Celebrity Xploration
---
Celebrity Xploration
The Celebrity Xploration is a Celebrity Cruises ship focused on luxury expedition-style cruising centered on nature exploration and wildlife observation. It offers suites and junior suites, as well as ocean-view cabins with verandas and individual air conditioning. Onboard services include room service, WiFi in public areas, and private cabin refrigerators. Facilities feature a Sun Deck with jacuzzi, swimming pool, Discovery Lounge, library, hair salon/barbershop, onboard shop, and walking promenade areas. Activities emphasize complimentary snorkeling with provided equipment, free diving, boat safari excursions, and naturalist lectures. This ship is well suited for travelers seeking an intimate expedition cruise experience with strong access to wildlife encounters, marine activities, and immersive nature-focused exploration.
Itineraries of the Celebrity Xploration
Price and Availability Notice
Prices displayed are provided for informational purposes only. They reflect the rates in effect at the time of their most recent update and are shown in Canadian dollars, per person, based on double occupancy, unless otherwise specified.
Supplier rates, exchange rates, taxes and fees, room or cabin categories, and promotions are subject to change at any time. The applicable price is the one confirmed by a travel advisor at the time of booking, subject to availability. Only the confirmed price shall be considered valid.
It is the traveler's responsibility to confirm the price, inclusions, and applicable terms and conditions before making a reservation. While every effort is made to keep our content up to date, transmission, display, or pricing errors may occur. In such cases, the correct price will be communicated to the traveler before any booking is confirmed. Certain terms, restrictions, and exclusions may apply.
decks plans
Deck - 4
Sun
Deck - 3
Upper
Deck - 2
Main
Deck - 1
Ship's attributes
Services And Amenities
- Jacuzzi
Technical specifications
- Classe: Xpedition Class
- Tonnage: 320
- Speed: 10.0 knots
- Passengers: 16
- Decks: 4
- Length: 30 m
- Width: 11 m
History
- 2017: Année de construction
- 2017-03: Date d'inauguration
Frequently Asked Questions
She was an expedition catamaran of about 319 gross tons, 30 metres long and 11 metres wide, with 4 decks and 8 outside cabins of 17 to 18 square metres. She carried 16 guests and 12 crew. Wikipedia gives a lower tonnage, 242, and counts 3 decks rather than 4, a difference that likely comes down to measurement and counting conventions. She was by far the smallest ship ever operated under the Celebrity badge.
Both, as on Celebrity Flora, and for the same reason. The Ecuadorian operating permit fixes a seat count inside the national park, 16 here, and eight cabins with two people each hit that ceiling exactly. No 18 or 20-guest configuration ever existed, contrary to what the usual gap between the two numbers on a cruise ship suggests. Lindblad runs her today under the same 16-guest limit.
Her hull first: a catamaran, so two floats, where the other two were conventional monohulls. Her size next, 319 tons against 1,610 and 2,842, and her 16-seat permit against 48. She was also the only one of the three built in Ecuador, in Guayaquil, in May 2007, as Athala II. The 16-guest format opened landing sites that larger ships have to share or skip.
Eight years, from 2017 to January 2025. She first sailed as Athala II for Ecuadorian operator Ocean Adventures, from 2007 to 2016, before Celebrity bought that company and renamed her Celebrity Xploration in 2017. Her final cruise under the Celebrity badge ran in the first week of January 2025. She has sailed as National Geographic Delfina since 14 February 2025.
Eight outside cabins only, 17 to 18 square metres, spread across the catamaran's decks. The choice came down to deck and aspect rather than to any real range of categories. Under Lindblad the same hull now shows two categories, category 5 with a private balcony and category 4 with direct deck access. Every cabin supplies snorkelling gear, wetsuits and binoculars.
A 30-metre catamaran moves in Pacific swell, and a 16-guest format leaves few places to retreat. The dry season, July to December, brings the roughest water, when the Humboldt Current runs up along the archipelago. A twin-hull form limits roll but sharpens short, hard motion in a cross sea. Travellers prone to seasickness were already better off on a larger ship, and that is even truer today.
She wrote a first into the archipelago's record in August 2017, when Nathaly Albán took command: no woman had yet captained a Galápagos-based cruise ship. The moment grew out of how the operation was built, a ship built in Guayaquil, registered in Ecuador, commanded and crewed by Ecuadorians, with park-certified guides onboard. Regulation requires those guides on every vessel operating in the archipelago. This is a local story more than an American cruise-line story.
No lift, no spa, no show lounge and no second restaurant made for a very bare stay on a product sold at premium expedition rates. Eight cabins mean close quarters: the same faces at every meal for seven nights, with nowhere to slip away. Families with young children and travellers with reduced mobility had little room here. Comfort at sea stayed that of a small boat rather than a cruise ship.
No, not with Celebrity and not under that name. Her Celebrity career ended in the first week of January 2025, and she has sailed for another operator since 14 February 2025. Celebrity keeps a single ship in the Galápagos and has no plan to return to the 16-guest format. Clients who want this exact hull book through Lindblad Expeditions.
Lindblad Expeditions bought her in June 2024, alongside Celebrity Xpedition, and put her into service on 14 February 2025 after a refresh. She stays in the Galápagos, under the Ecuadorian flag, with the same 16-guest capacity in 8 cabins. She is now the smallest ship in the Lindblad-National Geographic fleet. Her return to service came a month before that of her old fleetmate, now National Geographic Gemini.
National Geographic Delfina. The name fits the Lindblad-National Geographic scheme, alongside National Geographic Endeavour II, Islander II and Gemini. Hull, capacity and home port are unchanged from the Celebrity years, which makes her easy for a former guest to recognise. Lindblad presents her as the most intimate ship in its fleet.
Lindblad Expeditions, in brand partnership with National Geographic, an American expedition operator long established in the Galápagos. The style rests on naturalists, photography and outdoor activity rather than conventional cruise service. Royal Caribbean Group has had no connection to the ship since the June 2024 sale. Bookings go through Lindblad or an agency.
Still the Galápagos, year-round, out of Baltra. The programme sells as a 10-day package with internal flights and hotels, or a 16-day version with the Peruvian extension to Machu Picchu and Lima. The 16-guest format keeps her access to landing sites closed to larger vessels. She shares the archipelago with three other Lindblad ships, including the former Celebrity Xpedition.
Celebrity Flora is the only honest answer, even at six times the size: same islands, same park-certified guides, two outings a day and park fees inside the fare. The format gap is real, 100 guests against 16, and a client who genuinely wanted the group of sixteen should go to Lindblad. Celebrity Infinity opens South America from a different angle, rounding Cape Horn and threading the Chilean fjords. Celebrity Beyond gives you the far end of the scale for comparison, 3,260 guests at double occupancy.
Because space in the Galápagos National Park is counted in permit seats, and Royal Caribbean Group had hit its ceiling. Celebrity Flora's arrival with 100 seats in June 2019 forced the group to free capacity elsewhere, which cost Celebrity Xperience its place and cut Celebrity Xpedition's. Running three small hulls, three crews and three permits for a few hundred guests a season weighed heavily. The June 2024 sale to Lindblad closed the file, leaving Celebrity one ship, one product and one permit.
Subscribe to our newsletter
