Seychelles

[Diana5531]

DH and I are on the Dec 29 sailing of Seychelles and Aldabra Atoll, with another couple.  This is our 2nd with Ponant: Xmas in Antartica (Boreal- 2019), and Marquesas/FP (PG), as our references.  For anyone that has done Seychelles, a few questions:

- How is the internet as you get further out?  We were surprised how good it was in Antartica, and yet not in the Marquesas.

- How does Ponant do with the diving?  On the PG, they were excellent. Even though we took our own equipment, everything they had was new and in great shape, so we are questioning taking everything again.   Also, the PG had enough Dive Masters that pretty much everyone could get as much diving as they wanted, and they did a good job of grouping up like skilled divers, which was great!  

For this trip though we have been told that we can do at most 6 dives, which we had to pre-register for.  I did this for DH and I, but a week later our friends were told they could only do 3, as it was full!  If we ARE limited in the diving, any suggestions on what NOT to miss, versus, getting some snorkeling in???  Also, I'm hoping that there is some skill separation on the snorkeling ???      

- For the non-dive excursions, are there specific NOT TO MISS ones?  

- From the clothing tips, it appears that in addition to water focused wear, there is a need of what I call "jungle" wear: long trousers, light hiking boots, etc.   Is this correct?   

-For anything needing reservations (Blue-Eye, spas, etc)  how is this handled?  Should we be sure to book these ASAP, as they fill up so quickly, etc?

Thanks for all your help!!!

[AussieBoyTX]

That’s a great itinerary! We’ll do it again 

 

If you haven’t read my Seychelles comments, please check them out: 

 

Some questions I know I didn’t answer there:

 

- I would book spa sooner rather than later just to be safe. Availability appears to depend on how much ship board credit guests have. 
 

- Blue Eye will be open enough times for you to check it out. I wouldn’t worry. 
 

- Bummer about scuba, as it was fantastic. There was one DM and one equipped Zodiac — but only five divers, so we all got to dive as much as we wanted. 
 

- Aside from La Digue, there aren’t any excursions per se (unless you go to an island we didn’t). Instead, there are expeditions — which were either snorkeling or beach time or Zodiac cruises. None of them needed hiking gear. In any event, you won’t miss out — the excursions can hold all guests. 
 

BTW, I would do the La Digue excursion instead of SCUBA.

 

Subjectively. We noticed no difference in Internet at any point of the cruise. 

 

 

 

[Diana5531]

Thanks for the fast reply, and especially the link to your trip which I've gone through.   The wall dives sound fantastic.   Hopefully, we end up with a similar experience as you did, and also that the snorkeling is not so overly managed that its fun for us that are experienced.   I assume that depending on the location, there may be time to snorkel or beach after diving ?

Also, looks like no need for the jungle clothes.  

We just received our Ponant docs.  Love the new travel holder!   As an FYI to others:  there is no need for specific insurance,  or anything COVID related.  We do though need to complete a travel request for Seychelles.        

[AussieBoyTX]

Yes, we usually had time to join the snorkeling if we wanted to. Sometimes we just went straight from diving to snorkeling — amusingly, that created an issue on who was responsible for us — naturalists or dive master and our Zodiac’s pilot — fortunately for us, our Captain said the DM was, which gave us more latitude. 😅