Jim_Iain

While they may say the ship arrives at 6:00 AM by the time formalities take place walk off's usually don't begin until 7 to 7:15. I would definitely shoot for the later bus and have a less stressful disembarkation.

They had it on Apex a couple weeks ago.

CC is not good about responding to e-mails. At least from mine. Also I doubt they would activate an account without speaking to you and confirming information on identity. I would first try the following - 1. Try using your email address and if rejected say reset password. You should get an email if the original is recognized. If I recall correctly Originally you used your CC Number or User Name. A couple years ago they changed it to email only and possibly phone number. 2. If that doesn't work Try to create a new account using your existing e-mail. When I did that for my SIL it recognized her account immediately. If neither work - Call in 1-844-418-6824

On my last cruise the App showed pricing for both a continuous hour and a continuous day. Not sure if these prices are already discounted for my Status or not but -- 1 Hour - $24.95 Premium One Day - $49.98

You can indeed tip individual staff member by simply writing their name and position on the back of the tip form. I've had this confirmed by the HR Director who actually process the transaction and staff I have tipped who thanked me when they were advised of the tip. Generally if you give a tip to the waiter in the dining room he is suppose to put it into the dining room pool.

The current room charge fee is a service charge for the entire order to an individual room. In that respect I would say it is a service fee. You can order whatever you want for the same fee.

Thanks for the well written review. We will be taking our first Ponant cruise in September on Le Bellot . We have good friends from Australia that sail them all the time and love the product. Before we committed to flying half way around the world and find the Ponant product was for us we decided to do a teaser 8 day cruise. I'm hoping many of the negative events of your cruise were one offs and not consistent. You have indeed opened our eyes. At least Iain speaks French so may be of assistance.

Since it is a shared connection it was throttled to provide all users a similar experience. My understanding is all ships work on rotating basis so no one user is hogging all the bandwidth. There was still plenty of bandwidth with the premium internet for posting to CC, Streaming things like Netflix etc. I believe ships only pay for the connection and not MB utilization.

I was on Apex a couple weeks ago and they had both Marezine and Bonine in the apothacary section of the Liquor and Cigarette Duty free. My SIL is susceptible to motion sickness. We had a day of heavy seas and I had her take two Marezine the night before bedtime on the night before the expected high seas and on in the morning. The first dose did make her drowsy and she said she slept well. No drowsiness with the next dose and she had no sea sickness at all. The most important thing is to take whatever med you decide before getting sea sick. There are also a number of web based doctor visits even with then New Amazon health subscription that you could have a video appointment and have them call in the prescription to a drug store near you ships departure point (assuming it is in the U.S.). Scopolamine patches in the US are by prescription so would have to go to Doctors ON CAll type pre cruise to try to pickup in the US.

We send all our laundry out about every 2 days and never specify special handling except dry cleaning and pressing. I’ve never had any thing shrunken, bleached out or damaged. Normally it includes polos, tshirts, jeans and sweatshirts. May have just been lucky. im sure woman’s dainties might be different.

This is what the bag looks like in suite’s maybe a non-suite passenger if the same in all room. In the past non-suites use to get paper bags The bag measures 16” x17”

The picture was mine and it isn't a laundry bag. We have Free Zenith Laundry (Same for RS and above) The pictured parcel is how they return your dainties and socks. Unlike the Bag and Fold Landry all your socks are matched and dainties folded. Other items are ironed and on hangers.

I've not seen that in a SS or even a CS. In a RS we did indeed get 4 devices. We got an upgrade to a RS and initially I only had 2 devices. The Retreat Host has to go in and change something and it then gave me all 4 devices.

I can understand your predicament. It just doesn't seem fair that you pay the higher amount x2 if a Solo. Maybe book as you suggested and be prepared to bid heavy on an Upgrade. A while back we did that. We booked an Aqua and knowing what the difference in pricing was, felt comfortable to bid for an upgrade in line with pricing.

I would definitely stop by the Maitr'D and discuss the situation with him and ask for a different waiter. That behavior is totally unacceptable and should not be tolerated. I assure you the Maitr'D will be apologetic and take immediate action.

Basically the biggest complaint is that Zenith's lost access to Retreat unless traveling in a Suite. We initially thought we would travel more in Aqua and having access to Retreat would be a good experience. They dropped it originally due to Covid and then made it permanent. Other benefits of Free Premium Drink Package, Free Premium Internet were pretty much eliminated when they shifted to All Inclusive - In the past you could purchase a cruise only fare for about a thousands less and just pay for tips. Now at least in my mind is I'm paying for something I use to get for free. Also Free Laundry is a great perk if in SS or CS but in upper suites this benefit also disappears as it is a perk. Additionally they use to have Zenith Get Together Lunches on all cruises. They now are inconsistent and on some ships they have them for as few as 6 Zenith's while others insist there is a Corporate Mandate that they only do one if 15 or more Zeniths are aboard on a cruise. Of course with a private Zenith Group on the Social Media Site pictures are posted weekly and the inconsistency causes hard feelings.

Unfortunately no. We begin in Milwaukee so will miss Lake Superior and have stops in Mackinac Island, Sault Ste. Marie, Little Current, Sailing Lake Huron, Perry Sound, Sail by detroit and Port Colborne (for Niagara Falls) ending in Toronto.

You can either download app Speed Test by Ookla or just google Speed Test on any browser and select Ookla

I'm mainly a Celebrity Cruiser and was on Celebrity Solstice when they brought Starlink alive in November. It was incredibly fast hitting up and down at 150+ Meg. By the next cruise they fine tuned it and implemented speed throttling. They seem to be set at 5 Download and 3 Upload for the Premium. I had a thread on the Celebrity Thread on Starlink speeds for the TransAtlantic Crossing. They speeds stayed steady at the throttled 5/3. No drops for the entire crossing and similar speeds reported on those doing the Sydney to Vancouver voyage. Definitely good enough for Zoom. I was able to live stream YouTubeTV the entire cruise with only occasional buffering. I hope Ponant implements as Starlink seems to be a good solution.

I'm also a Ponant newbee and will be taking my first cruise in September. Out of curiosity, I opened the App (I guess I downloaded it a couple months ago). I logged on and it shows my cruise. It really doesn't show me much except for a lot of canned information that I would think would be the same for any cruise. It does show the itinerary and the room details but nothing that I can do. Similar to the Website.

Well we had a big surprise - We were reluctant to Weigh In after being away for so long. Wasn't too worried as my clothing didn't feel tight. The night we arrived home I weighed and had lost 5 pounds. I figured it was water loss after being airborne at low humidity for so long. I've weighed myself daily since and still about 3 pounds below what I was pre-cruise. I have one of those electronic scales that uploads everytime I weigh so pretty easy to track. Iain next tried and he is at the same weight as before the cruise. Wasn't too surprised as I have a tendency to graze when at home. While on a cruise we ask our butler not to bring treats and nothing in our room to nibble on.

It is always confusing when there is a code share. I noticed our flight was changing between UA and LH.

I think things will settle out. There is really a huge pent up demand of those that have not traveled since Covid and even getting a Passport Renewed is a challenge. I may try to renew mine early - I have plenty of time but running out of pages.

I think me may see more of those longer voyages. The 4 segment Edge "World Cruise" is a good start. Actually the one I was on had a lot of multi segment travelers. Many did the Caribbean, TA, Norway and then the British Isle Cruise. While I really enjoyed our adventure the British Isle cruise was REALLY PORT INTENSIVE. It left us begging for a sea day.

I really enjoy photography and probably shot a dozen pictures on my walk today. Due to all the rains this year there is definitely a Super Bloom in progress. I really feel sorry for those with allergies.