AussieBoyTX

Generally, when Ponant says "From" they mean from the least expensive cabin, even if it's not currently available for sale. On this ship, it should mean the pricing for the "Ocean Twin Stateroom." I looked at Raja Ampat and The Spice Islands and it says "From AU$20,995pp" and that matches the "Ocean Twin Stateroom." But there's a "but." This itinerary is offered on two dates in 2025, so perhaps this price applies to only one of them?

The only traffic on Deck 5 is to the Bridge, so it's exceptionally quiet. I would probably avoid being directly around the forward elevator -- but in actuality, we haven't been in a cabin on any deck were we were disturbed by more than the very occasional outside noise -- even on Deck 3.

I expect it's targeted at Australia / New Zealand guests. The Grumman Mallard flight to the pearl farm was one of the highlights of my trip on Le Ponant. 😇

I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned here -- but this is the second email I've received: Embark on a voyage of unparalleled luxury and exploration with PASPALEY PEARL by PONANT. With a combined legacy of over 85 years in the Kimberley and remote maritime expertise, we're proud to announce this brand-new partnership between PONANT and PASPALEY, ushering in a new era of boutique expeditions in the Asia Pacific. Discover extraordinary destinations, as we unite kindred spirits in the pursuit of adventure. Immerse yourself in the heart of unique cultures, histories, and biodiversity, guided by our team of expert expedition guides. This is more than a voyage; it's an invitation to a world of unparalleled excellence and discovery. Welcome aboard! Website: Paspaley Pearl by Ponant UNLOCK YOUR SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE Explore aboard the newest boutique expedition motor yacht in this region PASPALEY PEARL marks a milestone in the development of boutique expedition travel, offering a benchmark-setting standard of excellence in the Asia Pacific region. As the newest and only boutique expedition vessel in the Kimberley featuring private balconies, we have the ability of reaching exotic destinations previously inaccessible by larger vessels. You’re invited to ignite your sense of discovery, all whilst travelling in comfort and safety that has been designed to create the smallest possible footprint, with a philosophy of empowering local people and creating ambassadors for the destinations visited. CLASSIC YET CONTEMPORARY Designed to feel like your home away from home Marrying PASPALEY’s heritage of over 80 years in the Kimberley and Northern Australia with PONANT’s 35-year history of luxury expedition travel, PASPALEY PEARL emerges as the embodiment of comfort and adventure. Featuring 15 staterooms and suites and hosting a maximum of 30 guests per voyage, PASPALEY PEARL emerges as the newest and only boutique expedition motor yacht in the Kimberley with private balconies.

Excellent news! Unless the cabin is aft of the main elevators, we prefer deck 5 over 6. Six has quite a bit of traffic from the photo studio and observation lounge. We also prefer the Privilege Suite. Yes, it's smaller, but it's an actual suite instead of two adjoining cabins reconfigured into a suite -- though, if you have an early riser, the Prestige suite does make a good area for that person. I assume the Grand Deluxe Suites are already booked? They have most of the amenities of the Owner's Suite, aside from the Jacuzzi.

Yeah, our trip wasn't marketed as an ocean voyage, so it didn't even occur to me to put that in the title. We even had a full event schedule -- they were just all at sea. 😂 Charot is an extraordinary ship and I know you'll have an exceptional journey

By convention, most cruise lines, including Ponant, limit the number of passengers to 200. Only 100 can be on short at any time.

It's 5%, and stacks with most discounts other than the periodic Holiday and Ponant Anniversary 10% discounts.

If I recall correctly, they were offered in even European sizes (32, 34, etc.), they are insulated and you’ll want thick socks to wear with them.

At today’s disembarkation talk, out cruise director acknowledged that gratuities are included in our fare and the envelopes / tip box were completely voluntary in case we “wanted to leave a little extra.”

Found this. Sounds grim. Mass deaths of elephant seals recorded as bird flu sweeps across the Antarctic Researchers warn of one of ‘largest ecological disasters of modern times’ if the highly contagious disease reaches penguin colonies https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/08/mass-deaths-elephant-seals-penguins-bird-flu-antarctic-ecological-disaster-aoe

Of course! Now that we know he has a scholarship, we may be able to continue cruising now and again...

On Board Le Lapérouse — Tasmania Circumnavigation — Thursday, December 21 We woke moored very close off the shore of Port Arthur and made our way to the Marine Deck to find the same Biosecurity officers as yesterday waiting to inspect our bags. They had had breakfast on board, so they knew what contraband we might have brought ashore from breakfast. The Port Arthur Historic Site was well maintained and we began with a tour. The guide was interesting and had many stories about convict life. After the tour, we wandered around the facility well past noon. It was interesting to see that the parts of the facility that became private houses were well maintained compared to parts of the prison itself, which had been partially dismantled so the brick & steel could be put to use elsewhere. We also found the Asylum & Separate Prison very interesting and took a few seconds to try out solitary confinement. The exhibits on the advances of asylum and prison technologies were also fascinating. We were then distracted because our son got accepted at his first choice university with a good scholarship, so that’s all I remember about Port Arthur. We had lunch upstairs as usual. It was an Asian-themed menu and I enjoyed the gyoza and Ponant burger — it’s never a mistake to choose the Ponant burger… Then, we lounged around, doing spa and university stuff until the introduction of the crew at six by the pool. Le Lapérouse was offshore the dramatic cliffs of the Tasman peninsula and they served as a backdrop for our festivities. It was a gala dinner night, but the weather was fine, so many guests chose to eat downstairs, outside on Deck 3. We were upstairs and enjoyed the Classic menu. Afterwards, our Cruise Director offered his own vocal performance in the main lounge. He was followed by our musical duo, but it was past our bedtime… Our final day: The Tasman Peninsula

Thanks. Let us know!

Yeah. Coming across snakes in the bush is one thing and I'm ready for that. Was not at all expecting this guy to be part of the welcoming party right where we landed. He came out of the grate where you're supposed to wash off your gear for biosecurity... I'm less anxious to comply now!

The crew has been flawless in Tasmania.

Ugh. Do you know the revised itinerary?

On Board Le Lapérouse — Tasmania Circumnavigation — Wednesday, December 20 We woke to perfect skies and temperatures at Maria Island and we were so ready to go ashore, but had to wait for the Biosecurity Officer to come from the mainland at 9:30. We got ashore around 10 and we were really ready to spend the entire day exploring — but no food at all could be brought from the ship, so that would have been challenging. We left the guided groups behind and went on a separate track looking for wombats. It didn’t take long before we found our first — the largest I’d ever seen — maybe a meter long. We continued past ruins before finding another wombat and then some pademelons and wallabies. The hike culminated at the crest of the northern Fossil Cliffs with spectacular views of the shoreline far below as well as Mount Maria. The plateau we stood on was obviously quite popular with the wombats — their cubed scat was everywhere, but they were not to be found here. Too soon, it was time to head back. We found a mother wombat with joey and then two more large wombats right at the head of the trail at Darlington. We then caught the last Zodiac back to Le Lapérouse for lunch, which was a huge serving of chicken Milanese and salad. In the afternoon, we were offered a Zodiac cruise of the famous Painted Cliffs, but we chose to go ashore again and walk to the cliffs as we searched for more wombats. The excitement began early. We were the only guests on the Zodiac and told our naturalist he could “punch it” and we made the transit ashore in two minutes instead of ten! Then, immediately after we got off, we saw a small wombat was at the edge of the jetty scratching himself on luggage carts left for campers’ convenience. That gave way to a tiger snake that was a bit more than a meter long. It came out of a metal grate and passed by us on the way to water. We decided to move our life jackets that were less than a few centimeters from its path and then after letting the naturalists know, continued our trek to the cliffs. Fun Fact: All Tasmanian snakes are venomous. It really saves time on identification. The walk to the cliffs along the “main road” was lovely and since we were getting into the late afternoon, more wombats had come out. We had a point where there were nine wombats fairly close together — a wisdom of wombats — which was unusual, because wombats are generally solitary animals and do not often form large groups like some other mammals. They tend to live in their own burrows and may have overlapping territories with other wombats, but they don't typically engage in group or herd behavior. We made it to the cliffs and then turned around to catch the last Zodiac back to the ship at 5pm. Back on board, our captain was meeting with the travel ambassador and he stopped us to ask about our day, as he had wanted to go ashore, but was too busy. We showed him a couple of wombat pictures, including one of a wombat with his ship and the snake of course. He was somewhat less anxious to go ashore after seeing that snake. Actually, we got to see the captain and some members of his staff again at a cocktail party he hosted for us on the deck of the Owner’s Suite. There were about ten of us there and we enjoyed an hour of Champagne, hors d’oeuvres and conversation (including playing “Who’s the Commodore” — there were no winners — the Commodore was not present). Dinner in the main dining room was good — though having to choose between a beetroot salad and escargot as an appetizer was difficult, as I’m a fan of neither. The beef cheek, however, was very nicely prepared. We were also offered a cheese buffet, Australian-style. Because of biosecurity, most of the cheeses were from Australia and New Zealand, with two Pasteurized cheeses from France. the Australian camembert and a New Zealand triple cream bleu cheese were both memorable. Having hiked 10K today, we were a bit tired and didn’t feel guilty about skipping the evening entertainment. Tomorrow: Port Arthur

On Board Le Lapérouse — Tasmania Circumnavigation — Tuesday, December 19 It was a cold, windy & rainy midmorning as we arrived at Freycinet peninsula. Nonetheless, we were looking forward to our Zodiac cruise of Promise Bay. The rain had stopped and there were glimpses of sun, so we were optimistic. As it turned out, the wind made for substantial swells that broke over the Zodiac, ensuring those of us on the windward side got drenched. I was dressed appropriately and was reasonably comfortable, though waterlogged. As for the sightings, we didn’t get that far from the ship and only saw several cormorants on a small island, along with sea gulls. Back aboard the ship, we warmed up with hot showers and had a delightful lunch. I wasn’t really hungry, but had a club sandwich and salad. The greens are still in great shape! The afternoon offered two hikes from Promise Bay to Wineglass Bay. The weather at sea was deteriorating and only thirty-odd guests decided to give it a go. The Zodiac trip was rough and wet, with a very wet landing at Promise Bay, But once we got on land, conditions were fine. Because of the recent rains, we were warned the long hike was an 8/10 and the short a 4/10 difficulty. We were also warned we needed to stay with our guides. We took the short hike and found the path to be extremely well maintained and rated the difficulty as 2/10 due to the occasional rough surface. We also found many visitors walking in thongs from a nearby car park, so that really verified the true difficulty of the walk (not hike). The walk itself was pleasant and we saw lots of wallabies and enjoyed the eucalyptus scent (and the toilets at Promise Bay). The weather had closed in for our return to the ship and we found the true difficulty was getting the guests back into the Zodiacs in the pitching waves — there were as many as six expedition guides, waist-deep in water helping to push & lift some of us in. Everyone on our Zodiac got completely soaked during this procedure, but the ride itself was not too bad, as we had the wind to our backs. Safely back on board, we had more hot showers and cleaned the sand out of our gear before returning to the spa to work out some Zodiac-incurred kinks. Meanwhile, our captain decided to sail to Moria Island such that we would arrive at anchor before dark. Though it was cold, we decided to eat downstairs with the expedition team and a handful of other hardy guests. We were rewarded with our arrival at dusk, greeted by a pod of dolphins. We finished our dinner of duck Magret & Brussels sprout salad as the sky darkened with the sun behind heavy clouds. Tomorrow, wombats on Maria Island?

Australian Reservations confirmed through a T/A that tips are included on all Australian-booked Ponant cruises.

I spoke with US Reservations and they confirmed that tips are included on all US-booked Ponant cruises.

On Board Le Lapérouse — Tasmania Circumnavigation — Monday, December 18 Ponant has a policy of not broadcasting announcements into the cabins. Fortunately, this does not apply to the captains and we’re always anxious to hear what they have to say. This morning was to announce our arrival at the mouth of the Tamar River for our hour-long sailing to the commercial port of Bell Bay just south of George Town. Docking & biosecurity inspections took some time, but our busses arrived at 9am and we all set out on one of three included excursions — effectively maritime history, mining history or wine & gin tasting. We chose mining history and had a forty-five minute ride to the Beaconsfield Mine & Heritage Centre, filled with commentary (and some tour information) from our driver. The Beaconsfield Mine & Heritage Centre was very interesting. We had a walk through most of the mine’s surface buildings, covering the mine’s history from the 1800s to its final closing in 2012. This was also the site of the 2006 mine rescue that captivated Australians and there was a large exhibit dedicated to that event almost one kilometer beneath the surface. We had ninety minutes and it wasn’t enough time — we’ll come back and see the rest on another trip. After the mine, we had a wine tasting at a “mostly organic” winery — their caveat is that they’re not willing to lose a crop to keep the organic certification and will use non-organic means to rescue the crop when necessary. The wines were fine — we would have preferred a hike or some other activity. We got back to the ship at 1:30pm, just in time for late lunch outside — whole roast pig was offered, though I had a tuna steak. Shortly after we finished lunch, Le Lapérouse pulled away and we made our way out the Tamar River for our long sail to Promise Bay. It was already fairly late in the afternoon, but there were still a presentation on marsupials, salmon tasting and the daily recap to attend. The recap covered some of the sailing technicalities of the Tamar River and then could have segued into an hour-plus presentation on Tamar Valley wines & spirits — perhaps that presentation will be offered later this week, as the naturalist appeared to have enthusiasm for the subject. Tonight was White Night and also a chance to dine with the ship’s officers. The dining room was quite full as many tables had one or two officers. My Egg 65 degrees was offered again (with a different preparation style of course) and I had a nice port dish as well, followed by an After-Eight mint-inspired desert. We dined with a couple from northern New South Wales and were among the last to leave as we covered all sorts of topics. Dancing with the officers was on offer and then we called it a night. After our long overnight sail, we arrive at Promise Bay, Freycinet tomorrow for Zodiac tours and what it promised to be a long, muddy hike. We can only hope.