All About the Ponant Smithsonian Journeys Cruises (as of August 2022)

[AussieBoyTX]

Now that we’ve completed our first Ponant Smithsonian Journeys cruise, we can share our thoughts on the Smithsonian Journeys experience:

 

The tl;dr is that the experience is very good and probably worth the premium price if you are excited about the speakers, like to be around Americans, or want some hand-holding for your first Ponant cruise. Otherwise, Ponant usually offers a similar cruise without the Smithsonian experience for a lower price.

 

The Ponant Smithsonian Journeys cruises are a partnership (not a charter like e.g. Tauck, A&K, Backroads, et al) that offers cruises targeted towards an English-speaking audience and differentiating itself through experiences that provide a deeper understanding of the places explored. As of now, those differentiated experiences are mostly through the Smithsonian Journeys speakers. The excursions offered on this Smithsonian cruise appear to be the same as those offered on regular Ponant cruises on a similar itinerary.

 

Our Reaction to the Differences in the Smithsonian Journeys Experience:

 

• Transfers to / from ship — because of the missed / cancelled flight risk, we never arrive on the day of the cruise and will not use this benefit.
   
• All Excursions Included — I suppose they are worth $100-150 each ($600-$900 per week). We took an excursion each day more-or-less because we felt they were paid for. Generally, we would take one or two of the excursions offered by the ship and would organize something on our own for the other days. This remains our preference and on the Smithsonian Journeys cruise we did, we would have purchased only one, maybe two of the six days.
  
  As on a regular Ponant cruise, the excursions would benefit from a more detailed presentation with some intelligence on why or why not one would want to select any specific excursion.
   
• The Smithsonian Journeys speakers — the speakers are renowned, have experience in the area visited and are very interesting. You also have the possibility of joining each of them at a small table over dinner, or at pre-dinner cocktails. If you’re a particular fan of one of the speakers, this is an opportunity to get tremendous access.
  
  To be honest, we were very pleased with the expedition leader and naturalists on the one Expedition cruise we’ve done and don’t need better / more speakers on Expedition cruises. On regular Ponant cruises, where the speakers are great in French, but “also speak English,” we’d enjoy an upgrade but don’t require the full Smithsonian experience.
   
• The Tour Director — our Tour Director described herself as a “fixer” and offered to serve as liaison between passengers and crew in the event of any need. She did quite a bit more than that, was very visible, very helpful and appeared to have resolved some passenger issues. She was a native English speaker and likely was more approachable for someone uncomfortable dealing directly with the French crew. We’ve never had an issue that the Cruise Director or Hotel Manager couldn’t resolve for us, but we certainly agree that the Tour Director added value.
   
• The Ponant Experience — at least as far as dining, shipboard activities and entertainment go, the Smithsonian experience was very similar to the regular Ponant experience (we were concerned these would be modified and were very pleased they were not). All announcements and presentations are in English and almost all passengers are Americans, changing the shipboard community part of the experience substantially. Aside from the Americans on our cruise, there were two or three German couples, a Spanish family with a cute 14 month-old and inexplicably a French couple.

 

As far as pricing goes, from a brief survey, as of August 2022, the Smithsonian cruises appear to have a slight price premium over regular cruises:

 

Here are two on Le Lyrial with 12 days & 10 nights including transfers from Buenos Aires:

 

• Regular cruise w/ 15% Ponant Discount starts at $11,910 (un-discounted is $13,610)
• Smithsonian cruise w/ 10% Ponant Discount starts at $13,270

 

And here’s another Caribbean cruise on Le Dumont-d’Urville with 8 nights in Feb/Mar 2023 (both cruises are also offering No Single Supplement):

 

• Regular cruise w/ 25% Ponant Discount starts at $3,840
• Smithsonian cruise w/ 20% Ponant Discount starts at $5,160 (excursions are offered on six days and are included)

 

In summary, this is a low-risk way for English-speakers to experience Ponant, in the company of other (mostly) Americans, and with the Tour Director to ensure things go smoothly.

As for us, it’s not that we won’t go on another Smithsonian Journeys cruise — and it’s not about the money — but we aren’t ones that get really excited about the celebrity speakers and included excursions. And, you know, we miss the French guests.

[schnapperin]

Feels like it’s an American market offering compared to the NatGeo cruises only marketed outside of the US

 

have you looked into booking one of those via an European or Australian agent? 

[highplanesdrifters]

Thanks so much. Very helpful!

[Jim_Iain]

Thanks for directing me to your Smithsonian  review.   Very informative as usual. 

 

Since we intentionally chose not to take the Smithsonian to get a more authentic introduction to Ponant I think we made the right decision.   We often prefer doing things on our own.

 

One thing I'm not yet clear on is how you arrange things on your own with the limited information Ponant has supplied so far.   Most of the time they only say we will arrive in the Morning or afternoon without any times.    Do you plan a side trip on your own in advance or do you wait until you are in port?

 

On the Great Lake cruise some of the ports are so small we will probably do the ships tours -  at this time they only say will be over $250 pp.