AussieBoyTX

Not exceptionally so. We've had covid before and with vaccinations and antivirals, it wound up being mild for us. Like @gogo65 notes, it's more stressful making sure you stay covid-free to have a negative test. Onboard the ship, we had sufficient space that we weren't really close to but a handful of other guests that we saw regularly. Ashore was different and we were packed in with thousands of people at airports, museums and the like. Even where there were mask requirements (Greece), nobody (and I mean less than 1-in-100) works masks, including crews, of the ferries we took.

The May 20, 2022 protocol is sufficiently vague as to not be an answer -- it talks about finding local testing sites and doesn't mention self-administered tests at all. Someone should tag Ponant in that thread and ask them to answer. Sure simplifies things if that's all you need to do. Here's the current FAQ: https://en.calameo.com/read/0001324237a945b0b4eef?authid=kgBaDKLBcfQW

If flights cancel, they generally cancel two weeks out so additional compensation isn’t owned to passengers. We’ve had KLM and SAS flights cancel exactly fourteen days in advance this month. Booking refundable backups on Norwegian is a good plan. We have been suggesting friends who haven’t purchased tickets yet to fly Finnair. They’ve been mostly immune to what’s going on with the rest of the continent.

We have AirTags in all of our bags, checked and carryon. Actually got to use them when hotel delivered one bag to the wrong room. I wandered through the halls to find it and then let the bell staff know and they retrieved it for me.

We didn't, but it's certainly feasible. Ponant laundry almost always is done in a day, so if you need some things done, that makes it easier. Heathrow is a mess for sure, so good thinking. We've had three flights cancelled while over here (the Ponant sailings have been just about the only thing going smoothly). We've taken to using ferries & trains to get around.

I think so. The third pillar noted in the Hervé Gastinel interview I shared a couple of months ago spoke about Internationalization. Maybe these people will be able to push that agenda forward and harmonize the guest experience on board and on expeditions.

You might find this article interesting: https://www.afr.com/life-and-luxury/food-and-wine/how-to-deliver-haute-cuisine-on-a-cruise-for-weeks-in-antarctica-20220530-p5appv

Our final day on Lyrial was busy. We docked at Itea and shared the dock with the much smaller three masted sailing ship Panorama 1. Busses were waiting for us and thirty-six of the non-French had our own bus for the thirty minute ride to Delphi. Delphi was busy, but not excessively so. Our guide was amiable, but not quite English-fluent and she was from Athens, so not quite Delphi-fluent, so things took a long time to be communicated. We eventually realized that our pace was such that we weren’t going to make it to the stadium at the top of the archaeological site, so a number of us abandoned the tour and hustled to the top, followed by the ship’s nurse carrying the ship’s full emergency medical kit, who either wanted to make sure we didn’t get lost, or was sure one of us was going to stroke out on the climb. 🤪 The climb was worth it, but we had to hurry down for our next stop — the museum. I would have enjoyed doing this independently in about half the time we took. We finished the tour in the scenic town of Delphi and enjoyed the view before we were taken back to Itea. We walked around the Itea waterfront for a bit, but found there wasn’t much to see, so we got back onboard for our last lunch downstairs — a delicious pork Milanese with pesto pasta. Bingo was offered again, but it was sparsely attended without our special guest bingo caller. Finally, we got to Corinth Canal and made the spectacular crossing in the early evening with Champagne and music provided by the DJ. It was so cool to have Lyrial excellently piloted through the narrow canal with as little as six feet on either side. We watched from Deck 7, which was opened to us for this event — and one of the special parts was that the entire crew, aside from the bridge staff, the sailors and the bar staff, were on 7 to enjoy the event with us. All the front and back of house teams were with us, getting pictures, having fun and enjoying the break. I was surprised, though, by the people who had no clue about this part of the cruise until today! The whole event took a couple hours and by the time we cleared the final part of the channel and made our way to Athens, we only had a few minutes to get ready for dinner. We joined some of our new American and Australian friends and got their debrief on the cruise — once they were certain that I didn’t work for Ponant… 😎 All said they left these same thoughts on their comment cards, so this won’t be a surprise to Ponant: - Had a great time, loved the late night dance parties, would do again. - Needs just a few small tweaks, most related to communication, would make it an easy experience to recommend. - “I hope Crystal comes back, but I would sail Ponant again.” - Huge problems with service and service management, tours and lectures. Has / will cancel a Kimberley cruse as a result. From hearing the stories in detail, it was easy to guess which crew member or Ponant process was involved. Some are just part of what I think of as Ponant’s quirkiness. Nonetheless, I gave the cruise an eight and for us, the positives well outweighed the negatives. We ended the evening at the pool bar dance party, which was still going strong when we left after midnight. We woke in Athens with plenty of time to disembark (and with several warnings from Apple Health about potential hearing loss from last night’s dance party), had breakfast and said our goodbyes to our captain, ready for another Ponant cruise in the future. And then our taxi driver scammed us out of 40 euros in one of the oldest sleight of hand routines in the book — but that’s a story for another group. We were surprised how different the back-to-back cruises were. With four identical stops, we were prepared for a lot of duplication, but found little of that. The schedules, port order, passengers and crew change ensured both weeks were unique. My opinion: first week is a better itinerary (aside from missing out on must-do Corinth Canal), but the passengers and experience were better on the second week. Oh, and seven days is just too short for a Ponant cruise. 😎

No, we were north to south (really west to east).

Corinth Canal!

Yes, this year, with temps in the low 90s, no problem. Last year, with temps above 100, she struggled.

Can you find Lyrial in this picture?

Wednesday in Corfu was a busy day, but it started quietly for me. Although I generally have the ship mostly to myself in the morning, today, there was nobody at all, aside from me and the barman. Why? Well, we lost an hour as we entered Greece, but maybe more importantly, the dance party would not be stopped and finally ended at 3am (or so I was told), so there were a lot of guests catching up on their sleep. Anyway, I was the only one up to watch our docking at Corfu, as we nestled right behind Mein Schiff 5. And right behind us were Silver Spirit and MSC Fantasia. It made for a chaotic departure from the cruise terminal as the four ships’ passengers tried to find their way to their busses. Our plan was simply to go into the old town using Ponant’s hourly shuttle, which was easier said than done. We had instructions, but it appears few passengers appreciated that before you could get to the shuttle at the cruise terminal, there was a three minute walk to catch a periodic shuttle between the ships and the cruise terminal, or a twenty minute walk to the cruise terminal itself. Generally speaking, we needed to leave the ship somewhere between 40-50 minutes after the hour to make the shuttle at the top of the hour. The French passenger sitting next to me on the shuttle bent my ear on the “disorganization”. She had apparently missed the bus and had been waiting an hour. There were busses everywhere around the terminal — we saw an MSC bus numbered 71 and a Mein Schiff bus numbered 58, before we found Ponant bus “1” (and only). The ride to Old Town & the fortress took twenty minutes and we hopped off without much of an agenda but to explore the old town. Lovely. After a couple of hours, we decided to walk back to the cruise terminal, since it wasn’t going to take much more time than navigating to the bus and sitting in traffic. I thought it was more fun anyway, since we could see the port and all the ships coming in and out. There was more angst at the cruise terminal. There was security and everyone’s ship cards were being scanned. Somehow, there were passengers from one of the ships that didn’t have cards “because the cruise line didn’t tell them they needed to bring them” — what cruise line lets their guests off the ship without scanning their cards? We didn’t stay around to find out and caught the shuttle back to the ships and made our way back onto Lyrial in time to catch the end of a delicious Asian buffet on Deck 6. Lyrial left at 2:30 and we had a quiet afternoon, with only Trivia on my schedule until the captain’s farewell cocktail and gala dinner that evening — a day early because we’ll be occupied with the Corinth Canal passage on the final evening. After dinner, a show — we had seen most elements before, but that was fine with us — different performers do make each performance unique. This version allowed each of the dancers to do a short solo performance, which I thought was cool. We heard the dancing was going on by the pool, but passed on that and went to sleep — tomorrow, Itea, Delphi and the Corinth Canal!

If you choose to take Ponant, this is something to discuss with your bar manager. You may find some help there. Make sure you get your friend’s referral. It’s a nice discount for you and them.

We had little that needed to be accomplished on our final day in Dubrovnik — spend our remaining kuna and go swimming — easy enough. We tendered in after the excursions and walked the blistering hot streets. The Croatian meteorological service had issued a red temperature alert, which I’m certain is hotter than the ambiguous yellow and orange alerts issued previously. In no time at all, it was noon and time for the last tender to the ship. Alas, there was a missing passenger, so there were several attempts at roll calls on the tender, which took us a few minutes (the missing passenger was somehow on board). This left us with a mini day at sea, with plenty on offer. The bridge tour, the lectures on wars for Greek independence as well as overviews of Corinth Canal (seven non-French attending) and the musicians, of course. I can tell you the big hit of the afternoon was BINGO, cohosted by one of our table-mates at the Cruise Director’s table the first night and the ship’s DJ. The main lounge was packed, with almost fifty participants. The bar staff couldn’t remember the last time BINGO had been played on board (if ever), but the turnout for trivia and other parlor games seems always to be under twenty participants. Go figure. This was followed directly by the caviar tasting. Although there was Russian vodka, there was also at least one other vodka — perhaps Finnish? I was enjoying the Champagne and didn’t examine the presentation carefully. The tasting was also popular, with perhaps eighty guests attending. Also a record as far as I’m concerned. We had dinner late upstairs and enjoyed carved venison and the famous slow-cooked egg. It was good, but the egg dish in particular demands to be formally presented downstairs. Tomorrow — Corfu (for the first time)

Agree. Once we’re free of our progeny, Europe will again be a Fall, Spring or maybe sometimes Winter event for us.

We were looking forward to a “do-over” Independence Day in Kotor, to make up for last cruise’s sea kayaking debacle. I knew we were going to be tendered in, but we seemed to be quite a way out from the dock. On the long ride in, we could see why — Norwegian Gem, RCCL Radiance of the Seas and Oceania Riviera were already there. Welcome to July in Europe! Despite the throngs of people, we had an enjoyable morning exploring the old town and got our fill of Kotor cat shops, faux couture handbags & watches, lovely meats & cheeses and of course the spectacular views of the mountains behind the town. Back on Lyrial, our sous chef had prepared a barbecue with hamburgers and hot dogs grilled to order along with a cold Budweiser. They were very good, with brioche buns made on the ship and fresh-ground hamburger. Short of being home for the fireworks, what better way to celebrate than with America’s first ally — the ones who helped make it so that it that we don’t play cricket or have to drink hot tea with milk! In the early afternoon, we headed to Dubrovnik and had a leisurely cruise out of the bay and along the Montenegrin and then Croatian coast. Three of us attended the lecture on the human history of the Adriatic and the other couple from the Netherlands were fine with a personal 1-1 discussion of the material. I think it’s a more enjoyable presentation than working through a powerpoint and reading from the script. We arrived in Dubrovnik in the early evening and joined Silver Spirit, SeaDream I and the magnificent Star Royal Clipper in the old town harbor. And MSC Luminosa was moored at the commercial port well to the north. We ate dinner early on Deck 6 and took one of the first tenders into town an hour before sunset. And the town was packed! Restaurants bustling, streets filled with people either trying to decide where to eat or enjoying ice cream as they strolled afterwards. We explored parts of the town new to us, checked out the potential opportunities for sea kayaking (bwahahaha) and investigated the swimming opportunities along the fortress wall for tomorrow. Sadly a huge bunch of upside down images. If you’re eligible to join Ponant’s official Facebook page, they are all there.

The original flight left the Wednesday before the Friday cruise and we were supposed to arrive Thursday early morning. It was cancelled and the earliest American Airlines could get us to Venice or really anywhere in Europe was the following Tuesday. 🤦‍♂️ We finally found a Turkish Airlines flight that got us to Venice late Thursday night after connecting through Istanbul *and* as importantly, got a supervisor at AA to endorse the ticket to THY, so we weren’t out of pocket while filing a trip interruption claim. Heathrow is a mess as I have heard from numerous friends that have connected there. Few have missed flights, but the lines have been long and there’s no Fast Pass to buy your way into a shorter line. We have advised friends connecting at LHR this summer to look at switching to Finnair and connecting through Helsinki, just because it should be more relaxing.

Sunday was quiet at Hvar — we were the only cruise ship in town and it seemed that there was even a lot less boat traffic, making the town center quite peaceful. We decided to climb to the castle and got a good view of town and harbor. Then we went swimming at one of the rocky beaches and were back on board for late lunch. We ate lunch downstairs and found the pastry chef had made / acquired pistachio ice cream, just as we had wished for last night! We had a little relaxing in the cabin and then went for massages at the Sothys spa. They were good and my OCD only slightly annoyed me that the treatments & prices described in the cabin’s program were not exactly the same as the program at the spa. There were many activities offered in the main lounge through the afternoon and into the evening — we sat in on the Trivia contest and still got only five answers correct, even though we’d heard them last week. 🤦‍♂️ We also dropped by the tour desk and to our surprise found that a cruise we tried to book last November that had been cancelled was now back on the schedule (but without the 30% discount 🤬), so we now have at least three more Ponant cruises in our future. 😅 A highlight from our sail away from Kotor was an antipasto service by the pool. There was a great selection of local meats & cheeses, accompanied by Aperol spritz. That led directly to dinner, which we had on Deck 2, seated at the crew’s table — they were eating on Deck 6 tonight. After dinner, there was a new show — we had exchanged dancers in Venice, so the new troupe had a show that we hadn’t seen before! It was their first performance and aside from some wardrobe malfunctions and missed stage cues, it went off well. We look forward to seeing it again and somehow it seems we likely will… As I write this, it’s Independence Day in the colonies and we have just completed our sail into Kotor. It is worth getting up at 5 to watch the approach into the narrow bay at sunrise. This time we’re anchored and share the port with Oceania Riviera. It’s a short stay — we leave at 1 to go to Dubrovnik, so I’m not sure we’ll even make it ashore…

Right side up and Upside down:

Yeah, the easiest solution is for CC to upgrade their forum software to a version that recognizes the orientation data included in an iPhone HEIC EXIF image. 🤪 Next easiest is to take pictures with the volume controls up, because that’s what CC sees as up. I take pictures with volume controls down and use volume as shutter with my thumb, just as g-d herself intended. 😎 Sometimes I remember and if it’s something I want to share with CC, that’s what I do. But sometimes even that doesn’t work, as you can see here. And sometimes, if I’m desperate, I’ll edit or screenshot the picture so I can share it here.

Lyrial is on a charter next week, so unless we stowaway as some crew members have suggested, no part three. There will be one more cruise later this summer, but everything in between is off topic. 🤪

There is more to talk about than I thought about our Saturday in Rovinj — we started with a crisis 😉 nobody was assigned to staff the main lounge at 6am, which meant I did without my coffee and pastry that help me write these reports. I found the restaurant manager at 7am and he and the bar manager had the whole thing setup and coffee in my hands by 7:05 in time for watching Lyrial dock. Ashore, it’s still hot and still not crowded — we walked around in the old town for awhile and then went swimming at the foot of the local church. Lyrial had a 2:30 departure, so we were back on the ship for late lunch and watched our departure from Deck 2. After only a short break, I was off to hear the lecture on Croatia Past & Present — it may be the same as last week, but the material has been rewritten. Six non-French showed up. Then we got confirmation that our deposit was received for a 2024 cruise we booked on board last week, so we have at least one more Ponant cruise in our future. 😅 The Captain’s welcome was at sea by the pool on Deck 6 and he slowed Lyrial to cut down on the breeze. It was after seven, so the sun was low, but still very strong. I knew that this hot week would eventually cause the guests to break down and go way more casual, but for tonight, I didn’t want to look slovenly and had open collar dress shirt and blazer — which was what the bulk of the men were wearing. My better half wore a Greek-inspired dress that was quite popular and she received many positive comments on it — as she should. 😍 I can report there was not one, but TWO guys in Tuxedo. They looked sharp — I would have been a sweaty mess. As you would expect, the Captain’s welcome speech was similar to the last and it’s always striking to me to have the senior officers presented in front of the large French flag waving in the breeze. We were invited to join the Cruise Director at her table with two other couples, all Americans. It was a spectacular time and we were very good about messing up the service cadence and befuddling the service staff in large part because we were having so much fun, we forgot to eat and were getting behind the other tables, but our sommelière (yes, there is at least one female sommelier) had no problems keeping up with us. We learned all sort of things at dinner — a transportation strike in France had disrupted many passengers’ travel plans and some joined us today in Rovinj, some tomorrow in Hvar and maybe even a couple in Kotor. This was certainly a distraction for the front desk crew as they worked with Ponant in Marseilles to work out the logistics of getting everyone to the ship hindered with full flights throughout Europe. We also learned that we will be sailing again with our Cruise Director in December on her favorite Ponant ship. She’s excited we’ll see her again (and so are we, of course) and put together a list of must-do’s for that cruise. So, now we know we have at least two more Ponant cruises in our future. 😅 One of the couples are refugees from Crystal and they are looking for their next cruise line to love. It was their first time on Ponant. We spent time at dinner and after in the lounge talking about things they missed about Crystal, things they liked about Ponant the differences and some of Ponant’s idiosyncrasies / quirkiness. All-in-all, so far they were satisfied, but had to remind themselves that differences weren’t bad, they just weren’t what they were used to. An example was afternoon tea, which was a proper English tea service on Crystal and on Ponant is not that at all. And it was good to know that I’m not the only one who has a hard time finding the freaking ships for embarkation. Venice wasn’t easy for them or us — but not quite like Seychelles where we had to use CruiseMapper to find the ship’s location and then use our maps app to take us to that location. 😱 The other couple are avid cruisers — starting on Carnival years ago and working their way up to premium ships. This was also their first Ponant cruise and they came because of friends’ recommendations. With their energy, they filled the dance floor and I think we may have a limbo contest in our future! They said they liked how the crew already knew them by name and they loved the feel of the ship. With only a day of Ponant under their belts, they said they could see sailing with Ponant again. The one thing that struck me about the table was that it didn’t feel like we were invited because of our status or a commercial reason — it felt like we were invited because our cruse director wanted us there. True or not, it was a special feeling. Tomorrow, Hvar (again)

More of the same! 🤪