Which ships are recommended as first class?(with 16-26 passengers)

Anyone taken the Nemo, Tip top, or Angelina?

Several of us have been on Angelito, you can use the forum search function or just sort by Ecuador in the country tab and look for recent trip reports.

I'm not sure if Angelito is considered first class since it doesn't have a hot tub or kayaks.

We did an 11 day Nature Workshop on the Tip Top IV through Galapagos Travel.
Fabulous trip. Recommend most highly.
Although the National Park requires one guide per 16 passengers, GT always provides a 2nd staff person; ours was also a certified guide. Having had that experience, I can't imagine how, for example, one guide could possibly point out birds to people in 2 different pangas.

Birding from the pangas is hardly the difficult part.

It's telling those darn finches apart! And they are on land.

Seriously, did you really see any birds from the panga that you wouldn't have been able to identify on your own?

I was the only bird enthusiast on my trip and it was never an issue having one guide. It was more important that she was an excellent guide.

We absolutely loved the Angelito but I think it's considered midrange but a great value for that type of boat. We did Itinerary A in April and our naturalist guide, Maja, was fantastic. Have a great trip, whatever you decide!
http://www.angelitogalapagos.com/web/angelgal.php?c=149

Yes, seriously, I would have had trouble identifying many of the birds I saw without a guide. Clearly, I am not as smart as mlgb.
Plus, I really liked the additional information the guides provided.

There were just 15 passengers in 2 pangas - I was generally less than 15 feet from our naturalist guide even if I was in the other panga. And she was truly outstanding!

That is true! Pangas are primarily used for short transfers, not touring. On land, there SHOULD be planned and adhoc stops with lots of explanation. If you have to be on a guide's shoulder all the time to get the info you desire they are doing it wrong.

IMO this is a red herring. As far as TipTop, I would be more concerned with the TipTop II accident and if that reflects some poor safety or training practices by the operators. (It ran aground with passengers onboard in the middle of the night in 2015. Not sure if there was ever a full report but the tripadvisor commentary was not positive.)

I never really figured out the definitions of the different boat classes. I was scrambling to backfill when Road Scholar cancelled me off Seaman Journey. I credit a travel advisor on Adventure Life for the Angelito tip. I found AL easier to communicate with than the Ecuador-based companies. In the end I booked straight with Cometa, which worked out just as well, although not necessarily any cheaper.

We were looking at 4 day options on other cruise lines when I got a tip about the Angelito from a happy customer on Trip Advisor. It was more reasonably priced and we were able to cruise for a full week and will be grateful for that experience the rest of our lives.

To actually answer your question: Haugan Cruises has great ships, the newest of which is the Cormorant - 16 passengers. This is the one we will be on in February. Better info on TA, I'm afraid...

Haugan ships are luxury, not first class...so much for better answers! (Luxury ships run about twice the rate of first class/tourist superior).

Re the Nemo Catamarans, I looked at them and didn't like the room design. Too claustrophobic with portholes rather than windows.

This is one of the problems with the yacht classifications. You really do need to look at floor plans, room layouts, and itinerary as well as "class". Those two classes, first and tourist-superior, are especially hard to distinguish.

One of the things that I liked about Angelito was after the remodel, they bumped out the rooms and gave them all big picture windows. No bunk beds, no port holes. Even on some of the "first class" ships you could wind up in a rabbit warren.