Ponant Europe Cruise Reviews

This was a make-up cruise following COVID cancellations. The itinerary looked interesting, included many places I'd never been, and I liked the starting and ending points. Also, there was no single supplement, something that Ponant offers a lot and I really appreciate that. As to how it went, I love Ponant for so many reasons, it's hard to narrow it down. I'll start with the ship, beautiful, ...

John and I were delighted to discover this one-off food- and wine-centric itinerary on the L’Austral. We enjoy the French ambiance, excellent food, and great wine onboard Ponant’s ships. This cruise promised more of the same by including a Michelin-starred guest chef, guest experts on wine and cheese, and special wine and gastronomic events. The Ponant Corporate Chef was also onboard this ...

I was fortunate enough to have reserved for this Ponant Cruise among seven Greek islands, departing and returning to Piraeus the last week of September 2023. I had a wonderful trip with no negative incidents or unhappy memories. The vessel is one of Ponant's sisterships (built 2010 - 2015). It is a very well appointed vessel, even luxurious. As it only carries a maximum of 264 guests (and ...

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 ...

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 ...

We chose our cruise on a relatively short notice (two weeks before) and were positiviely surprised. We liked the intimacy of the ship a lot (you get to know all the staff and especially the waiters started to remeber our preferred drinks quite soon). We were somewhat worried because we read in other critics about Ponant that they are more focused on French people, but we thought to give the ...

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... ...

This was our first cruise since 2019 and it was another enjoyable experience on Ponant. This review is lightly abridged from my day-by-day accounting here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2793516-on-board-le-lyrial-—-treasures-of-the-aegean-sea-—-july-30-august-6-2021/ This cruise was originally scheduled Istanbul to Athens, but was changed to Athens / Athens about 60 days in advance. ...

A brand new ship, 150 other guests, many from France and Belgium as it was a a Opera Cruise. Us Australians were adopted by all and again we could not fault Ponant. The destinations visited, the tours, the food, the wines, the cruise companions, the crew..... you name it, all lends for a perfect cruise. We visited Greece, Turkey, Egypt and Jordon. Add that to our Antarctic cruise in late 2017. ...

Negative was the english lectures which were poor and limited. As this is a french ship, there was separate lectures for the french-speaking. All announcements were in dual languages. French passengers were friendly but we did not socialize together because of our large group. Staff was friendly. I would go again on this cruise line just because of the food. The pastry chef was outstanding. The ...