Need help deciding Ponant Bouganville or Seabourn Encore in the Med

I know, first world problem, but I am having a really hard time making this decision. Our great travel agent is pushing Ponant and says her clients love it but the reviews I've found (none recent) are not that great. We were on Seabourn earlier this year and loved it.

The Ponant itinerary is either Istanbul to Athens or Athens to Athens, and the one leaving in Athens is $1500 more pp for some reason. Seabourn itinerary is Athens to Malta with a day at sea.

Any and all opinions welcomed!

We have cruised with Ponant in Antarctica and with Seabourn in the Med. I loved both but do think that Seabourn probably has the edge for a standard Med cruise. The cabins are certainly more spacious and you have a larger choice of venues within the ship. For balance, however, I would choose Ponant over Seabourn for an expedition cruise any day!

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Ponant is growing rapidly and seems determined to raise their standing among luxury lines [e.g. culinary tie with Alain Ducasse] beyond just the adventure cruise niche. They have a definite French flavor, but have recently started marketing heavily in North America and promise that all cruises are bi-lingual. [some reviews say that many crew members actually speak better English than French...]

Le Bougainville isn't built yet; it is scheduled to debut in 2019 as the third in the new Explorer series [when Seabourn Encore will be 3 years old]. So good news: new ship smell; bad news, could be delayed [but not likely since the first in this series was ready on time].

Le Bougainville is also 1/4 the size of Encore, which will mean fewer dining options – but will allow docking in smaller ports. Based on that last point: does any of the three itineraries appeal more than the others?

Both look like good options. You already know you like Seabourn. If you try Ponant and like it, that will open up a ton of new itineraries to consider.

[Full disclosure: I haven't sailed either line yet but we are booked on two Ponant cruises on Explorer-class ships, and Seabourn is on my watch list.]

Actually Le Bouganville is already in operation. My TA says that about nine months ago there was a change in leadership and they are working hard to improve relations with Americans so we're going to try it! I'll report back after the trip (next year - the ship is nearly completely booked already!!).

Actually Le Bouganville is already in operation.

This from the Ponant website:

Le Lapérouse and Le Champlain will join the fleet in 2018, Le Bougainville and Le Dumont-d'Urville in 2019, followed by Le Surville and Le Bellot in 2020.

https://us.ponant.com/ponant-explorers

First cruise available for booking on Le Bougainville is April 15, 2019.

Ah, thank you. So we will be on the 2nd week!!

Lynn, tried Ponant twice once on the brand new Le Boreal, what a disappointment, beautiful on the outside but as for food and service, they were very poor. Gave them another chance a few years later, still don't rate them. Atmosphere is not there, rooms and suites much better on SB and more useable space. As for the SB Encore will be three years old comment, so what? I would far rather sail a ship at three years old with its act together than one that is brand new. Too many problems with Ponants new boats. Ponant isn't a luxury brand, so hard to compare the two.

I spoke to my TA about the negative reviews and she said they have a new management person who is working hard to improve service for the American market. She said that her clients who had recent experiences have raved about it so I’m hopeful. I’ll report back after we go next May.

Lynn, we are booked on the 2nd sailing Athens round trip!   We’ve been on 34 Seadreams, 2 Seabourns (before they became carnival) so this will be all new to us ! 

I'll be making detailed notes and posting a thorough review.  We sail on April 21st I think!

6 hours ago, lynn-in-nc said:

I'll be making detailed notes and posting a thorough review.  We sail on April 21st I think!

April 22?

https://us.ponant.com/cruises/the-mediterranean-treasures-of-the-hellenic-world-g220419-4

Pretty spendy.  We're only paying >$5k p.p. on Le Soléal for 27 nts (by our calculation, 28 by Ponant's) but ~1/2 are sailing days.

The link I posted above is a really nice Greek isles itinerary.  Also I read that these smaller Greek ports are assessing hefty tourist taxes to support their infrastructure, so that might explain why the fare is higher than your TA-type cruise.  It's even more expensive for our cruise on Le Laperouse  New Zealand next year in a Prestige Cabin on deck 4: the fare was $6,260 pp for 9 nights, of which $500 was port taxes.

16 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

The link I posted above is a really nice Greek isles itinerary.  Also I read that these smaller Greek ports are assessing hefty tourist taxes to support their infrastructure, so that might explain why the fare is higher than your TA-type cruise.  It's even more expensive for our cruise on Le Laperouse  New Zealand next year in a Prestige Cabin on deck 4: the fare was $6,260 pp for 9 nights, of which $500 was port taxes.

No doubt or argument that your sample and actual itineraries is nicer and has more to see. These fares are all based on demand, that I know (and yes, mine will be a bit boring) compared to the antarctic cruise (usually return) or one-way NW Passage cruises - high demand so high fares.  I usually go on the repos as they're cheaper (have only done one cruise ever that returned to where it started from).

As an FYI, Alaska cruise port fees and taxes are pretty high given the size of ships ($220-270 on the smaller/medium HAL ships for a week depending on origin/destination).  Ponant has quite a number (for them) in the next 2 years and I wonder what the taxes & fees are like.

I got my Ponant cruises cheap only because that take-out cruise clearance agency was being given inventory to blow out both the cruises I booked on at ~53% off which combined was much less than the "free" ocean cruise add-on ($250 p.p. in taxes/fees for an itinerary that only has a departure and an arrival port with no stops inbetween) and the new customer bonus of US$600 p.p. off