Introduction: Sailing Celebrity Cruises’ Flora in the Galapagos
What to Pack for a Galapagos Cruise
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Ship Review – Celebrity Flora
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Celebrity Flora – Dining Review
Exciting and Unique Activities on a Galapagos Cruise
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Who Should Take a Galapagos Cruise?
Introduction
What are the exciting and unique activities on a Galapagos Cruise? I’ll give you a hint – they are NOT bingo, shuffleboard, trivia, or any of the other typical cruise staples.
Galapagos cruises and cruise ships fall into the “Expedition” category which also includes cruises to the North Pole and Antarctica. This is one of the fastest growing categories in cruising with new purpose-built ships, including Celebrity Flora, designed to meet the demands of these more extreme environments. These ships tend to be much smaller in order to reduce environmental impact on the places they visit and also as a precaution should mass evacuation be required.
I was a bit dubious as to just how different an expedition cruise would be compared to a typical cruise. I must say, it’s very different with the biggest difference being in the activities on a Galapagos cruise.
Snorkeling
Activities on a Galapagos cruise center around wildlife, both on land and in the sea. The importance of being in the water strikes as soon as you board and pick up your wetsuit, fins, mask, and snorkel. These are all provided by Celebrity Cruises and are yours for the duration of the cruise. You can use these 4-5 days over a typical 7 day cruise.
On our Outer Loop itinerary there were 3 dedicated snorkeling excursions and then two other excursions where you could swim/snorkel from the beach. If you’re not a swimmer, it’s definitely a reason to consider whether the Galapagos is really for you.
Hiking
A big part of any Galapagos cruise is doing nature walks. In most cases these aren’t overly long or fast-paced. However, it’s critical to have good balance and stamina as these walks are on various surfaces ranging from sand, loose gravel, lava fields, and everything in between and can last several hours with time spent standing in full sun.
They generally describe these as hikes simply because of the challenging terrain and the need to get on/off the Zodiacs in various conditions ranging from dry landings (on beaches, rock outcrops, or the occasional pier) or the more common wet landings exiting in the surf on the beach.
If you have limited mobility, I probably wouldn’t recommend Galapagos unless you’ve been everywhere else already and it’s on your bucket list. Many cruise lines operating in the islands in fact can’t accommodate guests in wheelchairs.
Kayaking
On our cruise there were two Kayaking excursions. Because these are carried on the ship, there are limited numbers of kayaks and so not everyone is able to participate. Fortunately, not everyone wants to participate so this is typically ok. The kayaking is in sheltered areas as well as open water.
If you’ve kayaked before I would strongly encourage participating as it’s an opportunity to get very close to sea lions, rays, marine iguanas, sea turtles, and more.
Zodiac Rides
While every excursion includes at least two rides on the Zodiacs to and from Celebrity Flora, some excursions are really built around the Zodiacs.
This is particularly common during bird flu season when certain islands or parts of islands are restricted, the best way to see the wildlife is by riding close to the shoreline in a Zodiac. We covered this issue in a previous post. On our cruise, two land based excursions had to be modified due to bird flu related restrictions.
Bonus Wildlife Photo
Conclusion
Days in the Galapagos are filled with physical activity. Typical days involve a morning excursion and an afternoon excursion. These consume much more energy than a typical cruise excursion. This means that evenings generally end early as everyone is wiped-out and wants to be well rested for the next day. If active days and early nights for you aren’t worth the amazing opportunity to experience wildlife up close, I’d consider another cruise destination. Do the activities on a Galapagos cruise appeal to you? Let us know. – Michael
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