Becky2010

We have never sailed with Ponant! In fact we've only ever taken one cruise and that was with Silversea. But we used our Marriott Bonvoy status for the status match, and Ponant recognized it straight away. We were given the 7.5% discount when we booked our upcoming trip! Many thanks to this forum for the tip!

Did they end up suggesting that vaccines were needed? We have an appointment set for next week. We ended up booking this trip with a December departure, so I will look forward to reading any information from those who are going in November! I'm so excited!

Ok amazing! So not a ton of down time! Now I am ready to go on your trip next!

Of course that makes sense! Since we have only been on one other cruise - also an expedition-type cruise - I was trying to get a sense of what the schedule is like. In the Galapagos there were activities starting sometimes at 7 and 8 am and then again after lunch. Is the schedule like that for you? Do you get a briefing in the night before that lets you know the schedule for the next day? Thanks again!

Thanks for the updates, and it sounds wonderful! We are on a trip to Central America soon, with lots of snorkeling opportunities. Have you gotten into zodiacs and gone to snorkel, or just been able to do it right off of the ship?

Just in case anyone reads this later - it turns out that the Ponant rep I had been speaking with all this time was in Europe, and she had to transfer the booking to Ponant US. She was very helpful, the Ponant rep in the US has been very helpful, and we transferred the booking to my TA. I have to say that Ponant so far has been vastly more on the ball and responsive that Silversea was with our trip on the Origin. Very excited to embark in 38 days!

Thanks! The TA we used for our first cruise did the same, so it was a very nice check that we got back! I guess I will try that again, but the Ponant rep already gave us some discounts, and we did the status match with our Bonvoy account which I think will give us another 7.5% off. I don't know if I can then transfer that to the TA?

Thanks! The TA we used for Silversea gave us a discount on top so I don't know if that's how it works with all cruise lines, or just that! I can ask him, I guess. I have found the Ponant rep to be much more helpful than the Silversea one was, so hopefully that bodes well for the trip!

We are about to book our second cruise and our first with Ponant. I am still pretty mystified by the world of cruising, and we have never used travel agents in the past. For our first cruise on Silversea, someone suggested I move our booking to a TA, and we did. That was great, and the TA was helpful. For this trip I have been writing back and forth with Ponant because questions keep coming up, and I am still too "hands on" to be patient enough to go through a middle man. The Ponant rep has been very helpful and is holding a cabin for us. If I move the booking to the TA, will that rep lose their commission? Do they work on commission if they work for Ponant? Thanks for any insight!

Thank you!

Does anyone know if on the more formal nights, you can still go less formal to the deck 6 buffet?

Have a fantastic trip!

@3ric How was your trip? Did you end up happy with the clothes you brought?

We have a travel vaccine clinic where we live and if you bring them your itinerary, they will recommend what you should get. Not sure if you have anything like that where you are!?

It does help! We have been to Belize before and it’s an amazing country so you are right to get out of Belize City and see it! Our favorite part of our Belize trip was to the Cayo district and to visit the ruins of Caracol. It was totally incredible. We plan to fly in the night before but that’s all the time we have and so I’m trying to see what a good option could be!

Oh that's great - thank you @Charmar78!! Can I ask you another question? Are you flying in ahead of time? Are you staying in a hotel for a night? I can't seem to see any hotels that seem good in Belize City! We've never sailed with Ponant and have only been on one other cruise (Galapagos), so I'm still not sure how this all works (and we haven't booked it yet!)

I just wanted to say thank you @Jim_Iain for posting this! Through my Amex I was able to status match my Bonvoy Ritz Carlton and it seems like we will be getting a nice discount on our first Ponant trip!

We are looking at booking this as well! They said that the disembarkation is at 6:30am. Do you think that’s true? It’s so early and the flights out are all much later in the day. 🥴

Thank you! Was that the Silversea tour in the evening?

I found it! Thanks for posting the review. We were put in the cabin right above yours - and I was worried about the location, so that's great to hear. We are leaving tomorrow, and getting onboard on Saturday. We booked this so late - just a few weeks ago - and so we had to do our own flights. We are going on Delta there - BWI-ATLANTA-QUITO and then back on Avianca GYE-JFK direct. I'm hoping everything goes smoothly. If you happen to see this tonight - wondering what is on the tour in Quito so that we don't duplicate it during the day! Thanks @AliceJ!