PONANT Reviews 532

we have cruised with Ponant in the past, but this was one of our best cruises = sailing ship (actually sailing) with 22 passengers, 33 crew; the service of all of the staff, food & drinks was excellent; excursions were well planned, varied; we plan to do this again or maybe the catamaran

Kimberley cruise was awesome from start to finish, would recommend cruising with Ponant, every aspect onshore and on board was beyond all my expectations. Brilliant!!!

Excursions were excellent with very good guides and great choices. Ship was first rate and our room was on par with some hotels, especially when it came to storage. Negatives include the entertainment (Disco?) and lack of variety at Breakfast.

Outstanding adventure with a professional crew. High standard of service with very good French food in excellent facilities. The naturalist guides were informative and entertaining. Highly recommend for its value and unique experience in a pristine and unspoiled environment.

Une fois que l'on a gouté à Ponant, on ne peut plus s'en passer :-)

I had known all programm for the next day, in detail. So I can be prepared for all activities just in time. I was very surprised with the professional behaviour of all employess.

We love the Ponant ships, the small size, well trained crew, exciting destinations and great food!

Luxury cruise to Greenland & Svalbard - excellent itinerary to see the best of the region, luxury and comfort.

We booked on Ponant for an “expedition cruise” to the Bissagos Islands combining it with a cruise to Macronesia, looking forward to great food and wine, however that was not the case. The food is far superior in France.
The ship.
Very comfortable, light and airy.
The suite we stayed in on the Lyrial was very nicely appointed.
The officers.
Arrogant and dismissive. We both have Captain’s licenses and have our own yacht. We thought that the officers would know the rules of the sea, but apparently not.
The crew.
A lot of fun.
The Sommeliers.
Not a lot of fun. After 3 weeks aboard they still did not recognise us.
The wine.
The wine served was not great. Louis Jadot? As the wine was not good we decided to stick to the sparkling. Better wine on Regent Seven Seas.
The food.
The baguette and cheese along with the pastries were great. However, all in all the food was terrible. No umami and every Monday was the same menu, as well as the rest of the week. For 3 weeks. Never in my life have I eaten at a restaurant where the spaghetti is cut into 2” pieces.
The star of the show.
Max Demeester. He was our butler and was a gentleman. He took care of us so well we thought we should steel him for our own yacht.
Never again on Ponant.
For an expedition cruise go with Hurtigruten. For good food do not go with Ponant.

If you have to take a one cruise in your lifetime, Le Commandant Charcot is the one.

Ponant and Smithsonian Journeys are great partners putting together a fabulous trip. The experts and their talks make the trip even better.

Great cruise.

Impeccable service, fantastic guides, immaculately clean and wonderful food

Le Lapérouse wasn't a big floating hotel. Instead it was like a beautiful boutique hotel! Excellent cuisine with a wide menu and buffets. Equally excellent service and attention to detail. Great experience. We only wished the excursions were as excellent as the cruise itself, but I imagine it's hard to control the local guides/excursions. We wanted more photo opps, and less time in gift shops and re-creation-type museums.

Le Bellot cruise from Glasgow to Bergen was not really a luxury experience. The ship was beautiful and very clean. The staff was superb also. The advertised gastronomy was subpar as well as the very disappointing wine and liquor brands. Only the two gala dinners did not disappoint and the pastry chef was outstanding too. Compared to other lines, Crystal, Seabourn, Uniworld, this was definitely the most budget food and beverage we ever encountered. Ponant served very inexpensive wines, barely warm soups and fishy seafood. This was our first time cruising with them and sadly our last.

The ship, crew, service and food were all excellent. The disappointing aspect was the poor quality of the local and on board guides and the excursions in general.

The most incredible experience. Far surpassed all of our expectations. We were worried about maybe being bored or having dull moments. None of us managed to read a page of the books we brought. We were busy, entertained, took incredible excursions where we always felt safe. We had wonderful lectures, met locals and learnt about their way of life, had a photography expert teach us. We ate delicious food. We swam, indoors and outdoors. We walked the promenade, used the gym. We saw fantastic landscapes, followed a polar bear who put his/her front paws on the front of the ship, fished, went dog sledging, kayaking,and walked in the snow.

STAFF
The staff were all lovely, friendly and helpful and couldn’t have tried harder.

CABIN
The ship was beautifully appointed and the cabins were as per our expectations. They were comfortable but very tight particularly in the bathroom where you couldn’t dry yourself without the risk of physical damage. Also we couldn’t understand why the mattresses didn’t fit the base of the beds causing another obstacle to avoid in an already tight space.

DINING
This was one of the most disappointing parts of the trip, there was plenty of food of course but in general it was repetitive and seemed of average quality.
The Japanese dishes were very poorly executed and the selection of vegetables and cheese were sadly lacking. The only saving grace were the wines which were always thoughtfully selected.

ENTERTAINMENT
This was as expected and the duo in particular were very talented. It would have been nice to have had a better selection of programs to choose from on the Entertainment System.

ITINERARY
As per the description on your website we were expecting to discover the rich natural heritage, traditional villages and crafts of the area we were visiting accompanied by our Naturalists.
We visited 2 x Mangroves one by canoe which we couldn’t explore because the water level was too low, the other one was very good.
We had 3 shows of varying levels all basically drumming and dancing
We visited 2 x weaving factories,
We had 5 island tours often by bus and cut short due to timing issues.
1 x glass bottom boat trip for 45 minutes with no Naturalists commentary.
We had 7 x beach excursions to areas for snorkelling , little to no shelter from the sun and no other options offered to people who did not want to snorkel.
There were a large group of Naturalists on board but they seem to be running the tenders and giving 5 minute talks at the Briefing Meetings.
Where were the zodiac expeditions and the opportunities to learn about the cultural differences and specialities of this region!
After we disembarked we toured the island of Ishigaki which was so lovely and interesting. We couldn’t understand why we hadn’t stopped there and finished the cruise in Taiwan an International Hub making people’s travel plans so much easier especially as the ship was ending the Japanese season then.

SAFETY
We were kept very well informed during the cruise and our safety seemed to be a top priority. We couldn’t speak too highly of the sailors who got us into and out of the zodiacs they were fantastic.

OVERALL EXPERIENCE
Having cruised happily with Ponant twice previously we were really looking forward to exploring this part of Japan which we had not visited before.
As you can gather, we were extremely disappointed, we didn’t leave Australia to go on a trip where 50% of the time would be spent on a beach we could do that at home.
We think the outline of the cruise on your website was quite misleading and you might want to adjust this in the future. We got the impression that a lot of things which we would have found interesting the Japanese would not access to tourists.
So maybe this area is not suitable for cultural exploration by cruise!

Ponant are the only cruise line we would sail with. Small numbers of guests. All inclusive and no single passenger supplement is a winner. Our Captain Antoine was the best I have experienced in three cruises with Ponant. He interacted more with the guests and was more of a PR man than an aloof captain. Excellent ambassador for your company.

Ponant is an excellent company with the right mix of luxury and great value.