We were so excited to be doing the Darwin to Broome cruise and especially with a company like Silversea. The explorer ships are not 5 star but the crew were great. The highlights of this trip were going to be the Bungle Bungle flight and the Horizontal falls boat which were included in the cruise price. The first disappointment was when the included Bungle Bungle flight was cancelled. Then we ...
We chose these cruises for the expeditions and ability of the vessel to get into small ports and also to change course to find unexpected delights. We also love French food!
The expedition leaders were wonderful as were their lectures each evening on the following day's adventures. All the crew went out of their way to make sure those of us who were less able-bodied were included in as many ...
Having sailed twice before with Ponant on expedition cruises the choice for our cruise to the Kimberley was easy to make as we knew first hand the type of cruise that we would be joining. Ponant are a little expensive compared to some other operators in the Kimberley area, however the quality with Ponant is always the same and they spare nothing to allow each person to enjoy the most out of the ...
The crew were unfailingly friendly yet efficient. The organisation of embarkation, disembarkation and the multiple excursions was flawless, and supplemented by daily debriefing/briefing sessions which ensured passengers were well informed as to the requirements and expectations for each day's activities. Shore excursions were supervised by highly qualified, well-informed and enthusiastic ...
As part of a HoA package from DRW to SIN. Embarkation in DRW was a fiasco as 3hours after boarding we had to disembark to retrieve our passports from immigration, only to be immediately taken off us by a member of crew in the terminal. The terminal was also full of people wanting tax refunds with no clear delineation of which "queue" was which ! Mind you we never needed a Chinese visa, another ...
If you want a cruise with everything "English", pick this ship - lots of formal nights (suits and tie and lots of guys in penguin suits), indifferent staff (with a few very pleasant exceptions) many of whom would walk past and not even make eye contact (in complete contrast to the staff on our last cruise with Holland America who went out of their way to be friendly and pleasant), average food ...
We went to swim and snorkel with the whale sharks and that indeed was fabulous. They are beautiful calm fish and we got up close to them. Be warned though, it is a somewhat artificial experience. The fishermen on the bagans are paid to feed them for the tourists. Also, to get the most out of the experience one needs to be able to free dive if not scuba dive. Snorkelling on the surface is third ...
We had previously sailed on Ponant cruises to Alaska and Antarctica and had fantastic exoeriences with them so we decided to cruise with Ponant again in our own country Australia from Darwin to Broome to see the Kimberley Region,
The ships are very comfortable in classic French chique style and only take approximately 200 passengers rather than other massive cruise ships, We find this size of ...
This was our third cruise on True North and we already have three further cruises booked.
We absolutely love the intimacy of the small ship. The young, enthusiastic staff are friendly, personable and nothing is any trouble.
We all met in Darwin the night before the cruise began. We were taken by a charter plane to an island in Indonesia and swiftly embarked the beautiful True North. ...
Fulfilled a long term ambition to visit Darwin and cruise the Kimberleys in WA. While there were quite a few issues on the vessel which were not the best, my overall rating is quite high just for the fact of my experiences within the Kimberleys. The L'Austral was quite good although I believe it mostly catered for French tastes which is understandable with a French ship & mostly french crew. I ...