Celebrity Xploration and Xpedition To Be No More

[catspaw1]

We were booked on the Xploration next June. Our TA did send an email regarding the cancelation but it went to my junk mail folder. We were on a 17 night independent car trip to CO, SD & WY with limited cell service in many areas. Fortunately  Mahdic sent me an email about the cancelation.  Thanh you Mahdc! I was able to contact our TA although our cell service was spotty since we were in the boondocks of WY. Celebrity originally wanted us to take a mid June trip but that would not work as we are going to AK next July so the turnaround between trips would have been short. We got them to move it to the June 1 sailing. We just returned from our trip last night & I checked to see if maybe we could move to another cabin. Nothing left but guarantees. We really wanted to sail on the Xploration  & are not thrilled about going to a much larger ship so we are hoping it works out. Anyone have any comments on the Flora? The Flora would have been over $8G more expensive.

[billc23]

22 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

It seems odd to me that something that basic (getting a license) would be messed up when you order two ships!

 

Why is it that RCG was not able to get a license for Fauna but could for Sliver Origin?

Silversea was sailing the Silversea Silver Galapagos. That ship was sold so perhaps the license was transferred. Celebrity had to decrease  the number of passengers on their other Galapagos ships in order to sail the Flora at capacity. 

[mahdnc]

27 minutes ago, billc23 said:

Silversea was sailing the Silversea Silver Galapagos. That ship was sold so perhaps the license was transferred. Celebrity had to decrease  the number of passengers on their other Galapagos ships in order to sail the Flora at capacity. 

 

That makes sense regarding Silver Origin.  Getting Flora's license (tourist patent) directly from Xpedition and then using Xperience's license for Xpedition is pretty well chronicled.

[Ken the cruiser]

40 minutes ago, catspaw1 said:

We were booked on the Xploration next June. Our TA did send an email regarding the cancelation but it went to my junk mail folder. We were on a 17 night independent car trip to CO, SD & WY with limited cell service in many areas. Fortunately  Mahdic sent me an email about the cancelation.  Thanh you Mahdc! I was able to contact our TA although our cell service was spotty since we were in the boondocks of WY. Celebrity originally wanted us to take a mid June trip but that would not work as we are going to AK next July so the turnaround between trips would have been short. We got them to move it to the June 1 sailing. We just returned from our trip last night & I checked to see if maybe we could move to another cabin. Nothing left but guarantees. We really wanted to sail on the Xploration  & are not thrilled about going to a much larger ship so we are hoping it works out. Anyone have any comments on the Flora? The Flora would have been over $8G more expensive.

See my Live From thread starting at page 4 in my signature area. It pretty much covers how awesome of a cruise we had in December on the Flora! 

[catspaw1]

2 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

See my Live From thread starting at page 4 in my signature area. It pretty much covers how awesome of a cruise we had in December on the Flora! 

Thanks Ken. I had previously read your outstanding TR when we were thinking of booking in January.  Wr chose the Xploration as we wanted a smaller trip & we ate very mobile. Flora was so 8G more. So we wanted to use those funds for another trip. Which we did just returning from the Black Hills in SD, WY & CO & our whole trip was way less than 8G. We are off on the Eclipse in 3 weeks!

[mahdnc]

45 minutes ago, catspaw1 said:

We were booked on the Xploration next June. Our TA did send an email regarding the cancelation but it went to my junk mail folder. We were on a 17 night independent car trip to CO, SD & WY with limited cell service in many areas. Fortunately  Mahdic sent me an email about the cancelation.  Thanh you Mahdc! I was able to contact our TA although our cell service was spotty since we were in the boondocks of WY. Celebrity originally wanted us to take a mid June trip but that would not work as we are going to AK next July so the turnaround between trips would have been short. We got them to move it to the June 1 sailing. We just returned from our trip last night & I checked to see if maybe we could move to another cabin. Nothing left but guarantees. We really wanted to sail on the Xploration  & are not thrilled about going to a much larger ship so we are hoping it works out. Anyone have any comments on the Flora? The Flora would have been over $8G more expensive.

 

Well, did you know that during Flora's inaugural year, she had to tow Xpedition which had run aground in the Galapagos (oops!).

[sippican]

41 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

Well, did you know that during Flora's inaugural year, she had to tow Xpedition which had run aground in the Galapagos (oops!).

 

Wondering where you found that information? The Flora responded to help evacuate passengers, but I never read that she was allowed to tow the Xpedition.

[sippican]

Regarding the licenses. The National Park only issued a finite number of licenses to sail in the area. They have made it pretty clear they will not be issuing more. Celebrity had licenses to sail Xpedition, Xploration and Xperience (sold). They mistakenly believed they could simply transfer the Xpedition slots to Flora, and combine the Xploration and Xperience to Xpedition. They were denied then. sold the Xperience. 

Edited June 14 by sippican

[mahdnc]

10 minutes ago, sippican said:

 

Wondering where you found that information? The Flora responded to help evacuate passengers, but I never read that she was allowed to tow the Xpedition.

 No, you are correct.  I don't know why I said tow.  

[catspaw1]

Thanks Mahdnc, for alerting me via email about the sale  Wirhout your email, I'm sure we would not have been able to rebook on the Flora. So a big thank you!!!! Today only guarantee cabins are left & many sailings around next June booked at the lower levels.  I'm also glad I used a TA instead of just booking through Celebrity directly. She was able to quickly rebook us without waiting on hold since they have a TA phone number. Lesson learned everyone- book through a TA. I have one so if anyone wants her info ( not the big box store) just PM me as I'm not allowed to post it here. & thanks again mandhc!!!!

[mahdnc]

26 minutes ago, catspaw1 said:

Thanks Mahdnc, for alerting me via email about the sale  Wirhout your email, I'm sure we would not have been able to rebook on the Flora. So a big thank you!!!! Today only guarantee cabins are left & many sailings around next June booked at the lower levels.  I'm also glad I used a TA instead of just booking through Celebrity directly. She was able to quickly rebook us without waiting on hold since they have a TA phone number. Lesson learned everyone- book through a TA. I have one so if anyone wants her info ( not the big box store) just PM me as I'm not allowed to post it here. & thanks again mandhc!!!!

 

You are welcome!  Cruise Critic is a great forum!!

[jajsmom]

6 hours ago, billc23 said:

There is no difference in the number of persons on the tours as Ken has stated. I am surprised that Celebrity has the capacity to accommodate their Xpedition guests on the Flora because I thought that the Flora would be booked out long in advance. I'm not sure if this is common, but when I was on the Flora last September, there were very few passengers who were regular Celebrity passengers. Not sure why??

When we booked the Xpedition last December, we only had a choice of a few cabins available.  When we transferred to the Flora yesterday, we had a wide selection of available cabins.  And there is more space than usual on the Galapagos cruises for 2024.

[catspaw1]

I guess it depends on your sailing as we had to rebook within a few weeks of our original date. June is a very popular month. We wanted the beginning of June to have less kids onboard since school is still in session. Flora for the outer loop guarantee only now for the first few June sailings so it booked quickly.

[catspaw1]

Two days after this announcement went out, all the lower priced cabins which we were entitled to book in, are gone for June 2025. I checked as I wanted to change cabins since we are assigned to 503- way forward on the ship. So we will just keep what we have. So glad I used a TA as she was able to quickly get through to Celebrity & change us. It was another good reason to use a TA!