Any Reviews on Le Champlain?

[emckeeve]

We are on a Tauck Charter next month through the Panama Canal.  Does anyone have comments and/or photos of Le Champlain?  It looks beautiful in the sketches, but I have yet to see a real photograph.

 

[parischris]

Have a look at her on Instagram #lechamplain - plenty of photos there. Or Twitter @ https://twitter.com/search?q=%23lechamplain&src=typd.

 

 

[emckeeve]

Thank you!  We have since sailed on her, and she is a wonderful ship with a great crew!

[Host Jazzbeau]

53 minutes ago, emckeeve said:

Thank you!  We have since sailed on her, and she is a wonderful ship with a great crew!

 

Did you post a review?  Or could you say more here:  we're starving for reviews of Ponant before our upcoming cruises!  [And our second one will have a large Tauck group onboard, so your experience will be very relevant to us.  Was your sailing 100% Tauck, or were there other passengers?]

[emckeeve]

No, I didn't post a review.  Ours was the first Tauck itinerary on the new ship (Panama Canal and Costa Rica) and the passengers were all Tauck guests.  The staterooms were small, but perfectly laid out with plenty of storage.  The only thing that was a surprise was that the balconies on deck three (which was the ideal location) had a solid half wall and not glass (plexi-glass?) so you couldn't see the water from a seated position.  That was minor because all the outdoor space was so easily accessible.  The only other comment I could make about the design of these new explorer Ponant ships, was that if it was on a cool weather itinerary, there wasn't a lot of indoor space for people to gather.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Thanks.  I wonder if that's to give you privacy (because deck 3 is so close to water and pier level)?

 

Our Iceland cruise may suffer from that cold-weather crowding, but Backroads will have us off the ship and hiking every day so we probably won't notice! 

[vada_9]

On 3/13/2019 at 3:16 AM, Host Jazzbeau said:

  I wonder if that's to give you privacy (because deck 3 is so close to water and pier level)?

We visited L'Austral a couple of years back and the deck 3 balcony door is also solid. I think the explanation had something to do with travelling/safety in Arctic/Antarctic regions

 

 

On 3/13/2019 at 3:16 AM, Host Jazzbeau said:

 

 

[gogo65]

The deck 3 balconies are called in hull balconies(or something similar), the metal bottom forms part  of the hull for strength, hence no glass 😊