Lookingtocruise42

We are going to be on an Alaska cruise on the Nova that ends in Seward. My understanding is that we will have a train ride to Anchorage and then a (private) transfer to the airport. How does this work? Do they bus us to the train station? Is the train station walking distance from the port? What time should I plan for my departure flight? I was told 3:30pm, but that seems early, given that it is a 4.5 hour journey between Seward and Anchorage, no? Is 3:30pm a safe time for my flight?

Thanks! That is really helpful! How were the activities for someone that is not a huge swimmer? (I hate getting my head underwater unless I’m using a good snorkel. My husband goes diving though) Anything else fun about it to share?

This is a really informative review, thanks!

Thanks for everyone's feedback. We are doing LCC in December of 2025, will post a live blog then to help pay back the forum for helping with my answers 🙂

Hi! We are looking at either doing a "Gastronomy and wine" cruise on Ponant and are a bit confused as to what that actually means. All of the marketing material is pretty vague, as is what I have gotten by chatting with them on the phone. Both trips we are considering are based in the Caribbean, one is an "exploration" trip with "Gastronomy and wine". The other is just "expedition". It seems from what I can tell to mean that excursions are more pre-planned vs expedition. However, I would like to make sure that in even the exploration cruises that Ponant goes to more "off the beaten path" activities vs the major cruise tourist traps? So my questions: - Anyone here do one of their "Gastronomy and wine" "Relais and Chateuax" cruises? How is it different from a regular one for them? This one has a Michelin chef on it. - Anyone do both exploration and expedition with Ponant and able to talk a bit about the differences between them? These are both in the Caribbean, the expedition we are considering is in Belize, and the gastronomy and wine is around Fort-de-france (which does look like it might be a bit of a pain to get to) - If you have done one where they overnight you in Cancun before the cruise: which hotel did they put you up in?

We have decided on Ponant and dropped our deposit yesterday. Oddly we leave from Santiago instead of Bruno’s Aires for the flight to Ushuaia. The question of upgrading to biz class on the flight came up. So my question: how full is the transfer plane they use? Ie: will every row have an empty middle seat, or do we need to upgrade to business (which is the boring Euro style business with just a blocked seat and extra legroom) to ensure the full row without being squished? Are seats pre assigned? Does room category play into this?

Thanks! the post I put on Reddit very clearly told me to stay away from Scenic due to stabilizer issues. so we are booking Ponant today! super excited

Hi! we are looking at booking a 2 week cruise to Antarctica for winter 2025 and trying to determine between these two lines. we would be booking a Deluxe Suite for Ponant on the Le Commandant and the Penthouse suite for Scenic on their Eclipse. Pro for Ponant: - Lots of great reviews - Furnishings are high quality looking - Food is supposed to be good - Longer trip - Two story room! Cons for Ponant: - Slightly pricier (after Grand Admiral discount) - Food may be too heavily French influenced? - No fancy toys on boat - Few dining Venues? Pro for Scenic: - Massive deck for viewing the Antarctic - Larger hot tub (I think) - Multiple dining locations - Helicopter and Sub (might be just gimmicky though?) - Slightly Cheaper Con for scenic: - Furnishings look lower quality in videos - Many fewer reviews - Agent says the food is good, but I’m not seeing a ton on that either Have any of you been on both lines and have an opinion?

Hi! my husband and I (both m37) are looking at doing an Antarctica cruise in 25 or 26 and trying to determine the line to go with. We typically travel with luxury and stay at Luxury properties (Four Seasons, Rosewood, Aman, etc) and have done Disney cruises and booked a trip on the Silversea Nova for a couple of months for now. My gut reaction would be to go straight to the highest luxury lines I can find for Antarctica, however, my research has been showing that may not be the best option typically. So we are trying to find a nice balance of line and wanted opinions: What we want to do: - Go on land - Do some sort of “camping” - Hiking - Kayaking maybe - See animals - Sail the drake passage (I really love bumpy rides 😁) Quark. - I’m seeing a decent number of reviews stating that the Ultramarine is a nice balance of luxury and Expedition experience. I’m also seeing some feedback that they have a bunch of upcharges. Price seems to be pretty good when they run their 50 off sales. I think this is in the lead(Do they have exclusions in those sales? Or are literally all cruises in the region of sale on sale?) Lindblad - I’m seeing a ton of reviews talking about the quality of their expeditions, but not really much about the boat or food. I’m also unable to tell if their primary focus is on photos given the natgeo connection. Silversea - This would have been one of our first inclination. However: I’m not really seeing much talking about their expedition quality? Seabourn - The expedition ships seem to be quite nice, but when I looked they were 300+ passengers? So that seems to not be great for Antarctica, no? Pontant - The boats looked quite a bit older? Not sure if I was looking correctly, however. What other lines am I missing? Should I look at? Budget is going to be 30-40k. Probably somewhere between 7-12 days.

Thanks for the feedback!

Thanks so much for everything in the review. Made us excited for our trip. Only a few months to go! Only thing we are worried about now is that we are in our 30s and from everything we have heard, may be amongst the youngest passengers on board :).

This has been a great thread and so helpful :). Mind posting a picture of one of the daily plans? I’m curious what the daily activities look like.

They are allowing you to look at the other ships?

That brings up a question: you mentioned you added a short jaunt ahead on yours in a silver suite. Was it a regular bookable leg, or did you need your agent to price it out? With our Alaska cruise, we realized that the ship hits San Francisco 3 days before we start, and since we live in SF we are asking them to price out adding that leg. (oddly that leg seems to only exist on a 21 day cruise and a 30 day cruise…)

I beg to differ. The argument I’m making is simply: “I will meet the minimum required of dress code, as written.” The counter argument is a pearl-clutching: “You offend me by being comfortable!”. This whole thread is neither here nor there. All that Matters is the official policy.