Princess Cruisers - Who do you sail with when going to the Galapagos islands.

[dee66]

I like to sail on Princess, but it appears they do not have a cruise for the Galapagos Islands. Which cruise line have you used for Galapagos?

 

 

Thanks.

[edgarfluffer]

Celebrity cruises, been doing it for years.

[Loonbeam]

Celebrity is the only mass market line down there offering anything even close to a traditional cruise ship experience (admittedly on a MUCH smaller vessel).

 

Everything else is more expedition style.

[SadieN]

Could also do a land tour. DD did this in high school.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Celebrity now has 3 ships to choose from in Galapagos. We did Xpedition (96 passengers - the largest ship allowed) and loved it. Take the 10-day package and they will take care of you from/to Quito airport. Also longer package that includes Machu Picchu, which some people we met on board enjoyed. See blog in my signature.

[snowskier]

Overseas Adventure Travel - small shIp,small group. There are some trips that just shouldn't be done on a big cruise ship.

 

We had 14 people on the ship, it was a great time. You see so much more when in this area of the world if you move away from the mass market stuff.

[taxatty]

Celebrity Xpedition trip (and the pre and post cruise package) was great--the best of our many worldwide trips.

[kcdancerkc]

I cannot find a port board for galapagos...?

[capriccio]

I cannot find a port board for galapagos...?

 

The Galapagos are covered on the South America board (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=76). The subject doesn't come up very frequently so you need to do a search on Galapagos.

[boomerone]

I like to sail on Princess, but it appears they do not have a cruise for the Galapagos Islands. Which cruise line have you used for Galapagos?

 

 

Thanks.

After two fantastic (albeit a little more expensive but well worth it) expedition cruises with Silversea to Antarctica (Prince Albert II) and the Arctic (Silver Explorer) we wanted to go to the Galapagos but alas at the time Silversea had no itineraries there and we went with Celebrity Xpedition. Silversea now has Galapagos expeditions and I would recommend them based on our two sailings with them. The shore excursion guides with Celebrity were absolutely wonderful as they were contracted employees who grew up in the Galapagos but found the dining, cabin accommodations, overall service, and interest exhibited by the Celebrity employees to be well below what we had experienced with Silversea. We found the 7 day Galapagos experience with Celebrity to be about two days too long. We arranged our follow-on visit to Cusco and Machu Picchu on our own (very easy to do our air, lodging in a great B&B, touring arranged by the B&B) and saved close to $2500 from what Celebrity was going to charge us. We met folks on the land portion of our holiday who were on the Xpedition with us and learned found they weren't too excited about their land tour.

[cruzsnooze]

I did Celebrity Xpedition and enjoyed it. If I do it again I will go with National geographic's Lindblad which are small ships.

[gooch47]

We have done the Xpedition cruise twice now. Had a wonderful time the first time, the second I contracted some kind of stomach ailment, maybe Norovirus, maybe not. The on-board doctor was great though.

 

Admittedly this has been quite a few years ago, though.

[shepp]

I'm booked on the Xpedition in May, though I'm doing pre- and post-cruise time in Ecuador independently. I know it's the max size for the Galapagos (and not cheap) but having been on a couple of small-group tours where there were interpersonal frictions, the notion of being stuck on a small boat for a week with only a handful of strangers to relate to is a bit daunting.

 

I'm also with the travelers who did Machu Picchu on their own; I've heard complaints from people who spent a lot of money and a long time traveling to spend just a fraction of a day (and at the most crowded time) at the site.

[CRUISERTN]

Have done the Celebrity Xpedition three times - 2006, 2011 and 2015 - they now have two additional ships but both smaller than the Xpedition - I would not do anything smaller than the 96 passenger Xpedition. A trip of a lifetime!! They have really gone up on pricing recently and now that Silversea has a similar ship, I would check both the Xpedition and Silversea and compare. I agree with others to definitely take the 10 day package if you do the Xpedition - we have been to Machu Picchu but did it with a separate Peru trip and much more economical if you do it separately and not an extension of the Galapagos trip, and you also get to see a lot more and spend more time there.

[Host Jazzbeau]

You will notice that the capacity of all ships in Galapagos is a multiple of 16 -- this is because the laws restrict shore excursion groups to 16 passengers max. So being on Xpedition still gives you the same small-group experience on shore that you would get on the smaller ship. But Xpedition can handle rough seas much better than the little yachts. Food and wine onboard were excellent -- all locally sourced, and the nearest wine region is Chile, which makes some lovely stuff!

[caribill]

In 2008 Princess offered a cruise tour which included flying to the Galapagos and taking a small ship around those islands for four days.

 

It was a great experience.

 

Princess has not offered this since that time.

[gottagocit]

We visited there on a land based stay in 2006 and loved it. We based ourselves on Santa Cruz and booked a few day trips to other islands on small boats with 8-10 people and it was wonderful. Each day we had lots of time to explore on our own and spend time in the small town.

[Photofinish4]

Overseas Adventure Travel - small shIp,small group. There are some trips that just shouldn't be done on a big cruise ship.

 

We had 14 people on the ship, it was a great time. You see so much more when in this area of the world if you move away from the mass market stuff.

we did oat and loved it. I don't think you would want to go on a bigger boat.we did the amazon and machu pitchu. Also did Africa and their sister company Grand Circle Travel to Australia and river cruise down the Danube River.

[cruisequeen4ever]

We were going to do the Celebrity Xpedition. We've since decided to put that trip off for a while, but I trusted Celebrity more than the other companies. The downside was that the Xpedition is known to have a stability issue due to adding another deck. If you're prone to motion sickness, consider that.

 

 

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[sandyoftheseas]

We also used Overseas Adventure Travel and LOVED them. We did a combination trip Galapagos and Machu Picchu.