Just following
@RooFlyer's format, here is my summary of the Ponant Antarctica expedition I just took:
Itinerary: I was on the 14 day "Great Austral Loop". The itinerary was meant to be Ushuaia-Falkland Islands-South Georgia-Antarctic Peninsula, but the avian flu outbreak meant South Georgia was eliminated. Ponant has the highest biosecurity clearance (and the biosecurity measures were fairly rigorous - pre-expedition inspecting and vacuuming of clothing, boot and clothing washing and disinfecting protocols after every Zodiac outing, no sitting permitted at any landing site, no landing if any corpses present (inspection by the expedition team before each landing)). The decision to remove South Georgia was made by the Captain and Expedition Leader, who fully explained their reasons. As I came to know the Expedition Leader and learned of his extensive Antarctica experience (21 seasons), I completely respected the decision, which was made by experienced people.
Missing South Georgia meant we spent more time in the Weddell Sea, which was fantastic.
Vessel: L'Austral. This was my third expedition on L'Austral (coincidence not design). I love the layout and facilities. There were 200 passengers on board (can accommodate more than that - I think a max around 250) and it never felt crowded and a seat could be had wherever you wanted.
Standard verandah suite, deck 3. The staterooms aren't huge but the beds are comfortable (firmer European style which I like), there's plenty of storage room and there's a place for everything. They're decorated in modern Scandi neutral style so easy on the eye. One tiny niggle is the absence of bedside power points. You need a EU and a US adaptor to make the most of the points on the desk. Our cabin steward was terrific and did our laundry daily (up to 10 pieces per day included as we're Ponant Admirals in its FF scheme) and kept everything clean as a pin.
Ship restaurants and bars. Food and drink quality is superb. Classic French gastronomy. Too easy to eat way too much as it is all so good. Freshly baked baguettes and pastries in the morning (along with every other breakfast item you could want), choice of a buffet or table service lunch - with fantastic desserts - at lunch (eg, freshly churned ice cream with different flavours every day). There's also French cheese and butter at every meal! I declared on day one that I'd eat salad for lunch (the salad buffet was excellent), but then I noticed at lunch that the upstairs restaurant had a carvery station with a different feature dish every day, so on day 2 when an excellent beef wellington was served (with the most buttery delicious mashed potatoes), any pretensions of salad-based virtue went out the window.
Dinner could be had in the upstairs buffet or downstairs table service restaurants. We had breakfast and dinner downstairs, and lunch upstairs. Table service dinners were 4 course affairs, but with French "right sized" portions (aka too small for Americans) and always a choice in each course of lighter fare (eg, consommé, salady bits, a light fish dish and fresh fruit for dessert). Ponant is all-inclusive on the wine and standard spirits front and the standard inclusions are perfectly drinkable. We went to a wine tasting and the sommeliers were so good that we ended buying from the "upgrade" menu for wine quite a bit. The bartenders will mix all your favourite coughtails - all included, and there was always a daily feature coughtails.
There are usually a couple of "gala" nights where one has dinner with the officers and dress up a bit. The Captain's Gala is a jacket and tie (but not dinner jacket / evening gown) affair, and the Officers' gala is a "white night". It's in keeping with Ponant approach - elegant but not over the top fancy.
Expedition crew: Everyone on the team was lovely, although some were not as confident in English (Ponant is a French-owned line) as they might have been. A noticeable difference from our first expedition in 2015 were fewer hard core scientific briefings, although there were some eminent young scientists on the team and their briefings were good. There was no geologist on this expedition and that showed. The expedition leader led a daily debriefing and following day briefing each day and there was always a good mini-science and/or history lecture as part of that. Ponant encourages guests to invite the expedition crew to dinner to chat about things in more detail. We are French speakers so we had dinner with a couple of the French team who were keen to speak English to improve their English!
Zodiac safety etc all flawless. Excellent attention to biosecurity measures.
Social activities, entertainment, spa etc. Ponant does do singles dining/mixing events early on. But the public areas are very conducive to chatting to fellow passengers (especially the deck 6 observation bar and lounge) and with 200, it is easy to get to know as few or as many folks as one wishes. Ponant's typical entertainment line up is a classical pianist, a singer, a couple of instrumentalists and maybe another singing duet, and a dance troupe. The dance troupe does excellent cabaret style dance shows and leads things like the "Dancing with the Stars" night (which was great fun). There was either a movie or dance show in the theatre each night, but if that wasn't your thing, the onboard entertainment system available in the staterooms had a huge range of tastefully chosen movies, TV and documentaries.
There is a spa, hairdresser, steam room and gym on board the L'Austral (and its sister ships, Lyrial, Boreal and Soleal). I've never used them!
Pre and post. This expedition had a pre-trip hotel night in Buenos Aires, and a mix of charter and commercial flights to Ushuaia the following day. For some reason we were on the commercial flight with Aerolineas Argentinas and not the Ponant charter flight from AEP to USH. The most annoying thing about that was the excess baggage situation. AR is strict about luggage limits. You get one included piece of 23kg, one carry on of 8kg or less, and pay for everything else. The cost of excess baggage is cheap (US$6 for our extra bag), but you have to line up at a cashier to pay the excess as it can only be paid at the airport, and it seems to take forever!
The one night hotel in Buenos Aires was at the Sofitel, which was fine. But we'd just stayed at an excellent boutique hotel around the corner called Hub Porteño, so the Sofitel was a come down from that.
Ponant. This was the fourth Ponant (and second to Antarctica with them) expedition I've taken. I'm a fan. Their ships are small, the crews lovely and the passengers are always a good international mix - usually about 50% French, 25% Australians and 25% rest of world (with Americans very often a small minority). The expedition format really appeals to me - out and about during the day in Zodiacs and hiking, and then back for coughtails, a delicious dinner and some low key but always enjoyable entertainment. I'm not an Icon of the Seas sort of person, so I'll never go on a big ship cruise. But for exploring somewhat hard to get to destinations in comfort and understated elegance, Ponant is my choice. We've already booked our next expedition in 2025 - weaving our way from Bali to Darwin through Indonesian islands to scuba dive and see Komodo dragons and remote Indonesian islands that we'd never otherwise visit.
All that said, Ponant is not the best when it comes to pre-expedition communications and some aspects of dealing with them can be a bit of a struggle. Part of that is cultural - Ponant is a French company and that shows when trying to do things efficiently. But once you're on board, everything is wonderful.