Review: Le Champlain - Cruise Natural and Cultural Wonders of the Western Caribbean - December 21, 2019

[AussieBoyTX]

All,

 

We left a review of this cruise leaving from Cozumel (ha) in December 21. Happy to answer any questions you have. 
 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=674518&et_cid=3302946&et_rid=182986717&et_referrer=boards_a

[Travelingmickeys]

Really....we reviewed. It was for sure not 5 stars. Really.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Depends on what you call 5 stars.  Ponant is definitely not like Regent or Seabourn [if they are 5 star after corporate cutbacks], but their itineraries are in general much more interesting and their ships are far more beautiful (and smaller).  IMHO there is no way to make any trip to the Caribbean 5 stars, because ... it's just the Caribbean.  We very much enjoyed Le Champlain in Iceland, and are looking forward to Le Lapérouse in New Zealand in March.

 

And I too noticed that the announcements didn't favor one language over the other – sometimes we got more in the English part than was repeated for the French.  I think it was usually that the first language got more, and the Cruise Director in particular was very good about alternating which went first.  [It was much better than the experience of the French couple we met in the Yacht Club on MSC in the Mediterranean, where the announcements were only in English and Italian even though some passengers boarded in Cannes.]

 

Edited to add:  OK, @Travelingmickeys – put up or shut up.  You're going around everywhere on this forum with these tease posts – tell us your experience in detail (maybe take a deep breath first, because steam-venting usually gets a bad response on Cruise Critic).

[st.zoomer]

We were on the Dec. 21, 2019, Le Champlain cruise out of Puerto Morelos--changed to Cozumel.  The change to Cozumel wasn't Ponant's fault but I thought they handled the related problems well.

 

The ship was beautiful, more of a large scale yacht than a cruise liner.  The only problem I had with the ship itself was that the seating in the bar area and the grill could get crowded and tables, especially for two, could become taken quickly.  The cabin was on the small side but functional, and the crew was great.

 

My main problem was the food which I felt was sub-standard.  The chef was from Haiti and the sous Chef from Guadeloupe--not sure if that had anything to do with the problem or not.  Another problem was the hours of service--evening meal was sometimes at 6:00 PM, sometimes 7:00 PM and sometimes 8:15 PM.  If you didn't eat during the short hours of service there was no other food option except a limited room service menu.  The open hours of the BlueEye and Observatory Lounge were also very limited.  (BTW, I understand that one's idea of food quality is subjective).

 

I enjoyed the itinerary since we went to several off-the-beaten-path ports and visited some places not normally seen by cruisers.  The two excursions we took were interesting, one to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and the other to Quirigua in Guatemals.  LIvingston was interesting to walk around but Belize City was completely closed, at least in the downtown area, because it was Boxing Day.

 

Overall I thought it was a good cruise, but not a great cruise because of the food issue plus the timing, and availability, of the meals.  

 

 

Edited January 14, 2020 by st.zoomer
wrong date

[garykool81]

On 1/14/2020 at 8:33 AM, st.zoomer said:

My main problem was the food which I felt was sub-standard.  The chef was from Haiti and the sous Chef from Guadeloupe--not sure if that had anything to do with the problem or not.  Another problem was the hours of service--evening meal was sometimes at 6:00 PM, sometimes 7:00 PM and sometimes 8:15 PM.  If you didn't eat during the short hours of service there was no other food option except a limited room service menu.  The open hours of the BlueEye and Observatory Lounge were also very limited.  (BTW, I understand that one's idea of food quality is subjective).

 

That was probably our only disappointment with Ponant, too, from our recent trip with them. None of the food was "bad" by any means, but certainly not as good as I think one would reasonably expect for the pricepoint that Ponant operates at. I really would have expected meals to be on par with a solid four star restaurant, and instead we found them ranging anywhere from exceptional down to what we would expect in the main dining room aboard a mass market ship. With us both being big foodies, that was a bummer.

 

I made a point of expressing this repeatedly in the guest questionnaire. We loved *everything* else about Ponant. If they could just get the food quality to equal a line like Oceania, they would have really won us over. 

 

Curiously, our chef was British for the repositioning cruise from Boston down to Mexico, but it sounds like the inconsistencies remained.