waterbug123

Agreed- we've found that the cruise packages can be costly because they charge per person instead of per room, so essentially you pay double for your hotel room. I understand people who are not as experienced at making travel arrangements wanting the security of the cruise line booking everything, but anyone who is at all travel savvy can usually do just as well on their own. That said, we did fly into Quito 4 days before our cruise, so we knew we had some cushion in case something went wrong and we got delayed. I would be hesitant to make my own arrangements if flying to a cruise the same day or just a day before.

We booked via the Avianca Airlines website. I believe Latam also flies between the two. A few weeks before our sailing, we called the Celebrity and asked to be connected to the Galapagos department, and gave them our flight information. We were met at the Baltra airport by the naturalists from our ship. We had a short wait until the charter flight arrived and we were joined by those guests, and then we were all taken on the same Celebrity shuttle to the pier to board the pangas to Xploration. Since we booked our Baltra flights independently, we had to get our own transit cards at the Quito airport. The transit card desk opens at 5am and as of about 4:30am when we arrived at UIO, (for a 7:51am flight) there were already about a dozen people in line. The lined moved fairly quickly once they opened, and we had filled out the forms online so all they needed when it was our turn was our passports and to show them on our phones that we had return flights booked. I was able to wait in line with both my passport and my husband's, and while I was doing that, he was able to take our checked bags to the luggage inspection to get the inspection tag, and then printed regular luggage tags at the kiosk. Once we were both done, we dropped off our bags, and since we had checked in online, we already had boarding passes on our phones, so went to the lounge to wait for our flight. As soon as the naturalists met us in Baltra, then handed us an envelope with the $40 reimbursement for our transit cards. Our understanding was that we'd have to get our own National Parks Passes ourselves in Baltra as well, and be likewise reimbursed, but the naturalists told us that since we'd given Celebrity our flight info, they had already taken care of the NPP so we didn't have to. Note: our commercial flight did make a stop in Guayaquil both going and returning. The Celebrity charter is nonstop. On the way home, the Xploration staff confirmed our flight time (11:33am) and took us back to the pier and on to the airport in plenty of time. The charter guests remained onboard for a little while longer since their flight was a little later.

We are just off a northern loop sailing of the Galapagos on Celebrity Xploration, which is the 8-cabin catamaran. Much of the info out there for Celebrity Galapagos sailings is specific to Xpedition or Flora (especially Flora!) and some aspects of Xploration are very different. If you have questions about or are considering Xploration, ask away and I will do my best to answer while it's all still fresh in my mind. Note about flights: Celebrity operates a charter flight from Quito to Baltra and back, but you can only be on that flight if you also book your international flights through Celebrity, or book a longer package with Celebrity adding the pre/post cruise options. We booked all international flights as well as pre-cruise hotel & Quito excursions on our own, so hadh to book Avianca flights Quito-Baltra and back on our own as well. If you have questions about flight/hotel bookings or related topics (getting transit cards etc) I can answer those as well. In a nutshell, we absolutely loved our week on Xploration, especially the intimate family feeling of such a small guest count and crew and wouldn't hesitate to book it again!

To my knowledge, Trieste does not have an international airport, meaning an airport that accommodates transcontinental flights. If you are on a nonstop from the US, you would almost certainly be flying into VCE and the cruise line would likely arrange a transfer. If you have a connection within Europe though, it's possible you would fly into either VCE or Trieste.

Yes. You don't have to get off the ship to eat, you can always find the buffet open at mealtimes.

I'd probably book a Celebrity shuttle from port to airport then.

How are you getting TO the cruise port on the front end? Whatever you're doing, is that not an option on the back end?

More likely it has to do with staff cuts. Restaurants are understaffed now compared to the past, cabin stewards have more cabins assigned to them etc. and I'm sure the same holds for kitchen staff, so they probably don't have the manpower to devote to a bunch of special orders anymore.

Because she may not want to pay the extra fees to expedition processing and shipping of a new passport to ensure she gets it on time when it's not necessary for the cruise.

Refundable tickets are generally always going to be sky high. Even if your plans change, keep in mind that many airlines will issue a travel credit if you cancel a non-refundable flight. This gets you the cheaper non-refundable rate, and you still get your money back, just not as a credit on your credit card. Yes, you'd have to use that travel credit within a year usually but if you travel a lot that might not be difficult. Just something to consider.

In the hypothetical scenario I'm envisioning, it's one in which the airport is closed for an extended period of time. So even pax who plan to arrive a few days or even a week prior to the cruise wouldn't be able to get there etc. But I'm not going to argue with you so let's just pretend you're right and the ship would sail no matter what because cruise lines never cancel cruises last minute for any reason whatsoever.

If a big weather/eruption situation caused the airport to be closed and no inbound flights, you really think the ship is going to sail with no passengers?

If the airport closes and all flights to it are canceled, Celebrity cannot magically open the airport or reinstate a flight. Probably the best they can do is change the itinerary so that it departs from the UK, or issue a full refund.

Keep in mind that those around departure gates may well have been put there for passengers coming in on the next flight arriving at that gate who requested assistance; the pushers will show up when the plane arrives.

Nope, not unless the poster I was responding to tries again to compare cruise ship dining to a 5 star restaurant.