Some experts believe that COVID will kill the cruise industry, but they were wrong.
2024 will see record cruise ship capacity around the world, and according to Cruise Industry News, “Continuing a trend that started in 2023, the world’s largest cruise lines are seeing high occupancy rates and longer booking curves.”
Cruises are all the rage, but personally, when it comes to these types of trips, I have little interest in the “world’s largest. “To get on a cruise, you need much more than water parks, casinos, buffets. or personal islands. The few cruises I’ve taken all had an “extra” or “cruising plus” element, such as active cruising, which combines biking or hiking, or a special educational add-on. Fortunately, more such cruises offer more options than ever before.
That’s why I found myself in Greek waters last fall with one of the travel collaborations, Smithsonian Journeys x Ponant, a partnership between two of the leading specialists in their respective fields, luxury cruising and knowledge.
Ponant is the only cruise line to fly the French flag and was introduced in 1988 through several French naval officers who felt their country deserved a line worthy of its luxury hospitality and culinary reputation. In the decades since, Ponant has won dozens of prestigious awards, adding to his titles. such as “Best Luxury Cruise Line for Adventures,” “Best Shipping Company,” and “Best Ocean Cruise Itineraries,” from Cruise Critic, Luxury Travel Magazine, Travel Leisure, Travel Weekly, Time Magazine, British Cruise Awards, and Condé Nast Traveler. In 2022 alone, Ponant won more than 30 industry awards, including Best Small Boat Line and Condé Nast Traveler’s First Line of Expedition Boats.
The Ponant ships that Smithsonian Journeys uses have large, luxurious accommodations with private … [+] balconies.
Ponant uses only small ships, and its strategy is to make customers feel as if they are guests on a private yacht. There is a high level of focus on accommodations, service, and of course cuisine, with fine French cheeses, butter, wines and more. In addition, there are several special pre-dinner “tastings,” which on my trip included caviar night and Spanish pata negra ham night, with wine and cocktail pairings. While they lack casinos and waterslides, ships are modern and very well equipped, with spas, multiple bars and restaurants, underwater viewing lounges, marinas for launching Zodiac inflatables, but because they are much smaller than the vast majority of cruise ships, they can get to places others cannot, including polar regions. They can also dock in a lot more places including small harbors mega-ships cannot visit, greatly reducing the number of stops that require tendering in small boats, a cumbersome and time-wasting part of the cruise process.
Even when ships of all sizes can dock, it is much less difficult to embark and disembark for a 200-passenger shipment than for a 5,000-passenger shipment. On the day our cruise departed from Athens, we arrived, waited in line to check in, It took us a few minutes, we were immediately transferred to the ship, we continued on our way and 10 minutes later we were in our room with our luggage, drinking champagne. Our departure was even anticipated. The check-in queues I saw for large shipments didn’t seem like such an appetizing experience.
Here’s another clever example: For those who stop in Mykonos, one of the most popular activities is to stop at the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Delos, a nearby uninhabited island that is a gigantic national archaeological park. On many cruises, this means taking deals all the way to Mykonos, then taking one of the regular full ferries to the island, and then doing it all backwards. By contrast, our Ponant shipment, with Smithsonian experts on board, flew directly to Delos before stopping in Mykonos. , making it much less difficult and with much less wasted time.
Ponant is also a travel company with a strong focus on sustainability, and survey after survey now says this is increasingly vital for them when deciding where to travel and with whom. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of fine communication and eco-friendly hype going on in the travel sector. In the industry, however, Ponant is the genuine business, with power generation and the Ponant Foundation, which protects the habitat of the ocean and polar regions. They are partners of National Geographic and the Oceanographic Institute of Monaco and hold many primary foreign certifications including Cleanship and Cleanship. Super for polar vessels. Ponant has built the world’s first hybrid-electric polar expedition vessel. Le Commandant Charcot won the Blue Eco Charter Trophy and was the first European cruise line to download the Green Marine label.
I had the satisfaction of signing up the chef for a tasting of the most productive ham in the world, pata negra from Spain.
In the main fleet, 4 sister ships each have 132 giant hotel-style cabins, maximum with external decks. There are 145 team members for up to 264 guests, a full spa, two restaurants, a main bar, a front bar/lounge, a gym, a theater, a pool and several terraces. The smaller Explorer ships each have 92 rooms and suites, all with private balconies.
The Smithsonian Institution is simply the largest convening in museums, herbal history, and clinical research. For more than a century, Smithsonian Journeys has been its education arm, employing its litany of experts to conduct consulting trips around the world, by land, rail, river, and sea. The Smithsonian Institution has an extensive list of world-class experts in the fields of science, history, food, archaeology, and other fields.
This Smithsonian x Ponant partnership that was just introduced in 2022 and, in my experience, is a huge success. More trips have been added for 2024 and even more for 2025. Each sailing is co-arranged through two Smithsonian Journey experts, and they also have experienced Smithsonian Journeys and excursion leaders on board to help with logistics, as the excursions and schedules are very different from normal cruises. Because these are full-ship acquisitions, all shore excursions are included in the rates (which is not the norm on cruises) and the voyages are conducted in English, while Ponant’s same old clientele includes many French customers.
Diane Kochilas, Smithsonian guest expert, chef, cookbook host, and TV show host, lectures on Greek cuisine.
Each expert offers a series of lectures aboard the cruise depending on the location and topic, and we had the best combination: an award-winning, Mediterranean-specialized archaeology professor who had excavated some of the sites we explored, and one of the world’s leading writers on Greek cuisine, Chef Diane Kochilas, host of the PBS series My Greek Table, as well as a cookbook writer and chef at a cooking school in Greece. In addition to the lectures, he can regularly count on experts for conversations, excursions, and each evening he hosts a dinner that visitors can sign up to attend. As a bonus, Chef Kochilas brought a variety of Greek extra virgin olive oils to the onboard restaurant for a tasting for the passengers.
This design allows the less interested to be informed about what they see, and the more serious to deepen their questions one by one. But for all passengers, the result was a more rewarding experience, not only seeing Greece, but also learning about Greece and enjoying each and every obstacle along the way.
For 2024, there are 24 routes, and 25 in 2025, already available, many of them with dates. The variety is immense, from Antarctica to Ireland, from circumnavigation from Sicily to Japan, from Alaska and the Great Lakes to Central America and New Zealand.
The experts were great, the food was great, the boats and service were great, but one of the things that surprised me the most is that those trips are also relatively bargains for luxury trips. Most 8-night trips (there are other lengths) get Started at less than seven or even six thousand depending on the user and include all meals, all shore excursions and open bar on board, plus free guides, Wi-Fi. Free Fi and airport transfers at both ends. In addition to the performances, there is daily entertainment, from live music to dancing in line with the performances. Meals can be taken in restaurants, on deck or through 24-hour room service. For example, an 8-day cruise from Morocco to the Andalusian coast of Spain. Coastal starting pricing starts at $5,090 per user, or about $725 per day, adding in luxury hotels and cuisine, activities, entertainment, adult beverages and more. Tips are even included.
In terms of experts, topics and destinations, there is something for everyone, and I enjoyed the combination of visiting Greece and learning much more about this country than I could have done myself, while enjoying wonderful food and friendly service along the path. If you need more than just a cruise, this is the answer.