As of the 1st of February 2012, all cruise ships in
Galapagos will have to had to move to the new 14 night itineraries
as per new regulations of the Galapagos National Park
Service. Until then, the typical cruise ship would repeat its
itinerary on a weekly basis - looping back to the same visitor
sites every 7 days. The 14 night itinerary will force
the 75 or so cruise ships operating in Galapagos waters to spread
out more thinly amongst the 70 terrestrial and 75 marine official
visitor sites in the islands. This will result in less wear
and tear on each site, and reduced visitor congestion. Gone
will be the days, we hope, where you risked sharing your intimate
wildlife encounters with 50 or more people on a particular visitor
site.
Ship owners now have the option of offering cruises of varying
lengths. Whereas before, the 7 night itineraries were offered
as either a full 7 night, or a choice between the rather short 3 or
4 nights, they can now offer 4, 6, 8, 11 and 14 night trips, giving
clients the chance to make the best of their available holiday
time. CNH Tours strongly recommends taking at least a 5 night
trip - but only if you are very hard pressed for time of
budget. The overhead for a Galapagos trip is already
very high - just getting yourself to the islands is costly in time
and money - so you might as well go for broke and make the best out
of it while there. The truly adventurous can now do a
complete 14 night itinerary, giving them the chance to see
Galapagos in a way that would make even Charles Darwin green with
envy!
Of course, some tour companies have complained - as this forces
them to change advertising materials, and re-think how they can
sell their trips. But in the end, this is good for
Galapagos, and good for sustainable tourism.
CNH Tours has been chartering the Samba for its "Active
Galapagos" trips in the past few years. We are proud to note
that the Samba owners were among the first to voluntarily adopt the
new 14 night itinerary in recognition of the positive implications
for the visitor experience. It has been doing so since early
2011, well ahead of the deadline. In doing so, the
Samba was able to design what it considers are idealy itineraries -
whereas the latecomers in this process will have had less say.
The Samba now offers a choice between 2 distinct 7 night
itineraries. Of course, some are hard pressed to choose
between one or another - leading to some "choice anxiety" - but
everyone should rest assured that both choices offer excellent
wildlife viewing, landscape admiring, and snorkeling
opportunities.
PS: Tour companies typically measure a cruise length in
days. This leads to confusing situation whereby a 1
week itinerary is called an 8 day cruise, and not a 14 day
cruise. One embarks on a Sunday, and disembarks on the
following Sunday - so the Sundays are counted twice, even though
you spend very little time on board on your last Sunday, and only
get going in the early afternoon on your first Sunday. This
can be leading - hence our propensity to consider a one week tour
as a 7 night tour. You'll get 6 full cruise days, and
fractions of 2 other days.
