Our cruise package included a three day land tour of Quito, Ecuador as well as a week long Galapagos cruise. The tour package included lodging at the excellent JW Marriott hotel in Quito (2 days prior and 1 day after the cruise). Meals were included in the land tour as well as transportation and a tour of the old town.

The JW Marriott was top of the line and likely rated five stars. The hotel room was spacious and had all the amenities. The restaurants were excellent and hotel staff was friendly and always helpful. Ecuador required that when in public places, even outside, we had to wear a mask. N95 masks were provided by Celebrity. The tour of the old town included the masteries of San Francisco and Santo Domingo. Also, we visited several historical buildings in the area. Quito was an old city with a lot of history. We enjoyed our tour and an excellent lunch was included during the tour. Quito is about 9000 feet above sea level and my wife and I took altitude sickness pills prior to and during our stay in Quito. We had little problem with the altitude. Our tour group's guide was excellent and the hotel provided a security man that went with us, keeping us from straying from the group and protecting us from potential pickpockets and thieves. We were warned about keeping our valuables secure.

Two days after our arrival in the country, we checked out of our hotel and were taken to the Quito airport for our flight to Baltra Island in the Galapagos. This island was the sight of a U.S. military base that focused on protecting the Panama Canal during WWII. Upon arrival in Baltra, we were taken by buses to a site on the ocean were we picked up our zodiacs that took us to the Xpedition. Zodiacs are inflatable boats with solid flooring and a large engine. Celebrity's zodiacs would transport between 12-14 persons. They were used to tender us to and from the ship on all occasions. We wore life vests every time we rode on the zodiacs. We had two types of landings on the cruise, wet and dry. About half of our landings were wet and half dry. A wet landing would require stepping into the surf of shallow water, usually ankle deep, sometimes more. A dry landing involved stepping from the zodiac to a hard surface without stepping in the water. The wet landings required that we were what were called water shoes, which we removed after our arrival on the beach, dried our feet (hand towel provided by Celebrity) and then put on our socks and shoes. I took a pair of waterproof low cut walking boots as well as standard athletic walking shoes. For most of the hikes on the islands, I wore the boots. Read more