Planning a Ponant cruise in Japan

[Peterian]

Hello ..  Peter and I have done a few cruises with Celebrity to Alaska, with Holland America from NYC to Quebec City and from Hong Kong to Singapore, and finally with Oceania from Singapore to Melbourne. With each of these cruises we used this forum to get information as well as meeting people. We are now thinking of flying to Japan, where we have previously been, and doing a cruise, with a line such as Ponant, around parts of Japan that we have not been to.  Are there any people here that have done such a cruise, or may be thinking of doing one. Our last trip to Japan was in the magnificent autumn season, and we are not yet sure what time we would like to do this cruise. Probably not keen on cherry blossom time. We look forward to any thoughts and ideas on this type of cruise, as well as on Ponant itself. 

[jpalbny]

We have not yet been to Japan, but we have sailed with Ponant twice and have two more cruises booked. We enjoy the new ships and the onboard experience. The itineraries are really intriguing; in fact there are several in 2025 which are calling to us.

 

We have cruised Celebrity and Oceania in the past but not in about 15 years. Our current line of choice is Silversea, and we find Ponant similar in many ways. Ponant expedition cruises compare very favorably to those on Silversea.

 

One difference you will find, if you're used to the bigger ships with multiple specialty restaurants, is that the food selections are more limited. The quality is quite good but you will not have the same variety of selections that you'd have on the larger ships. If that is a problem, you should be aware. I think some of us have posted menus in our trip reports (I have a few links in my signature).

 

I hope you have a nice cruise, whatever you decide! Feel free to ask any specific questions, but the board over here is a little less active than the other boards you may be used to.

[Becky2010]

We've only sailed once with Ponant, and once with Silversea (both expeditions) and so we are not big cruisers! We loved both, but if I sailed with Ponant again, as an English speaker, I think I would seek out trips organized by Tauck or Smithsonian that had more English speakers on board. One of the things we loved about our trip on Silversea (Galapagos, 100 passengers), was getting to know who we were sailing with, and that was much harder with such few English speakers onboard our Ponant trip. BTW there was no snobbiness or rudeness, just many less opportunities as probably only 30% of the passengers spoke English. Everyone onboard was kind and gracious. Personally I loved the decor and the casualness much more on Ponant. I thought the ship (Dumont D'urville) was gorgeous and comfortable and lovely. We also have visited Japan and the fall, and have been looking at cruises there as well! In specific — the Smithsonian one! Good luck researching. This isn't a very active forum, and I found it pretty hard to find out a lot of information before our trip!

[cboyle]

@Peterian, you may want to read the reviews of Ponant's Japan cruises that are here on Cruise Critic (https://www.cruisecritic.com/compagnie-du-ponant-japan-cruises_cl132-de213/mra/). There are only nine and, as typical for most cruises, very mixed.

 

@marooncruiser and I will be taking two cruises on L'Soleal back-to-back in May: "The Best of Japan" and "Cultural and Natural Treasures of Japan by Sea – with Smithsonian Journeys." As is our wont, we will be writing detailed reports after we return and publishing them here on Cruise Critic.

[Peterian]

7 hours ago, cboyle said:

@Peterian, you may want to read the reviews of Ponant's Japan cruises that are here on Cruise Critic (https://www.cruisecritic.com/compagnie-du-ponant-japan-cruises_cl132-de213/mra/). There are only nine and, as typical for most cruises, very mixed.

 

@marooncruiser and I will be taking two cruises on L'Soleal back-to-back in May: "The Best of Japan" and "Cultural and Natural Treasures of Japan by Sea – with Smithsonian Journeys." As is our wont, we will be writing detailed reports after we return and publishing them here on Cruise Critic.

Thank you for that. I will look out for your reviews.

 

[Peterian]

9 hours ago, Becky2010 said:

We've only sailed once with Ponant, and once with Silversea (both expeditions) and so we are not big cruisers! We loved both, but if I sailed with Ponant again, as an English speaker, I think I would seek out trips organized by Tauck or Smithsonian that had more English speakers on board. One of the things we loved about our trip on Silversea (Galapagos, 100 passengers), was getting to know who we were sailing with, and that was much harder with such few English speakers onboard our Ponant trip. BTW there was no snobbiness or rudeness, just many less opportunities as probably only 30% of the passengers spoke English. Everyone onboard was kind and gracious. Personally I loved the decor and the casualness much more on Ponant. I thought the ship (Dumont D'urville) was gorgeous and comfortable and lovely. We also have visited Japan and the fall, and have been looking at cruises there as well! In specific — the Smithsonian one! Good luck researching. This isn't a very active forum, and I found it pretty hard to find out a lot of information before our trip!

Thank for that. The English language issue, althoughthey do speak it, is becoming a concern for us in sailing Ponant. 

[Peterian]

9 hours ago, jpalbny said:

We have not yet been to Japan, but we have sailed with Ponant twice and have two more cruises booked. We enjoy the new ships and the onboard experience. The itineraries are really intriguing; in fact there are several in 2025 which are calling to us.

 

We have cruised Celebrity and Oceania in the past but not in about 15 years. Our current line of choice is Silversea, and we find Ponant similar in many ways. Ponant expedition cruises compare very favorably to those on Silversea.

 

One difference you will find, if you're used to the bigger ships with multiple specialty restaurants, is that the food selections are more limited. The quality is quite good but you will not have the same variety of selections that you'd have on the larger ships. If that is a problem, you should be aware. I think some of us have posted menus in our trip reports (I have a few links in my signature).

 

I hope you have a nice cruise, whatever you decide! Feel free to ask any specific questions, but the board over here is a little less active than the other boards you may be used to.

Well that is good advice. Thank you. . Ponant is becoming less favourable to us the more we read some comments on here, although the ships would be amazing actually. We may stick to a medium size ship, around the 1000 x 1500 is a nice number we feel. We have always done that size ship. Within Japan is our main intention here, so we will continue to look for which ship does what we are look for. 

[LittleFish1976]

On 2/26/2024 at 9:54 AM, Peterian said:

Well that is good advice. Thank you. . Ponant is becoming less favourable to us the more we read some comments on here, although the ships would be amazing actually. We may stick to a medium size ship, around the 1000 x 1500 is a nice number we feel. We have always done that size ship. Within Japan is our main intention here, so we will continue to look for which ship does what we are look for. 

I wouldn't be put off by the Ponant ships not having 'multiple specialty restaurants'. The food they do have in the two restaurants is generally better quality than you will find on many or most mainstream lines so there's no need to shop around looking for a meal you would enjoy.

 

From memory the Japanese itineraries are quite short so I wouldn't see a need for more variety. I recently completed 10 nights on board Ponant - my first Ponant experience. I was very impressed and booked another cruise whilst on board.

 

I think you'd find a lot of English speakers on a Japanese itinerary, being distant from Europe, and I would think you'd find a lot of Australians on board (as we found on our Antarctic itinerary). All the staff speak English; almost all the housekeeping and restaurant staff are from Asian countries and so do not have French as their mother tongue anyway.

 

I'm travelling to Japan in a few weeks for a long cruise on Cunard (just around Japan!); cherry blossom time in the north but mild weather all over the country hopefully. Summers there can be very hot so I would avoid that time of year. I've only travelled overland in Japan previously but expect that cruising will be an excellent way of seeing a wide-spread area efficiently and easily. If you decide on a Ponant cruise I would add on either another cruise there taking in other locations or some land travel to see more places.

 

Best of luck with your planning and decision-making.

 

[Peterian]

18 minutes ago, LittleFish1976 said:

I wouldn't be put off by the Ponant ships not having 'multiple specialty restaurants'. The food they do have in the two restaurants is generally better quality than you will find on many or most mainstream lines so there's no need to shop around looking for a meal you would enjoy.

 

From memory the Japanese itineraries are quite short so I wouldn't see a need for more variety. I recently completed 10 nights on board Ponant - my first Ponant experience. I was very impressed and booked another cruise whilst on board.

 

I think you'd find a lot of English speakers on a Japanese itinerary, being distant from Europe, and I would think you'd find a lot of Australians on board (as we found on our Antarctic itinerary). All the staff speak English; almost all the housekeeping and restaurant staff are from Asian countries and so do not have French as their mother tongue anyway.

 

I'm travelling to Japan in a few weeks for a long cruise on Cunard (just around Japan!); cherry blossom time in the north but mild weather all over the country hopefully. Summers there can be very hot so I would avoid that time of year. I've only travelled overland in Japan previously but expect that cruising will be an excellent way of seeing a wide-spread area efficiently and easily. If you decide on a Ponant cruise I would add on either another cruise there taking in other locations or some land travel to see more places.

 

Best of luck with your planning and decision-making.

 

Thanks for your advice. We did Japan on our own in 2019. We did it in autumn to see the colour and it was amazing. We just felt a cruise this time around Japan would be nice, even though you see less of course of each spot.