AussieBoyTX

Yes, it's an Australian policy and the test is self-administered, so lacks the rigor of the old days.

Hello from Broome, Western Australia, the staging point for our cruise on Le Ponant beginning tomorrow. We booked this late — in mid-June, when we found out our 2024 cruise on Le Laperouse was cancelled. With some cancelled cruise compensation from Ponant, the surprise of the Ponant anniversary discount, and not knowing when Le Ponant will sail the Kimberley again, we decided to pull the trigger. Oh, and this trip on Le Ponant will complete our survey of Ponant’s ships — we’ve been on Ponant’s Explorers, Sisterships, Le Commandant Charcot and Le Paul Gauguin and finally we’ll be on the sailing ship that started it all. It’s a bucket list trip for me. This expedition includes two nights in Broome. Twelve of us arrived mid-day, where we were met by Ponant’s representative and taken to the Kimberley Sands Resort, which is comfortable. Another five passengers are already onboard Le Ponant now completing the Northern Kimberley Sailing Expedition starting in Darwin. Thursday, August 31, 2023 Today we began with breakfast at the hotel and we were all taken on a tour of Broome, including lunch at Matso’s Broome Brewery (I recommend the cider). Our guide was entertaining and knowledgeable of the area. We got a quick glimpse of many things to see that we might get to check out on our return to Broome next week. In any event, it’s already hot during the day (90+ F) and very, very pleasant in the morning and afternoon (seventies F). I was also feeling a little jet lagged, having flown Dubai — Brisbane — Melbourne — Broome in the past day, so I took a small siesta before we got close to sundown. We went to Cable Beach to watch the sunset and full moon rising — the last Blue Supermoon until January 2037! We also saw the camel trains coming home after the sunset and the four wheel drives also coming in from watching the sunset. We had dinner at Zander’s at Cable Beach — nice place, but we were still stuffed after breakfast and lunch, so shared some fish & chips and a cider. Tomorrow, a flight on the seventy-five-year-old Grumman G-73T Turbo Mallard to Kuri Bay. We're also slated for a 'pearling experience,' the specifics of which are a bit of a mystery. A sobering note: our guide today mentioned that the early days of pearling were brutal, with many fatalities — especially among Indigenous people, Japanese, and Malays. It'll be interesting to see how this industry has evolved. Following that, lunch and then boarding Le Ponant in the late afternoon. (We passed the still required COVID tests, so there’s nothing stopping us now!)

FWIW, I've found dive operators in FP to be particular about the paperwork, especially in Fakarava and Rangiroa. In Rangiroa, we saw some PADI AWD divers without the deep certificate offered a different dive from the rest of us with a shallower profile. The deepest we dove was 102 feet there and I believe they were at 60. The operators we used were governed by CMAS and were looking for CMAS Two Star certification. They accepted PADI AWD plus Deep as equivalent, for the most part, though the operator in Fakarava said that PADI Rescue was "more" equivalent (take that for what it's worth). All of us diving in Fakarava were either CMAS Two Star or PADI Rescue. Not every operator wanted to see the medical form, but at least a couple did. For many years, my PCP has been fine to sign the form for me. I have it pre-filled out and he signs each year at my annual.

We were offered dives on Huahine, Bora Bora & Moorea. Because it was Christmas, dives were not offered at Aitutaki or Moto Mahana, but the communication we received from the dive team was that both were normally offered and operated by third parties. The morning dives left at 8:30 & 10:30 and the transit times were short, so we were back shortly after noon each time.

It’s been several years, but for me, Air Tahiti was serious about the bag size on the ATR 42/72, but did not check the weight. In any event, most of the time, you’ll see the bags loaded and offloaded, with the only exception being Tahiti it self.

There have been a lot of ship upgrades since then! We were on Christmas 2022 for Society & Cook Islands. I wrote a summary here and a long version in the Ponant forum. I look forward to hearing about your cruise!

This isn't going to be much help, but there were lots of kids on our cruise and it looked like they were having a good time with lots of indoor and outdoor activities. There were two activity leaders on board and they were both quite genial with the adults. Les Gauguins/Gaugines also did some activities with them, which I think would be memorable. I'd bring long-sleeve rash guards, wide brimmed floppy hats and whatever else you deem necessary so you have less concern about sunburn. It is so easy to burn in the FP sun.

We really enjoyed having Captain Garcia on Charcot. There were only five non-French on board our cruise and he joined us for a private dinner away from the masses. We also enjoyed his "history of navigation & ship's systems" presentation, which was a couple of hours long and could have been much longer. Charcot represents the best Ponant has to offer, so glad to hear that things are going well so far. 🤞

That's good. Not too far at all.

Yeah, it would have to be at Hafnarfjörður. That's where we disembarked last year -- Charcot's draft is apparently too deep for Reykjavik.

I’m really looking forward to hearing about your voyage on Le Commandant Charcot!

Thank you for the very detailed notes and pictures. I enjoyed following along!

I look forward to hearing about your trip!

Starlink has a maximum throughput of about 200mbps, so they're probably trying to avoid saturating their bandwidth and don't have an easy way to do that dynamically.

I have done Zoom meetings successfully from the ship, but it's by no means guaranteed. It will depend on a bunch of things, including what part of the world you're in and how many other people are on the ship with you. Audio Zoom has a better probability than Video Zoom. It's possible that Ponant will have Starlink on their ships at some point in the future, but that's not the case today. As an individual, Starlink Maritime has a $2500 equipment cost and a $250 / month service fee. If in a Starlink service area, that provides extremely fast internet: https://www.starlink.com/maritime I am not aware of any other service that would work on a ship. The other thought I had is if the ship has ports of call, perhaps your student could take advantage of time zone difference and schedule the calls while on land. 5G or LTE cell service are both fast enough to stream video on a Zoom conference.

Ponant can supposedly do bespoke excursion experiences. You could try tasking them with planning excursions that meet your requirements and see what they come up with. Or, the direction I guess you're going -- schedule excursions with 3rd parties. This is what I'd likely do.

Most of the outlets are European 240 Volt Type F just like you'd find in Germany, France, etc. and there's at least one US 110 Volt outlet. If your gear is two pin, a cheap Australia to European adapter is al you need. More details in this thread: There's a real hair dryer in the cabin, so you don't need to worry about that. Look forward to hearing about your trip! That itinerary is on the list for 2024.

You're on the right track. The Credit is proof of your ship board credit -- that will be helpful in case there's some misunderstanding on your entitlement. The Coupon is for the cruise itself and anything you've already booked. I have only needed this in Seychelles, where the immigration authorities accepted it as proof of where we were staying. I'd just ask your reservations office or travel agent to email them to you. Look forward to hearing about your trip!

We took our own equipment and the staff looked after it for us. It was even cleaned and dried for packing when we went home.

Yes. All the scuba equipment is stored in the Marina (water level, aft of the ship) and the scuba trips launch from there.

The gastronomic restaurants are similar. On the Sisterships, it's on Deck 2, right above the waterline. The grille restaurants on the Sisterships are indoors on Deck 6. Everything is served buffet-style and though the menu is similar to the gastronomic restaurant, it has some unique items, like a carving station. In any event, its ambiance is very casual. Dockers & polo seem very appropriate for this grille. For others' benefit, the grille on the Explorers is outdoors on Deck 3 between the bar and the pool. In the summer, it can be blazing hot, so regardless of the dress code, I'd definitely dress for comfort. For me, that's definitely no jacket at this grille.

In the room, you do have a couple of selections in English -- BBC News for sure. And there are several movies and documentaries in English. Some of the ones that are only in French have English subtitles. As for dress, we're talking about Summer in the Adriatic, so expect to dress appropriately for the climate. If your husband wanted, he certainly could even wear shorts and a T-shirt at breakfast & lunch and at the bar and around the ship. It may be less dressy than some, but he will not be alone. Jeans are fine. At jacket really isn't *required* at dinner in either restaurant. I believe this itinerary is on l'Austral? If so, I wouldn't hesitate at all to wear a collared shirt & dockers at the Grille. Even a polo would be fine. At the Gastronomic Restaurant, people do dress up more. I usually wear a jacket out of habit, but if it's hot, I'll skip the jacket and just wear a collared shirt and dress pants. The only time I personally feel obligated to wear a jacket is for the Gala dinners. But even then, it's more my personal choice than any requirement Ponant has. (And if he wears a jacket with open collar, he'll be pretty much in the middle of what the other men are wearing.)

On Ocean Voyages, Ponant doesn’t promise much of anything. See this trip report: You should expect odd hours in the restaurants and maintenance work going on on-board. But you might also get to experience things like performances by the crew band, experimental menu items or lectures on sailing history. I’d have low expectations and be pleased if they are exceeded.

I've never had a problem mixing between the two set menus, skipping courses, or even substituting things from the anytime menu to my order.

Here are the rums that were offered as part of the premium drinks package last year. There doesn’t appear to be a dark rum in the included list.