Cruising the Kimberley coast on Le Laperouse, Darwin to Broome

[tgh]

Cue hvr.. Drron has provided some opportunistic prose

 

[love_the_life]

My uncle was also there when Darwin was bombed. I’m sure I have some photos of him there with the artillery unit he was with.

Veering OT here.
We had some photos - the funniest one is when they caught a crocodile and he rushed off to get a camera. When he came back, the other blokes had whipped out the croc's teeth. So the photo was of a toothless croc with open jaws.
The other thing he did was to send my mother some frangipani flowers. She was in Sale (with my eldest brother a baby). My mum says a soggy parcel was delivered by the postie but the flowers were fine. He had wrapped them in wet cotton wool etc to keep them fresh, Frangipani were unheard of down south at the time.

 

[ellen10]

Looking forward to following along with your trip report.

 

[RooFlyer]

The ship looks a bit small. I wonder what the rock and roll will be

About zero. First night was in the most open water and you'd barely know we were moving. The is some massive stabiliser weights down below that I hope to inspect.

I'm my room ( deck 4, second lowest) I really can't sense movement or hear a thing except the aircon, or water passing down the side when I have the balcony door open.

Great to hear that you are a cruising convert.
I'm looking forward to the report as I have booked the same cruise / ship for 2023. I usually cruise with Silversea, but couldn't justify the price they were asking as a solo traveller. Ponant had no single supplement, so I bit the bullet and booked with them. I have a few trepidations about it though, so hoping your report will allay them.

Firtuny, Ponant did have 'no single supplements' when we looked and That's what got me interested in this one. In the end I only got a smaller discount than I could have, because we hesitated for too long to book.

I'm currently looking at a catalogue of cruises 'NSS' - I'll post the link when I'm back on my laptop.

Been a big day today, finishing with a captains gala dinner and a 7am start tomorrow, so will pick up here tomorrow.

 

[RooFlyer]

Saturday morning, the day of boarding ... disaster. One of the friends I was going to travel with came down with a dose of 'it'. Completely asymptomatic, they told me, so he and his wife were out. Devastated as you can imagine and I felt so sorry for them both. They used our TA's emergency number to let them know, so they could contact Ponant. We hadn't yet met up, so fortunately I was fine wrt my health paper-work; I wouldn't have been a 'close contact', but I don't think Ponant would have used that definition.

So I made my way to the Darwin Cruise Terminal by myself. I was wondering about how early I should arrive - we were told we'd board by decks and my deck 4 was at 4:15. I arrived at 3:45 and it turned out I was about the 6th last group!

First, sitting in the terminal waiting for check of health paperwork:



Then beyond that came examination of vax certificate and the ship's doctor noted down dates and dose type; then a collection of passports for the duration and then a short wait for a steward to escort me to my cabin (or stateroom, as we cruisers like to say ). All very smooth once past the initial wait. As it happened, I boarded at 4:20pm.

My room was on deck 4 (decks 3-6 are the accommodation), a mid-range type of room, with balcony. Some on deck 3 didn't have balconies.








All very nice and comfortable.

Not long after, the mandatory lifejacket/evacuation drill:



I then repaied to one of the lounges. I spied Veuve Clicquot on the bar, so asked for a glass and was then introduced to the 'premium drinks package' of E20/day- which was news to me, but jolly good - I had a E200 credit courtesy of my TA and Virtuoso so that was quickly dealt with. A better quality of booze and from what I could tell, worth it, especially as it wasn't costing me anything.

This was the upstairs bar - in the main bar there's a container with 2-3 magnums and also the 'non premium' stuff (sniffs).




We set sail at 4:30 precisely (I learned that this mob keep very much to schedule) and a nice sunset:

 

[RooFlyer]

Dinner that night on the outside deck,


... with me on my pat malone (the last time).



'French' and 'Australian' menus:





I chose the French ... salt & pepper squid:



hmmmm . Onto the main of lamb. Beautifully pink and tender, but came out only just hot and, well, the presentation isn't what you'd expect, is it?



Crème brulee



Would I be too ungracious to say that while nice, it wasn't the meal I was expecting on this French luxury cruise? Perhaps I was setting my sights too high but I think I was entitled to do that. No cheese sighted, no 'sticky'. What do you think?

Afterwards, seeing the Top End disappear into the night.

 

[TheRealTMA]

Friends did the Coral Expeditions Kimberly cruise earlier this year (the one that got hit with "it"). They loved it. And they have booked to do their Indigineous Art Themed Cape York and Arnhem Land (Darwin - Cairns) cruise next year.

Why did you pick this cruise over the Coral Expeditions cruises? And what's the difference?

 

[RooFlyer]

Why did you pick this cruise over the Coral Expeditions cruises? And what's the difference?

Mainly because it was the one my TA presented to me, without a single supplement. She didn't expect me to go for it (me having previously spurned all cruises).

So I don't know how it compares.

 

[RooFlyer]

But I need to add that there are a lot of people in the 'expedition' crew. 9 specialists and a few more. Always someone to chat to & ask questions etc.

 

[VPS]

Dinner that night on the outside deck,
View attachment 287096

... with me on my pat malone (the last time).

View attachment 287097

'French' and 'Australian' menus:

View attachment 287098

View attachment 287099

I chose the French ... salt & pepper squid:

View attachment 287100

hmmmm . Onto the main of lamb. Beautifully pink and tender, but came out only just hot and, well, the presentation isn't what you'd expect, is it?

View attachment 287101

Crème brulee

View attachment 287102

Would I be too ungracious to say that while nice, it wasn't the meal I was expecting on this French luxury cruise? Perhaps I was setting my sights too high but I think I was entitled to do that. No cheese sighted, no 'sticky'. What do you think?

Afterwards, seeing the Top End disappear into the night.

View attachment 287103

Interesting I think when @love_the_life did the Antarctic cruise on Ponant they said they weren't overwhelmed by the food

 

[TheRealTMA]

Interesting I think when @love_the_life did the Antarctic cruise on Ponant they said they weren't overwhelmed by the food

Well, but you realise @RooFlyer's from Tasmania don't you?

 

[tgh]

simples.. Ponant is not a luxury cruise line, it's upper mid range at best ( though I have not cruised with them so subjective opinion)
IMO...Silversea (or Seabourn ) would never offer sparkling.. anywhere.. Monopol Blue top or equivalent is the standard stuff

 

[Quickstatus]

this French luxury cruise?

What factors make a cruise “luxury”

 

[JohnM]

Mainly because it was the one my TA presented to me, without a single supplement. She didn't expect me to go for it (me having previously spurned all cruises).

So I don't know how it compares.

CE allocates two cabins on each of their ships for solo travellers.

 

[RooFlyer]

Charles Heidsieck is the cheap stuff here (included in the fare); Veuve is the premium package.





@TheRealTMA or anyone, what do you think of the standard reds & whites ( there area few more)?

 

[JohnM]

Bummer about the others. What are their options for a replacement voyage or travel insurance refund?

I guess they are now stuck in Darwin for 7 days?

 

[RooFlyer]

simples.. Ponant is not a luxury cruise line, it's upper mid range at best ( though I have not cruised with them so subjective opinion)
IMO...Silversea (or Seabourn ) would never offer sparkling.. anywhere.. Monopol Blue top or equivalent is the standard stuff

I hear what you’re saying but this mob tout themselves as a luxury cruise with the Best of the Best of French of everything. Im not saying things are awful or that it’s bad in any way but I just had my sights set a bit higher. But then, we only two days in the cruise andover a week to go so will see how we go! I'll very much enjoy finding out.

Meanwhile ...

 

[RooFlyer]

Bummer about the others. What are their options for a replacement voyage or travel insurance refund?

I guess they are now stuck in Darwin for 7 days?

Yes. +1 is still clear. They are booked to fly to Broome and I'll meet them when we dock. I'll be very circumspect about the cruise

TI should cover it; they got the same policy as me. TA been very proactive too. Ponant reward early advice of Corona so they may even be offered an instant substitute cruise.

Time to tell a nice story here. The service crew are mainly or exclusively Filipino, and very good. But there is one French lass who is part of the bar crew. She quite obviously has never ever been behind a bar before and I suspect she’s probably never touched an alcoholic beverage before. Absolutely clueless. But she’s so sweet and so pleasant to deal with and tries so hard that just about all the passengers have adopted her and are determined to encourage her along and hopefully she’ll be getting on just fine.

 

[Daver6]

Charles Heidsieck is the cheap stuff here (included in the fare); Veuve is the premium package.

View attachment 287111

View attachment 287113

@TheRealTMA or anyone, what do you think of the standard reds & whites ( there area few more)?

View attachment 287112

View attachment 287114

View attachment 287115

That makes zero sense on the champagne. CH is much pricer and a million times better than Veuve. Based on that alone, not sure why anyone would pay more for the booze.

As for the other wines they look pretty pedestrian. Not heard of any of them. The important bit is....what do YOU think of them?

 

[Denali]

Room looks nice.


Roo... making his way to the better beverage cart.