Now that I have told you all about the cruise and the adventure and shown you the islands and the animals, it’s time to talk about the ship. I can honestly say, Flora is my favorite ship we have ever sailed on. She is also the smallest ship we have ever sailed on. But I wanted to give you a little bit of an idea what our overall accommodations were like and the public areas of the ship as well. First, as you can see above, she looks wonderful in the water. Almost like a private yacht…a BIG private yacht.
Let’s start with the staterooms. Here’s an iPhone pano shot of the bedroom part of our “suite.” Celebrity calls it a suite. Other cruise lines would call it a suite but to me a “suite” means you get more than one room. At the EB Hotel in Quito we had a suite…a bedroom, two bathrooms, a dressing room and a living room. That’s a suite. The really big “suites” on Flora are true suites.
Those suites have other rooms as well (living room, two bedrooms, two bathrooms). But we had a traditional verandah stateroom. That said, it was the LARGEST stateroom we have ever been in. It was even bigger than the suite we once had on Century. At more than 330 square feet with an 84 square foot verandah we had more than 400 square feet to ourselves. To give you something to compare, on our last cruise on Reflection to Mardi Gras our stateroom had 194 square feet with a 54 square foot verandah. We found it interesting (at least to us) that we are going to go from the largest stateroom we have ever had on a ship to one of the smallest we have had on our next cruise. In December we take a Viking River cruise to the Christmas Markets on the Danube. Our stateroom on that ship will only be 204 square feet with the verandah. We were very pleased with this one. I did a quick video tour of the stateroom and the bathroom (the largest and nicest we have ever sailed).
The ONLY complaint we had about the stateroom was the lack of places to charge electronics. This ship was built three years ago. It’s not like she was built in an era before we all carried numerous gadgets. But there were exactly FOUR electrical receptacles in the room (not counting one above the sink in the bathroom for shavers). One of those was a European plug. I always have a converter but the receptacle was inverted so my adapter/converter would not work with it. That left us three. One at the desk and two in the wall next to one side of the bed. Except that the two next to the bed were vertical and VERY THIN! So thin that if you plugged any kind of adapter or charger in to one of them, you could not use the other. That is crazy. No USB plugs at all. They have those on other, older Celebrity ships.
I know what you are thinking…how many things can you have to charge? Well, we travel with the following: Kathleen has her iPhone, her iPad, her Kindle and her Apple Watch. I have my MacBook Pro, my iPad, my iPhone, my Apple Watch, my Nikon battery charger, my Kindle and my GoPro battery charger. Twelve items to charge with two plugs. That’s crazy. I certainly hope when they dry dock Flora in a few years, this is one of their big upgrades. It is needed.
The rest of the ship
Flora is beautiful from top to bottom. The best way for me to show you that is to add some pics and explain in the captions. So here you go:
A couple of the places on board that I don’t have pics of include The Boutique and Darwin’s Cove on Deck 3. The boutique has a few trinkets, magnets, shirts, jackets and postcards but they are very spendy. See my previous Q&A. Also on Deck 3 is a science lab where you can investigate things like geological samples from the islands under a microscope. As much as our interest in science was piqued while onboard, we never got there. One cool thing to do when you back from an excursion is to go to the Boutique and look through the windows as they bring the Zodiacs in and store them. It’s a really cool operation. Also on this deck is the infirmary, but let’s hope you never have to visit there. Decks 1 & 2 are either crew quarters or storage for the Zodiacs.
On Deck 7 forward there is the Observatory. It looks like a very quiet place to just relax and face forward on the ship. It is right over the Bridge, so it has great views but they play loud techno music in there so it is NOT peaceful at all. They need to turn it off or change the music. On my first night while trying to find somewhere to write I found the music BLARING at 3:00 am.
Just above the Observatory is the Stargazing deck. DO NOT MISS THIS! We went up twice (cloudy other days…or we forgot) and it is worth the trip. They keep the area very dark and you would be amazed at the stars you can see when there is no light pollution from the ground. And your perch is right at the equator. You can see the Milky Way, the Southern Cross, the Big and Little Dipper and so much more.
This ship is amazing. We can’t wait to sail on her again. Other than my two very small complaints about the outlets and the techno music, it was about the best a ship can be.
I enjoyed seeing the Flora in all its glory. Your ‘suite’ is very nice and the bathroom is huge? As the charging your 14 items, I feel your pain. Two plugs doesn’t even come close to handling them. Are you allowed to bring a power strip and/or an extension cord to help you out?
I don’t know if you are “allowed” to bring a plug strip. I have done that in the past but this time, there was NO room due to luggage restrictions.
By luggage restrictions do you mean your decision to just use a 21″ or is that the largest suitcase allowed? The weight restriction is no problem for us, but I’d like to take my hiking poles and they won’t fit in a 21″ My husband was looking for temporary blackout curtains for the bathroom but I vetoed that idea. Again, thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience.
Hi again Jacquelin,
No, I meant the weight limit of 42 lbs. You may not need your hiking poles as they have very nice walking sticks for anyone on board that needs them. Rubber tipped and always available for any walk.
What a great advertisement for the Flora. Excuse me if I missed it, what was the daily weather and temperature like?
No problem. Highs were in the high seventies, lows were in the low seventies. There was hardly any differentiation in temperature since you are at the Equator and at the end of a number of major ocean currents. We have been told that the “wet” season is much warmer. Best times according to our friend Ellen, Celebrity’s science and nature expert to go are November-December or May through July. Their falls and winters are not the best. This is also true depending on what wildlife you want to see. If you Google it, you will find the best times. We were lucky. So many animals were on the islands. Much of the birds are migratory. We got there as some were coming back just then and others had not left yet. The naturalists said they had never seen that many albatrosses there at that time of the year.
One other thing that was interesting to me that I hadn’t thought of. Sunrise and sunset are just about exactly 12 hours apart.
Very pretty. Question, can the “window” in the bathroom be darkened so the light doesn’t go into the bedroom area? If one person wakes up before the other, will turning on the bathroom light disturb the person still trying to sleep? Oh, and did you ever order Room Service? We usually do not but I might want my 5 a.m. coffee. Yes, I know we’ll be tuckered out, but I always wake early. Thanks again for taking the time to document your cruise. Six months for me to wait.
Hi Jacquelin,
The window to the bathroom can NOT be darkened. There is a fairly bright nightlight under the sinks. And yes, if you turn on the bathroom light, it will wake the other person up. We are not room service people. We have ordered room service once in 31 cruises. But lots of people did. It is available from 6:00 am onward while the dining room does not open until 7:00. With the shore trips starting at 8:00 some mornings, you might need it. I doubt you will be able to get anything at 5:00 am. But once the shore trips start up, you will be so exhausted you will sleep as long as you can. At home I NEVER use an alarm clock. Haven’t for more than 20 years. I am usually up before I ever need to get up. My average day starts at 3:30 am. On Flora, I needed an alarm every day. And most of those days, that’s what woke me up.
Looks really nice, I’m sure it would fit us but I’m not sure if its ever going to happen (unless I win the lottery).
With regards to charging, I invested in an Anker USB Hub. Wouldn’t be without it now on my travels.
I have a hub but it charges so slowly and there is so little room at either plug to set things on it just surprised me that there were so few and no USB plugs. And the prices are REALLY low right now. About half of what we paid.
Wow. Can’t tell you how much I’ve been enjoying your review of this trip. It’s now at the top of my list for so so many reasons. I’ve been hearing of others traveling to the Galapagos islands for many years. And yet I never had any idea of how unique and special the wildlife and ecology is. Or how much effort goes into keeping that part of the world isolated from contamination. Or the important part that the naturalist play and their lectures and information. And then there is your information about the ship. Oh boy! It must be saying a lot for you to feel it’s your Best trip ever. I so enjoyed every word and it will be in my thoughts and part of my plans for the future. Can’t wait to get out there too!
You two are going to LOVE IT!
Cathy, you will love it and since you will be traveling with one of the greatest travelers I have ever met, it will be all the more special.
Thanks Jim I for sure do not have to go on this trip.. You have taken pics of everything,,talked about everything in your blog and I have no need to go.
Don’t tell me you just got around to reading this? And yes, you do need to go. We are going in July 2024. Start saving now and you can come with us. Or win that lottery!