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Celebrity Cruises - Celebrity Xpedition
Fast Facts - Celebrity Xpedition
Vessel: Celebrity Xpedition
Cruise Line: Celebrity Cruises
Star Rating: Not yet rated
Tonnage: 2329 grt
Max Passenger Capacity: 98 Entered Service: June 2001/June 2004
Description: Celebrity Xpedition offers weekly cruises in the Galapagos year-round.
Although it is possible to book the seven-day cruise only, the advertised cruise price usually includes a one or two-night pre-cruise stay and a one night post-cruise stay at the Marriott Hotel in Quito, Ecuador (some meals and a city tour are included); return flights between Quito and the Galapagos (Baltra); and the $100 entry fee to the Galapagos islands (the Galapagos dollar is the same value as the US dollar), which is a national park.
Flights to/from Quito are at the passenger's cost although Celebrity will arrange flights if requested.
Celebrity Xpedition in the Galapagos
Before we made our first landing on the Galapagos Islands our naturalist guides had drummed it into us to maintain five yard's distance from the wildlife and "leave only footprints". What they neglected to mention was how difficult this would be - the Galapagos wildlife has absolutely no fear of Man and will insist on walking, nesting or just laying across paths designated for tourists.
On that first magical day when we landed on North Seymour Island, disembarking from zodiacs onto the rocky shore was made even more tricky by huge sea lions sprawling right in front of the boats. Totally unfazed by our arrival, they made it clear that they were not going to move out of our way.
It set the pattern for the week in this genuinely unique destination - where else, outside of a zoo, could you watch the bizarre mating ritual of the albatross while standing so close that you could reach out and touch them? Not that you should, of course, and anyway you don't need to. On an extraordinary walk across another island (Espanola), we watched half a dozen pairs go at it with their beaks like crazed swordsmen. Seemingly exhausted by their energetic display, one pair suddenly walked off in different directions, one of them brushing past me.
Their lack of fear is a reward for the Ecuador government holding strongly to its protectionist policy for these islands. Tourism is strictly controlled with current arrivals still well short of the limit of 120,000 visitors a year.
There are now half a dozen hotels in the Galapagos but boats remain the only real way to see the islands. For cruise passengers, the options have always been limited to small vessels with fairly basic amenities. While Peter Deilman did add some class with its sail-cruiser Lili Marleen a few years ago, the ship stayed only a season.
Celebrity Cruises intends to stay much longer with its new Xpeditions venture. To spice up its appeal, Celebrity cruise line has decided to offer passengers more adventurous destinations and shore excursions. Its long-term plan is to offer an Xpedition excursion (test-driving a racing car is an early example) on every cruise on every Celebrity ship. It has also chartered former Soviet icebreakers to cruise to the Arctic and Antarctic but its biggest commitment has been to buy the 2001-built Sun Bay I from her German owners, rename her Celebrity Xpedition and homeport her year-round in the Galapagos Islands.
The 2,329-ton, 92-passenger ship was designed to operate soft adventure cruises and Celebrity spent US$2.5 million (AU$3.5 million) on a refit. She is easily the most luxurious ship to cruise the islands and the first ship of any major cruise line to be operated in the Galapagos on a regular basis.
I sailed on her first Galapagos cruise, breaking my rule for avoiding inaugurals. If things are going to go wrong on a ship, they usually happen on the maiden cruise but, as the ship was new to Celebrity rather than brand new, I took the chance and was rewarded. In terms of organisation and onboard service and efficiency, this cruise was hard to fault. In fact, the verdict extended to the whole holiday package, which begins with a flight to Ecuador's capital, Quito. Celebrity uses the Marriott hotel and both the staff there and the local agent who handled transfers and city tours were oases of calm efficiency in the frenetic airport and city traffic.
Celebrity Xpedition is Ecuador-registered and most of the crew and all of the naturalist guides are from Ecuador. Most drinks and all tours and tips are included in the cruise price and service standards were high throughout our cruise. There was the odd language problem, usually with drink orders, but I suspect these will quickly be ironed out as the ship and its 64-strong crew fall into their stride.
Similarly, I believe there will be some changes with the way meals are served and presented. The pleasant but slightly claustrophobic Darwin restaurant operates open sittings/seating for breakfast, lunch and dinner and there is also a grill for burger and pizza lunches on deck. Food quality was pretty good although a few passengers were a little disappointed that it didn't quite reach the levels of other Celebrity ships. This seemed an unrealistic expectation given the size of the ship and the remote location in which she is operating.
Rather than trying to replicate the usual, more formal Celebrity style of meals, it would be better to move towards more informal dining as easily the most successful meal was the night a barbecue was served out on deck. Although the 19 islands of the Galapagos straddle the equator, cooling sea currents keep air temperatures during the "dry" season (June-December) at around 24C. Morning sea mists are frequent and there is a little more rain in the winter months, from January to May, when temperatures and humidity also rise slightly. But evenings are reliably warm and balmy year-round so alfresco dining is feasible most nights and it really suits this kind of relaxed cruising environment where the dress code is casual every evening.
Alternatively, a complimentary room service offers meals available from that day's restaurant menus delivered course by course to your cabin or suite. Accommodation is compact - standard Xpedition cabins measure roughly 15 square metres and suites are about 18 square metres - but well-appointed with closed-circuit TV, telephone, radio, fridge, bathrobes and hairdryer. The eight suites also have private balconies.
It may disappoint some passengers but I was delighted to find no satellite TV access and no Internet cafs or links in the cabins. And, although you can make international telephone calls, there is only one line out of the ship. It took me back to the old days of cruising when no-one could reach you and world events passed you by. If you can't go without, there are cheap Internet cafs in one of the ship's ports of call (Puerto Ayora), on Santa Cruz Island.
Celebrity Xpedition's facilities include a hot tub on a small sun deck, a compact but well-equipped gym, as well as a sauna, beauty salon, small gift shop, a couple of bars and a library in the main lounge.
Apart from one local folkloric troupe on the last night, there are no production shows - just a nightly briefing by the cruise director/naturalist about the next day's tours: there are usually three of these each morning and three each afternoon. For some strange reason there was no advance list of tours on my cruise but this policy has since been reversed as passengers, quite reasonably, want to know exactly what's on in advance so they can choose the right mix of excursions to ensure they see everything the islands have to offer. It also helps to pace yourself as some of the tours are quite hard going. Helpfully, they are graded "low", "medium" or "high" intensity depending on the terrain and how much walking is involved. There is also a mixture of wet and dry landings but, either way, sturdy walking shoes are a must. The day we saw the albatross was supposed to be "medium intensity" but the walk across uneven and slippery rocks had proved pretty rough for even the fittest amongst us. But nobody who took the trip regretted it.
As well as the mating albatross, we saw the bizarre blue-footed and masked boobies, land and marine iguanas and of course those stubborn sea lions - this line-up was typical of all the tours. A zodiac ride around North Seymour Island put us in the front row for a spectacular air show as squadrons of swallowtail gulls and boobies dive-bombed the seas, some only to have their prizes stolen by frigate birds. On another trip, huge pelicans dived for their fish dinners as slightly intimidating Galapagos sea hawks looked on. A large proportion of the marine and birdlife is endemic to the islands, including those hawks and the diminutive Galapagos Penguins - a couple of which we spotted on the rocks around Bartolome Island. On the same trip we also saw sea turtles, flightless cormorants and eagle rays in the water.
Those who went snorkelling came back with joyous tales of being joined by turtles and sea lions. They also reported that the water was pretty cold, which makes Celebrity's decision to carry wetsuits for passengers (they had yet to arrive on my cruise) a typically thoughtful one. Snorkelling was free and organised scuba diving cost US$80 ($112) for two dives.
Just about the only shy residents of the islands are the giant tortoises so, to see them at their best, head for the Charles Darwin Research Station on the outskirts of Puerto Ayora. A captive breeding programme has been successfully taking place for 30 years and tortoises are being returned to the wild as their biggest threat - feral pigs and rats - are being systematically eradicated.
Passengers learn all this and a lot more from the naturalist guides who must accompany all the tours. But, to be honest, this is a place where seeing, not hearing, is believing. And even then it is sometimes difficult to believe what you are seeing.
Written by Tony Peisley - 17 Spring 2004