This was a Smithsonian Journey and on a previous cruise we met a lovely couple and we became good friends. They had booked this trip and asked if we would consider doing so and enjoy a holiday together. Sadly this trip did not compare in any way with our previous experience while cruising with Ponant. The only special part was meeting our friends.
Our cabin left a lot to be desired, ...
Great WiFi and easy to get on and off the boat, great butter and cheese...other than that is was like being on a geriatric prison boat.
Same food everyday
Extremely minimal service
Small Dark rooms with the toilet separate from the sink.
No bars to sit at
No comfortable seating
Morose staff
Not enough staff
2 hours to eat each meal and then nothing else...
Very little to ...
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 ...
We have friends who work in the Cruise travel industry. Ponant was portrayed as a luxury cruise small ship company with an expedition theme. We should have had some idea when we first booked that the cruise would not be "smooth" sailing because all questions were referred to head office in France and the Sydney staff could not assist us.
Day 1 arrived at Orly Airport at 7.30 am - there was no ...