Celebrity Flora – Galapagos Cruise Blog – Day 4 – Isabela Island

On the fourth day of our Celebrity Flora Galapagos cruise, we visited Isabela Island. It’s the largest island in the chain and is easily recognizable because it’s shaped like a seahorse. Isabela Island is also unique because day tours from Santa Cruz can’t come to the Western part we’d be visiting; it’s too far. So the only people who can access it are those who take a Galapagos overnight cruise. Follow along as we explore.

Celebrity Flora Day 4 Overview

• Celebrity Flora Day 4 Schedule
• Breakfast in Seaside Restaurant
• Switching Excursions
• Top Deck of the Flora
• Wildlife Tender Ride at Punta Moreno
• How Our Ship Moves Talk
• Azteca Lunch Buffet in Seaside Restaurant
• Enrichment Presentation: Sea Life of the Galapagos Islands
• Short Walk at Urbina Bay
• Pool Time on Flora
• Next Cruise Presentation
• Excursion Briefing
• Dinner in the Seaside Restaurant
• Stargazing
• Late Night Entertainment

Celebrity Flora Day 4 Schedule

Breakfast in Seaside Restaurant

We returned to the Seaside Restaurant for breakfast around 7:30 AM. Like the previous days, it was peaceful and quiet, with the restaurant maybe only 1/3 full. With the sun pouring in through the large windows and the calm morning atmosphere, it was always a great way to start the day.

The breakfast options were still similar to the previous day. Unlike on a normal cruise, I was always careful not to overeat for breakfast because it’d feel awful to have to hike while stuffed full of bacon, pancakes, hash browns, and pastries (also, there are no bathrooms on the islands).

Switching Excursions

Originally, I signed up for the “Long, Uneven Lava Rock Walk,” which was a 2-mile walk across rough lava.

But last night, I wasn’t feeling great, and today, while I felt better, I still wasn’t at 100%. I didn’t want to miss out on any stop on this vacation, though, so I went to the Discovery Lounge and asked a naturalist if I could switch to the “Wildlife Tender Option.” They were really accommodating and let me switch. Usually, as long as the tender had room, switching wasn’t too much of an issue.

The tender ride I signed up for was the third option, so it wasn’t leaving for another 45 minutes. I was going to go back to my cabin, but the cabin steward was already cleaning the room, so I used the time to explore the top decks some more.

Top Deck of the Flora

The top decks on Flora were really the perfect place to take in the beauty of the islands. I hadn’t spent much time here yet because we were always busy on the islands, attending presentations, or showering and getting ready for the next excursion.

This morning gave me the perfect opportunity to check out these areas, though. The air was crisp and cool, which helped offset the powerful equatorial sun beating down on the deck. In the distance, you could see the islands rising out of the water. The ship usually stayed about a 15-20 minute tender ride from shore, so things were close, but never “very close.”

The back of the ship had a lot of comfortable chairs, tables, and sun loungers all over the deck. It felt similar what you’re see in The Retreat areas on other Celebrity ships.

I also really have to give Celebrity credit here for the design of the hot tub. Most hot tubs on ships are sunken down into the deck, or sometimes you’ll find an infinity hot tub looking over the side of the ship. In this case, the hot tub was actually raised. And because it was higher than the railings around the top deck, it gave you unobstructed 360-degree views while in the hot tub. Such a smart move. And while it looked kind of small, this hot tub could hold 12 people (I never saw more than 4 people in it at once).

At the front of the top deck was The Observatory, right above the bridge. It kind of reminded me of the Observation Lounge on Norwegian’s Prima Class ships, with comfy chairs, tables, and a selection of board games and books (although there was no bar in here). The panoramic windows offered such impressive views, and the powerful air conditioning kept the room cool despite the direct sun. Because this was such a busy cruise, I doubt this space got much use, but it did remind me how much I love these types of lounges (Celebrity got rid of the front-facing lounges for general guests with their Edge Class ships).

Wildlife Tender Ride at Punta Moreno

At 8:30, I headed down to the Discovery Lounge to check in for my excursion. I was always early for everything on this ship because it was so small. I was so used to giving myself 5-10 minutes to get around a cruise ship, but on Flora, I could easily make it from one side of the top deck to the other side of the lowest deck in 2 minutes.

The Wildlife Tender Ride was the least popular of all the excursions offered today. They were only running two tenders for it. Since the tender would be the whole experience, not just transportation to the activity, they said they usually try to have fewer than 10 people per tender to give everyone space to move around. I was assigned to the first tender, which only had 9 people.

Honestly, I was kind of bummed about the excursion. I really wished I felt good enough to do the hike. Sitting on a boat and zipping around rocks seemed like it’d be boring to me. But I thought it’d be better to take it easy than push myself too hard and ruin the rest of the cruise.

We put on our life jackets and immediately headed out. It was a beautiful day, but the sun was strong, so I opted for a long-sleeve sun shirt and long pants to avoid having to put on another coating of sunscreen so early. It also helped because there were some splashes from the ocean during the ride.

Our guide, Ivon, and driver, Darwin, took us into the shallows along the black volcanic rock to see wildlife up close.

How close can you get to the sea life while on a boat? Plenty, actually. Darwin would actually jam on the throttle and get the tender right up onto the rocks themselves. At some points, we were just 8 feet away from the wildlife. I didn’t expect that at all.

The shallows were filled with animals, and Darwin and Ivon were constantly looking around and zipping over to interesting sights.

We spotted a penguin posing on top of a pile of rocks. Ivon explained that, unlike in the south, you’ll see most penguins here by themselves or with just one partner because they don’t need body heat to survive the moderate weather here.

Along another set of rocks, we saw twenty or thirty dark marine iguanas sunning themselves to warm up since it was still early in the day. It was amazing watching them seamlessly slip into the water, moving like crocodiles with their tails propelling them, and then slipping right back onto land. Right next to them were vibrant red crabs along the rocks. It’s funny, they were the only animals that reacted to us. They’d always scatter if you got near, but the rest would just ignore us completely.

Further away, we saw a blue-footed booby perched atop a mound of rocks. The dark rocks made the bird’s blue feet seem even more vibrant and surreal. Ivon let us all move around and take turns at the top of the tender’s stairs to take better pictures and get a photo with the bird. The booby almost seemed to be posing.

Across the way, we saw a sea lion on top of the rocks, throwing an octopus in the air. Apparently, sometimes sea lions like to play with their food. Over and over again, he was throwing it a few feet into the air and then catching it, as if to show off to everyone.

Overall, the excursion was an hour and 15 minutes and far exceeded my expectations. I got just as close to the wildlife as I had on any hike, and it felt adventurous navigating through the shallows filled with wildlife.

How Our Ship Moves Talk

I got back onboard, again welcomed by the pan flute and some fresh snacks.

Since I was wearing sun-protection shirts and pants, it was the first time on this cruise I didn’t have to shower after the first excursion. It was actually kind of nice.

Tip: Long-sleeve sun shirts and pants are helpful if you don’t want to burn. You don’t have to spend a fortune. I purchased a few of these from Amazon, and they worked great, both in the water and on land. They weren’t too clingy, which is what I usually hate about those kinds of shirts.

At 11:15, we went down to the Discovery Lounge for a talk called “How Our Ship Moves.” The talk was well attended; I counted about 50 people there, roughly half the ship. They had fresh cookies waiting for us as we arrived, and waiters circulated throughout the room for drink orders.

Hotel Director Lauren kicked off the presentation and introduced two of the marine officers who would tell us all about Flora and what makes it unique. The staff who do these talks trade off all the time, so you could tell both were nervous about giving technical presentations to guests in their second language, but they really were quite interesting.

Lorena Balarezo was in charge of both navigation and security, positions usually held by several people on larger ships. She explained that since Flora was built specifically for the Galapagos and designed to have as little effect on the environment as possible, it had a unique dynamic positioning system that would allow it to stay in place without an anchor.

While anchors are handy and do have to be used in some ports or conditions, they damage the seabed below and can affect sea life. Instead, Flora can use a system that’s almost like GPS, along with bow thrusters and azipods, to stay in the same spot as guests zip off the ship and head to the islands. Flora is one of only two ships in the Galapagos with that system (Silver Sea origin has it as well).

She also explained that due to an earthquake in Colombia on the second day of this cruise, it was difficult to position the ship, so on this sailing, we did have to anchor a few times.

One of the engineers, Francisco Ubilla, also came on to talk about the ship’s systems. Like most other cruise ships, Flora makes its drinking water from seawater using reverse osmosis, but they make 100% of it (Royal Caribbean’s new Icon Class makes only 93% of its own water).

They also explained something I didn’t understand: the dedicated water refill taps in the cabins. Water in the bathroom of every cruise ship is safe to drink, so why does Celebrity Flora have a dedicated filtered water tap for bottles? It’s because they use a charcoal filter to take out the chlorine taste.

He also talked about fuel. They said Flora uses 10,000 gallons of marine gas per week, which is less than a ship this size would usually use due to the environmental protections and efficiencies they put in place. For example, that roof on the top deck where the Ocean Grill is that shades us? Mounted on top is a 15 kW solar array that can power part of the grill station.

They also talked about the tenders. Flora has two built-in garages that hold the six tenders onboard. They get loaded in and are held in hammocks down on Deck 3. If you go to the guest services area, they have windows so you can look into the garages.

Overall, it was a really enlightening talk, and I definitely recommend it if you care about the “how-to” of cruise ships.

Azteca Lunch Buffet in Seaside Restaurant

Today’s buffet lunch had an “Azteca” theme, which wasn’t a type of cuisine I’d ever heard of before. It was mostly Latin-inspired flavors, with dishes like beef arrachera and Azteca-style chicken. There were a lot of roasted meats and veggies with flavorful sauces. It was a nice chance to try food I’d never had before.

Enrichment Presentation: Sea Life of the Galapagos Islands

After lunch, we headed to the Discovery Lounge for a presentation called “Sea Life of the Galapagos Islands.” Led by one of the naturalists, the presentation took us through all the different creatures that are endemic to the Galapagos, meaning they are unique and can’t be found elsewhere in the world.

I continued to be impressed by how many people showed up to these talks. It shows that they really do have an interest in wildlife and the Galapagos. I counted about 40 people here, which is 40% of the ship.

Because this talk was halfway through the cruise, we had already seen a lot of these animals on our adventures. It was great to actually hear more about them, their proper names, and what made them special.

So far, we’d seen some marine iguanas, but we learned that they could get up to 4 feet long, and their noses were usually white because they sneeze out excess salt.

They also went over the differences between the land tortoises and sea turtles and which islands have which.

Short Walk at Urbina Bay

Our next excursion was a “Short Walk” at Urbina Bay. This was THE place to see land tortoises on our cruise. There was also an option to swim at the beach afterward, but we skipped that since we had already spent plenty of time in the water.

We arrived at the Discovery Lounge at 3:45 and checked in for our 4 PM excursion. This was a wet landing, meaning the tender would be pulling up right onto the black volcanic sand, and we’d get our feet wet. So I wore my aquatic hiking sandals again (see them on Amazon). They really did come in handy compared to people who either had to change their shoes once on land or wore aquatic socks that were awful on rough terrain.

We jumped off the tender and climbed up the black sand to take off our life vests. Then we headed into the thick, forest-like landscape of the island. It was so interesting how each island had a completely different feel.

This one was older, so it was filled with overgrown vegetation and trees. The marked pathways established and maintained by the national park service made it easy to walk around, though.

Within the first few minutes of our walk, we saw a large land tortoise hiding in an overgrowth of thick plants. He was so big, way bigger than any turtle or tortoise I’d seen before. Even though he was about 10 to 15 feet away, I was still excited to get to see him this close. But it turns out that was just the beginning.

Five minutes later, we encountered a bigger tortoise camped out on the main path. Without the brush covering him, you could really appreciate how magnificent these creatures were. Their shells were intricately textured, with rings on their plates, and their skin looked scaly, almost reptilian. The naturalist guessed that this one was probably 300 pounds, so big, but far from the biggest (they can get up to 500 pounds).

Because he was right on the path, we had to break the 6-foot safety rule to get past him. One by one, we quietly slipped by him as he slept on the path. Our naturalist let everyone take pictures behind him. The forced perspective of the photos makes it look like we’re really close, but in these cases, we were 6-8 feet away, as per the rules.

After the tortoise, we continued on our walk. We saw a lot of large land iguanas. These were different from the Christmas iguanas we saw a couple of days ago. Instead, they were much fatter and yellow-toned. Apparently, the color comes from their diet, which, on this island specifically, consists of a lot of yellow flowers. And because there are so many that are easy to access, these guys get pretty fat. They actually looked kind of cute.

Towards the end of our walk, we saw other tortoises in the brush, munching on some branches.

Overall, the walk was a little over a mile and took an hour and a half. I didn’t think we’d see so much wildlife on this “short walk,” but we were really lucky.

Pool Time on Flora

We got back on the ship around 5:45 and had some time to kill before the presentation. Since we skipped the “swim” part of the walk, we decided to check out the pool on Deck 4. With some downtime, we quickly switched into our bathing suits and jumped in.

The pool is small, holding only 8 people, but it’s perfect for a ship this size. In fact, it’s probably the least-used pool of any cruise ship in the world. Again, not because it isn’t good, but because you’re so busy.

Because of the high glass around it, it felt a bit less “in nature” than the hot tub upstairs, but you could still enjoy the views. As we sat, one of the bartenders from inside came out and offered us a drink, which I didn’t expect since the pool deck wasn’t used much. The water was cool and refreshing. While the walk wasn’t oppressively hot, it was a bit warm out, and it was nice to cool off a little.

Next Cruise Presentation

We ran back to the cabin, showered, and at 6:45, we headed to the Discovery Lounge again for the excursion briefing. Today’s drink of the day was the Pink Flamingo. I always find it odd that they don’t say what is actually in the drink, but since everyone has a drink package onboard, if you don’t like the drink, I guess you just don’t drink it.

We sat down, and a waitress came over, gave us a small bowl of mixed nuts, and took our drink order. Oddly, after 25 minutes, we still hadn’t gotten our drinks, so we ordered again when another waiter came around.

It was the third time this had happened on this sailing. You could tell the setup was hard for the staff. Nearly all 100 guests would show up at the Discovery Lounge within 20 minutes, and the staff had to take orders and bring all the drinks out as quickly as possible. They seemed to have a method, putting down napkins where orders were given, but then sometimes they would forget to actually bring the drinks.

It was probably the only complaint I’d have about service on the ship, and even then, it was relatively minor because I could always flag down someone else. You could tell it was just a lot to keep up with at once.

Before the briefing, there was a brief 15-minute next cruise presentation. Like on every other Celebrity ship, you could book your next cruise onboard and usually get some extra onboard credit. If you booked through a travel agent, you’d still get the extra credit, and the booking would still go directly to your travel agent, who would get full credit. In fact, that’s how we booked this sailing, when we were onboard Celebrity Reflection 6 months earlier (follow that here).

It wasn’t a hard sales presentation at all, but more of an awareness campaign. They asked who had sailed Celebrity before, and surprisingly, it was maybe only about 1/3 to 1/2 of the people. So they were making guests more aware of all the opportunities.

Because this cruise was destination-focused, they focused on that. They weren’t talking about Caribbean cruises here, but cruises to Japan, Egypt, Greece, and more. They also talked a lot about the upcoming Celebrity River ships, which were custom-built for the destinations, just like Flora.

Excursion Briefing

After the 15-minute talk, Expedition Director Gio came on and started to explain all the adventures we’d be able to pick from for tomorrow. You could actually do 4 different excursions, so we knew it’d be a jam-packed day.

While he was giving the presentation, I couldn’t help but notice one of Celebrity Flora’s biggest, and possibly only, design flaws: the large screen in the Discovery Lounge.

The video screen is impressive. Floor-to-ceiling, vibrant photos and videos are displayed throughout the day, and it’s used for all presentations. But the floor-to-ceiling format, combined with the flat floor of the Discovery Lounge, meant that only the first couple of rows of people could see the bottom third of the screen.

People in the middle and back would have to stand up to see what was on the bottom of the screen, and that space was used quite often. They had one TV screen that mirrored what was on the main monitor, but it was on the back wall, so you actually had to look backward to see it.

I’m sure it’s something they never realized would happen when designing the ship, and if they ever made a second one, it’d be an easy fix. But I’m surprised they didn’t just tell people not to put information on the bottom 1/3 of the screen when making their presentations.

As usual, Gio gave lots of good insights into the excursions for tomorrow. He really did a great job explaining what each would entail. But as one of the younger guests on the ship (i.e., in my 40s), I noticed a lot of it was geared toward telling older people what they could do, mentioning slick surfaces, rocks, and uneven pathways.

I’m sure that’s their usual audience, and it makes sense, but anytime I heard “strenuous,” I had to remember to put it in that context.

Dinner in the Seaside Restaurant

After we signed up for our excursions, we headed across the way to the Seaside Restaurant for dinner. The room was about 1/2 full as people were still signing up. It was funny, as the cruise went on, you saw more and more of the four-tops and larger tables being used as people met new friends onboard and would have dinner together.

I went a bit overboard with dinner tonight. I love a crab cake, so when I saw that as a starter, I had to get it. But that wasn’t the star. I also got the Potato & Cheese Soup, which was my favorite.

I was surprised how much I loved the soups on this trip. Ecuadorian cuisine just knows how to do soup well, I guess. It was a creamy, smooth soup with fresh cilantro, chunks of avocado, and cubes of cheese. It was really good.

For dinner, I opted for the pan-seared salmon, which was tasty.

For dessert, I got the Chiquita Napoleon, a “thousand-layer” cake with banana and a dark chocolate sauce. I continued to be impressed with the desserts on Flora. I always thought Celebrity had decent dessert offerings, but on Flora, they seemed notably better (to me at least).

As we were eating dinner, the captain and some of his officers came in and enjoyed dinner as well. It was nice seeing them among the passengers.

Celebrity really does one of the best jobs, in my experience, of making captains and senior staff visible and accessible to guests. And on a ship as small as Flora, it was even more noticeable, with the captain greeting guests coming back from excursions and giving private bridge tours to some groups.

Stargazing

After dinner, we headed up to Deck 8, the highest deck on the ship and just above The Observatory I was in this morning, to check out the stars. We walked up the stairs, past the Ocean Grill, where several tables were enjoying dinner al fresco, and continued to a stairway at the front of the ship.

As I walked up the steps, I entered almost complete darkness. This area was made specifically for stargazing, so there were no artificial lights anywhere in the area. Soft music drifted in from the grill next to us, creating a relaxing ambiance.

Once my eyes adjusted, I could see the large wooden bench along the back of the area, so I sat down and looked up.

Being at the equator and so far away from light pollution meant we’d have some of the best views of the night sky in the world. The sky was absolutely amazing. Hundreds, if not thousands, of stars were spread across the dark night sky.

We were lucky that our sailing was during a new moon, so it wasn’t creating any extra light in the sky. You could see parts of the Milky Way galaxy with its stellar dust. It was so impressive.

I’ve seen unobstructed night skies in places like Iceland while looking for the Northern Lights and while at sea in Bali, miles away from lights, but I had never seen anything this impressive.

We tried using our cameras to capture some pictures of it. I have a Google Pixel phone, which has a dedicated astrophotography mode made for photos like these. Unfortunately, you have to hold your phone really still for it to work, and since the ship was constantly moving, the pictures weren’t coming out clear. Switching to night mode fixed that, though. The iPhone took better pictures, although they were a little more intense than what we actually saw.

As we were up there, two women we had sat next to and chatted with at dinner came up as well. Funnily enough, though, because it was so dark, I don’t think they saw us up there. They talked among themselves and took pictures as we sat on the bench without being noticed at all.

I was afraid that if we made any noise, they’d be startled and fall right over the edge.

Late Night Entertainment

It was another pretty full day, and by 9:30, I was ready for bed. That’s way earlier than I’d go to sleep at home or on any other cruise, but I wasn’t pushing it.

This evening’s activity was karaoke. I stopped by to grab some Oreos (they also had Oreos, saltines, electrolyte powder, and some candies available in the Discovery Lounge).

For karaoke, it was a family of 6 (grandparents, parents, and two teenage girls) and some staff singing along with them. I do love that the staff gets in on the entertainment as well. It feels much more relaxed on Flora than on the rest of the fleet.

Follow Along on Our Galapagos Adventures

• Celebrity Flora - Galapagos Cruise Blog - Pre-Cruise - Quito
• Celebrity Flora - Galapagos Cruise Blog - Day 0 - Quito
• Celebrity Flora - Galapagos Cruise Blog - Day 1 - Baltra
• Celebrity Flora - Galapagos Cruise Blog - Day 2 - Española Island
• Celebrity Flora - Galapagos Cruise Blog - Day 3 - Floreana Island
• Celebrity Flora - Galapagos Cruise Blog - Day 4 - Isabela Island
• Celebrity Flora - Galapagos Cruise Blog - Day 5 - Fernandina and Isabela Islands (coming soon)
• Celebrity Flora - Galapagos Cruise Blog - Day 6 - South Plaza and Santa Cruz Islands (coming soon)
• Celebrity Flora - Galapagos Cruise Blog - Day 7 - Santa Cruz Island (coming soon)
• Celebrity Flora - Galapagos Cruise Blog - Day 8 - Baltra and Disembarkation (coming soon)
• Celebrity Flora - Galapagos Cruise Blog - Day 9 - Quito and Home (coming soon)

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Celebrity Flora – Galapagos Cruise Blog – Day 1 – Baltra Celebrity Flora – Galapagos Cruise Blog – Day 2 – Espanola Island Celebrity Flora – Galapagos Cruise Blog – Day 3 – Floreana Island Celebrity Flora – Galapagos Cruise Blog – Day 0 – Quito