After exploring options to stay on one of the islands and book all of the travel to and around the Galápagos Islands on our own, we quickly realized the challenges of arranging such an itinerary. Given our previous fantastic experiences with Celebrity, we looked into their three ships that cruise the Galapagos and decided the 98-passenger size of the Xpedition was the best bet for us. Once we decided on the cruise, we looked into booking our own air travel. However, based on previous reviews that worried us about flight delays and missing the ship, we opted to book the airfare (Copa) and extended stay before and after in Quito through Celebrity. We're so glad we did. Celebrity is extremely organized and handles every detail from when you land in Quito to when you depart to return home. Our stay in Quito before the cruise was interesting...toured the city, old cathedrals, the equator, etc. The JW Marriott was surprisingly beautiful with very spacious rooms. Because we booked a suite (Cabin 604) on the Xpedition, we received a junior suite at the hotel as well. Although the Celebrity-chartered Avianca flight was delayed from Quito to the Galapagos, Celebrity let us know in advance so we could sleep in. Once we arrived in the Galapagos, we were amazed at the varied topography and weather of the different islands, and of course the wildlife! We still can't believe how many sea lions, tortoises, dolphins, sharks, penguins, albatross, iguanas, sea turtles, etc we saw. Absolutely breathtaking.

While the Xpedition is a bit dated and will be replaced with the Flora in a year or two, the ship is clean and comfortable and met our expectations. The food was very good and the service was impeccable. The crew seemed to genuinely want to make the guests happy -- and they succeeded! Our room was cleaned three times a day, which was appreciated since we showered at least twice a day. The excursions were perfectly organized and the naturalist guides were impressively knowledgeable and all had a good sense of humor. We really appreciated that the Xpedition had a doctor on board, as both my husband and I had to consult her about minor issues.

We would definitely recommend this cruise if you do not have significant mobility issues. We are in our mid 40s and were probably among the youngest couples on the ship. Although Celebrity offers long and short hikes each day (we did all long hikes) and you would still see a lot if you did the short walks each day, you do have to be able to get into and out of the zodiac/panga in some tricky places. We didn't hear of anyone falling, but it could certainly happen if you have mobility issues. The highlight for us was the snorkeling excursions - two from beaches and three in deep water from the zodiacs. We saw an incredible amount of sea creatures and are thrilled with our Go Pro videos. If you are not equipped to snorkel (at least from the beaches), you would probably feel like you were missing out. The shortie wetsuits provided by Celebrity gave a lot of buoyancy so a lot of first time snorkels were able to join in. Read more