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 ...
Superb Antarctic navigation aboard La Commandant Charcot leaving from Ushuaia through Drakes Passage, tracking west along Antarctica from Marguerite Bay to Cape Adare and then up to Lyttelton, NZ
Captain Devorsine & Expedition Leader Kuyper went out of their way to provide an exceptional Antarctic experience including navigation along the Ross Ice Shelf, navigation through ice floes, ...
Ponant is one of the few cruise lines that offers multiple cruises without a single supplement. For almost the same price as a Caribbean cruise on a premium cruise line (double for solos), I was able to book a mid-ship balcony cabin on an ultra-luxury Ponant cruise. Le Dumont d'Urville is a beautiful mega-yacht with a modern, minimalist design. Food, drinks, service, cabins, lectures and so forth ...
This is my second Ponant cruise and I found both cruises to be of a very high calibre in relation to food and experiences. Ponant is an 'all inclusive' line, with the sub-Antarctic cruise including all meals, drinks (non-alcoholic and alcoholic) at all times, including a mini bar which is re-stocked daily to your specifications.
The food is toward the Epicurean, but more standard fare was also ...
We are destination driven cruises, so If a ship is going where we like to travel, we will book & travel on it.
This last cruise, also happened to be over Xmas & I wanted a break from cooking for up to 16 people for lunch.
We boarded the ship on 14 December in Dunedin New Zealand, as our tour was the Sub-Antarctic Cruise.
The service from our Cabin attendants was fantastic, everything was ...
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 ...
TRIP REPORT
LE BOREAL 11/21-12/7 2022
As a preface, this is exceedingly long because it aims to answer the questions that I had when I was researching this once in a lifetime trip (for most of us) in addition to providing an actual trip report.
I found answers to some, but not all, of my questions leading up to this trip, but it required months of me reading literally the internet. So, ...
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 ...
We chose this cruise because of the destination of the Northern Scottish Islands. In addition, they in theory had a strong Covid protocol.
The ship, the cabin, the crew, the food were all ok. Clear limitations because of the size of the ship. Less flexibility in dining, entertainment etc. but we expected that.
What stunned us was that the ship was half booked wit a bus tour company called ...