<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;">Tweeters — I thought I’d share a few observations regarding Galapagos cruises. (I made two separate trips over the years, both on a larger ship, the Celebrity Xpedition.). No matter how many people there are on a given ship, the Galapagos dictates that <u>maximum group size on a shore visit is 16 people</u>. So even on a larger ship, you’re still with groups of no more than 16 people. If two or more groups are making a visit to the same destination, they’ll be taken on different paths and remain separate.<div><br></div><div>The attached article does a reasonably good shop of discussing the pros and cons of various ship sizes. <a href="https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=2251">https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=2251</a></div><div><br></div><div>Also, while the Galapagos are on the equator, there are rather distinct “seasons”, so it’s worth considering what happens by month. And if clear-water snorkeling is high on your list, there are some months that are <u>far better</u> than others. I found this helpful month-by-month rundown: <a href="https://adventuresmithexplorations.com/trips/galapagos/when-to-travel-best-month/#seasons">https://adventuresmithexplorations.com/trips/galapagos/when-to-travel-best-month/#seasons</a></div><div><br></div><div>Hope this information is helpful.</div><div><br></div><div>Doug Santoni</div><div>Seattle, WA</div><div>Dougsantoni at gmail dot com<br><div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>On Jan 27, 2023, at 4:34 PM, HAL MICHAEL <ucd880@comcast.net> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div>
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Our experience is that each operator is unique in their tours. While they may go to the same areas they do is differently. There are different levels of guides as approved by the government, different activities in the details, and so on. I suspect that almost any tour will be super. Further, like any other natural area this is not Disneyland so nothing is guaranteed. These are (calm) but still wild animals.
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<span class="signature-truncate"><span class="signature-truncate">Hal Michael<br><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Board of Directors, </span><a style="font-size: 12pt;" href="http://ecowb.org/">Ecologists Without Borders</a></span></span>
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<span class="signature-truncate">Olympia WA<br>360-459-4005<br>360-791-7702 (C)<br>ucd880@comcast.net</span>
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On 01/27/2023 2:18 PM Jeff Borsecnik <jeffborsecnik@msn.com> wrote:
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Today's Topics:
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<br> 1. Galapagos tips (Diane Koontz)
<br> 2. Re: Galapagos tips (louiserutter1000)
<br> 5. Galapagos tips? (Toby Ross)
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Thanks for the Galapagos info, folks. Btw, the Mary Ann was already on our radar, so I'm glad to hear it was good. That boat is good for singles and odd-numbered parties, which is why it was suggested to us. ... Yes, nothing is cheap : ) But we are sorta aiming for good value? A little hard to tell the first time around.
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One thing I'm wondering is if it matters much who you book a specific boat through—or do the different tour companies just all "sell" the same cruises (in general)? This is not a type of travel I'm used to.
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-jeff b
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