Silver Galapagos review

Summing up this cruise - thumbs up, we highly recommend it for expedition cruise fans. As veterans of four previous expeditions cruises, one on Hapag Lloyd and three on Silversea, we were excited when Silversea launched the Silver Galapagos in 2013 and glad we waited a year to sail. I will say that it is not the same experience as on the Silver Explorer, especially from a food and service standpoint, but the destination and overall experience was terrific. 

A few comments below:

Ship:

The ship came out of its second dry dock refurbishing in October or November, 2014 and looked great. They put all new furnishings, carpet and soft goods in the cabins. The rest of the ship looked great too - I am not sure what all they did, and when, in the two refurbishments, but everything was nice, comfortable, contemporary. There were some ship issues, such as rather weak water pressure when using hot water, but I didn’t feel like anything was a big deal. In a subsequent post I make some comments about the ship.

Service:

Many of the early reviews of the Silver Galapagos were not good. Passengers did not feel that the staff were trained to Silversea standards. Well, even though the ship is still getting somewhat mixed reviews, I think that they have totally turned that around. The expedition team was terrific, full of enthusiasm and knowledge. The landings and excursions were all wonderful. The service all over was great, lots of greeting by name, personal service, remembering your preferences, etc. The chef was the most personable I have ever seen, he was always out and about, stopping at tables and chatting a bit. The staff was enthusiastic and for the most part efficient everywhere. They all seemed to be very proud to be working for Silversea. 

A couple of examples: 

We sent in a request for Brad’s non alcohol beer to Silversea ahead of time. Upon boarding they didn’t have it. The maitre’d apologized and said he’d see what he could do. Well, the next day Brad was thrilled when our butler delivered some NA beer on ice. I don't know where they got it, maybe they sent a scout boat over to one of the main islands? After that almost every staff member on the ship greeted him by name and inquired about his beer. It was quite comical.

Another day we were having lunch on the deck with another couple. The wife, although not really observant, had made a decision earlier in her life to be more conscious of food choices and try to eat somewhat kosher, especially as related to eating no shellfish or pork. Three of us ordered the grilled lobster, she ordered fish. The waiter brought everyone’s meals and then a second or two later realized that her piece of fish had been cooked on the same grill as the lobster. She had never mentioned a thing and probably wouldn’t have objected even if she knew. But he profusely apologized, whisked it away, cooked another piece of fish, and brought it back. I was quite impressed by that attention to detail.

Food:

The food was fine. Not gourmet, but quite good with lots of variety and fresh ingredients. The chef was Austrian, married to a woman from the Galapagos and thus able to work on the ship. The waiters were plentiful and constantly came around with coffee, wine refills, etc. English was not a problem. 

Lunch and dinner were served either at the girl on deck or in the dining room. Lunch upstairs on deck, the most popular option, was described in the daily schedule as “Galapagos Seafood Market”. It was a salad bar, soup and dessert buffet, plus three or four things you could order, such as grilled lobster, fresh fish, burgers, etc. They had a yummy ceviche of the day, served Ecuadorian style with popcorn. Lunch and breakfast downstairs in the dining room were also a buffet, but you could order too. For dinner they offered the Hot Rocks option at the grill, by reservation, and a more traditional dinner service in the dining room. 

Logistics:

The logistics were good for this trip. Silversea contracted with A&K for destination services in Quito. They had e a desk in the Marriott lobby with information about the schedule and offered a couple of optional tours. We stayed only one night at the Marriott, after completing a 10 day customized trip in the Andes highlands, so we didn’t take any Quito tours through them. At the time we booked the trip you could add on things a la carte such as a Quito transfer on the way in, nights at the Marriott, transfers back to the airport, flight to and from the Galapagos. Now its “all in” which makes a lot of sense and I am sure is less confusing for them. Nevertheless all went well on the Quito end.

On the way home we flew to Guayaquil and had a short transfer to the Oro Verde hotel where we had a day room and an evening transfer back to the airport. When we arrived at the airport we found that our flight was delayed; in fact the incoming flight had not yet left Miami. This is something I think the transfer provider should have been apprised of ahead of time. The airport didn’t even have immigration open when we got there, so we cooled our heels in the main airport lobby until they opened immigration a bout two hours later and we could go through and head for the lounge. A word to the wise on this - there are no airline lounges at the Guayaquil airport, just a Priority Pass lounge, which you can go to if you are a member (via American Express Platinum), but if you’re not a member, even if you are flying first class, you are stuck in the halls or at the gate. Our flight finally left around 3:00 AM, so of course we missed our connecting flight in Miami. 

Excursions:

All of the excursions and landings were terrific and handled on time and efficiently. The expedition staff was uniformly good, with a couple of standouts, but whoever you went out with was enthusiastic, knowledgeable and entertaining. They way overplayed the difficulty of the walks, etc. in the briefings - it was not a geriatric crowd, but I guess it is better to overstate things than not. We all know how that goes on other cruise lines when people who can barely move show up for an inappropriate excursion.  Depending on the excursion there were usually around 10 people per guide.

It was a very busy cruise - typically we were out on the first excursion around 7:30 AM, back for lunch, then there some days there was a lecture at 2 PM, then back out again between 3 and 4 PM, back by 6 PM at the latest. Then a quick clean up and on to the 7 PM briefing, followed by dinner. 

Passenger mix:

The passenger mix was mostly people in their 50's, 60's and 70’s, with some younger. Of course there were many Silversea regulars, but we also met people who had never been on a cruise before, or never on an expedition ship. One 11 year old boy was traveling with his grandmother and was cute and curious. There was also a 15 year old girl traveling with her father, a reporter for USA Today who was working on a feature.

The passengers were friendly, mixed well and were uniformly enthusiastic about the trip. I only heard raves about the whole trip and if anyone ever complained about anything it would be a surprise to me.