Ship Highlights

• Hot tub, sauna, and exercise equipment
• Five-star dining in Darwin's Restaurant
• Massage and salon services
• Exterior windows in all staterooms
• Lounge area featuring live music
• Complimentary room service
• Onboard lecturers and naturalists
• Informal, on-deck dining at The Beagle Grill
• Blue Finch Bar
• Telescopes for stargazing available upon request

Overview

Celebrity Cruises' owner Royal Caribbean acquired Sun Bay 1, a small luxury vessel built in 2001, earlier this year. In an innovative move, this ship is spearheading Celebrity's Xpedition sub-brand, which will create a new strata of up-market, premium-priced cruises and shore excursions offering travelers unusual cruise experiences in exotic destinations.

The Galapagos Islands is the first and most eye catching of these, and the start-up of the new venture on June 11, 2004 marked the arrival of the first mainstream cruise company to operate around the islands year-round. This option opens up Galapagos cruises, formerly the province of backpacking (or high-end) "adventure travelers." In essence, Xpedition combines the exotica of this type of adventure on a small vessel with some of the amenities and features -- high level of service and cuisine, for instance -- that Celebrity is known for.

And indeed, the joy of the new Galapagos operation is that it combines Celebrity stylishness with local, "small ship" ambience. Crewmembers -- almost entirely Ecuadorian from the captain down -- are sunny, charming and tirelessly obliging. Destination-oriented features are incorporated into the onboard experience, such as a performance of Ecuadorian folklorique preceded by a highly personalized slide show featuring pictures of passengers meeting wildlife during the course of the trip (guests are presented as a complimentary CD to take home).

Better still, all drinks (except for certain premium brands) and tips are included in the price, so the atmosphere is more relaxed and sociable than that on the big Celebrity ships, where passengers are more reluctant to mingle because of potential embarrassment over who buys drinks for whom!

Celebrity is now planning other "over the top" Xpedition cruises in Antarctica, the Arctic and Alaska, initially using a former Soviet icebreaker chartered from adventure cruise specialist Quark Expeditions.

Public rooms

Apart from the Darwin Restaurant, the only indoor public room is the large, elegant Discovery Lounge on Deck 4, which has a curved bar with indoor/outdoor seating to the rear, a small dance floor, a piano and comfortable turquoise seating.

Every evening, the ship's chief naturalist and cruise director holds briefings here on the following day's activities, using very well prepared audio visual material. On the last night of the cruise, the lounge hosts a performance of Ecuadorian music, singing and folklorique dancing.

At other times, it is a quiet retreat for reading or playing board games. Books and games are available in the library area, at the other end from the bar. Though limited to a few bookcases, this contains some useful reference books as well as a reasonable variety of the usual novels and thrillers.

Just outside the lounge is the ship's purser's office, and opposite this is a small shop stocked with essentials like toothpaste and sun cream as well as scarves, hats and some logo goods (mainly sweatshirts and t-shirts).
All indoor areas of the ship are non-smoking, but smokers are amply catered for in the outdoor bar areas on decks four and five.

Entertainment

A rolling program of recent film releases -- including, in June 04, "Shattered Glass" and "Cold Mountain" -- was available on the in-cabin TVs and there were plenty of books and board games available for guests' use.

Apart from daytime lectures on wildlife, early-evening tour briefings and the last-night folklorique show, formal entertainment was minimal, most guests being happy enough to enjoy a few drinks and dinner, then head off for an early night in preparation for the next day's tours.

Fitness and Recreation

On the top deck (Deck 6), there is a comfortable sunbathing area with cushioned sunbeds, showers, toilets and a whirlpool hot tub. There is also a small indoor gym with large windows overlooking the deck. It contains steppers, stationary cycles, weights and a massage table. There is a separate (mixed sex) sauna area with shower.

There is a small beauty parlor adjacent to the ship's shop on deck four (not open on the inaugural cruise as the beauty therapist had not yet arrived).

Family

A large Latin American family group -- complete with a handful of children under the age of 6 and even two newborn babies -- joined the inaugural cruise and the crew were charming with the children, doing everything they could to help the parents safely transfer their youngsters and associated paraphernalia ashore. However, it has to be said that this is not really a cruise suitable for young children.

Fellow passengers

Apart from a couple of Canadian ex-pats, we were the only Britons on the inaugural cruise and, apart from the Latino family group the vast majority of our fellow passengers were cheerful, eco-oriented, middle-class Americans.

Dress

On a ship with such an outdoors-based itinerary, casual is obviously the order of the day, but guests seemed to enjoy changing out of their daytime swimmers and shorts and dressing fairly smartly for dinner.

Gratuity

All gratuities are included in the cruise fare, as are non-premium drinks and house wines (which are from Chile, and perfectly respectable).