Our cruise began when we boarded Le Lyrial Thursday afternoon upon our return from Burano.
Le Lyrial is a beautiful, yacht-like ship, in the Ponant French Line. It’s done in subtle shades of gray and off-white and is designed to carry a maximum of 264 passengers. It is extremely clean with a terrific crew. I took a number of photos of our cabin, number 423.
The room is compact. As a couple, you learn to work together as you move around the room. The bathroom and toilet are in two different rooms. The bathroom is very efficient but the toilet area is very tight and not well lit. The closet was divided into two sections, one section for hanging clothes was good for a seven day cruise and the other section had a number of shelves. There was a safe on one of the shelves. There were four drawers in the sleeping area which were not very deep but were adequate. All-in-all the room was pleasant.
Le Lyrial has two dining venues. The Le Celeste dining room is very attractive and service was attentive and good.
The other dining venue was the La Comete which is on deck 6, at the stern on the pool deck, and offered indoor and outdoor dining. We ate here on a number of evenings (lunches also). It is a buffet with a grill table serving freshly carved selections. I was impressed with the service; more than adequate personnel to ensure your table was cleared promptly and to pour wine. Our glasses were never empty. Unfortunately, I apparently did not take a photo of this area so I copied the following photo from the Ponant website. This view actually is from the outdoor bar on deck 7 and overlooks the pool area below.
The following photo, also from Ponant, is the interior of the La Comete restaurant.
On deck 7 is the Panoramic Lounge which looks over the bow and provides a nice view of what’s ahead.
There was an interesting sculpture suspended in the atrium, opposite the reception’ and excursions desks.
The Club Lounge, on deck 3 in the stern, was where we enjoyed late evening entertainment, generally a vocalist, and where we gathered for tendering. It was where the Captain’s farewell reception was held.
The Theater, on deck 4, is attractive and will accommodate all passengers. Here is another photo from the Ponant website.
We liked Le Lyrial. Bear in mind, however, Ponant is a French line that caters primarily to the French. Because Tauck had taken approximately half of the cabins announcements were made in English but clearly the primary language is French and I can imagine that when the ship is primarily occupied by French citizens those of us who don’t speak French may feel uncomfortable.
I have enjoyed your trip reports since you took the South America cruise around Cape Horn. We were planning ours at the time and appreciated your trip report very much. We, like you, usually book our own tours and make all our own travel plans. But we have considered Tauck when thinking about Asia and other destinations where letting someone else do the planning is appealing. I would love to know your thoughts about them as your travel planners on this trip and also about what it was like to be with a group. My email, if you’d like to respond privately is Elizabeth dot Reich at cox dot net. Thank you for being such a good travel blogger and photographer!
Thank you for your very nice comment. As you can see, I am only now catching up on my blog. I will be happy to answer your questions off line and will do so in the near future. Once again, thanks.