I've already bugged wanderlustfoodie and @sfgal530 about this a bit, but at any rate...
I think I'm getting to the point of convincing my husband that we should go to the Galapagos next year. We'd probably go in January or February (around the long weekends) because that's best work-wise/getting out of dismal winter-wise.
We've never booked a cruise, and these seem a bit different anyway, so I have a few questions...
1. What boat did you take, and what is your overall review? (Ones that look good to me so far -- Eclipse/Athlata II, the National Geographic boats, and Haugan's Ocean Spray)
2. How did you book the cruise? With the Eclipse/Athlata II in particular, I'm seeing about 90 different places to book, with different prices. Those are not for different itineraries -- they're just different agents, right? Any tips on getting the best price if we probably won't be that flexible on days?
3. Any general tips on finding the right boat for us? Any good review sites?
4. How far out should one book? (Particularly if we end up going with a really small (like 16 person) boat?)
5. How many days should we cruise for? I'm thinking 8 days (or maaaaaybe 10, though that would be tough with work), but is that too long? Too short?
6. Someone who sometimes gets seasick will be okay as long as she has proper meds and a positive attitude, right?
Yes, the boat fits 48 people, however there are 4 naturalists on board (most had Ph.Ds in various environmental disciplines and/or were Ecuadorian, both of which were fantastic plusses) thus at most you are only ever on an excursion with 12 people (many times fewer, as I'll explain below). While other boats, like the one the previous poster took, may only hold 16 people, they typically only have one naturalist for all 16 people (http://www.ecoventura.com/galapagos-expedition/small-compatible-groups/). And I did not mind being on a 48-person boat at all since if you didn't like some of the people (e.g. the creepy dude who kept leering at me whenever his wife was busy corralling their two poorly behaved daughters), there were others you could talk with. Plus you also didn't see every single person all the time since you were divided into groups.
I chose the NatGeo/Lindblad tour for a few reasons. One I think Lindblad is a very good company; two, I like NatGeo's track record of sustainability, both in general and specifically with respect to the Galapagos. They were one of the first organizations to focus on conservation in the Galapagos, and that has positive ramifications for people who choose to tour with them, which I'll explain.
Due to conservation/government regulations, only a certain number of people are permitted on any island at one time. Thus, all the boats/companies have to rely on the regulators to tell them where they can go and when. Because NatGeo has such strong, long-standing relationships in the area, they generally get preferred times to stop on each island as well as permission to stay on the islands longer than other companies. By way of example, one morning, we were getting off the pangas on an island. There was another group of people from another boat already on the island waiting to get picked up since we couldn't all be on the island at the same time. One of those travelers asked me what boat we were on and I said Lindblad. While I can't remember her exact words she said that she heard that our boat got preferred times of day as well as the ability to be on islands longer than other companies and she was very disgruntled that they only got to explore the island from 6 am - 7 am while we were going to be on it from 7 am until around 11 am. She was also grumbling generally that she felt the quality of her naturalist wasn't great.
Before I booked with Lindblad, I had actually not heard this was a thing, but once I was back on the boat I asked the head naturalist whether this was true and he said it was.
As far as the boat, it is certainly not some luxury liner but that didn't bother me at all. You're really only on the boat to eat, sleep, and move from island to island. Each evening, everyone would gather before dinner to discuss what they had seen that day and the naturalists then would explain what we would see the next day on whatever island we were going to. Generally you'd be given a choice of three excursions, ranging from mild intensity to active. So for instance mild would be taking a zodiac ride around the shore (so that you wouldn't even have to walk if you didn't want to). Medium would be hiking on the island. Heavy would be kayaking or snorkeling. Then you'd get divided into groups based on what you chose, so one naturalist would take the easy, another the medium, another the heavy, and whichever activity was most popular and had overflow would go with the fourth naturalist. Sometimes there's just one activity (for instance, hiking) so you just get divided into four groups so that you're still only with 12 at most. They tried to divide the groups to put families with other families or elderly people with other elderly people so that the groups were moving at generally the same speed and young active people (like me) weren't annoyed to be with a bunch of screaming 6 year olds.
Also sometimes not everyone would choose to go on an excursion, like if they were tired or something. Or not everyone would want to do the intense kayaking, so you'd be with just a few people.
Almost always my dad and I did the active option. Highlights for me were snorkeling (the sea lions would tug at your fins, you'd be swimming next to turtles) and the kayaking and just seeing the wildlife generally. My dad and I both surfaced to say something to each other while snorkeling one day and a cormorant dove into the water right between us (a matter of inches away from either of us) to go after a fish. It was such an incredible experience. Another day after we'd had lunch and people were resting in their rooms, we got a call that a group of whales were swimming right next to us so we all ran up and had like 30 minutes on deck to watch the whales next to us (this happened a different day with dolphins, too).
If you do go with a smaller boat, please pick one that's reputable. While we were on one of the islands the naturalist leading our small group saw people from a different small boat wandering around on their own picking up rocks, throwing them, etc. Our naturalist yelled at them to stop since this is against regulation for a few reasons: (1) you must be accompanied at all times by naturalists on these islands so that they ensure you aren't breaking any rules; (2) they were clearly off the marked paths; and (3) they were negatively impacting the islands by touching things. Our naturalist asked those people what boat they were with, then radioed to our boat to call the authorities to report them.
The area is so gorgeous and unique, and the animals have no fear of humans and it would be so tragic if/when the area changes. So please please please pick a reputable company so that you aren't doing any more damage to the area than already happens naturally from tourism. Now I'll step off my soap box.
Bottom line: you should absolutely go, and if you want I can PM you the itinerary I kept of the trip, including the islands we visited, activities, food, etc.
Post by wanderlustfoodie on Feb 10, 2014 18:02:31 GMT -5
And I just realized my entire post only addressed your first question!
2. How did you book the cruise? Directly through Lindblad.
3. Any general tips on finding the right boat for us? Any good review sites? I looked at CruiseCritic's page on different Galapagos operators but from the beginning had a hunch Lindblad was the operator for us, which was only confirmed by reading other reviews.
4. How far out should one book? (Particularly if we end up going with a really small (like 16 person) boat?) We booked several months out but (1) I'm a militant planner and (2) we had very specific dates we wanted and didn't want to risk that filling up.
5. How many days should we cruise for? I'm thinking 8 days (or maaaaaybe 10, though that would be tough with work), but is that too long? Too short? As many as possible!
6. Someone who sometimes gets seasick will be okay as long as she has proper meds and a positive attitude, right? Did not get seasick at all. The area you're cruising is generally calm since the islands act as barriers to huge waves (i.e., it's not like you're doing a transatlantic cruise in the middle of the ocean).
Yes, the boat fits 48 people, however there are 4 naturalists on board (most had Ph.Ds in various environmental disciplines and/or were Ecuadorian, both of which were fantastic plusses) thus at most you are only ever on an excursion with 12 people (many times fewer, as I'll explain below). While other boats, like the one the previous poster took, may only hold 16 people, they typically only have one naturalist for all 16 people (http://www.ecoventura.com/galapagos-expedition/small-compatible-groups/).
This isn't correct. Please read what you referenced again. The 16 person boats may only have one naturalist on board. Ecoventura is a 20 person boat with 2 guides on board. Your maximum group size will be 10. And the guides do opposite routes to even further minimize the number of people you're with.
And FWIW my two guides one was/is a master scuba diver trainer, emergency responder in addition to a naturalist (the most amazing snorkel and dive experiences with him; also one of the most fun people I've ever been around). The other was the sitting head of the Galapagos tourist board at the time and of course a naturalist.
I'm glad you enjoyed your experience, but there are other reputable, amazing tours as well.
I completely agree. But it also isn't correct that the National Geographic boat is a "large group" given that the maximum group size is 12, often fewer.