Ponant

Luxury Cruises

Expedition Cruises

Athens (Piraeus)

Istanbul

Europe - All

Europe - Eastern Mediterranean

Mediterranean

Europe - Western Mediterranean

Indian Ocean

Italy

Greece

Croatia

Sweden

Turkey

Excellent

Very Good

L'Austral

Le Soleal

Le Boreal

Le Lyrial (Ponant)

Le Laperouse

Le Bougainville

Le Champlain

Le Dumont d'Urville

Le Ponant

Le Commandant Charcot

Le Bellot

Le Jacques Cartier

Perfect experience as Austrians on a french ship.

Chose this cruise for the destination and the fact that it was a small ship and expedition.  All excursions were expedition with an experienced naturalists leading each off ship experience.  Dining was exceptional. Staff on board took care of every detail to maximize your experience.  Destination did not disappoint.  There was entertainment each evening and while we did not dance the night away, I was told many did.  Mixture of ages- from 8 to 80.  To fully experience the cruise, I would recommend that you be able to hike and swim off of zodiacs.  The staff will assist and safety first but you need to be able to do the walks and swim.  Of course you can stay onboard.  We loved this line and booked our next adventure while on board. There was a choice of the main dining room or a more casual outside dining experience.  The same menus and there was always a main stay available if you did not like the menu of the day.  High Tea was every day.  This cruise was a French cruise but they did both languages and separated the off shore groups by language.

Great Experience

San Diego

First, let me say that I really enjoyed my 9 day cruise on Ponant’s Le Jacques Cartier. The trip started in Istanbul and ended in Venice. It’s a luxury cruise line and much to my liking, it caters to the small passenger market. I believe there were 164 or so passengers on the cruise. So it creates an environment that caters to meeting people and moving about at an easy pace. None of the facilities were overcrowded, but a prime spot at the pool on the day at sea was tough to come by.

I do think that it is really important to point out that Ponant is a French cruise line. Why is that important? Well, there are subtle things that one would notice, such as the announcements are all made in French first and then English second. However, there were a few times such as when they were introducing crew members as they walked aboard and since they were walking at a pretty good pace there was no time for both languages. The less subtle examples are with the crew-passenger interactions. The Cruise Director Alexandre spoke English but his lack of comfort appeared to have kept him from interacting in depth with the non-French speaking passengers. It wasn’t unusual to see him sitting at tables of French speaking passengers for an extended conversation. However, for the most part, he would only say “hello,” as he walked by a table or group of those who didn’t speak French. The same could be said for the sommelier. During the Captain’s Gala, he and the maitre’d constantly circled the Captain’s table on both nights, attending to their every need. The table was a mixture of ship’s crew and invited passengers. The invitees on both nights were French speakers. Our table was right next to the Captain’s table and it wouldn’t have taken a lot of effort to simply stop at our table for an instant and ask if all was well. There was in fact a bottle of the 2007 Chateau Latour Grand Cru Classe, that I wanted to buy. It was fairly priced at 570 euros. There was also a 2006 for 580 euros. I would have purchased that one as well, and frankly since my friends and I love wine, we would have probably purchased a similar bottle of wine every night. But the sommelier never stopped at our table to simply ask, “do you have any questions about the wine?” I don’t doubt the sommelier was very savvy in regards to wine, but since he wasn’t comfortable speaking anything but French he didn’t stop at our table during the whole voyage. I would suggest that if they would like to sell more wine, they should instruct the sommelier to stop by all of the tables and make some inquiries. People who really enjoy wine can communicate on the subject in any language. It could possibly be fun.

Another point is seating. As in all cases some seats/tables are better than others. This is especially so on a small ship. The best tables in the dining room were reserved at every meal for the Ship Owner’s Suite. I’m guessing that the suite is for friends of the ship’s owners. They happened to all be French families so they were able to sit at the best table for every meal. I get it. Some people will always get priority. But for every meal? A number of people asked about the table’s availability. However, they were always told the tables were reserved. It would have been nice to have been able to reserve one of the tables on just a few days.

There were a number of excursions on the ship and the guides were all knowledgeable and fluent in English. I really want to thank Keren and Ines for keeping me from getting lost on more than one occasion. They were chaperones provided by the ship to help during the outings. The excursions were comparably priced to what we could have paid if we’d booked the trip on our own. On other cruise ships, the excursions could be two or three times more expensive than similar privately arranged tours. Some excursions did sell out though so it’s worth making decisions early to get the event you’d like. I’d also like to mention that on an excursion, we weren’t able to visit a site that was part of the planned excursion. There apparently was a concern due to fires in the area. By the time we returned to our cabin, a letter was in our room detailing the problem and refunding 50% of the tour’s cost.

Also, the shows at night were really great. Some were in French and some in English. But since they were basically musicals, it really didn’t matter. The dancers were really talented and hard working. We looked forward to the shows every night. There was ample seating available in the theatre and there wasn’t a bad seat in the house. There was also a guest speaker that was pretty interesting. I attended each of his presentations. But frankly, there were a few presentations that had less than 10 people in attendance. Also, since he spoke both English and French, he made two presentations on each topic. So even though the schedule was full, only half of the events were available depending on one’s language preference.

I’d like to also highlight the ambiance onboard the ship. There was always background music in every venue. But it was never loud, nor were the dining facilities even when full. It was easy top have a conversation in pretty much every venue. I appreciated that very much. Also it’s worth mentioning that the ship is very well maintained. It’s immaculate and well designed.

So yes, it is a French cruise line and that has some drawbacks, but it’s easy to get over. I will probably book another cruise with Ponant at some point in the future. But the Ritz-Carlton is next if they ever can get a ship out of port.

Bonjour Ponant

Tortola

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 cruise a chance as we liked the itinerary and as mentioned above the limited number of passengers a lot. And were positively surprised. May-be it was helpful that  our mother tongue is neither French nor English, but we did not feel at any timepoint less regarded or less valued by the crew. Everybody was nice and helpful and chatted with us in English, we  were also able to take part in the evening entertainement.

Being on a French ship had the advantage that we lilked the food a lot and also the 'standard wine' was much better than on the American ships we had been before.

We had a standard cabin, which was sufficient and very beatuiful.

One negative point for us was, we would have wanted to be able to book some sportive excursions. But they were not offered.

In conclusion, we really enjoyed our holiday and will surely book another trip on a Ponant ship.

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