Ponant's Le Boreal "Arctic Adventure Cruise" 8/2/2016

We took the August 2 – August 16, 2016 Abercrombie and Kent tour of the Arctic. This is our second time on the ship as we also sailed in December 2012 with the Abercrombie and Kent tour of Antarctica. Many of the ship crew (and staff) were the same as the previous tour. We found the crew, staff and A&K to be exceptional and excellent choices for delivering a tour that is very dynamic, flexible and not a simple checklist of ports/stops. We loved how the staff and crew added unexpected stops or landings when the opportunity appeared or we had more time in our schedule based on the great time we made crossing certain areas faster than expected. We should call out that we had great weather and this helped to made additional landings possible due to fast transit times.

The start of the tour was in Oslo Norway. We booked our first night at the Hotel Continental. What a great choice. What a great location. What great service. Highly recommended hotel when visiting Oslo. The second night was booked with A&K: Hotel Bristol. It was only a few blocks away from the Continental so the location was great – but we were very disappointed with the hotel quality and amenities for such a high price as part of the tour. The rooms were TINY and you could not even move a suitcase past the bed to the other side as there was no room to do so. The shower has no door since it is so close to the toilet and sink. You definitely do not want to be in the bathroom when someone else is taking a shower as you will also be soaking wet from all the spray. The room was also very warm…when we complained, they brought up a desk fan as the solution as there was no air conditioning…despite the fact we were in August, a summer month. The hotel lobby and décor were delightful, but the rooms definitely proved the hotel is mainly a turnkey large volume tourist hotel and not a luxury accommodation.

We stayed in cabin 416, a few doors down from last time. It appears that the fourth floor is the best value of all floors. It is conveniently located in the middle of most areas and available at a reasonable price. All the cabins (except one or two) are the same size, same décor and same amenities. If you like to be on a higher floor, the cost is elevated significantly, but you really do not receive any major or significant benefits. The ship has not been renovated since its launch, but we found that all cabins and ship were extremely well maintained and any damage, wear and tear has definitely been fixed or replaced despite being 7 years old.

All drinks are included, although if you prefer premium brands or beers, there are additional charges. The overall choices were quite nice and rarely did we find a need or feel a demand for paying for a premium brand. Also similar to our previous cruise on Le Boreal, we found the food to be excellent. There is always fresh bread, fresh cheese, fresh fruit and many choices…so many choices and so much food, nobody can eat it all. We mostly enjoyed the deck 6 buffet as the staff were excellent and the food choices met all our desires. The breakfast is a little more European style, but they do have eggs and bacon for the Americans and British when they want it. The deck 2 restaurant is definitely more of a premium, sit down service, but it does take significantly longer to complete a meal. The dinner meal takes (on average) 3 hours…which is a bit much for us. However, the larger event galas are quite fun and delightful. Nothing to complain about here.

The entertainment is a limited, but the reality is this is an explorer/adventure cruise. It more about the itinerary and not the luxuries…although the ship is certainly 5 star in most aspects. Some say it is not as luxurious as a Seaborn cruise, but it is up there. In the deck 6 forward lounge, they have some nice piano music every evening and in the lower deck 2 lounge, it is more of a cover band (man and women) playing different music to entertain guests. There is only 1 or two evening entertainment acts in the entire trip…many evenings are spent with some documentary movies or late night lectures. I guess this appeals to the dominant older audience more than others, but it was only a small disappointment and not the overall goal of this trip. Not many people stay up late actually, but it is quite fun when in the Arctic Circle when there is no sunset, no darkness and you can spot whales, polar bears or other wildlife at 1:00 in the morning. It feels very difficult, but is quite a fun adventure when you cross above the 78-degree north latitude.

For the outings, you definitely want and need the rubber boots. Almost all landings were “wet” and stepping out of the zodiacs into the water when you come ashore. You definitely also need the warm jackets, hats and gloves as some days the wind is cold and it is hard to stay warm on a long zodiac ride without it. However, as we often did, you also want lighter clothing that you can wear for more comfortable walking and hiking once ashore. We usually shed the heavier clothing and then put them back on when we got back on the zodiacs.

The crew were excellent in discovering and spotting wildlife throughout the tour. The A&K crew work closely with the Le Boreal crew to make decisions where and when to visit different spots and their work to manage the travel speed during great weather to provide buffer when wildlife was spotted was very much appreciated. Only one of the landings/expeditions was a poor location or a bad use of time in the Greenland fjords. It is possible we were fortunate to spot wildlife on every other landing/expedition and this one was merely normal. I think we saw a total of 12 polar bears on our trip which was very exceptional and fortunate to the hard work of the crew to be watching and searching for wildlife 24x7. Be ready, the sightings may not occur until 1:00 or 3:00 in the morning, but when you have 24 hours of daylight in the Arctic Circle, it is much easier to stay up late.

The ship does have Internet connectivity and they charge about 15 euros per hour of connectivity. It is not high speed and don’t try sending large pictures by email or uploading them to sites. It just will not work. It is also very spotty…and when you are up above 78 degrees north latitude, there is no coverage. The azimuth to the global satellites is too far off and you will have to live without connectivity for 3-4 days. When you are also in the Greenland fjords, the mountains will also block the connection so you will have limited connectivity here as well. The CNN/CNBC/BBC stations are also spotty dependent on the satellite connection. The ship does have a nice collection of recent movies which made some of the relax time in the rooms nice when taking a rest between expeditions.

If you would like to see some pictures or a more detailed itinerary, check out our blog that is in my Cruise Critic signature.