Le Bellot ship visit London 19/05/22

[philsuarez]

Lesley and I had the pleasure of visiting Le Bellot whilst she was moored in central London on Thursday 19th May 2022. Has opened our eyes to small ship cruising! Beautiful interior with only 184 guests and every cabin has a balcony. We've done nearly 30 cruises but only on large mainstream lines. She was alongside HMS Belfast so London really meant London not a 3 hour trip from Southampton. We currently have a few other cruises booked but hoping for a Ponant cruise in 2023/2024. Big thanks to Nabil and Vlad from Ponant who organised everything. We were also joined by the Vice President of Ponant, Herve Bellaiche, which made for a fascinating chat. Pricing for suites on large ships seems to be creeping ever up so a balcony cabin on Ponant would be similar pricing with the advantage of luxury small ship cruising. Can't wait!

 

 

 

Edited May 23, 2022 by philsuarez

[highplanesdrifters]

Thanks for the info and pics.

[jpalbny]

Lovely ship and pictures. We did a 7-night cruise on Le Bellot last year and have another booked on Le Laperouse for March. Hope you get to experience Ponant for yourselves soon!

[pieobbs]

Can you tell me how this ship is for people with limited mobility? Not a wheelchair but ramps at the dock, elevators,etc. Does the line offer. Excursions?

[AussieBoyTX]

6 hours ago, pieobbs said:

Can you tell me how this ship is for people with limited mobility? Not a wheelchair but ramps at the dock, elevators,etc. Does the line offer. Excursions?

 

The ships have elevators that serve all floors. There are accessible cabins with railings in the shower and at the toilet.

 

There are gangways used when the ship is docked. They have stairs, but also railing on both sides, so seem quite stable to me.

 

Probably the biggest issue would be when the ships tender ashore. There are several crew helping passengers aboard and off the tenders and it seems like they are adept at helping passengers of all abilities safely off and on the tenders.

 

Your question about excursions? They are reasonably transparent about what the passengers should expect on all of the excursions (uneven ground, walk 500 meters, etc.) You can see the proposed excursions on the webpage for each of the cruises (or ask Reservations to send to you).