We enjoy small ship cruising and desired to try a ship/cruise line new to us and we’re taken with starting on the Thames. The ship is new. The physical plant is excellent. The excursions are average to excellent depending on the sites and guides. We had two average and one excellent guide on at three excellent sites. The food is average. The service is impersonal. Waitstaff’s English is spotty at ...

This was our 14th cruise, the second on Ponant, and we sought it out because we are tired of the large ship cruises. Ponant offers expeditionary experiences, rather than the traditional "rest, relax and party" cruise, so we approached our time with that expectation. We were incredibly impressed. The ship is graceful, beautiful and very comfortable. Appointments are sophisticated and of the ...

We are on this cruise now via a Tauck trip. Our room is spilled with sewer gas. We finally figured out that if we run the shower constantly over 24 hours, at a low rate, it keeps the trap from allowing sewer gas into the room. The concentration of sewer gas was really bad, only 2ppm can cause bronchial construction in people with asthma, 10-50ppm you get headaches. Higher concentrations you get ...

We wanted to see Maya sites and wanted to try Ponant. We have sailed on Cunard, Celebrity, Oceania, Windstar, Seabourn, Holland America and Viking - 20+ cruises in all, 6 on Seabourn. I would say 80-90 percent of the passengers spoke French as their primary language. We enjoyed that. The officers are French, the staff Indonesian or Filipino. We were rather taken aback to see the captain ...