Ponant's L'Austral

We are getting closer to our cruise, have paid full, and are trying to book several excursions offered by the ship. There was no provision on the website and our travel agent said, we had to wait until we are on the ship.

Can this be true? We have never encountered this issue before. With other cruise lines we always booked excursions on line before the cruise.

With 2 threads on China/Korea/Japan cruises going, I can add my own on another ship ... if anyone is interested. I am working on a complete cruise review, still a work in progress.

We picked a French ship, Ponant's l'Austral because her schedule it perfectly with our land tour in Japan afterwards. And then, we are always up for new experiences. We, that is my husband and I in our late 60ies.

We took L’Austral from HongKong to Tianjin (Bejing) and continued on to Osaka from March 20 to April 6th. It was our first time on a Ponant ship. After about 17 previous cruises with 9 different lines, including two French Polynesians, l’Austral was a different experience - luxury lite on an expedition ship.

Embarkation was a cinch! Never did it so easy and fast, but it started only at 4p.m. in the large shopping mall that serves as Hong Kong’s old cruise terminal for smaller ships. We dropped off our luggage at 2 p.m. and came back at 4 p.m. The waiting room in the Hong Kong terminal is not comfortable, no need to hang out there. At the entrance of the ship, the captain greeted us, good beginning!

At that point, we had already spent 4 days in Hong Kong on our own. Our hotel was the Metropark Causeway Bay, great location with a view over Victoria Park towards the harbor. Early in the morning on embarkation day, we could watch the Austral arrive in port from the window.

I recommend this hotel not only for its location, but also for its helpful staff, the restaurant and the fact that they upgraded us to a suite. :-)

Floridiana,

I am anxiously awaiting your review of this cruise line and this ship as Ponant has 2 itineraries that look good to us.

Please keep it coming :)

Ok Paul. :)

Ship and Cabin

The ship has a very stylish décor, no promenade deck. We could rarely use the outside decks due to the foggy and cool weather. Not Ponant's fault.

We had cabin 319 which looked chic at first sight but turned out to be very tight for two people. The desk and TV at the end of the bed led to traffic jams. The cabins on other ships usually have a wall at the end of the bed which serves as a corridor from the balcony to the hallway door. On a positive note, the furniture provided deep drawers for our stuff. In addition, the beautiful white upholstered closet doors opened wide and had more drawers, hanging space, a safe, and … blocked the bathroom doors when opened.

We were not upset by the separation of shower/sink and toilet cubicle. It is common in Europe and in Japan. We also loved the l’Occitanie amenities.

All cabins have balconies with enough space for a small table and two comfortable chairs. No view while you are seated because of the chest high solid metal wall. After all it is an expedition ship that often sails in extreme southern and northern waters.

One couple from Australia had cruised with Seaborn before and constantly compared the two. They were disappointed that nobody had put their luggage on the bed. It was left outside the cabin door. We did not mind. A crew member accompanied us to the cabin. I spoke to our cabin attendant later and discovered that she had worked 12 hours on turn around day.

I am curious about this line as well. Thank you for any information you can provide. We are already getting our 2015 ticket punched by Oceania, but depending on how things go, we might be looking at something new for 2016 - and there was an Arctic cruise that looked amazing.

I am interested in your views as we had an invitation to come aboard the sister ship (Le Boreal) while it was in Brisbane.

First impressions were Ok but the décor seemed very bland and lifeless.

I have read reviews where the food was ok but the choices were minimal.

The itineraries are interesting and being small they are suited to certain areas which limit larger vessels.

The prices seemed on the higher side as well.

As I said, interested in your opinion.

I believe that the décor is the same on all Ponant ships. I did not think that it was bland and lifeless. It is certainly not colorful, all a matter of taste.

The hotel staff was their usual smiling selves, many from the Philippines. The housekeeping supervisor was Swiss with a lot of experience in international hotels and cruise lines.

Most days we picked a table with our favorite Balinese waiter. Cruise director Kamel and hotel director Christian were bilingual English/French and made a great effort to accommodate Anglophone passengers as did the captain digging out his best English. None of the officers and staff was ever seen favoring French passengers as was mentioned in a previous review. The Bridge was open to passengers, a nice touch found rarely on other ships I know.

The front desk is staffed by friendly young ladies, mostly on top of things. We got some things properly done by a newly hired French/German young woman with attention to detail. Be aware of those French passengers who pretend they have never heard of lining up. Don't be shy, be vocal when that happens.

The excursion desk is overwhelmed by requests, questions and bookings because it is not possible to book excursions online before the cruise. Come on, Ponant, move into the 21st century! We read the descriptions carefully at home, filled out the booking form with the list of all our excursions at home, printed it and gave it to the excursion staff at the beginning of their presentations. I attended one of them, my husband none.

Tickets for excursions were brought to the cabin the night before the excursion. I prefer an envelope with all excursions tickets on my cabin desk at the beginning of a cruise. However, if you do an expedition, none of this matters since outings by zodiacs are included anyway.

I am curious about this line as well. Thank you for any information you can provide. We are already getting our 2015 ticket punched by Oceania, but depending on how things go, we might be looking at something new for 2016 - and there was an Arctic cruise that looked amazing.

They do have amazing itineraries, for example in the ocean north of the Aleut islands. Captain Cook went there to escape storms further south. I don't know of other ships roaming those waters, but I haven't looked into it.

I'll add some comments on food and passengers later.

Thanks. I am also thinking about à Ponant cruise and appreciate the info, especially from someone who has cruised Oceania.

I am looking forward to your review, also. I have looked at a few of their itineraries and they are quite interesting. I also noticed Tauck uses them for some of their small ships cruises.

Tauck does Japan itineraries with them. I assume that they bring their own advisor/guide for their customers. I don't think that the French woman responsible for the talks about the history and art of Japan will be able to do a good job for Americans. Her English and personality were not outstanding. She had no sense of timing on the two excursions we shared with her, for example wrong time given to be back and too much time in one place, not enough in another.

I noted the lack of proper timing during both excursions on the comment sheet. The staff obviously takes comments seriously and makes an effort to adjust. I think that is highly commendable. Our "English" bus had the affable cruise director as ship rep on our next excursion and everything went smoothly. We also got one of the dancers with excellent people and English language skills.

Thank you Floridiana - all very helpfull info and I am eagerly looking forward to hearing more :)

Passengers

On Oceania and other American lines, I don't care what nationalities the other passengers have. True, I hope for lots of nice Canadians and I found Aussies to be an easygoing lot.

In the first segment of our b2b, several grouchy French passengers made it known that the presence of Anglophones in their territory (bus) was unwelcome. The excursion staff was so embarrassed that they apologized and gave back the money to one Australian group. One French woman switched busses because she could not stand her compatriots' bad attitude.

In the second segment, smiling French joined us as well as enough English speaking passengers to fill most excursion busses with one language group. In this segment, everybody was willing to use headphones to listen to the guide in their language. Headphones were always provided and also used by the guides on land. The guides were local and spoke English or French. The Chinese were either great or obnoxiously loud. The Koreans were excellent or average, the Japanese were polite and informative with varying pronunciation skills.

Since I speak French and actually love France, I was able to initiate conversations with Francophone passengers. By the way, many of them spoke English, but they did not initiate conversations. Obviously, it does not come as easy to them as to the Australians who made up the majority of English speakers. We had only a handful of Americans with the remainder of the English speakers made up by Scandinavians, Dutch, Flemish Belgians, Luxembourgers, and Germans.

The ship's crew was very sensitive to any potential conflict areas. After all, Ponant needs passengers from Australia and other nations when cruising in the Far East. There aren't enough interested Frenchmen to fill the ship.

The shore side operation of Ponant is not yet up to the challenge. The US rep did not know that Americans get multiple entry visas for China that are valid longer than for a few months. He annoyed us to the point that we almost cancelled the cruise.

As to excursions, he sent an e-mail informing us that they all take place even when only one passenger signs up. This information was not put to the test since most busses were full. Overland excursions of multiple days need to be booked ahead of time. Several passengers did the overnight excursion to Xian.

I suspect that you are all waiting to hear about the food. :D

Let me say it right away, Oceania's food is better! It is easier to offer a large variety for 700 and 1200 passengers than it is for ~ 200. Ponant ships go to far out places around the world and rarely repeat itineraries. Sometimes the suppliers are far away. The hotel director told me that he works with ship chandlers. The one in Hong Kong was really good, but the fish in Dalian was rejected.

The executive chef is French, his crew is mostly Philippino and needs supervision. The saltiness of the soup was moderated the day after I complained on the comment sheet by addressing the executive chef directly.

Expectations are high for a French ship and indeed, the food selections are French. Excellent baguette varieties, French cheese, nice desserts, very good salads the way I remember them from the offerings of delicatessens (traiteurs) in French resort towns. The individual dishes are mostly good to very good and tend to be on the small side, but the sequence of four courses (if you select them all) leads to plenty of calories for all gourmets and gourmands.

My favorite wines with lunch and dinner were Australian. The French stuff tasted like cheap country wine. We never splurged on the high end French wines that could be had at additional cost. If you feel slighted because the sommelier deals more often with the French passengers who splurge on 150 Euro bottles, tell the maître d' at the entrance to the main dining room that you would like the sommelier to stop by your table.

Our waiter told us that the executive chef will add hamburgers, prime rib and Cesar Salad with the arrival of American Tauck groups. I very much liked the duck and boar we occasionally had on our menu. The lamb from New Zealand was also excellent. By the way, my husband says that the food on l'Austral did not overwhelm him. Don't expect nouvelle cuisine or the latest Californian trends.

One more thing: You need to make table reservations for dinner at the buffet restaurant! It is too small for all passengers and seems to be popular on warm weather cruises. Reservations are accepted on the same day, not farther ahead.

However, several French passengers made a standing reservation of our favorite table in the main restaurant which forced us to relocate, still within our favorite waiter's area. We then saw it necessary to reserve a table in his section as well. Very odd. This happened on the second segment of our b2b cruise.

The more I read, the more I feel that I will only sail with them for a VERY UNIQUE itinerary that no other cruise line offers :D

I think I'd rather stick with even Princess on an exclusively Japan itinerary (since Oceania does not offer it :() but maybe sail with Ponant in the Arctic/Antarctic, Northern Passage or Papua New Guinea (and such).

They do not sound to me that they are worth the expense for itineraries that other cruise lines offer.

Of course, this is just my impression from what I am reading here and elsewhere - not first hand experience.

Entertainment and Enrichment

The Cuban singer could really sing and was entertaining! The Ukrainian piano player was extraordinary. The dancers were as good as on other ships, their program charming and corny at the same time. We missed most of the daytime programs which were plentiful for such a small ship. Instead, I picked a few appealing books from the small library after having finished my Qiu Xialong novels.

The China segment of the cruise was themed: the French magazine Paris Match. I left the theater after five minutes of listening to them touting their own horn. Their main speaker liked to hear himself talk, but they had not brought a single copy of their magazine. The French passengers were a lot more patient and stayed. Paris Match had done article series on Mao and China. I think I remember their first from ~ 30 years ago.

The enrichment speaker on China was a nice gentleman with unfortunately limited English pronunciation skills. I did not mind since his program was providing really good information and he was engaging. On the Korea/Japan segment, the speaker was a lady for whose style of presentation I did not care. In my opinion she lacked warmth and organizational skills which was difficult for me to tolerate in combination with her strong French accent. If Ponant wants to break into the Anglophone market, they should hire more accomplished speakers. Maybe their naturalists are better.

They do have an advantage over larger ships even on standard itineraries where they are able to go to additional ports others cannot access. I will get to this in my chapter on ports and excursions.

Would I sail with Ponant again? The review questionnaire asked. I would perhaps if the itinerary is unusual and perfect for such a small ship (~ 200 passengers). Maybe I would go to the Australes island group southeast of Tahiti on the ship named l’Austral. Nobody else stops there on the way to Pitcairn and both are on my bucket list. It has the lagoon where green Tahitian pearls are grown. One of the motus has the largest cathedral of French Polynesia and barely any people! Fascinating beauty and history involving a madman.

Like larger ships, this cruise starts in Papeete. Where it is different: L'Austral stops at two Austral islands with debarkation on both, passes Pitcairn with a real chance of debarkation and ends on Easter Island with guaranteed debarkation and two nights on the ship, so no need for a hotel. Many larger ships pass everything on the way from Santiago to Papeete. They never debark passengers at Pitcairn and often skip Easter Island, doing a scenic cruising instead of stopping.

Ponant also offers other itineraries I have not seen anywhere else, such as the ocean north of the Aleuts. Go for it!

Ports and Excursions

China

Xiamen, our excursion went to Gu Lang Yu, charming little island, weekend goal for the Chinese from the Hinterland. Gu Lang Yu used to be one of the foreign ports. Remnants from that time are some villas, a piano collection, two churches with lots of opportunities for wedding photos, several former embassies in various states of disrepair. The lucky ones are restaurants. Lovely guide.

Shanghai, two nights and a real bonus for a small ship: We sailed into the center of the city and docked only 10-15 walking minutes from the Bund. Excursions offered were the usual Shanghai highlights, a trip on the superfast Maglev train, a water village and Suzhou.

Dalian, the most interesting excursion included a visit with a Chinese family in their apartment.

Tianjin, best excursion and best guide was to Bejing as reported by other passengers. We did not go since we had been there 9 months ago and wanted to avoid the log bus ride.

Korea

Incheon, best excursion was ‘all day in Seoul’ including 7 course Korean feast. Lots of seafood! Great guide.

Jeju Island, visit to woman divers and to a beautifully landscaped bonsai garden

Japan

Japan offered the most advantages for a small ship. I am not sure Princess can access the small ports where we docked. Our ports thought we were the apple of their eye, offering gifts to passengers, drummers, dancers, and flowers for the captain, fireworks. Each port did something different and each had the press and TV present, even big Osaka. Yes, our Japanese friends saw my husband and me on television. We were also interviewed.

Hakata, Beppu, Iwakuni, Una Ko, Osaka

Excursions included hot springs, a monkey mountain, historic homes, downtowns, shrines and museums as well as Hiroshima. We were there at the peak of cherry blossom time, just wonderful.

We added a 2 week land trip with UniqueJapan, a Dublin/Japan based company. The excursions organized by the ship where of similar quality as the land based excursions. However, if you want to experience Japan, it’s much better on land. Unique Japan provided a small group experience (14 participants) with a variety of top hotels as well as a monastery and a ryokan. Several onsens (hot spring baths) were included.

Floridiana,

I would generally agree that smaller ships do visit many ports that larger ones cannot.

However, the itinerary on the Diamond Princess that I am contemplaiting cruising on visists Shimizu, Kumano, Beppu, Kagoshima, Nagoya, Miyazaki, Kochi, Kushiro, Otaru, Hakodate and Aomori (and some others) - not your usual stops like Osaka, Kobe, Hiroshima, etc. I agree that a land tour in Japan can offer more than just a cruise. We had done that in the past in all the major cities but have not visited the places mentioned above.

That in addition to the fact that we are Elite on Princess with free internet & laundry (and other perks) and Diamond's brand new Japanese sushi restaurant for Japanese clients, makes a strong case for Princess for this itinerary in my book

Lower price (even for a suite) is a nice bonus as well :D

If Ponant were more like an Oceania (or Seabourn) experience, I would be more tempted. However, it does not sound like it - yet the price is in that category. Like I said, I would not mind trying Ponant on more exotic itineraries.

Thank you very much for your detailed and balanced review of your cruise.

You are welcome. :)

I still think the Ponant experience is similar to Oceania except for Oceania's more varied food and greater ship size. I wouldn't have written a glowing report for Oceania either. Their 'port and culture' person wasn't the greatest either and I don't even remember one on our 2 cruises with Riviera. Their Italian/Irish staffed excursion desk annoyed me tremendously by being late for handing out tender tickets, in one case over 45 minutes. The Irishman at least showed up after 30 minutes with an apology - without tickets.

L'Austral's cruise director was one the best. I am low on the totem pole with all lines and I still got to talk to the captain and the hotel director on l'Austral, never happened on any other ship except the two small French Polynesian ones. And the crew actually cared about my comments and even adjusted their efforts! We were also offered a few perks that we don't have on other lines such as free laundry. It helps to be the only Americans willing to sail a b2b on a French ship. ;)

Our next trip is a land tour in Southeast Asia with interludes on the Mekong River and Halong Bay.

I forgot to answer some of my own questions before the cruise.

The ship was at the right temperature, no ice box cold spots that require a wool Pashmina, not overheated either. We could adjust the temperature in our cabin to our liking.

The dress code was relaxed, similar to Oceania. There were three opportunities to dress up: the Captain's welcome and farewell cocktails and a white night. The only women in long evening dresses were the dancers, but theirs were slim and elegant not 'the princess goes to the prom' kind. Men wore jackets, some shirts were sans tie. For white night (which we did not attend), one could fashion white cotton cloth flowers with the cruise director's assistance.

We did not attend any of these events during the second segment of the cruise because they involved a long drawn out dinner. The many passengers in the buffet restaurant that night wore their usual comfortable clothes.

Thank you for your comprehensive review. We are booked on Ponant's new ship, Le Lyrial, for Antarctica in January. We have 3 Regent cruises and 1 Oceania Marina cruise under our belts so your comparison was helpful. My husband is French and we are frequently in France so I doubt that the cultural differences will be problematic for us. Every cruise has its own set of annoying passengers and crew.....thankfully just a handful most of the time!

From the photos on Ponant's website, I think I will like the decor the best. I like clean lines and modern features.

Finally, can you go into more detail about what people wore during the day and at night? I realize that Antarctica will be a bit more casual, but I would like to be prepared.

Thank you!

Glad I could be helpful

During the day and in the evening, passengers wore what they would have worn on Oceania. Australians favored shirts with checks. Frenchmen favored sweaters around their shoulders. It was definitely their trademark. My husband wore polo shirts, often with a cardigan. Pants could be anything, maybe even jeans if I recall correctly. One French gentleman wore khaki shorts with dark shoes and long black socks. He traveled solo. No wife to keep his wardrobe in check. ;) Nobody wore the elegant wardrobe or looked like the models in the brochures.

Women wore pants and various sweaters and shirts. The weather was cool the entire time.

No jackets, no ties, no sparkled tops for the ladies. Tasteful but not over the top evening wear on the cocktail nights. I really do not remember a single evening dress except on the female staff whose dancer bodies looked great.

We have just come back from a b2b cruise from Hong Kong to Tianjin on to Osaka on l'Austral. We were 208 passengers on the first leg and 160 on the second leg. The ship can hold 240 passengers if I am not mistaken.

We are 69/70 years old, have previously cruised on Princess, HAL and Oceania and various other less well-known lines. Oceania is our favorite and reference point.

We picked a French ship, Ponant's l'Austral because her schedule it perfectly with our land tour in Japan afterwards. And then, we are always up for new experiences.

We took L’Austral from Hong Kong to Tianjin (Bejing) and continued on to Osaka from March 20 to April 6th. It was our first time on a Ponant ship. After about 17 previous cruises with 9 different lines, including two French Polynesians, l’Austral was a different experience - luxury lite on an expedition ship.

Embarkation

Embarkation was a cinch! Never had it so easy and fast, but it started only at 4p.m. in the large shopping mall that serves as Hong Kong’s old cruise terminal for smaller ships. We dropped off our luggage at 2 p.m. and came back at 4 p.m. The waiting room in Hong Kong’s terminal is not comfortable, no need to hang out there. At the entrance of the ship, the captain greeted us, good beginning!

Ship and Cabin

The ship has a very stylish clean line décor, no promenade deck. We could rarely use the outside decks due to the foggy and cool weather.

We had cabin 319 which looked chic at first sight but turned out to be very tight for two people. The desk and TV at the end of the bed led to traffic jams. The cabins on other ships usually have a wall at the end of the bed which serves as a corridor from the balcony to the hallway door. On a positive note, the furniture provided deep drawers for our stuff. In addition, the beautiful white upholstered closet doors opened wide and had more drawers, hanging space, a safe, and … blocked the bathroom doors when opened.

We are not upset by the separation of shower/sink and toilet cubicle. It is common in Europe and in Japan. We also loved the l’Occitanie amenities.

Our cabin had a balcony with enough space for a small table and two comfortable chairs. No view while you are seated because of the chest high solid metal wall. After all it is an expedition ship that often sails in extreme southern and northern waters.

Crew

The hotel staff was their usual smiling selves, many from the Philippines. All of them awesome. Most days we picked a table with our favorite Balinese waiters. Energetic, friendly, warm, and well organized cruise director Kamel and hotel director Christian were bilingual English/French and made a great effort to accommodate Anglophone passengers as did the captain digging out his best English. None of the officers and staff was ever seen favoring French passengers as was mentioned in a previous review. The Bridge was open to visitors, a nice touch found rarely on other ships I know.

The front desk is staffed by friendly young ladies, mostly on top of things. Be aware of those French passengers who pretend they have never heard of lining up.

The excursion desk is overwhelmed by requests, questions and bookings because it is not possible to book excursions online before the cruise. Come on, Ponant, move into the 21st century! We filled out the booking form at home, printed it and gave it to the excursion staff. Tickets for excursions were brought to the cabin the night before the excursion. I prefer an envelope with all excursions tickets on my desk at the beginning of a cruise.

Passengers

In the first segment of our b2b, several grouchy French passengers made it known that the presence of Anglophones in their territory was unwelcome. The excursion staff was so embarrassed that they apologized and gave back the money to one Australian group. In the second segment, smiling French joined us as well as enough English speaking passengers to fill most excursion busses with one language group. In this segment, everybody was willing to use headphones to listen to the guide in their language.

Since I speak French and actually love France, I was able to initiate conversations with francophone passengers. By the way, many of them spoke English, but they did not initiate conversations. Obviously, it does not come as easily to them as to the Australians who made up the majority of English speakers. We had a handful of Americans with the remainder of the English speakers made up by Scandinavians, Dutch, Flemish Belgians, and Germans.