Live: Nov 18 2023 Xpedition Galapagos Southern Loop

[Beachlover1989]

15 hours ago, mahdnc said:

 

His name is Lincoln Guaman.  His website is https://www.lincolnjabra.com/.

 

He was recommended on Cruise Critic over in the South America forum.

 

Oh my gosh!  Thank you!  This is who we had booked for a private tour in March, 2020 🙃, but I couldn't find his contact information!!

[sandiego1]

@mahdnc If you don’t mind, I would like to know who you tipped in cash at the end of the cruise and how much. I don’t know how much cash to bring. Thanks in advance.

[mahdnc]

5 hours ago, sandiego1 said:

@mahdnc If you don’t mind, I would like to know who you tipped in cash at the end of the cruise and how much. I don’t know how much cash to bring. Thanks in advance.

 

Technically tips are included as part of the overall fare and there were no subtle hints or clues during the cruise tour that additional tipping was desired.  If other people were tipping, it was done very discretely or I wasn't looking hard enough.

 

One other problem was we did not know who we might feel inclined to tip (e.g. would we get dedicated service from one dining room waiter or from several?).  

 

Having said all that, in the end we tipped the four naturalists $50 each and we tipped our stateroom attendant $50 as well.  I chose not to tip the dining room staff nor the bar staff--mainly because it was not clear where to draw the line as it seemed ridiculous to tip everyone on board.

 

During the land part of the vacation, we tipped the people who handled our bags (driver and bellhop).  We did not tip the guides.

 

I do not know if the amount we tipped was above or below the average for our sailing.

[Beachlover1989]

On 12/2/2023 at 7:03 PM, mahdnc said:

There is a nice little movie that is shown consisting of photos that were taken during the trip.

 

 

The movie is approximately 14 minutes long and it is well done.  There are plenty of photos of wildlife and passengers.

 

 

The movie (in a thumb drive) is distributed to everyone at the end.

 

 

If you are interested in seeing the movie, here is the link.

 

Sorry I keep thinking of questions! 🙃  This is a wonderful slideshow! Are there also just pictures separately you can download from the thumb drive?

[mahdnc]

8 minutes ago, Beachlover1989 said:

Sorry I keep thinking of questions! 🙃  This is a wonderful slideshow! Are there also just pictures separately you can download from the thumb drive?

 

Hi.  No problem with the questions, that's what this thread is for.

 

I am fairly sure that the thumb drive contained the slide show only.  When I get home, I will check the thumb drive just to be sure and, either way, I will let you know for sure.

[mahdnc]

6 hours ago, Beachlover1989 said:

Sorry I keep thinking of questions! 🙃  This is a wonderful slideshow! Are there also just pictures separately you can download from the thumb drive?

 

I am looking at the thumb drive files.  There is only one file on there and it is an MP4 video file.  No separate photo files included.

[Beachlover1989]

21 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

I am looking at the thumb drive files.  There is only one file on there and it is an MP4 video file.  No separate photo files included.

Thank you for looking! It’s kind of disappointing that the separate pictures aren’t available. And I’m not tech savvy enough to figure out how to extract them from a video 🙂

[prmssk]

9 minutes ago, Beachlover1989 said:

Thank you for looking! It’s kind of disappointing that the separate pictures aren’t available. And I’m not tech savvy enough to figure out how to extract them from a video 🙂

The thumb drive we received on the northern loop (the week before @mahdnc's cruise) only included a power point file with the images.  It's not too hard to save individual photos from a power point file.

[mahdnc]

1 hour ago, Beachlover1989 said:

Thank you for looking! It’s kind of disappointing that the separate pictures aren’t available. And I’m not tech savvy enough to figure out how to extract them from a video 🙂

 

You can just take screenshots of the video file and save those.

[sandiego1]

Starting to pack and another question popped up. Are the cabin walls magnetic? We like to bring some hooks to be able to hang things. I prefer magnet hooks instead of Command hooks if they’ll stick to the walls.

[mahdnc]

41 minutes ago, sandiego1 said:

Starting to pack and another question popped up. Are the cabin walls magnetic? We like to bring some hooks to be able to hang things. I prefer magnet hooks instead of Command hooks if they’ll stick to the walls.

 

We brought magnets and they stuck to our cabin walls very well.

[sandiego1]

4 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

We brought magnets and they stuck to our cabin walls very well.

Thanks!! Back to packing now 🙂

 

[LMADAMS91]

Thank you for such a detailed review; it is very helpful! 

 

On a couple of the slides detailing the following day's activities, deep water snorkeling was listed but there was nothing else (except maybe watching a documentary on the Galapagos?) Is that really all that was offered during that time? 

 

Thanks again!

 

[mahdnc]

24 minutes ago, LMADAMS91 said:

Thank you for such a detailed review; it is very helpful! 

 

On a couple of the slides detailing the following day's activities, deep water snorkeling was listed but there was nothing else (except maybe watching a documentary on the Galapagos?) Is that really all that was offered during that time? 

 

Thanks again!

 

 

I am glad you found the review helpful.  As far as your question goes, I can see why you asked it.  The truth is that I don't really know the answer because my wife and I always did the snorkeling. 

 

I know that not everyone on our cruise wanted to do snorkeling and I can tell you there was never anything said during the presentations like, "if you don't want to do deep water snorkeling then, sorry, we have nothing else for you".  I am certain that there was an alternate activity for them and it likely came in the form of a zodiac ride.  

 

Perhaps @prmssk (who was on the prior Xpedition sailing before mine) or @mahasamatman (who took B2B Xpedition cruises in December) can comment.

 

Edited March 2 by mahdnc

[prmssk]

32 minutes ago, LMADAMS91 said:

Thank you for such a detailed review; it is very helpful! 

 

On a couple of the slides detailing the following day's activities, deep water snorkeling was listed but there was nothing else (except maybe watching a documentary on the Galapagos?) Is that really all that was offered during that time? 

 

Thanks again!

 

On the Northern Loop (which I think is also true for the Southern Loop), the deep water snorkeling was always scheduled between the morning and afternoon excursions.  There was not another option at that time.  You are still anchored at either the morning or afternoon location and so the zodiac and land excursions either already happened before or are scheduled for after the snorkeling excursion.

 

When my husband stayed back on the ship, he enjoyed the chance to catch his breath.  It is a very intensive schedule.  I did 4 excursions one day (2 deep water snorkels plus the morning and afternoon excursions) and felt like I never stopped moving that day until we were unwinding for bed.  If I could have known ahead of time which snorkeling excursions would have been better than the others, I would have skipped a couple to give myself that chance to breathe as well but you can't know that ahead of time.

[Ken the cruiser]

10 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

I am glad you found the review helpful.  As far as your question goes, I can see why you asked it.  The truth is that I don't really know the answer because my wife and I always did the snorkeling. 

 

I know that not everyone on our cruise wanted to do snorkeling and I can tell you there was never anything said during the presentations like, "if you don't want to do deep water snorkeling then, sorry, we have nothing else for you".  I am certain that there was an alternate activity for them and it likely came in the form of a zodiac ride.  

 

Perhaps @prmssk (who was on the prior Xpedition sailing before mine) or @mahasamatman (who took B2B Xpedition cruises in December) can comment.

 

I know on our Dec Flora expedition itinerary, there were afternoon stops like the one described in the above photo where there was no other option at 2:45 pm. I think this was done so the folks that wanted to go snorkeling could also have the option of doing one of the other later excursions as well, such as going for the walk or a zodiac ride. But since we never opted to go snorkeling or kayaking, I don’t ever remember not being able to either go on a walk or a zodiac ride, depending on the location.

[mahdnc]

So I stand very much corrected!

[LMADAMS91]

Thank you for your responses!  We are in the very early stages of planning for an early 2026 trip and so far, Celebrity ticks most of the boxes I'm looking for. 

 

So it sounds like there were at least two excursions per day, more if you snorkeled.  Perfect! Do they give you any idea on which sites are more likely to have better snorkeling or is it pretty much just luck?  

[prmssk]

42 minutes ago, LMADAMS91 said:

Do they give you any idea on which sites are more likely to have better snorkeling or is it pretty much just luck?  

I think it is luck and weather may play a part (which they don't always know until moments before the excursion).  Our worst snorkeling experience was a day where the waves were choppy and it was overcast.  That day they had to move our snorkeling excursion to their secondary location because of weather.

 

And yes, we had 2 opportunities each day for land/zodiac excursions and 1-2 opportunities for snorkeling/kayaking excursions each day.  The only exception was the day that was spent in town and in the highlands with the giant tortoises.

[mahdnc]

1 hour ago, LMADAMS91 said:

Thank you for your responses!  We are in the very early stages of planning for an early 2026 trip and so far, Celebrity ticks most of the boxes I'm looking for. 

 

So it sounds like there were at least two excursions per day, more if you snorkeled.  Perfect! Do they give you any idea on which sites are more likely to have better snorkeling or is it pretty much just luck?  

 

We found the snorkeling to be quite variable in what was offered. 

 

Shore snorkeling (walk-in from the beach) and deep water dives (enter the water from the zodiac). 

 

Some of the deep water snorkeling was long and some were short.   However the zodiacs provided overwatch and you could signal the zodiac driver to come pick you up if you wanted to quit early.

 

Finally, some snorkel spots seem to favor certain sea life vs the other.  For example Espanola Island had reef sharks that liked to hang around a rocky island off the batch (rocky island is in the left of the first photo below).  On the other hand, there were sea turtles everywhere!  If you are thinking of limiting yourself to doing snorkeling just a couple of times, it is worth talking to the naturalists and they can give you an idea of what you are likely to see and at which locations.

 

 

 

 

[sandiego1]

10 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

We found the snorkeling to be quite variable in what was offered. 

 

Shore snorkeling (walk-in from the beach) and deep water dives (enter the water from the zodiac). 

 

Some of the deep water snorkeling was long and some were short.   However the zodiacs provided overwatch and you could signal the zodiac driver to come pick you up if you wanted to quit early.

 

Finally, some snorkel spots seem to favor certain sea life vs the other.  For example Espanola Island had reef sharks that liked to hang around a rocky island off the batch (rocky island is in the left of the first photo below).  On the other hand, there were sea turtles everywhere!  If you are thinking of limiting yourself to doing snorkeling just a couple of times, it is worth talking to the naturalists and they can give you an idea of what you are likely to see and at which locations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We swam out to that island from the beach, but didn't get to see any sharks ;-( It was fairly choppy the day we went. We saw some fish by the island, but virtually nothing on the swim out. The waves crashed into the outer side of the island. A large bird (forget what type) was near the top of the rock. A huge wave came right up to the rock it was perched on. Luckily, it flew away in the nick of time.

 

And as you wrote, the zodiacs watch over everyone very carefully. At one point, we realized we were the only ones still snorkeling. Everyone else had called it quits and swam back to the beach. We didn't want to hold them up so we swam back. In hindsight, we probably should have just asked to get into the zodiac and ride back to the beach with them as it would have been faster.

[mahdnc]

1 minute ago, sandiego1 said:

 

We swam out to that island from the beach, but didn't get to see any sharks ;-( It was fairly choppy the day we went. We saw some fish by the island, but virtually nothing on the swim out. The waves crashed into the outer side of the island. A large bird (forget what type) was near the top of the rock. A huge wave came right up to the rock it was perched on. Luckily, it flew away in the nick of time.

 

And as you wrote, the zodiacs watch over everyone very carefully. At one point, we realized we were the only ones still snorkeling. Everyone else had called it quits and swam back to the beach. We didn't want to hold them up so we swam back. In hindsight, we probably should have just asked to get into the zodiac and ride back to the beach with them as it would have been faster.

Good illustration that nothing is guaranteed.   For us, the naturalists told us to swim out to that rock outcropping and that we would see sharks. Now I’m sure they said “probably” or “might” see that I’m conveniently forgetting in this story. But for us, those sharks (3 in all) were right where the naturalists said they’d be—right on cue. 
 

Sounds like you guys were the super snorkelers in your group!  How did you master the ladder on the zodiac?

[sandiego1]

5 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

Good illustration that nothing is guaranteed.   For us, the naturalists told us to swim out to that rock outcropping and that we would see sharks. Now I’m sure they said “probably” or “might” see that I’m conveniently forgetting in this story. But for us, those sharks (3 in all) were right where the naturalists said they’d be—right on cue. 
 

Sounds like you guys were the super snorkelers in your group!  How did you master the ladder on the zodiac?

 

Yup! The naturalists told us the same. They even shouted to us from the zodiac when we got out there to remind us to look for the sharks. They didn't see any from the zodiacs either. We are experienced snorkelers (bring our own equipment). We are able to put on/take off our fins in the water so we had no issues with the ladders. We just handed our fins to the guides one at a time. They were leaning over the side of the zodiac so we didn't have to reach too far - plus the fins are long. It was easy to hold onto one end and thrust the other into the air. 

 

We also didn't have issues getting in/out of the zodiac at the beach. The little wood step helped me as I have fairly short legs. One needed to time it properly so there wasn't too much of a water surge in either direction. One of the passengers kinda did a belly flop into the zodiac. Except for his pride, he wasn't hurt - thankfully. 

 

Several of the less agile cruisers had more difficulty getting in and out of the zodiacs. The crew did an excellent job assisting everyone. One woman broke her ankle on the 1st day when she tripped on a rock during a hike. After getting a cast and several days of rest, they accommodated her in a wheelchair for zodiac rides. It was quite interesting to watch them pull the side of the zodiac up to the ship where they would lower her (in her wheelchair) into the zodiac. Once she was safely seated on the box in front of the driver, they removed the wheelchair. They also carried her down the flight of stairs in the wheelchair too. They really were fantastic the way they assisted her.

[mahdnc]

14 hours ago, sandiego1 said:

 

Yup! The naturalists told us the same. They even shouted to us from the zodiac when we got out there to remind us to look for the sharks. They didn't see any from the zodiacs either. We are experienced snorkelers (bring our own equipment). We are able to put on/take off our fins in the water so we had no issues with the ladders. We just handed our fins to the guides one at a time. They were leaning over the side of the zodiac so we didn't have to reach too far - plus the fins are long. It was easy to hold onto one end and thrust the other into the air. 

 

We also didn't have issues getting in/out of the zodiac at the beach. The little wood step helped me as I have fairly short legs. One needed to time it properly so there wasn't too much of a water surge in either direction. One of the passengers kinda did a belly flop into the zodiac. Except for his pride, he wasn't hurt - thankfully. 

 

Several of the less agile cruisers had more difficulty getting in and out of the zodiacs. The crew did an excellent job assisting everyone. One woman broke her ankle on the 1st day when she tripped on a rock during a hike. After getting a cast and several days of rest, they accommodated her in a wheelchair for zodiac rides. It was quite interesting to watch them pull the side of the zodiac up to the ship where they would lower her (in her wheelchair) into the zodiac. Once she was safely seated on the box in front of the driver, they removed the wheelchair. They also carried her down the flight of stairs in the wheelchair too. They really were fantastic the way they assisted her.

The broken ankle story is sadly amazing. First day of the cruise? And on a ship with no elevator?  Even the flights from Baltra all the way home must have been trying.  Whew!!! 

 

As for you, did you have a favorite memory from the trip?

[sandiego1]

5 hours ago, mahdnc said:

The broken ankle story is sadly amazing. First day of the cruise? And on a ship with no elevator?  Even the flights from Baltra all the way home must have been trying.  Whew!!! 

 

As for you, did you have a favorite memory from the trip?

The woman was traveling with a friend. He lives on East coast, she lives on West coast. He changed his flight so he could escort her all the way home. What a gentleman!!

 

Favorite memory - During 1 snorkel trip, I felt a tickle on my hand. I tilted my head to see why and saw a large sea lion swim up below me. He was less than 2' away. I think he sniffed my fingers and I felt his whiskers! Lots of times we were trying to be respectful and keep 6-8' away from them, but they would come up right too us. Same with the birds and tortoises.

 

We spent 1 week in Cuenca visiting friends that live there. 1 week on the cruise. And 4 nights in Quito. It was one of the best trips we've ever taken (and we've done 2 world cruises!). The cruise only had 24 people and 55 crew. We were very well taken care of. The naturalists were all quite good, but Vicky was the best by far.

 

Only thing I didn't like was the cabin. We booked late and got the last oceanview cabin. It was so tiny. The wall was diagonal and the nightstand drawer could only open 3". The bed was about a queen at the top, but narrowed a lot at the bottom. A tiny desk with a chair, a slightly oversize chair (or mini loveseat), and only 1 nightstand in the room. We did a paid upgrade to a suite when we boarded and discovered 1/2 the ship had cancelled. It had a king bed, a loveseat, larger desk, larger bathroom, and balcony. On any other ship, it would have just been a balcony cabin, not a suite.