Ponant All Inclusive? And Pnant vs Silver Sea, Seabourn, Regent, Crystal

[bohaiboy]

Have sailed SS 4 times, about to sail Crystal in two weeks and have a Seabourn scehduled in April.  How does Ponant compare to the all inclusivity of those lines.  SS includes air, one shore excursion per port, a butler and unlimited wine/beer/spirits.  SB and Crystal do not include air or shore excursions bet do include spirits.  And from what I can discern those ships have larger suites.  Any feedback appreciated.  Considering a Ponant Antarctica trip next year.

[gogo65]

Antarctica is a very different story, you don’t need shore excursions to start.

we’ve done SS to the Arctic and Ponant to Antarctica.

In comparison Ponant is significantly cheaper than crystal and SS. An oceanview room on SS is bigger than an ocean view room on Ponant, SS has a butler Ponant only has them for suites but you are probably paying at least 50% more for SS in comparison to Ponant.

We found the Ponant was far superior from the expedition side, the captain appeared to go out of his way to ensure we had an amazing experience on Ponant, on our SS cruise we certainly got the impression they wouldn’t stop unless it was on the itinerary. 
We found SS much more ‘snobby’ whereas Ponant was much more easy going and down to earth (maybe because 30% were Aussies).

They are all inclusive, mini bars included etc

We found the SS silver cloud to be quite old and dark in comparison to Ponant. 
Now if I had the opportunity to go on the new Le Commandant Charcot for the same/similar price as SS I’d jump at Ponant, but generally Ponant offer an excellent expedition product.

we enjoyed the food but it is ‘French’ not American food, you may not like it.

to be honest I’d compare them all work out the per night price and take it from there. 

Edited November 20, 2021 by gogo65

[cruising cockroach]

As for the butler,  we met someone who was sailing on a series of 4 essentially repo cruises in suites (for the cruise, a suite was essentially a double cabin with the mattresses removed from one to make a sofa), which became less and less loaded with each subsequent cruise.  He had sailed Ponant several times including when, he claims, most of the hotel crew were French Polynesians (hardly any are these days).  We asked him what the butler did.  His reply was, "not much".

[TrulyBlonde]

Actually, I must tell you the we had the best butler ever on our Ponant cruise to S. Georgia and Antarctica. We started with a midship cabin, but upon boarding were offered the opportunity to upgrade and we ended up with the Owners Suite for a nominal amount of money. It was lovely and we enjoyed every aspect of this cruise, except for the waves. Yikes!

[bohaiboy]

Truly, which ship were you on?  Did you do the Falklands also?

 

[TrulyBlonde]

13 minutes ago, bohaiboy said:

Truly, which ship were you on?  Did you do the Falklands also?

 

I have to go back and look but I think it was LeLyrial. Did the Falklands prior with Oceania. This cruise was the first of the season in November and was quite pristine. We left out of Montevideo and it took about 4 sea days to reach S. Georgia and then a few more to get to Antarctica.

[AussieBoyTX]

The butler is capable of doing a number of things, but effectively is a one-stop call for most any ship service. We have used the butler to confirm excursions, make dinner reservations & table preferences, take care of laundry, special housekeeping requests, bring happy hour to the cabin for us and our friends, take orders & deliver room service.

 

I think the only extended service that we didn't use was unpacking our bags.

 

It all could have been done by dialing the regular department numbers, of course, but the butlers have been efficient and anticipated our requests. It was nice to have the service.

Edited November 22, 2021 by AussieBoyTX

[AussieBoyTX]

Here’s a happy hour setup our butler organized for us this evening. 
 

[jonikal]

10 hours ago, AussieBoyTX said:

Here’s a happy hour setup our butler organized for us this evening. 
 

 

[jonikal]

Looks decidedly yummy!

[gogo65]

20 hours ago, AussieBoyTX said:

Here’s a happy hour setup our butler organized for us this evening. 
 

Oh wow! One I’m jealous you’re on a ship and two I’m jealous you are in an aft suite! 
enjoy looks beautiful 😍 

[jpalbny]

We have cruised a bunch w/ SS (14 trips: 8 classic and 6 expeditions) and one Ponant, earlier this year.

 

I found Ponant to be more similar to SS than different. The main difference would be that Ponant had perhaps fewer dining choices (menus had 3-4 choices as opposed to SS where you may have more options). But both offer a very good product. 

 

I did a detailed day by day review of our Ponant cruise on these boards. There are food pictures and menus if you want a better idea of what is available.

 

Although I have to reluctantly agree with gogo65 that Silver Cloud is old, we still love that ship and she remains one of our all-time favorites. And we just got off Silver Spirit on Sunday which is very new in comparison. However, we have not found SS to be snobby. We met lots of fun people on both lines.