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1 hour ago, AussieBoyTX said:

 

Yes, Ponant offers an additional 5% for booking on board and I like the adjoining cabins idea...

 

If five of us decided to go, we'd get an additional 5% off -- we'll ask about it while we're on board Lyrial.

 

I wonder what's on offer the week after? We had our eyes on the Tropical Odyssey between North East Australia and Indonesia and might consider back-to-back if that's the follow-on cruise.

I’m thinking it will head from Darwin and start the Kimberley cruises? Although there may be another cruise in between, there’s nothing on the website past this cruise.

I get about 3% discount from my TA on SS.

Krka is indeed spectacular, we went a few years ago on a land based Croatia trip, will you get to see Plitvice?

Thanks for the trip report 🙂

Love the itinerary, something we may consider as we would also like to do a tropical expedition.

My hubby is a diver, so he would love it.

Does anyone know (AussieboyTX) if there is any bonus for booking on board?

Being that we will be on Le Boreal in 2 months, it may be worthwhile holding off and booking on board.

The other bonus here is the no single supplement, so could consider booking two adjoining cabins for the same price.

What about Tauck? They do partial charters I think??

Assume it will be and A&K charter, they seem to do partial charters.

Although when we did Antarctica there was a Japanese group of approx 30 people not sure it was a charter but they did not impact our holiday at all.

2 hours ago, AussieBoyTX said:

We’ve never shown a paper ticket. The greeter just checks us off against the list. 

Yeah I didn’t think so, I don’t think we had anything when we went to Antarctica 

Assume you don’t need the paper tickets to board? 
We are spending 2 weeks in the Uk prior to flying to Norway to board the cruise. 
Obviously won’t have luggage tags for bags either.

Star cluster it is still being sold on the website..crazy if they have cancelled it.

Highly unlikely they will cancel the Antarctic cruise as they would lose to many $$$

6 hours ago, starcluster2 said:

Do you still think that your trip will be a 'go'? My trip from Talcahuano to Ushuaia was also cancelled today, big upset with my plans as I've already booked my flights and such. Like, how does Ponant get the ship from Nome to Ushuaia without going down the west coast of the Americas? Do they turn around and go back to the Atlantic and go south that way?? Much to think about with my trip now as it will not be as I anticipated, I like spending days at sea. Also, a lot of money involved at the moment, it may be that I'll never get to go to the Antarctic again. Must check their web site to see what else is cancelled - if it goes that far out. 

Oh wow, thats terrible,have they said why its cancelled?? Agree that they need to get the ship down there, so it doesn’t make sense.

Our trip was changed from NE passage to NW passage, still starting and ending in the same ports just an extended cruise.

Our trip was only changed to the new itinerary in April, so I cant imagine they will change again, but I’m concerned now. I know there was a lot of cancellations when they changed the itinerary and there are a lot of cabins available but like you said they have to get the ship down to Antartica somehow.

We did Svalbard in early August and just used our waterproof boots for everything. You need them for wet landings, and most people just leave them on.

On 6/18/2022 at 2:56 AM, Cie said:

We were booked and have decided to go now on the NW passage.  Hoping to meet some of you on the ship.  5 extra days at no charge is a great bonus too.  Just had to change hotels in Nome since we decided to stay there 2 nites.  

 

Hi Cie, We will see you on board,

WE had to change our hotel in Seattle but I had booked free cancellation hotels, so that was easy.

Our only additional charge was a night in Singapore on the way home, but we were happy as we had business class flights booked on points and they were able to transfer them onto another business class flight albeit with the additional night in Singapore.

I did start a roll call and noticed that 10-1 has also confirmed they are going on th cruise.

Maybe we can chat over there..

On 6/16/2022 at 7:28 AM, starcluster2 said:

 

I wish that I had seen this before I booked, I think it is a great resource for someone looking for a 'bonus' - every little thing helps.

 

I am booked on a back-to-back cruise November 22 on Le Boreal. Ocean cruise from Talcahuano and the Great Austral Loop following. Anybody on those cruises? Or is there a 'roll call' for those cruises?

 

Hi Starcluster, not on those cruises but I’m on the cruise before yours (northwest passage), however there is a big gap, between ours finishing on the 30th September and your cruise. They’ve cancelled a Russian cruise and then another repositioning cruise before yours. 
We did Antarctica on Le Boreal and had an amazing time! I’m sure you’ll love every minute. 

On 6/11/2022 at 11:33 PM, PBfromDC said:

Hi all. we are booked on the Aug 14 Bergen to Toronto ocean voyage. Not too many open Covid testing sites are open on the weekends- making gettin an antigen test within 24 hours before difficult. The cruise leaves on a Sunday  Most labs in Norway don’t work over the weekend making a 72 hour pcr test problematic. Does anyone know if Ponant will accept the proctored emed BinaxNow test results for boarding? If so, anything in writing from Ponant to that effect? Thanks for any advice or help.

 

Perry

Perry,

We are in a similar dilemma, leaving Tromso for the NW passage on Saturday 27th August. Will be in Edinburgh 72 hours before and PCR’s are no longer done unless for a medical reason, so leaving our options to Tromso on the Friday (after 5pm as it has to be within 24 hours of boarding), or Saturday morning which is difficult to find. I have found one place that will do a supervised RAT for approx €200pp 😳, so I have found an equivalent of the US proctored tests for Australians in Aussie $$$.

Will do that and hope they accept otherwise we will be paying Ponant for the courtesy.

OR one can hope that the pre testing will cease before then 🤞

2 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

What is the difference between those and the RATs that are widely available here? Are these TGA approved and ours not?

No it’s the same but you are paying for a proctored (a video call) and they provide results with details for travelers (passport details  etc).

as we will be boarding our cruise in Norway it works out cheaper buying before we go, we will book our time take the test with us overseas and then  take the test in Norway, they will email the results in the correct format so we can board the ship. 
so for anyone boarding in Hawaii they can arrange these prior to them going and do it while in Hawaii as long as you have a good internet connection.

We will be using these to board our cruise in Norway, same as the emed tests for US citizens but Australian based and you just need a test that has TGA approval. $40aud better than $200 it was going to cost in Norway!

https://virtualrapidtests.com.au/?gclid=CjwKCAjw14uVBhBEEiwAaufYxwz-I0rp5cVz344FzWsdgysaDNREP-H_HsNljl10HsMujVVwACb8YxoCmeoQAvD_BwE

I’m glad its not just me, I thought maybe I had to update the app, but nope, no update required.

Wonder how long it will take for them to sort it out??

Is anyone having issues logging onto the app, every time I try it comes up with the same error, regardless of iPad or iPhone.

’An unexpected error has occurred, please try again’

I know it has details such as captain and expedition staff on board, so was hoping it may have been updated, but cant log in…

I have a transpacific in a large balcony junior suite for $250 night, which I think is pretty good value for a mainstream line.

We also do expedition cruising and our next cruise is $1350pp/pn (29 nights) obviously a very different experience and to us worthwhile. 

3 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

I'm pretty sure I have read here on CC about people doing exactly that.

Yes agree, I’ve also read someone doing exactly that. They mentioned they were able to change one room to the living room, although they understood that they may have declined the request.

I’d say it’s very likely, however I doubt they will make any decisions until a few months before.

Our august north east passage cruise was only changed last week (3 months prior) despite the Russian/Ukrainian war starting in February.

I think it depends on the cruise beforehand and if there is a logical port they could swap with.

they definitely won’t put any one at risk.

We don’t have the proctored tests in Australia (yet)…

Yes is already going to cause us problems.

we leave Tromso on a Saturday at 1700, testing clinics only opened M-F 0900-1500, so not sure how we can get it done.

it does say in the fine print there will be some capacity at the ship for testing but assume nearly everyone will have the same issue..

one can only hope they drop the requirement all together considering Norway doesn’t require any testing anymore.

I read this last week.

seems that they will be utilizing float planes to get passengers in and off. Will be $$$

We are taking the risk in August.

Flying to London, the embarking on a 28 night north west passage cruise.

We will have insurance.

There are no restrictions on entering any of the countries we will be visiting, no testing requirements. The only thing that may hold us back is pre embarkation testing, but then if countries currently aren’t requiring testing then maybe ships will stop testing?

Ponant have introduced their own insurance policy which provides additional reassurance.