Ponant Arctic Cruise Reviews

The only ship of this capability and what an opportunity so we had to take advantage of it. The following describes the actual experience we had. Flight from Paris We were offered the opportunity to pay to upgrade to business class and accepted it, the flight was supposed to leave at 10 a.m. but we did not leave the terminal, on a bus, to the plane until after 10:05. We had to carry ...

Incredible ship from top to bottom. I have done Silversea and Regent and this is ABSOLUTELY my favorite and the most comfortable ship I have ever been on. Entertainment mostly consisted of lectures and they had an absolutely fabulous crew of lecturers. In addition, there was a couple who did opera who were superb and the best violinist I have evere seen play. The food was, by far, the best I ...

The ship has been given a makeover and looks great! The team on board is very attentive. We were able to travel in serenity in a bubble of comfort. The food is of high quality and varied. We enjoyed ourselves from breakfast to dinner. The expedition team accompanied us very well, the guides were all very interesting. They made us discover a multitude of marine species, fabulous birds... ...

Having taken 25+ cruises, I was excited to try “luxury” Ponant Cruises for the first time. The newness of their ships and their “all included” luxury positioning was appealing. Upon boarding the ship, first impressions were strong - everything was clean, contemporary, and crisp. Solid cabin design, with separate compartment for the toilet and other thoughtful design elements. The quality ...

Having never heard of Ponant, we chose this cruise because it did a circumnavigation of Iceland which is what we wanted. The ship was extremely clean, comfortable, and well laid-out. Embarkation from a small port outside of Reykjavik was a breeze (as was disembarkation). Captain Etienne Garcia was terrific - his enthusiasm for the immense beauty of Iceland came through in every message from him ...

We chose the cruise to the Arctic because the ship was supposed to be small. I made a mistake and thought it was 128 passengers. It was 128 cabins. In the arctic and antarctic only 100 passengers can be on shore at any time so ships should be no more than 100 passengers to get the experience. All shore experiences except one were worthless wastes of time. More on that later. We called Ponant a ...

Ponant markets itself as a luxury expedition cruiseline but it does not meet expectations on either account. Most other cruiselines offer at least similar or better levels of comfort, food and service, apart from the limited open bar. Although the overall appearance of the ships is attractive some of the cabins are not particularly well-designed, having for example, only a narrow hanging space for ...

The cruise was to sail through the Northwest Passage, however there was too much ice so spent the majority of the time on the west coast of Greenland with some time in Canadian waters. The captain made the correct call about not proceeding through the Passage judging by the ice in Bellot Strait and the ice maps for Alaska, so no problem with this. The Canadian icebreaker service was very good, but ...

This was our first cruise with Ponant - and might I add it will probably be the last - and we were very much looking forward to cruising the North West Passage especially as we had booked two years ago and have read a lot of media about Ponant, the Company and the special voyages offered. There is no doubt there has been a huge media campaign to encourage Australians to participate in the various ...

My wife & I chose Ponant on the recommendation of our travel agent as the preferred cruise line to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary with a transit of the North West Passage. Unfortunately, Ponant failed dismally to deliver & in our opinion, were misleading & deceptive in their decision to proceed with the cruise in view of the forecast sea ice conditions. We believe that Ponant should ...