Ponant Antarctica Cruise Reviews

This is a journal of our February 27-March 12, 2024, “Exploring the Chilean Fjords” land/expedition package on the Ponant L’Austral. The package includes one night at a 5-star hotel in Buenos Aires, flights and transfers to/from Ushuaia, and 13 nights aboard the L’Austral. We had cruised from Valparaiso to Rio de Janeiro around Cape Horn in 2011 aboard the Star Princess ...

We've talked about an Antarctic cruise for years...we like Ponant, and we are Smithsonian fans, so when the combination came up this seemed a good omen. We were extremely pleased to find superb support, assistance and communications from the Ponant-Smithsonian Journeys representative. She was in touch early and often. We had a couple of glitches and in each case were helped through the ...

Cruised to Antarctica but could not go to South Georgia due to bird flu and birds dying. The alternative given were well planned. It's great to go to the bridge and watch the Captain navigate tricky channels while the passengers are cluelessly enjoying the views. Got to see a whole of feeding frenzy from the water thus attracting tons of birds above, lots of pods of ocras, different species of ...

We booked in The commandant Charcot in 2019 , for summer of 2020 to North Pole , as soon as we had heard about its Polar Class 2 Ice breaking capabilities. However the voyage to 90’N , North Pole got cancelled twice due to COVID pandemic. Finally after experiencing an exceptional Arctic trip on L’Boreal last year in 2022, we booked with Ponant on Le Commandant Charcot for November 2023 for ...

Superb Antarctic navigation aboard La Commandant Charcot leaving from Ushuaia through Drakes Passage, tracking west along Antarctica from Marguerite Bay to Cape Adare and then up to Lyttelton, NZ Captain Devorsine & Expedition Leader Kuyper went out of their way to provide an exceptional Antarctic experience including navigation along the Ross Ice Shelf, navigation through ice floes, ...

This is my second Ponant cruise and I found both cruises to be of a very high calibre in relation to food and experiences. Ponant is an 'all inclusive' line, with the sub-Antarctic cruise including all meals, drinks (non-alcoholic and alcoholic) at all times, including a mini bar which is re-stocked daily to your specifications. The food is toward the Epicurean, but more standard fare was also ...

TRIP REPORT LE BOREAL 11/21-12/7 2022 As a preface, this is exceedingly long because it aims to answer the questions that I had when I was researching this once in a lifetime trip (for most of us) in addition to providing an actual trip report. I found answers to some, but not all, of my questions leading up to this trip, but it required months of me reading literally the internet. So, ...

This report includes information on our February 15—March 12, 2022, “Ross Sea” expedition cruise on the Le Commandant Charcot with Ponant. Although we had taken a “drive by” cruise of the Antarctic Peninsula in 2007 on the Golden Princess and explored “Beyond the Polar Circle” in 2020 on the Le Soléal with Ponant, this expedition offered the opportunity to experience much more of the Antarctic ...

Ponant was our second choice because our first line rerouted the ship we originally wanted because of the pandemic. Ponant was highly recommended and it proved itself to us. Covid took our first choice with Ponant, the Le Lyrial out of the running because of covid, but they had several ships running the Antarctic route and fit us on the Austral for the next day. L'Austral was captained by an ...

We planned the trip of a lifetime to Antarctica on Ponant, impressed with reviews, the small size of the ship and everything French about it. We had no idea that the trip would be memorable in more ways than one. We had an amazing 15 days at sea, with highlights including stops along the Peninsula and South Georgia Island with surprise stops at the international research station (because a ...