Review of Ponant Icelandic Loop August 22-29, 2019

[schnapperin]

And for the upgrade - we had someone on her 4th cruise with Ponant and she didn‘t got an upgrade since Ponant decided to use the rooms on Deck 5for the expedition team (or in that case National Geographic team) and she got no upgrade and stayed on Deck 3 - others had more luck as first time traveller and got an upgrade 

[SGilly]

2 minutes ago, schnapperin said:

Might be able to help with the embarkation question since I did it a month ago in Montevideo for an Antartica cruise.

 

Our times had been 4 to 5 pm and when I showed up at 4 pm there was already a bit of a line ahead of me. But from what I gathered it might be possible to arrive half an hour earlier, not like showing up a couple of hours before. 
 

The process was super easy, telling name and room number, a quick check if my bag had a label, going trough immigration and then leaving the bags before boarding a bus for a super quick bus ride.

 

A handhake with the captain later, they simply swapped my passport for the room key, a quick picture stop and of I was shown to my room - probably 5 minutes in total? Luggage showed up 30 minutes later, and we had a life on board welcome at 5.30 pm

Thank you! I was thinking of getting to the port at 3:30-that should work perfectly!

[Host Jazzbeau]

11 hours ago, SGilly said:

Jazzbeau,

I promise to leave a review, although it won't be anywhere as detailed and wonderful as yours!

 

Will you be spending any time in Auckland? If you're a foodie, I have a great restaurant experience (it only has 6 seats) that I recommend-we were there in October. It's called Pasture. Expensive-but worth it! 

 

Thanks for the restaurant recommendation.  We're already booked into The Grove, but we have a couple of other nights so I'll check this out.

[yogagal47]

So happy to go back and find this wonderful, detailed trip report.  We are vaccinated so we've signed up for Backroads trip this summer. Hoping it will happen. Your report gives a very good idea of what to expect. You mention hiking poles so I assume you had your own from home or did BR provide them?

Are you happy you arrived two days pre-cruise? Also just wondering why you switched hotels at the beginning? Would it have been difficult to take a taxi to the departure hotel on the first morning? Thanks for any advice. Julie

[yogagal47]

Backroads says not to book a flight before 1pm on disembarkation day but we will already be in port the night before    Can we not rise early and arrange a transfer to the airport to get a flight around 10:40-11am? We will go a few days early pre-cruise and do some touring on our own so I believe we will want to get home that day. Thanks for any tips.

[Host Jazzbeau]

5 hours ago, yogagal47 said:

So happy to go back and find this wonderful, detailed trip report.  We are vaccinated so we've signed up for Backroads trip this summer. Hoping it will happen. Your report gives a very good idea of what to expect. You mention hiking poles so I assume you had your own from home or did BR provide them?

Are you happy you arrived two days pre-cruise? Also just wondering why you switched hotels at the beginning? Would it have been difficult to take a taxi to the departure hotel on the first morning? Thanks for any advice. Julie

Thanks.

 

I have PacerPoles, which are unique in having hand-shaped grips that are much easier on the wrists than the typical straight poles [http://www.pacerpole.com/]  They also had some poles available, but none like mine.

 

Very glad we arrived two days early, as it gave us a good chance to explore Reykjavik at our own pace while recovering from jet lag [DW doesn't do well with time changes – and JFK to Iceland is much shorter than your flight will be]

 

We switched hotels because the Backroads hotel [Natura] is far away from the tourist areas of Reykjavik, while the Konsulat is right in the middle of everything.  We transferred to the Backroads hotel for two reasons:  (1) to make the early start as easy as possible with a last-minute freshen-up in our room after breakfast, and (2) in the hope of meeting some of our fellow-travelers the night before [that part didn't work].  I would do it again the same way, as the Konsulat is also a much nicer hotel and its location really was terrific as we walked in every direction out from it as the center.

[Host Jazzbeau]

3 hours ago, yogagal47 said:

Backroads says not to book a flight before 1pm on disembarkation day but we will already be in port the night before    Can we not rise early and arrange a transfer to the airport to get a flight around 10:40-11am? We will go a few days early pre-cruise and do some touring on our own so I believe we will want to get home that day. Thanks for any tips.

We weren't sure where the ship was going to be at the end of the cruise [there seemed to be a possibility that it would be at the old harbor in downtown Reykjavik – that did not happen, it was in Hafnarfjörður Harbor at both ends of the cruise].  If you are planning to fly straight out, Hafnarfjörður is much closer to the airport than Reykjavik.

 

But re-read the parts of my blog about how bad weather forced a major change in our itinerary.  We didn't go back to Hafnarfjörður via a calm sail up from Heimaey but were chased by a storm down the West coast of Iceland.  I didn't pay attention to when we finally made port, but if people had early flights they would have been quite worried about making them.  I would follow Backroads' advice on that.  Perhaps you could book a night at the Natura hotel [it's right at the airport] and use the day for a tour to Geysir and the Blue Lagoon [which are nearby and not covered by the Backroads excursions.

[cruising cockroach]

On 4/22/2021 at 11:33 AM, Host Jazzbeau said:

But re-read the parts of my blog about how bad weather forced a major change in our itinerary.  We didn't go back to Hafnarfjörður via a calm sail up from Heimaey but were chased by a storm down the West coast of Iceland.  I didn't pay attention to when we finally made port, but if people had early flights they would have been quite worried about making them.  I would follow Backroads' advice on that.  Perhaps you could book a night at the Natura hotel [it's right at the airport] and use the day for a tour to Geysir and the Blue Lagoon [which are nearby and not covered by the Backroads excursions.

 

There may not be too much slack built into Ponant schedules.  Earlier that year, I had a no-stop repo from Honolulu to Maizuru.  On the original schedule, the ship was supposed to sail at noon but instead set sail in the mid/late afternoon.  I also noticed that the schedule was for X nights but with crossing the IDL, it would have been X-1.  E-mailed Marseilles to inquire and they insisted all was right.

 

The ship's crew knew about crossing the IDL and even had a demonstration presented by the captain and featuring the dancers.

 

At any rate, there was a Pacific storm so the ship had to initially sail a more southerly course (pretty much due west) after passing the end of the Hawaii chain (French frigate shoals or whatever) rather than a more NW course.  I was wondering if the ship was going to make Maizuru (I had OpenCPN, a marine navigating programme and a GPS for my computer) and at one point thought the ship was going to sail around the southern end of Honshu. It took quite a few more days before the ship started to steer NW towards the Strait of Hokkaido.  It was during the final 4 or 5 days that I figured the ship was not going to make Maizuru on time (very little from the crew) and had calculated remaining distance and how much time it was going to take at what speed.  Had a range and pretty much figured it wouldn't be until late afternoon.  A couple of days before schedule arrival, the crew 'fessed up and arrival would be 5p instead of 8a.  Needless to say, many - including the captain who lives in my part of the world - who had booked flights even for that evening missed their connections (Maizuru is still quite a way from KIX, the major airport).  We did get an extra lunch and tea out of the long disembarkation day not to mention the open bar and didn't mind.  Had to pay for a chartered bus to Kyoto (we had planned to take the train but arrival was running close to the last train of the day).

[FWinmoscow]

HI Jazz Beau , Great Blog . We are sailing with Le Bellot next August around the same dates as you did your trip . 

I wondered about wildlife watching from the boat . Were you able to see whales and birdlife from the boat ( I know it is the end of the puffin season so they might be gone )I am wondering about booking a whale watching excursion but if you get plentiful views from the boat it might be better to spend my money elsewhere . What do you think ?

 

Ponant looks super - really looking forward to it after reading your review but hoping for smoother seas . 

[Host Jazzbeau]

The puffins were gone when we were there, and we didn’t see whales from the ship. Might be different on other sailings. But the Captain seemed more concerned with keeping to schedule than stopping to watch a pod of whales. 

[Catlover54]

I was happy to see this thread bumped to 2021.

 

We did 10 days Iceland on the Crystal Endeavor this summer ( late July to early August, perfect timing) and know there is a lot more to see in Iceland despite three days in Reykjavik pre-cruise.  We were lucky to see both puffins ( many) and whales ( a few orcas).

 

FWinMoscow:  you would be better off booking a dedicated whale watching tour if you want greater odds of seeing whales.

 

Jazz, your blog and photos were a joy to read!.  DH and I used to do Backroads ( did Scotland hiking for our honeymoon!) , but even their Level 1-2 is now too strenuous for us with our health limitations, so we stick to moderate walking excursions off a ship.

 

We will be doing a Ponant cruise in April 2022, first one ever, and are tempted to book a second one -- perhaps Iceland again but from a different perspective -- for the immediate bennies you describe.

[cruising cockroach]

Book a 2nd cruise before you sail on your first one and you'll get base status benefits.

[AussieBoyTX]

14 hours ago, cruising cockroach said:

Book a 2nd cruise before you sail on your first one and you'll get base status benefits.

 

IMO, this is the BEST Ponant ProTip.