Back from M.S. Le Diamant

[Crowsnesters]

Several months ago I posted some questions on this board, about M.S. Le Diamant, after booking an Expedition to Antartica on her. We have now returned from a wonderful trip, and I thought I would post my impressions. First to clarify about this ship. She was originally Raddison's Song of Flower, and is now owned by Iles du Ponant, a French Company. As far as I know the only time she "operates in English" is when she is wholely chartered by a U.S. company (which I shall not name so I do not violate any rules) which provides travel opertunities for U.S. and Canadian University Alumni Associations and ours was such a trip.

Over all we were very pleased with the ship and the trip. At first sight Le Diamant showed signs of her age, but once inside everything was almost pristine. Our stateroom midships Turquoise Deck (Deck 4) had plenty of drawer and shelf and hanging space, and a large window where one could stand and watch the birds and whales. The bathroom was adequate and had good storage. The Drake passage was rough, and I'm sure we felt it more than we would have on a large ship, but neither of us had sea-sickness, although we did take dramamine as a precaution which we usually do not do. We definitely felt less movement in our room than elsewhere on the ship. The public rooms are lovely and the upper forward observation lounge was also a great place to watch from.

The staff was excellent. The Captain obviously loves sailing in those waters and made the most of our time there. The wait staff and stewards were excellent. There were self serve tea and coffee stations with snacks in the Le Club lounge and during the day in the observation lounge, but the hot water was not always hot enough. They also provided different hot drinks after landings but we never tried them. We only used room service to order tea we had to request the tea bag to be put in the pot , but it arrived hot and in a timely manner. The breakfast and lunch were buffet with egg station at breakfast and pasta and meat carving station at lunch. The buffets were slightly modified for North American tastes, but still there was no sandwhich station at lunch. The food was very good and a great variety considering that they had to provision at Ushuia for the whole 12 days. The pastries and rolls werre absolutely wonderful. Dinner was either 4 courses with a choice of 2 for starter, entree and dessert (no choice for soup), or 5 courses with no choices. At least a glass of wine was complimentry at dinner. The proportions were suitable for that number of courses. There was an always avaiable menu which included ceasar and mixed salad, consomme, grilled steak, hamburger, chicken and salmon. Dinner was open seating in the main dinning room. Le Diamant has a small restaurant on deck 4 with large windows instead of port holes, in addition to the main dinning room on deck 3. On our trip it served the same menu (or buffet) as the dining room and was first come first served at breakfast and lunch. At dinner each University group was invited to eat there once, and any extra places were by reservation. Tea was "served" in Le Club lounge but they simplely put plates of mini cupcake type things or cookies on the tables and you helped yourself to tea or coffee as usual. However there was pianist playing at that time.

Le Diamant carries several pianists, other muscians and a 5 person dance troupe. We were only able to have 2 performances because of the rough seas but those were as good or better than I have seen on large cruise ships. We did not stay up to see if we could dance to the dance music at night since we had so many early mornings, but we did enjoy the piantists. The crew handling Zodiac landings were very professional, and all 4 groups (2 at time) were able to make all 9 landings, plus two zodiacs cruises. The day time activites when we were not landing or wildlife watching consists mostly of lectures, some given by naturalists but most by Professors or other guests from the various Universities. There no casino and the pool wasn't filled but who needs them, on this type of trip.

The staff's English was for the most part very good, but twice we were plunged into the French zone with no warning but no real problem. Bilingual instructions told you how to use the wake up call but when you followed the instructions and punched the time the taped "confirmation" was in French. But it worked! Like wise the e-mail screen was in French but another guest showed us the send button and that was all we needed. All in all it was wonderful trip on a wonderful ship. We will problely post more about the trip itself on the Antarctic board later.

[hybrn8]

as Song of Flower devotees who were saddened when they were first bought by Radisson and then later sold to the French company, it is nice to learn that the dear little ship is being so well taken care of! We had our best days at sea (and port!) on the Song and miss her type of cruising very, very much indeed. If you are brave, can you post a hint so I can figure out which US-based company charters her? I would be willing to try an entire French cruise, as well.

[nowornever]

We were on the Diamant Chilean Fjord through Tauck World Discovery which had chartered it for 2 cruises 2 years ago. I don't see in their catalog where they have any upcoming trips but you might contact them to see if anything is planned. Tauck does use the sister ships, Le Ponant & Le Levant.

[Louise22]

Zegrahm has leased the ship for several cruises this year - www.zeco.com. I have several favorite ships which are leased by differing companies and I really have to search to find who has them. Sometimes if you "Google" them you can find who and where and when.

[Crowsnesters]

If you google Le Diamant you will find several trips by university alumni groups they are sponsered by the company I am not mentioning. Also the web site for the French company can be accessed in English. It is a wonderful ship. Hope this and the other tips helps. If not request again.

[dougnewmanatsea]

My impression is that she's bilingual on the cruises marketed directly by CIP, as well, though I would imagine English is very much a second language.

 

The CIP web site is in English and French.

 

She looks like a nice ship, one I would certainly not mind trying.

[hybrn8]

Guess I'd rather 'chance' being one of a few English speakers on board (when I go to foreign countries I never expect a soul to speak English so being on a ship where a 'foreign' language is spoken seems little different) than try to shoehorn myself into an alumni group for a college I didn't attend or pay a premium to someone like Tauck who has chartered the entire ship. She is a dear little ship and I just need to figure out which trip to take!

[Minya]

Having just sailed on le Diamant Dec 21st to jan 5th 2010 with french and 20 mixed nationality English speaking passengers I found this thread and looks like food was good on the cruise mentioned. Mine featured lunches with a country theme such as French (mm snail pie delicious) , Scandanavian ,Spanish and Italian. I have a thread under Antartica. Would ahve like to have been able to order cooked green veges not possible but i could get a plate of sald to act as greens for the night time meal.

looking at the posts avbove it looks like some charter groups at least have shows as well as the non chartered ones like my fabulous one.