The Galapagos Islands 2011 and 2012 itineraries regulation
All ships in our website are updated. Ships that have announced changes on 2011 up to October 2010 are updated. So far the ships that have anounced their new changed itineraries for 2011 are: Nina, Athala, Mary Anne, Sagitta, Anahi (Journey I), Archipel I and Archipel II.
On 2010 Galapagos National Park authorities announced that during the next 2 years all ship itineraries will change so they do not visit the same locations on a 15 day basis. This means that until January 2012 all ships have to change their itineraries in order to comply with this law.
Many things have been said about this changes, most of them are rumors since not even the operators know exactly how a lot of these changes will work. Some people say that the best islands have been left out, this is incorrect. Some other say that cruises will now only do 15 days itineraries, which is wrong as well. In order to provide you with the most up to date information we are updating our itineraries constantly and checking with the Galapagos National Park on updates every day.
How it works:
It is true, a ship cannot visit the same island within a 15 day period on their itinerary. This does not mean that islands have been left out or that ships can only make 15 days itineraries. How it works is that ships have been assigned a 15 day itinerary which they can split into different ones on the days they make port on San Cristobal or Santa Cruz (because they have airports). This means that most ships will offer something like:
- Two 8 day itineraries (week 1 Itinerary A, week 2 Itinerary B) (week 3 Itinerary A, week 4 Itinerary B)
- Depending in which days they make port they might offer something like: Two six days and One five days itinerary as well, or any combination of itineraries as long as they abide to the 15 days regulation.
Because of navigational issues, most of the ships will visit Northern and Central Islands on the first 8 days, and Southern and East islands on the next 8 days. This is yet to be confirmed by the National park but seems to be the direction it is taken as we can see from the ships that already changed their itineraries.
Some ships are starting these changes from January 2011, others are changing them on the year's course. The fact is that by 2012 all ships have to work on the new itineraries. So if you are looking for ships on 2011 make sure to ask about itinerary changes on that specific ship. Buen viaje!
