bus. Hit is hard to see tortoise head out of its shell, better chance if you are the 1st guests there.

 

Afternoon Excursion-Santa Cruz: Only option is to go to the Charles Darwin Station breeding facility. Again a bus ride. It was interesting to see baby turtles and how they are raising them and studying the genetics. You see saddlebacks and dome tortoises. If someone has hard time with distances and uneven ground they will shuttle them right to turtles. The rest of us had to walk about ½ a mile. Easy walk with boardwalks and lanes in the center.

 

Shopping: After the turtles you have a couple of options. 1. Go back to ship. 2. Walk down Main Street and shop. Okay, I love to shop for different types of items to bring back from my trips. HINT: The best shops were right outside of the Research Station. So walk out of the Station and on the right was the beginning of a couple of blocks of fun browsing.

 

If by this point you are dying for M&M’s or real chocolate. Go left at pier 1 block across street is supermarket.

 

Suitcases were put out in hall by 5:30 am to be taken to the airport. You won’t see them till Quito, so don’t put anything in that you might need or don’t mind losing. Again remember, how many people will touch your luggage. They give you zip ties to put on your bag.

[ginal]

• Clothes: We bought hats, shirts, pants at Bass Pro. Some people wore baseball caps, but they tended to blow off on the pangas. Hats with chin straps worked better. If you snorkel, on those 4 excursions you will wear your swimsuit to hike, then put on the wetsuit. I bought swim shorts, some put shorts over swimsuits. I had one long sleeve and one short sleeve fishing type shirt and wore those on most excursions. My husband had several of these and did the same. They do recommend no bright colors on excursions since it attracts insects. You need one pair of shoes to get wet, such as Teva type sandals( mine were generic brand), the closed toed type were popular. These are for wet landings. Tennis shoes or hiking shoes for the lava type excursions. Realize that if you sit in back of panga your shoes are going to get wet! We had a different pair for supper. I bought a $10 pair of sandals to wear every night.

 

• Backpacks: All reviews said you needed backpack. So we bought one. A better buy would have been a belt to hang a water bottle. You don’t need to take bug spray and sunscreen on to the islands. At the most you are there 2 hrs. Water is really all you need on the excursions. Everyone was lugging this huge backpacks….we quit taking anything but water in ours. I didn’t have any problem with my camera vs water either on the pangas. Just stuff in life jacket. HINT: don’t buy plastic backpack-gets way to hot.

[ginal]

DAY 10

Every review I have read, tells nightmares of this day. I thought it went really smooth. Baltra has built a new airport-but it is NOT air conditioned. Didn’t have any complaints. -Out of room by 8am. -–on board pangas around 9:30 -- airport at 10am -- about 10 stalls of shopping for last minute items at airport, and food court –then thru customs (painless) and into a private waiting area with drinks and snacks --- 12pm board charter plane for Quito, with a nice lunch. ---land and transfer to Marriott (of course this is that 1 hr drive again). We did encounter a rock slide on way to hotel that shut traffic down for 3 hours; thank goodness our driver just went on around. Our luggage took forever to make it through.

 

Afternoon Excursion: Shopping in Quito. We were taken just 10 minutes away from the hotel to a local crafts mall to bargain and shop for blankets and souvenirs for about an hour. Crowded, watch your wallets, but lots of fun. Then we went to an expensive art gallery for an hour.

 

Back to the hotel for a nice supper at La Hacienda.

[ginal]

Day 11

Alas-the buffet breakfast is the last meal and farewell to the all-inclusive food and excursions.

 

Our plane did not leave till midnight. We had the use of our room till 5pm. I opted to pay $100 to keep it till 8:30 when the bus left to take us back to the airport. We elected to laze around the hotel. Other groups went on excursions. HINT: Celebrity add-on excursions are way-overpriced. Go to the hotel business office and they will arrange a tour at a much lower cost that suits your needs. We did go the mall that is 5 blocks away…don’t bother way over-prices. A pair of women’s Crocs was $79. Bad area of town and could not get a taxi to take us back to hotel. Had to walk—no walk really fast---bad area.

 

WARNING: Missed our connecting flight because plane left Quito an hour late due to ice on wings. Yes that’s ice on wings in July at Equator!!! If you go thru Houston they had 5 different lines we had to go thru to make it thru customs. It took over an hour and we did it fast and were 1st class so got to skip to head of some lines.

 

 

I will post all of this under member reviews if you want to see the whole trip at once.

[2552phxcrzr]

thank you for all you are telling us...it is fascinating...

 

I am a non swimmer, in fact in our group there may be a few that will not snorkel....can I still take part in wet landings? were there others that did not snorkel?

 

When everyone else went snorkeling, I stayed on the beach, and wandered around on my own ... some of my favorite times on the trip were these "solo" walks when I could sit with wildlife and just enjoy watching them.

[jcrandle]

Wow, I am blown away and cannot thank you enough for your detailed review of the Galapagos cruise. We are planning to go in Sept. 2014, and your advice will be very helpful in our planning. Thanks again.

[MicCanberra]

Wow, I am blown away and cannot thank you enough for your detailed review of the Galapagos cruise. We are planning to go in Sept. 2014, and your advice will be very helpful in our planning. Thanks again.

Agree, a very interesting read and some great tips. Will certianly make the planning easier. cheers.:D

[DomerCruisers]

Ginal:

Thank you for your detailed review and HINTS. We are on Itinerary B in Oct 2013. We are bookmarking your posts and will refer to them when making our tour decisions. Glad this turned out to be a OMG trip for you. How special to me able to share it with your Mom.

[beachchairs2]

thank you so much for all the advice and hints...

 

very kind of you to take time to help others...

[Arusha]

Ginal,

 

Thanks for your wonderful detailed review! I'll be on the Xpedition in 2 months. Your info is very helpful.

[ginal]

If you have any questions---Just ask, I will try to answer. It seems some things have changed recently. WIFI in Lounge is free for example and they have 6 laptops you can use. New airport in Baltra which makes things so easy.

 

As I said this was my mom's bucket list trip and my husband, myself and a nephew went along. So I can give a perspective from several different age groups.

[Dr. Cocktail]

If you have any questions---Just ask, I will try to answer. It seems some things have changed recently. WIFI in Lounge is free for example and they have 6 laptops you can use. New airport in Baltra which makes things so easy.

 

As I said this was my mom's bucket list trip and my husband, myself and a nephew went along. So I can give a perspective from several different age groups.

 

 

Thank you for your excellent and informative review!

 

As a pretty tall guy, I am interested in upgrading to a bigger seat on the charter flights to and from Baltra. Do you remember where and when they let you do this? Thanks!

[JFontaine]

Can you give us an idea of what your fellow travelers were like? Any idea how those traveling solo would do at meals, etc? Thanks for your review - a fun read

[drfun48]

If you have any questions---Just ask, I will try to answer. It seems some things have changed recently. WIFI in Lounge is free for example and they have 6 laptops you can use. New airport in Baltra which makes things so easy.

 

As I said this was my mom's bucket list trip and my husband, myself and a nephew went along. So I can give a perspective from several different age groups.

 

How long was your customs check in at the airport outside Quito upon arrival ?At the old airport in town it was frequently over an hour.

[drfun48]

Can you give us an idea of what your fellow travelers were like? Any idea how those traveling solo would do at meals, etc? Thanks for your review - a fun read

 

No problem traveling solo. Best group of passengers I've ever traveled with. The cost of a single could be great however.

[ginal]

Dr. Cocktail- The 1st class seats were a new addition and were bought at the airport. BUT my guess is you could call the Xpedition desk. This is a special guest relations just for the Xpedition guests. Each of these agents has been on this cruise. I called them many times getting ready for the trip and they were very helpful. I'll try to find the phone number.

 

JFontaines-Solo, I agree with drfun48. This cruise would be great as a solo. Tables for all meals including dinner are open seating. We were a party of 4, so we got different people each night to fill up our table. Some of the groups of 2 just moved around each night to meet people. Excursions were divided by family members based on interests. Most people were 'single' during this. The average age is mid-50's with several families and several older couples. The only caution would be cost. My mom wanted to go Solo-but the price was the same for one or two(since the rooms are priced for doubles), so that's why the nephew got a free-once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Galapagos. We decided it was a shame to waste the bed, when the $ were the same.

 

drfun48- Quito customs was a one room-easy set up. Upon departing plane, you go to the line to have your passport checked-go pick up your luggage-some luggage goes thru a xray (some doesn't)-then a visual check of your luggage tags vs your checked bag ticket. That's it! Two planes arrived at the same time and we were thru and out the door within about 20 minutes. As you exit you look for the Celebrity X sign and they direct you to the luggage porters. This was painless.

Leaving Quito was just as easy!

 

ONE CAUTION here for everybody. Upon leaving the US we were given a form to fill out and told to keep 1/2 that you would need for re-entry back into US. I threw mine in suitcase, with a who-cares attitude-on vacation. Packing to come back the nephew mentioned this and I laughed, but dug the little pieces of paper out of the luggage. SURE ENOUGH, we were asked to hand those little pieces of Customs papers over in Houston. Don't know what happens if you don't have them-don't want to know. SO put the paper with your passport!!!

[Dr. Cocktail]

Dr. Cocktail- The 1st class seats were a new addition and were bought at the airport. BUT my guess is you could call the Xpedition desk. This is a special guest relations just for the Xpedition guests. Each of these agents has been on this cruise. I called them many times getting ready for the trip and they were very helpful. I'll try to find the phone number.

 

JFontaines-Solo, I agree with drfun48. This cruise would be great as a solo. Tables for all meals including dinner are open seating. We were a party of 4, so we got different people each night to fill up our table. Some of the groups of 2 just moved around each night to meet people. Excursions were divided by family members based on interests. Most people were 'single' during this. The average age is mid-50's with several families and several older couples. The only caution would be cost. My mom wanted to go Solo-but the price was the same for one or two(since the rooms are priced for doubles), so that's why the nephew got a free-once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Galapagos. We decided it was a shame to waste the bed, when the $ were the same.

 

drfun48- Quito customs was a one room-easy set up. Upon departing plane, you go to the line to have your passport checked-go pick up your luggage-some luggage goes thru a xray (some doesn't)-then a visual check of your luggage tags vs your checked bag ticket. That's it! Two planes arrived at the same time and we were thru and out the door within about 20 minutes. As you exit you look for the Celebrity X sign and they direct you to the luggage porters. This was painless.

Leaving Quito was just as easy!

 

ONE CAUTION here for everybody. Upon leaving the US we were given a form to fill out and told to keep 1/2 that you would need for re-entry back into US. I threw mine in suitcase, with a who-cares attitude-on vacation. Packing to come back the nephew mentioned this and I laughed, but dug the little pieces of paper out of the luggage. SURE ENOUGH, we were asked to hand those little pieces of Customs papers over in Houston. Don't know what happens if you don't have them-don't want to know. SO put the paper with your passport!!!

 

 

Thanks for the response!

[MicCanberra]

Thanks for the response!

Ditto,:D

great tip about the half ticket. I don't know if I will need half a return stub but will certainly bear it in mind if I do.:D

[2552phxcrzr]

Thank you for your excellent and informative review!

 

As a pretty tall guy, I am interested in upgrading to a bigger seat on the charter flights to and from Baltra. Do you remember where and when they let you do this? Thanks!

 

When we went last July, the Celebrity rep on our tour announced the availability of the flight upgrades on the way back from the Mitad del Mundo tour in the afternoon; they were 90 pp I believe. Those interested were told to see the Celebrity reps at the desk in the lobby when we arrived back at the hotel. This was before they added the deck 6 suites. Our charter flight had two cabins - business/first and coach.

[Dr. Cocktail]

When we went last July, the Celebrity rep on our tour announced the availability of the flight upgrades on the way back from the Mitad del Mundo tour in the afternoon; they were 90 pp I believe. Those interested were told to see the Celebrity reps at the desk in the lobby when we arrived back at the hotel. This was before they added the deck 6 suites. Our charter flight had two cabins - business/first and coach.

 

 

Thanks again!