An auspicious start

A full day in Darwin. The first priority was to catch up on some of the lost beauty sleep,, but we each found ourselves waking up early. Checkout time st the hotel was 10am but check-in time at the cruise terminal wasn’t until 3.30pm What to do? We decided to check out as late as possible then fill in the ensuing 5.5 hours by discovering Darwin. Leaving our bags at the hotel we Ubered to the NT Museum. It was an interesting place, rather eclectic in its choice of topics - dinosaur bones, Cyclone Tracy, WW2 bombing, and a host of other random topics. Interesting in many ways.
Having reached the footsore stage after a couple of hours we then Ubered across town to the other place we’d been recommended, the Darwin waterfront. It’s certainly a very attractive area with lots of parkland and a very good variety of restaurants. To add to the excitement we could see our ship, the Le Laperouse, in the distance, dazzlingly white and most inviting. Uber did very well out of us this day because we then took a return ride to collect our luggage from the hotel and bring it back to the nearby cruise terminal in time for the start of the boarding process with all its paperwork and rigmarole.
Very much to their credit Ponant had responded immediately to Brian’s strong letter of complaint about the experience which both of us independently had had with the airport pickups. They were full of apologies, agreed to pay all out of pocket expenses and have added a 200 euro credit to our shipboard account. We certainly can’t fault them on that score.
First impressions on board were excellent also with everyone smiling and friendly, aided by some excellent French champagne for the boarding passengers. Our cabin isn’t huge but is certainly comfortable and very well laid out and with generous storage space.
Once boarding was completed all passengers were required to attend the mandatory briefing in the ship’s theatre where key crew members were introduced and we were given a rundown of the general rules and how things operate. The ship is beautifully appointed, the staff go out of their way to be friendly and we’re confident that we’re going to have a most enjoyable and relaxing time.
It was shortly after the compulsory lifebelt training session, and we were underway, that the captain announced firstly that the port pilot was about to depart and secondly that the sunset would be visible from the port side. We rushed up on deck and were able to observe the pilot boat pulling away just as the sun was setting behind it.
Fast forward to dinner which we enjoyed in the Nautilus restaurant. Of the two restaurants on board this is the more formal, Certainly the food, the wine and the service were all impeccable, very much up to the standard of a high-class Parisian establishment. We lingered long over dinner, sharing the table with a Port Macquarie couple from our age group - a thoroughly enjoyable evening, Everything points to it being a really memorable holiday.Read more