Jim_Iain

Do you know which ship she is on?

The only real advantage I would say would be if you want to lock in the rate (if a change is about to happen) or if PPD Tips are on sale during a promotion. To be honest I don't know if they ever put them on sale as I always have them included -

I also have AirTags on my bags. In order for them to update location they have to have an iPhone come in relative close contact with them that is attached to a network. Abby - I would have thought someone with an iPhone would have walked down your hallway and grab the location. I thought it was funny checking my FindMy app while on an airplane and my bag must have been close to a passenger on board because it kept updating it's location as we flew cross country.

Thanks -- I have to admit that their ships are very sleek and Contemporary. Look forward to posting pictures of the interior of the ship. I love the style and color selection. Everything looks so comfortable and inviting. Thank goodness they didn't follow suite with Celebrity and hire Kelly Hoppen to design the interior. I swear she had never been on a ship and most of her design has been a disaster. So many failures on Form over Function. Example which guest have named munchkin chairs in the All Suites Lounge that only a 6 year old could fit in. Desk Chairs that are beautiful but won't fit under the vanity etc etc.

When I first started booking I was of the impression that Ponant was fully inclusive including tours but later found that only certain cruises - Expedition Cruises include excursions. I've found that in the search it indicates Shore Excursions in each port of call & Transfers included. An Example the Same cruise on 10/9/23 on Le Dumont D'Urville is a Smithsonian Journeys cruise and include all excursions pricing is approximately $2,000 more. As I understand it Ponant often does a Charter with Smithsonian and other companies. Here are the Excursions and pricing for this cruise

Yes probably too late. I can already tell this week is going to fly by. One of my Daughter's Birthday is on Thursday. I will be running over the Ceres, CA about 1 1/2 hours away to pick her up so we can celebrate with her - Possibly Mountain View but more likely Villa Napoli closer to our house at Mary / El Camino. I've been going there for 40 years and it is kinda our go to place. Think of any places in Mountain View on Castro?

Fantastic. The one I had were in color but just didn't have a legend. I have saved in my resource folder. I'm sure it will come in handy.

I have a tendency to insert pictures between text also and also always try to make sure there is at least on blank line between photos. I usually use a combination of PC and iPhone on my post which is the reason most are edited. I usually do al my typing on my Laptop and then upload. I then edit on my phone to add the pictures so I don't have to move them to my PC.

I was on Ponant's site today and the wording on Benifts of Status Match page they word the upgrade different than on the pdf. They list "On Board Upgrades" for both Admiral and Grand Admiral Status. I know this is a new program but interested if anyone has been upgraded before due to status?

She was so good to us. Knowing we were on a B3B she found a nice corner table and didn't seat anyone withing 10 feet of us. Unfortunately at the time Covid was rampant and we lost 3 butlers, 1 stateroom attendant and 1 Sommelier to Covid. I suspect it was the Butlers as over the 1st 2 cruises the guest in the Penthouse and all the RS on Starboard came down with Covid. Luckily they let us stay in our Royal Suite and put us up for a full week in Southampton all expenses paid and refunded our cruise fare for the the leg we missed.

It will be interesting to see how the free open bar works. Iain mostly enjoys Chardonnay's and I didn't see any listed on the menus. The good news is his favorite hard booze is Grey Goose which they have and also stock the room bar with. He may just buy premium wine by the bottle if he doesn't care for what is supplied for free. I believe they require all in the cabin to upgrade to the Premium Upgrade. I'm really not that particular and usually only order Alcohol Free Wine to have something for toasting. I pretty happy with just sparkling water. We have heard so many good things about the Antarctic Explorer cruises. Just the idea of actually being able to set foot on Antarctic or an Ice Berg is incredible. Definitely not something offered on Celebrity.

Thanks much... looking forward to your participation. Lots of nice people here and they don't bite. Maybe a nibble or two.

Status Match - Here's the Status Match PDF A big thanks to @jpalbny for helping me getting it applied to our account. I'm not holding out hope as a brand new Grand Admiral but one of the perks listed at https://us.ponant.com/benefit-from-the-status-match list on-board upgrades

Now Booking a cruise - Booking took me a little longer than normal. Since my agent doesn’t book with them regularly it took a couple days for him to get the detail and be able to offer an incentive. He was able to offer me either an OBC or a Rebate Check. He also indicated he wouldn't be able to "rebate" at the level he does on the major cruise lines. Refer a Friend - $600 reduction in fare for the first cruise. Part of what was taking time was Ponant as a Refer a Friend program. Both the sponsor and the sponsee receive a $600 bonus. The requirement are that it can only be done on the first sailing of the member. Prior to booking I created an account for myself on Ponant and had given it to my agent. After I booked I found that it was only applied at the end of your first cruise for the next cruise. Differences – 1. Refer a Friend - Celebrity doesn’t have anything similar 2. Ponant has a pop up to fill in Passenger Passport Details and Contact information when first accessing reservation 3. Direct from reservation the is a button to contact Ponant and has a selection of departments to make it easy. 4. On the web portal Ponant has a link to your room including picture and details without having to search elsewhere dE - Deposit - Now this is a big difference Ponant requires a 25% NON-REFUNDABLE deposit up until final payment. Celebrity have deposits as low as $200 (on board booking and promotions) normally $900-1,000 which is either refundable or partially refundable ($100 pp administrative fee and FCC for non-refundable fares) until final payment. This has recently change to 10% for Suites on Celebrity. Recently Introduced Ponant has a Status Matching Program with most Cruise Lines.

Thanks --- I wasn't quite sure what to expect. The itinerary only says - Sail past Detroit. I have a feeling we won't be doing any swimming. I worked at a resort on Lake Michigan one summer and was amazed at the size of the Lakes. I had never realized they had waves and sand dunes. It was also always surprising how fast storms would form.

Thanks - I did read your review and I was initially concerned about the potential demographics. We always seem to get by pretty well. I both worked and traveled heavily in Europe for 40 years and lived in Ireland for 3. What came to mind when reading your review was the last time we were in Barcelona. We wanted to take a tour of a famous mansion on our last day. They advised us they only had one tour and it was in Spanish. It ended up being an incredible experience. The tour was only 8 of us an one of the guest taught English in Mexico City and would help our. The guide was so expressive and my high school Spanish allowed us to fully understand the tour. We were rewarded with a really special moment. One of the guest in our group was an Opera Singer and when in the Ball Room asked if she could check out the Acoustics. She gave us a private Aria -

That's what I've also heard. I was reading a Live Post from the sailing Ship Le Ponant. He said that on that particular cruise everything is being presented in English and the Restaurant Manager volunteered to translate to French for the few french speaking passengers. Totally different ship as it only holds about 32 passengers.

I was amazed as his fluency last year when on a B3B. The Maitre'd, Laurent who is french and previously worked on Cunard was a real treat. They would banter back and forth in French every evening for a about 4 weeks. She was so sweet. When she found I had tested positive for Covid, she called the room to let us know her concerned and asked us to call her if we needed anything.

It appears the only tour they have is a carriage ride tour of the island. Will have to see if we will be able to get into the hotel... I wasn't aware they are restricting it now.

It is funny. I usually put my Live Post in my Favorites and don't enter via the main thread so very rarely notice how many pages and views the thread has had. It did amaze me to see we are already on page 8 and just posting the preliminaries. Thanks for following and I definitely want to learn more about Viking.

I actually had a positive experience with a piece of lost luggage. In my case it was on disembarkation. We searched the luggage area and couldn't find my bag. I asked a Celebrity Agent and she advised to hold on. She got on her walki-talki. Five minutes later she said it is on the other side of Customs. Someone picked up my rather unique Kelley Green oversized suitebag and cleared customs. When they got to the curb they realized it wasn't there's and returned it to an agent.

While I know nothing of the incident, wondering if one of the bags was flagged by security and sent to the Naughty Room and when rescanned was delivered.

Personally I check frequently. In my case I generally book CS and RS's and often there is no inventory to check prices against so is not uncommon for a cancellation to occur and find a price reduction. To make the task easier - do a mock booking up to the page where they show all the room categories and then I bookmark the page and drop on my desktop. With just one or two clicks I can check the rate. example https://www.celebritycruises.com/booking-cruise/selectRoom/stateroomCategory?pID=EG12K163&sDT=2023-12-09&sCD=EG&sCT=CO&roomQuantity=1

I found that Ponant has a nice selection of Staterooms but after consulting with our friends from Australia they recommend we try a Prestige Stateroom. After looking at the deck plan I settled on 618 which is aft and tucked between the Owner's Suite and I believe a Prestige Suite (their map doesn't have a color code). While it may not make a difference, I chose a room on Port side. My logic was that if we are sailing East that most of the land would be on that side of the ship.

For this trip I ended up booking Coach on United because we are Million Mile Travelers which gives us Gold Status for Life and allows us to select seating in the Premium regardless of what we pay. I was able to snag two adjacent Isle seats on the Exit row which actually gives one more leg room than in Domestic First Class. For the return home, I was able to get a good First Class far from Toronto to SJC on Delta. In the SF Bay area we have 3 major airports. We live about 15 minutes from SJC and it is so much easier airport than San Francisco.