Celebrity Xperience Review
Tired ship; great crew; fabulous destination with well informed naturalists
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We sailed the Northern itinerary May 19-26 on Xperience. Definitely recommend a trip to the Galapagos - incredible wildlife and scenery. If I went again, I would look elsewhere than Celebrity. I had counted on Celebrity providing luxury and everything top-notch, but didn't find this to be the case. It also was difficult to contact Celebrity by phone before the trip and get correct answers. Communication was lacking about what the ship truly had available or not available for guests.
Activities were primarily hiking or snorkelling. Celebrity promised to provide mask, snorkel, fins, wetsuit to guests. This equipment was of poor quality and there was not enough for everybody. This is inexcusable for a trip of a lifetime to see penguins, sea lions, etc in the water, and there was not enough masks, snorkel, fins for everyone to participate. At least 4 guests brought their own masks, so Xperience was way short on equipment. Masks and snorkels do break sometimes, so there should have been spares also. Snorkels were very poor; okay for pool, but not for deep water ocean. You were lucky if you got an appropriately-sized wetsuit; some guests were too small or way too big. They did provide snorkel vests, too (if they had enough!) I would definitely bring my own mask and snorkel. Many people ended up with sinus issues, so I'm not sure about the cleaning of snorkel equipment between guests.
Ladders on the zodiac boats were inadequate. 3 steps is not enough to easily get out of the water. I am a 5.5 woman, so it was next to impossible without some help from others in the water; even then, I have a mass of deep bruises on my legs from wrestling with that ladder. Many guys (who obviously are taller) still complained about the short ladder and difficulty in getting out of the water. Having inadequate ladders that are too short to use comfortably does not make things easy or stress-free for guests who are supposed to be enjoying their vacation. There is one zodiac that has 4 steps, but they don't tell you about that; I found out by accident after my legs are all bruised.
Cabin Review
Premium Ocean View Stateroom
Room was adequate with quite a bit of storage for its small size. We had Room 208 which was probably the worst room on the ship - very noisy with engine below us and some diesel smell; also ladder to zodiacs was right outside our window. The first night I got a splitting headache from the diesel smell; I mentioned this to the hotel manager, and he talked to the engineer. After that it was okay, but it would have been nice if they had offered to move us to another room as I believe there were only 42 on board.