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First Time with Ponant.


BrisbaneGran
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My cruise doesn't start until March 6, but I always like to write a blog about all my cruises! Not usually in CC, mostly in Social Media.....however I have decided to also write in CC this time, as there seems to be very little information about Ponant, and as a small ship Cruise Line, I am sure there are many people interested in trying the smaller ships.

I have "seen" a couple of the Ponant ships, in the last couple of years......one in Sydney Harbour, and two in Ushuaia.....they are spectacular looking ships!

 

When we saw L'Austral was doing a 10 day Great Barrier Reef cruise, we decided this was our perfect opportunity to give it a try. (We live in Queensland, so was just an hours flight to Sydney to board this cruise.)

 

Our cruising history, is mostly Seabourn. We started on the ships with 200 passengers.....those ships were then sold and replaced with 450 passengers..... Seabourn is now about to launch its second ship of 600 passengers.....we have loved Seabourn, but getting bigger and bigger is not of any interest to us. We do like the idea of going back to a smaller ship......

 

Most of our pre cruise arrangements have gone fairly well, but I think there are a few things Ponant needs to consider, and make changes.

 

For example......we all know that whenever you travel overseas, you need to have 6 months left on your Passport! Our cruise is from Sydney to Cairns......all in Australia...... we shouldn't really need to have a Passport at all! (We are Australians).......BUT.... my Australian Passport expires in August, so I was told I would have to apply for a new Passport! For me to cruise up the coast of my own State of Australia, I actually LOST 6 months of my Passport!

 

When I first booked, I noted that I wanted my paperwork, all posted to me. Today I received an email to tell me to print all the stuff off myself.......luggage tags, itinerary, dress code, etc etc...... ok.....this I am quite happy to do with a Princess Cruise, HAL, P & O , Carnival etc etc.....but NOT WITH A LUXURY cruise!! Very disappointed.....I am used to receiving leather (or leather look) Luggage tags, and proper books outlining Itinerary etc.

 

After perusing all these "emailed" docs......I see that the Sail time of our ship from Sydney, does NOT correspond with the Port Authority of NSW! Last week I phoned Ponant and pointed out that their docs said we would leave Sydney at 8pm........ NSW Port Authority say we leave at 6pm!! I was assured it would all be correct by the time I got my paperwork.....nope.......its still all wrong! Who is correct? Ponant? or NSW Port Authority?

 

I have been really looking forward to this cruise.....I really hope I can write positive reports! I know I have a lot of fellow cruisers waiting to see what I think!

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I am looking forward to your reports very much. I have seen the Ponant ships several times too and there is no doubt they are beautiful but I still have many reservations! A short cruise up the coast is ideal to try them out. I hope you have a great time. It is natural to compare them with Seabourn which has become my "benchmark" too! However I suspect you will find them very different, not necessarily bad but different. Not long for you to wait now.

 

I will return the favour when I go on the Scenic Eclipse later this year. Obviously being a brand new ship there is nothing out on her yet, so I will write a report as well.

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another complaint I have is the boarding time. We are not allowed to board until 4pm - 5pm. Seems very strange that a 200 passenger ship, cant be boarded much earlier than that! Even 2000 passenger ships board much earlier than that! How long does it take to clean and make ready, such a small ship? L'Áustral arrives at White Bay at 7am! Going to be a very long wait at the wonderful White Bay terminal! Can you even buy a coffee there yet? We were there not long ago, and they only had about 6 luggage trolleys, NO porters to help people etc etc....

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I hope you won't repeat the experience of an Australian couple - Seabourn cruisers - who complained from the first five minutes we met them in the Austral's theater until the end of the cruise. Best get out your best Australian 'no worries' attitude on this French ship.

 

You are correct with the pre-cruise procedure, I almost gave up on them with the visa question for China. We had a visa and they insisted we should get one and made us so confused that we sent an e-mail to the Chinese embassy for clarification. It turned out that the French needed a new visa because, at that time, China was only giving out 6 week visas to French passport holders. Ponant took forever to understand that ours was a valid one year visa.

 

If you want perfect organization performance, book the Europa 2, a German Hapag-Lloyd ship.:cool: That ship is much more luxurious than the Austral, but is has German quirks instead of French quirks. By the way, Ponant advertises in French that they are a line with the laid back ambiance of a family home.

 

Both the cruise director and the hotel director on our cruise were perfectly bilingual French/English and did their utmost to make English speaking passengers comfortable.

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I hope you won't repeat the experience of an Australian couple - Seabourn cruisers - who complained from the first five minutes we met them in the Austral's theater until the end of the cruise. Best get out your best Australian 'no worries' attitude on this French ship.

 

I certainly hope we don't have anything to complain about! I know other Seabourn people who really loved their Ponant cruise, so everyone has different ideas of what suits and what doesn't! I am really hoping that the problems so far are just the "on land Office people".....same thing happens at Seabourn.......also had many problems with Scenic, when dealing with their Office people......BUT, once on board the ships, everything is great! The ships crews make up for the lack of knowledge of the office staff........I still cant work out why on earth we have to have a Passport for an Australian Coastal cruise!!

Will be very interesting to see what time we actually get to "sail away" !

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Our embarkation was in HongKong and yes, just between 4 and 5. I do not remember whether luggage could be dropped off before, but I think so. The cabin stewards had to take it to the cabins and our suitcases were there when we arrived.

 

White Bay isn't suitable to "drop off luggage"....too far away to be able to go anywhere else.....suppose we will just have to stay at the airport and have lunch there.....wish Id known Boarding times BEFORE I booked our flight!

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BrisbaneGran: Thank you for posting about your upcoming itinerary and writing a blog on your voyage!

We're booked on the Jan. 28, 2019 departure on the same itinerary in the opposite direction--Cairns to Sydney. We will be on Le Laperouse, one of Ponant's new "expedition" class ships. We've not sailed with Ponant before, but prefer smaller ships. We've sailed several times on SeaDream and Starclippers, and are intrigued by how Ponant approaches the small ship experience. We've been to Australia before, but are eager to see these unique islands and reefs.

We've read all the available reviews, and like most features we've seen about Ponant. I'll watch for your blog, and hope you have a wonderful voyage!

Thanks,

Steve

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Thanks Steve! I will post as many pics as I can, but of course it wont be the same ship....might give a bit of an idea though. This is classed as an "expedition" cruise too, so LOTS of zodiac rides! We did TWO trips to Antarctica last year, so don't know if we will participate in too many of the zodiac excursions. Think we have been there done that, didn't fall out or break anything, so might be time to let the younger ones have that fun! Will give me more time on board an empty ship to take pics!! I will be signing up for some internet, but the pics may have to wait till we get back home.

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I certainly hope we don't have anything to complain about! I know other Seabourn people who really loved their Ponant cruise, so everyone has different ideas of what suits and what doesn't! I am really hoping that the problems so far are just the "on land Office people".....same thing happens at Seabourn.......also had many problems with Scenic, when dealing with their Office people......BUT, once on board the ships, everything is great! The ships crews make up for the lack of knowledge of the office staff........I still cant work out why on earth we have to have a Passport for an Australian Coastal cruise!!

Will be very interesting to see what time we actually get to "sail away" !

 

We required an Australian passport to cruise from Melbourne to Sydney on Dawn Princess. I don't think it is Ponant being difficult, I think that is just the way it is and it's probably an Immigration Dept requirement.

 

I know we require them to sail from Broome to Darwin.

 

Do let us know how the cruise goes.

 

Cheers,

 

Sue

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We required an Australian passport to cruise from Melbourne to Sydney on Dawn Princess. I don't think it is Ponant being difficult, I think that is just the way it is and it's probably an Immigration Dept requirement.

 

I know we require them to sail from Broome to Darwin.

 

Do let us know how the cruise goes.

 

Cheers,

 

Sue

 

wow....I had no idea that other cruise lines were also insisting on this. I know of people who have done the 3 dayer type Aussie cruises, and didn't have a Passport at all.....well you learn something every day eh! Thanks for letting me know.....makes me feel a bit better. We are really looking forward to this cruise, and seeing what Ponant is all about. I actually know a crew member from Ponant, but he only works in Europe......he wants me to report back too!! LOL.... They have a couple of other cruises I like the look of, mostly the Sub Antarctic one, but I just don't know if we can handle zodiacs etc again......getting a bit long in the tooth for too much excitement....

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I just posted my review of my Ponant LeSoleal 17 Day sailing, "Beyond the Polar Circle", to the Falklands, South Georgia and Antarctica, under the Ports of Call: Antarctica section.

It is titled Ponant LeSoleal, Jan 23-Feb 8, 2018 Review

Hopefully this link will work: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2600943

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thank you so much for that review Terry and Mike. I have read through it once, and am about to go through it again, slower this time! We saw TWO Ponant ships in Ushuaia, this time last year and they look beautiful! Today I am still reeling from the terrible news that "our" Antarctic Captain, (Seabourn) has passed away just after leaving Antarctica for the final time this season. Its such a beautiful place but so remote if there is an emergency....so glad we didn't leave it any longer.....

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My wife and I travelled from Cairns to Sydney on L’Austral over new year in 2014-2015.

My memories of the ship are much in accordance with the review posted by Terry and Mike of their cruise on L’Austral’s sister ship.

I really enjoyed the French atmosphere and the small size of the ship. The food was quite good. The only slight problem was that our cruise was part of a longer voyage which meant that 75% of the passengers were French and had already been on the ship for some time. They were a bit cliquey and I think they weren’t altogether pleased when a lot of Australian and other English speaking passengers embarked at Cairns. But I think the barriers fell away a bit after the first few days.

One really annoying part of the cruise had nothing to do with Pinang but with the boneheaded Australian bureaucracy. Every time we mooored somewhere off the coast, the ship was obliged to play us the same long-winded and pompous message in both French and English warning us not to smuggle in contraband or harm the local flora and fauna. After the first repetition, this message became incredibly tedious.

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My wife and I travelled from Cairns to Sydney on L’Austral over new year in 2014-2015.

My memories of the ship are much in accordance with the review posted by Terry and Mike of their cruise on L’Austral’s sister ship.

I really enjoyed the French atmosphere and the small size of the ship. The food was quite good. The only slight problem was that our cruise was part of a longer voyage which meant that 75% of the passengers were French and had already been on the ship for some time. They were a bit cliquey and I think they weren’t altogether pleased when a lot of Australian and other English speaking passengers embarked at Cairns. But I think the barriers fell away a bit after the first few days.

One really annoying part of the cruise had nothing to do with Pinang but with the boneheaded Australian bureaucracy. Every time we mooored somewhere off the coast, the ship was obliged to play us the same long-winded and pompous message in both French and English warning us not to smuggle in contraband or harm the local flora and fauna. After the first repetition, this message became incredibly tedious.

 

I agree that Bio Security message gets a bit annoying after a while, but you would be very surprised how many people still ignore it, no matter how many times it is played! Recently we sailed across the Pacific from Vancouver to Sydney with HAL.....when we got to around FIJI those messages were played all the time, BUT there was still a huge amount of food confiscated at the gangway every day! Some people just don't listen, or don't think the message means them!

I think the cruise we will be on will be a majority of Australians.....I would prefer a more mixed group.....just over a week now before we get to experience Ponant for ourselves! Really looking forward to it!

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This morning I had a phone call from Ponant, to address some of my concerns. No idea how they found "the real me", so that shows good Customer Service! The lady assured me we would be sailing at 8pm. so I told her where to find the Port Authority site that said we sail at 6pm.......now she is confused as well!! LOL...... We wont miss the boat whatever time it sails......will be at White Bay quite early..... packing is almost done!

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This morning I had a phone call from Ponant, to address some of my concerns. No idea how they found "the real me", so that shows good Customer Service! The lady assured me we would be sailing at 8pm. so I told her where to find the Port Authority site that said we sail at 6pm.......now she is confused as well!! LOL...... We wont miss the boat whatever time it sails......will be at White Bay quite early..... packing is almost done!

 

Dear guest,

After reading your comments, ourrelationship department have contacted you in order to solved the issues youmet before your cruise.

We hope you have well received yourtravel documents in the leather wallet and we wish you a pleasant voyageonboard L’Austral.

With our best regards,

PONANT

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we are all packed and ready to go! Very excited to be trying a "new" ship and "new" cruise line! I will start another thread for my blog. I did phone Ponant for the internet prices, but as usual, I forget! Think I decided to purchase about 100 minutes..... (I DO love my unlimited free internet with Seabourn LOL) CC isn't as easy to upload pics as my social media blog page, so pics may have to wait till I get home...... or if you do use social media my blog page is called grannys travels with a capital g and a capital t.......the avatar is the purple granny from Sylvester! Hope that all makes sense! Today is going to be a very long day......our son and his partner are already in Sydney and they are coming with us on this cruise! This will be their FIRST luxury cruise! Hopefully I will post more news tomorrow or the next day!

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Cruising Kirby......I noticed on the SB forum you mentioned going to Male next year? Which itinerary are you on? We will be going there too! We are doing Sydney to CapeTown.......

 

I think we get on as you are getting off. We board in Cape Town on 5 March 2019. You were booked on our cruise I think but have since changed to depart from Australia? I have been to the Maldives and just love some of the island resorts. Male itself doesn't hold much interest to me!

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we are all packed and ready to go! Very excited to be trying a "new" ship and "new" cruise line! I will start another thread for my blog. I did phone Ponant for the internet prices, but as usual, I forget! Think I decided to purchase about 100 minutes..... (I DO love my unlimited free internet with Seabourn LOL) CC isn't as easy to upload pics as my social media blog page, so pics may have to wait till I get home...... or if you do use social media my blog page is called grannys travels with a capital g and a capital t.......the avatar is the purple granny from Sylvester! Hope that all makes sense! Today is going to be a very long day......our son and his partner are already in Sydney and they are coming with us on this cruise! This will be their FIRST luxury cruise! Hopefully I will post more news tomorrow or the next day!

Ah yes, I know the one, I will check in on "Granny's Travels"!

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This morning I had a phone call from Ponant, to address some of my concerns. No idea how they found "the real me", so that shows good Customer Service! The lady assured me we would be sailing at 8pm. so I told her where to find the Port Authority site that said we sail at 6pm.......now she is confused as well!! LOL...... We wont miss the boat whatever time it sails......will be at White Bay quite early..... packing is almost done!

 

See you in White Bay or on board:D

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