Launched in 2021, Le Commandant Charcot is a Polar Class 2 rated icebreaker. It is a 245-passenger, 31,300-ton cruising vessel with high quality interiors. It is French, chic, the service is smooth, and passengers are well-heeled, experienced and predominantly elder travellers.
As of 2022, Le Commandant Charcot is the only PC2 rated ship in service. Note that the strongest Canadian Coastguard ...
The cruise was titled Fire and Ice in the Arctic and was promoted as "an unforgettable expedition". Unforgettable perhaps but for all the wrong reasons. For some reason Ponant did not publish details of the flights at the start and end of the cruise so we had to add two nights in Seattle for their convenience (at our expense). Boarding the charter flight from Seattle to Nome in Alaska was tedious ...
My wife and I were facing such a cruise for the 1st time. Good friends of ours told us to join them, I was not ready to do it because I was reserving this kind of experiences for my 80's... Well, even if we had explored the program before departing, the surprise went far beyond expectations: we personally loved the "small yacht" principle and the expeditions side surrounded by top quality in all ...
Love the Expedition Cruises! The locations visited are amazing and without hords of tourist. The Expedition Crew are so knowledgeable on the locations; People, flora, fauna and wildlife found there.
We love the small ship size: The entire Crew is friendly from the waiters, bartenders, bus boys & housekeeping personnel to the Bridge crew and the Captain himself. The food is 5 star across the ...
What a lovely experience on Le Soleal. The captain, the crew and our expedition team were fantastic. I have never seen a more accessible ship's captain
The ship was ideal for our expedition cruise through the Inside Passage, in and out of some of the tiniest places. The itinerary needed to be modified for rough seas and a danger to participants in boarding Zodiacs so another treat was ...
The cruise was a charter for selected college graduates in the US, starting from Juneau, making it's way in a semi-expeditionary manner to Vancouver with approx 250 passengers. The voyage was a quality and satisfying experience, with warm and sincerely friendly service, great food on two decks, and on the house drinks including wine. The house wines were quite satisfactory. Visited small fishing ...
This Ponant cruise greatly exceeded our expectations! We're first time cruisers and read many reviews before choosing this cruise line. We were looking for a smaller ship that would provide a more personal experience which could get into some of the tighter ports and avoid the crush of hundreds of other travelers with the same agenda.
Embarkation was smooth. Once we cleared security at the ...
The moment we stepped aboard and were personally greeted by the Captain and crew we had a feeling this was going to be a warm and enjoyable experience. We chose the Ponnant line following a recommendation from friends who said the small size of the ship, with about 160 passengers, allowed access to places on the Inside Passage to Alaska that other larger cruise ships cant enter. This was true ...
A cruise up the Inside Passage of Alaska has been on our Bucket List for many years. When we discovered that Ponant operated such cruises on their luxury, small ships, we jumped at the opportunity. Life on board was fantastic, such wonderful French influence was everywhere, from welcome aboard to departure. The cabin was very nice and the dining on Level 2 exceptional. Of course the staff were ...
We joined this cruise very much under protest as we had been due to sail with Un=Cruise on one of their "tiny" ships (36 passengers) but it had engine trouble and so we were offered the alternative (cost met by Un-Cruise) of 5 nights aboard L'Austral. None of us wanted a large cruise ship -anything above 500 passengers is not our scene and even the 250 passenger L'Austral seemed huge in comparison ...