Companie du Ponant - Australia sailing

[Lanwood]

Well, we just got off the L'Austral last weekend when it docked in Sydney.

 

What can I say??? Have you ever read those posts where they start of with "worst cruise ever"......I would really like to, but I don't want to sound like someone with an axe to grind, just posting a bad experience.

 

Suffice to say, we were very dissapointed. It is promoted as being a high end 5 star small ship (or "maga yacht" I heard used frequently). The ship itself from a decor point of view you would say is 5 star, but the service is definately not. I will go as far as to say it is the worst service of any cruise ship, hotel, resort etc that we have had the pleasure of staying in or cruising on.

 

I won't give you all the horror stories, though I could write a very, very, very, very, very, very long list of our experieces, and an even longer list of the stories we heard from fellow "non french" passengers. But lets say this is the first cruise where we were packed and ready to go 2 days before the cruise finished. (and not the only one's I might add, though not as bad as one lady we spoke to who wanted to get off by the time we got to Hamilton Is ((day 2)), or another lady we met who was devestated she booked a b2b and had to wait another 7 days before getting off).

 

We are very lucky that our lifestyle can afford us 5 star (or 7 star if you count the self rated Burj Al Arab). This is not 5 star. I wouldn't give it 2 stars. To be really honest, we stay at Hotels like the Ritz, Savoy, Waldorf in London, or the Burg Al Arab, or the Plaza in NY etc, and you get that level of 5 star service on mid priced cruise lines like Princess and Celebrity. We much prefer to cruise on lines like these, than pay the exorbant prices of the high end market cruises and not get the service anyway.......

Edited January 7, 2015 by Lanwood

[Kiwi_cruiser]

Lanwood Could you give us one horror storey? :)

[PerfectlyPerth]

 

I won't give you all the horror stories, though I could write a very, very, very, very, very, very long list of our experieces, and an even longer list of the stories we heard from fellow "non french" passengers.

 

So can you post any of the actual details so we know what kinds of things were the crux of the problem ?

[nickykat]

What a shame it was so disappointing. My parents are sailing on Le Boreal to Antarctica next month, I hope their experience is better and it's not a company wide poor service problem.

[MicCanberra]

Sad to hear your cruise was not good. I would love to hear some of the tales/issues that happened but realise that you wouldn't want to relive them. Hope your next cruise wipes away the bad memories of this one.:D

[Lanwood]

What a shame it was so disappointing. My parents are sailing on Le Boreal to Antarctica next month, I hope their experience is better and it's not a company wide poor service problem.

 

I would very much hope so.

The expedition side of things is were they will score points. They do have naturists (I think that's the right word) on board who are very well learned in their field, and give good talks. On our cruise, we had a marine bioligist, geoligist, bird expert, and an expert on aboriginal. With one exception, these were Australians who came onboard prior to it's arrival. I'm not sure how long they they remain?? The Antartica expeditions would have experts on board that would relate to that environment. The special boots and coats, we are told are supplied on board. And tender to/from the ships will be on their fleet of Zodiac's.

[Lanwood]

Sad to hear your cruise was not good. I would love to hear some of the tales/issues that happened but realise that you wouldn't want to relive them. Hope your next cruise wipes away the bad memories of this one.:D

 

Don't feel too sorry for us Mic.....poor us on a luxury "mega yacht" cruising the whitsundays :D . But their level of service does warrant a decent bashing on cruisecritic.

[MicCanberra]

No worries, have at it.:D

[Wastegirl]

While not a long term cruiser the one thing that stuck out to me was how I was treated by the crew in relation to their nationality. Now I don't want to sound like I am tarring everyone of a particular nationality with the same brush but some nationalities are real 'people people'. Or maybe it is the training the cruise lines give and us Aussies would come as a bit of a shock :D

 

Not a cruise line, but in the South Pacific the people from Fiji and Vanuatu were wonderful, so friendly and really interested in sharing their delight in the world with you. On the other hand people from New Caledonia seemed more reserved, even a bit stand offish, not rude or anything, just not the same joie de vivre.

 

That same joie de vivre I found on HAL with their Indonesian and Filipino crew but on Celebrity it was a little bit more hit and miss with their more international crew. Not rude or anything, just not the same delight with the world.

[MicCanberra]

While not a long term cruiser the one thing that stuck out to me was how I was treated by the crew in relation to their nationality. Now I don't want to sound like I am tarring everyone of a particular nationality with the same brush but some nationalities are real 'people people'. Or maybe it is the training the cruise lines give and us Aussies would come as a bit of a shock :D

 

Not a cruise line, but in the South Pacific the people from Fiji and Vanuatu were wonderful, so friendly and really interested in sharing their delight in the world with you. On the other hand people from New Caledonia seemed more reserved, even a bit stand offish, not rude or anything, just not the same joie de vivre.

 

That same joie de vivre I found on HAL with their Indonesian and Filipino crew but on Celebrity it was a little bit more hit and miss with their more international crew. Not rude or anything, just not the same delight with the world.

I know what you mean, friendly, polite and willing to please but definitely a different approach to service and personality (i.e. South Asian / East European). Note that they are certainly not all are like this. :D

Edited January 8, 2015 by MicCanberra

[Floridiana]

Well, we just got off the L'Austral last weekend when it docked in Sydney.

 

What can I say??? Have you ever read those posts where they start of with "worst cruise ever"......I would really like to, but I don't want to sound like someone with an axe to grind, just posting a bad experience.

 

 

I am really interested in hearing specific details. We are booked for a b2b on this ship in March. Was it the food, the service, the cleanliness, the beds, the size of the cabin.... On which ships have you cruised before and therefore had certain expectations that were not fulfilled?

[Lanwood]

Lanwood Could you give us one horror storey? :)

 

Sorry - I did reply to your post, the other day, but my computer must have logged me out again?

 

O.k. - a horror story. Here's a good one, that even had has laughing it was so bad....

 

There were 3 Gala nights on board for dinner. On these nights it's a set degustation menu of about 5 courses (no choices), with complimentary house red, white or rose wine. After mingling and getting to know some fellow English speaking passengers (almost everyone onboard was French), we formed a group of 8 for Dinner one night. Dinner started at 7:30pm sharp. We sat down, read our menu for the night and started talking. The waiters from the beginning did appear quite rushed, which did seem to set a precedent for the rest of the evening.

 

About 20 minutes in we finally managed to flag a waiter down. Some of ordered the complimentary wine, some of us ordered bottles, and others just ordered water. After talking for another 30 minutes we tried chasing down another waiter (you did this at your own peril) to asked where our drinks were, and were told they're coming. In the mean time, we starting cutting up the burnt bread rolls just served to us (by burnt I mean charcoal black), and fished the butters out of the swimming pools of water. Only 4 of us were brave enough. 1st Course arrived..

 

1st course = 1 small scallop sliced into 3 paper thin slivers.

 

Still no drinks, the ladies on my left tried flagging another waiter down asking where our wine was? He turned around, shoved an empty bottle in her face and said quite firmly "it's empty" and walked away (I said you flagged them down at your own peril). It was so absurd we actually found it quite humorous and with previous days experiences we started making jokes and comparing it to Faulty Towers. We did however finally receive a waiter shortly after offering us the complimentary house wine or water. Our other dinner guests cancelled their bottle and just went with the house. Seemed easier.

 

2nd course = Small pieces of lobster (about 2 mouthfuls). Don't know what happened here, but was quite tough and leathery.

 

As it has been a good hour, the ladies to my left tried requested some more water. I'll point out now that this never came for the rest of the night.

 

3rd Course arrived = cracked raw egg in a bowl. It was on the menu has a "half cooked egg", but to me was basically a cracked raw egg in a hot bowl. Half of us tried it, half of us couldn't.

 

A waiter come around to ask if everything was going well. One of the ladies said quite quickly "No, and we're still waiting for our water". Yes again, it never came (neither did anymore wine). 2 hours into Dinner, and still waiting for our mains, 2 of the ladies suggested they were going to give up and go to the show. It was the big French review show for the cruise. Silly me opened my mouth and said "I don't think the ship would be so stupid as to actually start the show, when their entire passenger list is still in the restaurant waiting the be served their mains". Oh how wrong I was.....

 

4th Course = 2 (very) small slithers of raw lamb. Several of us can't eat our meat raw, but as you don't get a choice, and it was now 9:45pm and hadn't eaten since lunch other than 2 mouth fulls, I braved 1 of the slices.

 

That was it for dinner. Nothing substantial. No salads or vegetables. Desert came, but I had decided to give up and make my way to the theatre to find a seat for the show. Skipping desert, we were one of the first tables to get to the theatre, only in time to catch the final performance. Yes, they actually played to a mostly empty theatre with all their passengers in the restaurant still eating mains and deserts (not by choice)....

 

We made our way back to our cabin, passing the group of passengers yelling (yes yelling) at the service desk complaining, past the passengers rushing to get to the finished show, and just went to bed (you don't have t.v stations in your cabin - just a list of some movies to choose from). Hungry we went to sleep....

 

Did I mention that this was a 5 star premium end cruise line.....

[Lanwood]

So can you post any of the actual details so we know what kinds of things were the crux of the problem ?

 

Hello PerfectlyPerth. Happy to.

 

You did well on this ship to get what you ordered. At one lunch, I ordered the pasta, but got the fish stew. 15minutes later, a couple on my left who ordered the beef scewers (I had them before but are too raw for me), also received the fish stew. Then the table in front of us got the fish stew (don't know what they ordered, but as they complained in French and took their bowls away, so dare say didn't get the fish stew)......It seemed no matter what you ordered you got the fish stew. The only person who did actually order the fish stew was my partner who wished they hadn't (as it wasn't very nice)....This waiter also didn't offer us wine, only water, but never offered us a refill.

 

Another lunch after doing a ship activity (a naturist talk I think) we went to the restaurant for lunch around 1:30pm. Half way through our Lunch and wine, the waiter come up to us and said we have to leave, they want to close the restaurant. We knew exactly what they were trying to do (you quickly connect the dots shortly after boarding that the ship and us passengers are nothing more that a means for the crew to see the world), and that was they wanted to close the restaurant so they could get onshore themselves with their friends in engineering or room service or with the performers. We told them no, we are going to finish our lunch and wine and will be ready in 15minutes. Subsequently we spoke to 2 other groups who told us the same story from the day before.

 

I went to a seminar on how to disembark, and was told we would receive our account in our room during dinner, and go to the service desk if something is wrong before going to bed as they would be debiting the account overnight. After dinner there was not account in our room, we waited about an hour and decided to go and get one from the service desk as we wanted to go to sleep. I was lucky to get the rudest girl at sea. I asked if I could have a copy of my account and gave her my room number. She said no, they will bring them around in an hour (I'll mention now that I could see them all in front of her in a pile as she was slowly putting the in envelopes) I told her we had already been waiting an hour, we were told they would be waiting for us in our room and we are waiting to go to sleep. She replied, NO, you can just check it then in the morning (I'm serious, and she was polite about it either is putting it very diplomatically). We then got into a heated conversation in which revolved around me not waiting until after they charge my account. After checking with her team, and then with her manager, she finally gave in and gave me my account (and she wasn't happy!!). It took her literally 5 seconds to take it from the pile in front of her, but she would rather spend 5 minutes arguing with a passenger.

 

I have plenty more......

[Lanwood]

I am really interested in hearing specific details. We are booked for a b2b on this ship in March. Was it the food, the service, the cleanliness, the beds, the size of the cabin.... On which ships have you cruised before and therefore had certain expectations that were not fulfilled?

 

Hi Floridiana - are you French? If so, I think you won't have a problem as they key staff (Maitre D's etc) spent all their time with them, conversing with them, topping up their drinks and wines etc. And the French passengers clearly were not that too impressed about having such a large group of English speakers on board "their" ship, and were not too shy about it either.

 

Room Cleanliness was fine. However, being extremely hot through Queensland last week, we were showering quite frequently and went through our room toiletries very quickly (shampoos, conditioners, soaps etc). The room attendant didn't replace them for us. When actually gone, we where in a hurry to catch the tender, so had to use our face wash to shower with, and ended up buying our own while ashore (you get to a point where its easier). The toiletries where not replaced until disembarkation night, in which they then left 2 sets of everything.

 

The Cabins aren't that big - say just a standard balcony cabin you would find on any Princess, Celebrity, RCC etc. Expect for the price of a balcony on this ship, you could have a full suite for twice as long on the others.

 

Service and organisation is where this ship fails. To me, it's too much an emphasis on the crew wanting to spend all their time ashore (they're all there getting on and off with you at everyport - All of them. and rushing back just in time for Dinner service). I know this in normal and we see it on all cruises, but not to this extreme, and organised/rostered more responsibly. We did feel, as I posted earlier, that it started to feel, we were just a means (and an inconvience) for the crew to see the world.

The restaurants were terribly ran and organised. My personal opinion (and this in just my opinion so take it with a grain of salt) it that the 2 young French Matre D's were far to young and inexperienced to be running a restaurant of that size with so many waiters (who's French and English weren't the greatest, nor there customer service skills). We did find 2 waiters in the far back left corner who new what they were doing and we tried our best to sit with them when possible, but I think other passengers caught on to this as well as their tables started getting reserved signs on them unfortunately.

 

The shore excursion to the Hunter Valley was incredibly rushed - really rushed. They scheduled in 2 winery's and a garden. But wanting us back on the ship in time for Lunch made the experience "blink and you'll miss it". The first winery we arrived at 9:40am and our ships excursion guy told the winery owners that we have to be back on the bus and out by 10am. By the time we all got off the Bus and into the winery and back, that actually gave us 10minutes to see the winery and do the tastings. I felt very sorry for the owner (if you could have seen his face). He took us out the back and into his cellars - and I could see why. All the tables and wines and presentation areas he had spent the morning setting up for us. He had 5 wines for the entire bus (big bus) to go through in 10 minutes. It was very rushed, and no time for cellar door sales or toilet stop on the way out. Next stop was the gardens. A beautiful man made garden that you could spend they day at with your family (and costs over $90 for a family entrance), we were given 20 minutes - and the bus was parked a distance away from the entrance). By the time we all got off the bus, walked to the entrance - we had just enough time to rush to one waterfull area, and then rush back to the bus.....really ridiculous. They did get us back to the ship in time for lunch (just), and again the restaurant staff were asking us to leave before we had time to finish (they wanted to get ashore).

 

Where the ship does shine and perform very will is from as an expedition type of ship. If you were to book to go to Antarctica etc, you should find that side of it very exciting (however be warned it's only a very small ship that feels every single wave). Ie - one of our stops was Percy Island in the Whitsundays. The expedition crew had set up 80-90 beach umbrellas along our private beach with water tables, snorkelling gear, kayaks etc, and Zodiac us back and forth as required as often as we liked. The exhibition and naturalists (they gave very good talks on board) on board were really very very good, and don't deserve to be tarnished with the same brush.....

Edited January 10, 2015 by Lanwood

[Lanwood]

On which ships have you cruised before and therefore had certain expectations that were not fulfilled?

 

As I keep going back to good old Princess in-between, I've only sailed across about half dozen different cruise lines. My 2 other cruise companions sailing with me on this one (I'm the only one on cruisecritic) have sailed almost 50 cruises - so let's say most of them. Between us there were really only 2 cruise lines we hadn't tried yet, Compagnie Du Ponant and Paul Gauguin. Guess which one we wished we took.

 

Having said all this, our attitude is if we didn't do it, we wouldn't have done it. You will read good and bad stories about all cruise lines, even my favourite Princess. Ours for Ponant, is a bad one. One of our cruise companions is going on Crystal (There's a premium ship worth spending the money) next month. I will give Paul Gauguin a go in the near future (I heard some very good reports last week), but want to have few more on Princess first. We're booked into a suite on the new Regal Princess for a b2b this Xmas...Hooray...

[MicCanberra]

Thanks for taking the time to spell out a few stories and issues that occurred on board. And after reading these reviews, I think I will stick to the cruise lines I have already tried or similar mass market brands.:D

[The_Big_M]

Thanks for that.

 

I guess I can see where the extra that you pay goes. Small ships notoriously cost more as you don't have as many people to spread the costs across. But equally, not sure that the value appeals to me on it.

[GUT2407]

The shore excursion to the Hunter Valley was incredibly rushed - really rushed. They scheduled in 2 winery's and a garden. But wanting us back on the ship in time for Lunch made the experience "blink and you'll miss it". The first winery we arrived at 9:40am and our ships excursion guy told the winery owners that we have to be back on the bus and out by 10am. By the time we all got off the Bus and into the winery and back, that actually gave us 10minutes to see the winery and do the tastings. I felt very sorry for the owner (if you could have seen his face). He took us out the back and into his cellars - and I could see why. All the tables and wines and presentation areas he had spent the morning setting up for us. He had 5 wines for the entire bus (big bus) to go through in 10 minutes. It was very rushed, and no time for cellar door sales or toilet stop on the way out. Next stop was the gardens. A beautiful man made garden that you could spend they day at with your family (and costs over $90 for a family entrance), we were given 20 minutes - and the bus was parked a distance away from the entrance). By the time we all got off the bus, walked to the entrance - we had just enough time to rush to one waterfull area, and then rush back to the bus.....really ridiculous. They did get us back to the ship in time for lunch (just), and again the restaurant staff were asking us to leave before we had time to finish (they wanted to get ashore).

 

Where the ship does shine and perform very will is from as an expedition type of ship. If you were to book to go to Antarctica etc, you should find that side of it very exciting (however be warned it's only a very small ship that feels every single wave). Ie - one of our stops was Percy Island in the Whitsundays. The expedition crew had set up 80-90 beach umbrellas along our private beach with water tables, snorkelling gear, kayaks etc, and Zodiac us back and forth as required as often as we liked. The exhibition and naturalists (they gave very good talks on board) on board were really very very good, and don't deserve to be tarnished with the same brush.....

 

 

That is just crazy.

 

It never ceases to amaze me what some lines try to squeeze into a shore excursion, Newcastle Port to Hunter Valley Vineyards is almost an hour each way then two wineries then a garden, I presume Hunter Valley Gardens. Absolute madness in my opinion.

[PerfectlyPerth]

Thanks for sharing some of the experiences.

 

It gets very good reviews for its polar expeditions - but me being more of a "proper" expedition person - I am not interested in the luxury/expedition combo so its not one I would try out.

 

Food and service can be the make or break of any voyage and it sounds like this was where you were failed in a big way by them.

 

I do hope you have sent very firm and detailed feedback to the CEO.

[Floridiana]

Lanwood,

Thanks for writing. Your cruise sounds horrible. They must have had a total breakdown in the kitchen. Our cruise is along the coasts of China, Korea and Japan. If it is as bad as yours, I will definitely warn our travel agent who specializes in cruises for a very large agency. She always wants to know how things went.

 

We have been on small French Polynesian ships before (Aranui 2 and 3, Haumana), no problems with the language or attitude so far. It's not my first language, but I used to speak it fluently in my job.

 

We have been on a Princess 'circumnavigation of Australia' cruise and found the ship in dire need of refurbishment but otherwise ok. I loved that so many Australian ports offered transportation into the towns and excursions we could spontaneously book ashore. In Burnie, the mayor welcomed us! All Australian passengers (except one) were easygoing. I loved speaking to the people who came from sheep and cattle stations inland. What a different life!

[MMDown Under]

Hi Floridiana - are you French? If so, I think you won't have a problem as they key staff (Maitre D's etc) spent all their time with them, conversing with them, topping up their drinks and wines etc. And the French passengers clearly were not that too impressed about having such a large group of English speakers on board "their" ship, and were not too shy about it either.

 

Service and organisation is where this ship fails. To me, it's too much an emphasis on the crew wanting to spend all their time ashore (they're all there getting on and off with you at everyport - All of them. and rushing back just in time for Dinner service). I know this in normal and we see it on all cruises, but not to this extreme, and organised/rostered more responsibly. We did feel, as I posted earlier, that it started to feel, we were just a means (and an inconvience) for the crew to see the world.

The restaurants were terribly ran and organised. My personal opinion (and this in just my opinion so take it with a grain of salt) it that the 2 young French Matre D's were far to young and inexperienced to be running a restaurant of that size with so many waiters (who's French and English weren't the greatest, nor there customer service skills). We did find 2 waiters in the far back left corner who new what they were doing and we tried our best to sit with them when possible, but I think other passengers caught on to this as well as their tables started getting reserved signs on them unfortunately.

 

Where the ship does shine and perform very will is from as an expedition type of ship. If you were to book to go to Antarctica etc, you should find that side of it very exciting (however be warned it's only a very small ship that feels every single wave). Ie - one of our stops was Percy Island in the Whitsundays. The expedition crew had set up 80-90 beach umbrellas along our private beach with water tables, snorkelling gear, kayaks etc, and Zodiac us back and forth as required as often as we liked. The exhibition and naturalists (they gave very good talks on board) on board were really very very good, and don't deserve to be tarnished with the same brush.....

 

I was pleased to read that the Expedition/Naturalist Side of the cruise was very good, as Ponant are offering some interesting itineraries.

 

Ponant has appointed an Australian Vice-President - Australasia, Monique Ponfoort, so they are obviously interested in building their passenger base here. You might like to contact her to advise of the problems you encountered on your cruise, especially in relation to the restaurant situation, which should be an enjoyable part of any cruise.

 

Half a day to Hunter Valley from Newcastle for a busload? The excursion to Hunter Valley sounded really horrible - such a pity for rushed passengers, in a beautiful part of Australia, and for all the locals who support these excursions.

 

It is funny the things you take for granted on a cruise. I have always experienced excellent wait staff on every cruise, but was not impressed with the wait staff on my last cruise. On the other hand, I've observed some very rude and unhelpful Reception Staff on a cruise. On my last cruise, the reception staff was the best I've encountered on any cruise. Nothing was too much trouble, service with a smile always. Attitude is the key, as well as an excellent Hotel Manager (and Maitre D).

[MMDown Under]

 

Ponant has appointed an Australian Vice-President - Australasia, Monique Ponfoort, so they are obviously interested in building their passenger base here. You might like to contact her to advise of the problems you encountered on your cruise, especially in relation to the restaurant situation, which should be an enjoyable part of any cruise.

 

Sarina Bratton is the Chairman, Australasia. She was the founder of Orion Expedition Cruises.

[Lanwood]

I do hope you have sent very firm and detailed feedback to the CEO.

 

Yep....we didn't hand in our questionaires, but sent them direct to their Marsailles head office.....just in case....

[MicCanberra]

Yep....we didn't hand in our questionaires, but sent them direct to their Marsailles head office.....just in case....

 

It will be interesting to see if the respond in some way.

[The_Big_M]

It will be interesting to see if the respond in some way.

 

Not sure they'd respond to the standard questionnaire. But if you gave specific, separate feedback, I'm sure they would.