Jim_Iain - First Non-Celebrity Cruise in 22 year - Ponant vs Celebrity Comparison

[Jim_Iain]

 

 

Iain and I will be embarking on our first Non-Celebrity Cruise in 22 years a week from today.  

 

We have been very satisfied with Celebrity and never seen a need to cruise another line because Celebrity was a perfect match for us.   Celebrity has made some major changes in the past 1 1/2- 2 Years and finally reached the point for us to say -  Loyalty is a two way street.    Kinda like catching your spouse cheating we have come to conclude it is  time for a trail separation and possibly a divorce.   

 

It may take me awhile to get sorted out on how I am going to post a comparison between Ponant and Celebrity and Live Post at the same time.    Ponant is a  totally different products.

 

Ponant's Cruise Critic Forum https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/846-ponant/  is also very different to the very popular and free ranging Celebrity Forum.   Ponant's forum is only 15 pages long and their are no Roll Calls.      Most live post only run 1 or 2 pages and have very little banter.   For this reason I want to be respectful of their Forum and at the same time drive some of you to visit Ponant's Forum and understand their product offering.

[lv2cruisgrl]

Can't wait to hear about your experiences!  We also are thinking we maybe Ex-X-Cruisers!  However we have no idea which other line we will choose to try.  

[phoenix_dream]

3 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

 

Iain and I will be embarking on our first Non-Celebrity Cruise in 22 years a week from today.  

 

We have been very satisfied with Celebrity and never seen a need to cruise another line because Celebrity was a perfect match for us.   Celebrity has made some major changes in the past 1 1/2- 2 Years and finally reached the point for us to say -  Loyalty is a two way street.    Kinda like catching your spouse cheating we have come to conclude it is  time for a trail separation and possibly a divorce.   

 

It may take me awhile to get sorted out on how I am going to post a comparison between Ponant and Celebrity and Live Post at the same time.    Ponant is a  totally different products.

 

Ponant's Cruise Critic Forum https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/846-ponant/  is also very different to the very popular and free ranging Celebrity Forum.   Ponant's forum is only 15 pages long and their are no Roll Calls.      Most live post only run 1 or 2 pages and have very little banter.   For this reason I want to be respectful of their Forum and at the same time drive some of you to visit Ponant's Forum and understand their product offering.

I will be very interested in hearing about your experience.  Had the pleasure of meeting you at a CC gathering in the Zenith area a few cruises ago, and have followed many of your posts.  It is so very, very sad to see people like yourselves feeling that you need to try other lines to try to capture the greatness Celebrity once was.  We have 7 X cruises booked in the coming year, but are definitely after 20+ years considering other lines for beyond that.  We will still definitely enjoy our booked cruises, but as loyal cruisers we will no doubt notice what is now missing.  Enjoy your cruise!

[gordylad]

why ponant? curious..I am not sure the comparison will be of relevance to many of us here in the Celebrity forum (I may be wrong) considering the cost of ponant

Edited September 1, 2023 by gordylad

[gfkcruiser]

Look forward to reading your opinion.  We will be on the Beyond end of October for the TA. Then sailing in February/March on the Beyond and then a TA EB on Equinox.   After that will decide if want to seek other lines. Ponant a bit above my budget.  
 

Was nice talking to you on the Apex.  
gail

[Jim_Iain]

15 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

I will be very interested in hearing about your experience.  Had the pleasure of meeting you at a CC gathering in the Zenith area a few cruises ago, and have followed many of your posts.  It is so very, very sad to see people like yourselves feeling that you need to try other lines to try to capture the greatness Celebrity once was.  We have 7 X cruises booked in the coming year, but are definitely after 20+ years considering other lines for beyond that.  We will still definitely enjoy our booked cruises, but as loyal cruisers we will no doubt notice what is now missing.  Enjoy your cruise!

I remember well meeting you and was happy you introduced yourself.   I have really enjoyed meeting so many from Cruise Critic and really learns so much on a daily basis.

 

We still have 5 cruise booked with Celebrity so we may find during our separation allows us to see what else is available.    I will be fun to find out if the changes at Celebrity are endemic of changes in the cruise industry or unique to Celebrity's new Management.

 

[Jim_Iain]

22 minutes ago, lv2cruisgrl said:

Can't wait to hear about your experiences!  We also are thinking we maybe Ex-X-Cruisers!  However we have no idea which other line we will choose to try.  

 

This is definitely a totally different experience than Celebrity and will be a fun see the differences and similarities.

[DUTRAVEL]

Hi Jim,

 

I hope you enjoy your cruise! Henrietta and I will be following along with great interest.

 

Dianne

[bjahil47]

Can’t wait to hear about your cruise!  We are loyal to Celebrity and will be boarding Equinox in a few weeks.  I am looking for another cruise line for a March cruise.

[Jim_Iain]

19 minutes ago, gordylad said:

why ponant? curious..I am not sure the comparison will be of relevance to many of us here in the Celebrity forum (I may be wrong) considering the cost of ponant

 

The main reason for Ponant is kinda simple.   My best friend from Australia is a big Ponant Cruiser and have tried for years to get us to join them on one of their expedition cruises.      We decided to pick a relatively short cruise (8 days) which is a short flight away to see if it is a match.  

 

Some of the comparisons are also things like - perks, communication, passenger mix, food, drink, entertainment etc.  

 

We are also researching Azamara, Seaborne, Oceania and Silver Seas.

[Jim_Iain]

22 minutes ago, gfkcruiser said:

Look forward to reading your opinion.  We will be on the Beyond end of October for the TA. Then sailing in February/March on the Beyond and then a TA EB on Equinox.   After that will decide if want to seek other lines. Ponant a bit above my budget.  
 

Was nice talking to you on the Apex.  
gail

 

Gail -   We really enjoyed meeting you on Apex.    She is a beautiful ship and really enjoyed.  

 

The good news for many of you more interested in Celebrity,  is that we will also be sailing on Edge in November/December on the 2nd half of the World Cruise.   I'm really excited about that cruise because we know so many CC friends and so many we have never met face to face.

[Jim_Iain]

7 minutes ago, DUTRAVEL said:

Hi Jim,

 

I hope you enjoy your cruise! Henrietta and I will be following along with great interest.

 

Dianne

 

Thanks you Dianne -  Hope you are doing well.   I'm sure your working hard to teach Henrietta to read the forum to you.    After you, she is one of my favorite CC followers.

[Jim_Iain]

6 minutes ago, bjahil47 said:

Can’t wait to hear about your cruise!  We are loyal to Celebrity and will be boarding Equinox in a few weeks.  I am looking for another cruise line for a March cruise.

 

Thanks much -   It will really be helpful if some of you recommend other cruise lines to explore.    I think high on our demand list are itineraries other than the standard Caribbean and Mediterranean and of a duration 14+ days.  

 

Top on my list is a life long dream to visit Africa.   

[gfkcruiser]

6 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

Gail -   We really enjoyed meeting you on Apex.    She is a beautiful ship and really enjoyed.  

 

The good news for many of you more interested in Celebrity,  is that we will also be sailing on Edge in November/December on the 2nd half of the World Cruise.   I'm really excited about that cruise because we know so many CC friends and so many we have never met face to face.

What year is that world cruise?  Did not see the info. 

[hcat]

Jim

We will follow you here and on the Ponant Board..will make a great read as usual!

 

what ship will u be on and which style stateroom...?  All very diff than  X..

[Mark_T]

Excellent! ... been looking forward to this one.

 

Will drop by the Ponant forum as well of course.

 

We've been experimenting with MSC Yacht Club, and considering returning to Regent, so looking for ward to hearing more about Ponant.

[Lena11033]

I'm looking forward to your review. On my MSC cruise in April I met a lovely Frenchman who I spent most the week talking to and he was telling me (and showing me pictures) of his cruises on Ponant with his husband. It looked and sounded really good so would be interesting to have someone else's view as that was his main cruise line like your friend.

[dock]

Will be following along and looking forward to reading about your observations as we are looking at other lines. 
 

We have a cruise on Ascent (Retreat) booked in Feb’24 and then Oceania Vista in July’24. 
 

O cruise for 10 days with equivalent type of stateroom etc worked out cheaper than 7 days on Ascent. We have never done Edge class or Retreat so are looking forward to the cruise but for us it’s time to start looking at other options. 
 

Thank you for taking the time to post. 
 

[JackE]

Jim, very much looking forward to your report! So curious about Ponant. I really enjoyed your last one(s). We were just on the Edge in the Med sailing from Barcelona to Rome and had a great time. I think the Luminae team was exceptional. 

[Orator]

48 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

The main reason for Ponant is kinda simple.   My best friend from Australia is a big Ponant Cruiser and have tried for years to get us to join them on one of their expedition cruises.      We decided to pick a relatively short cruise (8 days) which is a short flight away to see if it is a match.  

 

Some of the comparisons are also things like - perks, communication, passenger mix, food, drink, entertainment etc.  

 

We are also researching Azamara, Seaborne, Oceania and Silver Seas.

Be sure to look at Crystal. Have a great cruise!

[Jim_Iain]

37 minutes ago, gfkcruiser said:

What year is that world cruise?  Did not see the info. 

 It is this year and "World Cruise" is always a bit of a stretch.   The cruise is this year  and is 52 Nights in 4 segments - October 30 - December 21, 2023

 

Segments -

Rome to Dubai

Dubai to Singapore

Singapore to Sydney

Sydney to New Zealand and back

 

 

[Lastdance]

I am looking forward to your comparison, as I know it will be specific and non-biased.  Unfortunately, Celebrity has challenged many of us to experience different lines, so I do have Oceania booked in my future.  If I(we) don’t look, I will never know what is available beyond the scope of Celebrity and just flat-out accept all the changes...

~Thanks, Jim, for sharing in advance!😃

[Jim_Iain]

40 minutes ago, hcat said:

Jim

We will follow you here and on the Ponant Board..will make a great read as usual!

 

what ship will u be on and which style stateroom...?  All very diff than  X..

 

Thanks and welcome.    Hope you jump in often it really helps keeping the Live Post interesting.

 

We are on Le Belot  in a Prestige Suite on Deck 6, unless they give us a gratis upgrade on our first cruise.... LOL

[Jim_Iain]

37 minutes ago, Mark_T said:

Excellent! ... been looking forward to this one.

 

Will drop by the Ponant forum as well of course.

 

We've been experimenting with MSC Yacht Club, and considering returning to Regent, so looking for ward to hearing more about Ponant.

To be honest Charla's live post from MSC Yacht Club was a real eye opener.    We really have an open mind.    I hate to say it is like cheating for the first time and discovering you LIKE IT. 

[Jim_Iain]

20 minutes ago, Lena11033 said:

I'm looking forward to your review. On my MSC cruise in April I met a lovely Frenchman who I spent most the week talking to and he was telling me (and showing me pictures) of his cruises on Ponant with his husband. It looked and sounded really good so would be interesting to have someone else's view as that was his main cruise line like your friend.

 

I was a bit concerned with the French Speaking issues some have had but I understand they are pretty good at accommodating both English / French speaking guests.     I do have to admit my favorite Cuisine is French so that's a positive.

 

Iain speaks French fluently so at least he can help if necessary.