Le Champlain
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Le Champlain
Le Champlain is a luxury expedition cruise ship operated by Ponant, designed for voyages to polar regions and remote exploration destinations. The page highlights itineraries in the Arctic and Antarctica focused on nature discovery and wildlife observation. It describes an intimate cruise experience with luxury suites, onboard dining, and premium services. Cruises are all-inclusive and part of a French-speaking expedition offering focused on premium adventure travel.
Itineraries of the Le Champlain
Price and Availability Notice
Prices displayed are provided for informational purposes only. They reflect the rates in effect at the time of their most recent update and are shown in Canadian dollars, per person, based on double occupancy, unless otherwise specified.
Supplier rates, exchange rates, taxes and fees, room or cabin categories, and promotions are subject to change at any time. The applicable price is the one confirmed by a travel advisor at the time of booking, subject to availability. Only the confirmed price shall be considered valid.
It is the traveler's responsibility to confirm the price, inclusions, and applicable terms and conditions before making a reservation. While every effort is made to keep our content up to date, transmission, display, or pricing errors may occur. In such cases, the correct price will be communicated to the traveler before any booking is confirmed. Certain terms, restrictions, and exclusions may apply.
Ship's attributes
Services And Amenities
- Pool
Specific needs
- Wheelchair accessible staterooms
Technical specifications
- Speed: 12.5 knots
- Passengers: 294
- Length: 132 m
- Width: 18 m
History
- 2018: Année de construction
Frequently Asked Questions
No, and it is the one item that is not. That is where the surprise lies: shore excursions are included, most drinks too, Wi-Fi and the minibar as well, but not gratuities. Most guests assume exactly the reverse. Budget for it, because nothing aboard will remind you before the end of the stay.
A great deal, and in an unusual order. Shore excursions are included, which is rare and weighs heavily on an itinerary with many calls. Most drinks are too, prestige wines aside. Wi-Fi, the stateroom minibar, the talks and the entertainment are included. Suites come with a butler. Gratuities and the spa are not included.
Yes, and it is this line's strongest argument. Shore outings are in the fare, with no cap on how many, where most competitors charge for them one at a time. On an expedition cruise where you land almost every day, the difference changes the comparison entirely.
It is the most favourable contract we have read in the sector. The carrier is Compagnie du Ponant, based in Marseille, and the contract is governed by French law. A dispute goes before the competent French courts. The Athens Convention of 1974, consolidated in 2002, frames liability.
None, and it matters. This contract imposes neither an arbitration clause nor a class-action waiver. Several American competitors impose both, obliging every guest to plead alone before an arbitrator. Here the dispute goes to a judge, and nothing stops several guests from acting together.
Two years. It is the most generous window we have recorded in this project, and the gap with the others is considerable: some lines allow only fifteen or thirty days from disembarkation. A tourism mediator also exists and can be called on if the discussion stalls.
It decides everything else. Under two hundred and fifty people, a ship enters ports closed to large hulls, lands everyone in a single rotation of zodiacs, and works up fjords and channels where the big ships do not go. Polar regulations also cap the number of visitors ashore, and small units meet them without keeping anyone waiting.
In five families, which is a lot for thirteen ships. Four Sisterships from 2010 to 2015, carrying up to two hundred and sixty-four guests. Six exploration ships from 2018 to 2021, smaller. One polar icebreaker, Le Commandant Charcot. One three-masted yacht from 1991, Le Ponant. And one catamaran chartered privately in Polynesia.
This is a French line, and it shows aboard: the crew speaks French, the talks are given in French and English, the table is French. For a Quebec clientele that is a concrete argument rather than an impression, above all on an expedition where talks fill much of the days at sea.
It is framed by the Athens Convention, but with a clear reservation: the line declines all liability for baggage left unattended. In practice that means whatever is irreplaceable stays with you. Jewellery, devices, medication and documents do not travel in a case left on a deck.
We do not know, and we prefer to say so. No technical sheet from this line publishes the number of wheelchair-accessible staterooms. We check it file by file at booking. On ships this size, access to the zodiacs matters as much as the stateroom itself.
In 2018. She belongs to the Ponant Explorers series, and that is the detail that matters most when choosing: ships in the same series resemble one another closely, and the difference is made by the itinerary and the season rather than the hull.
One hundred and eighty-four guests in the usual configuration, up to two hundred and sixty-four. They are the smallest hulls in the fleet after the sailing yacht and the catamaran, and that is deliberate: below two hundred people, anchorages and polar regulations open up.
76 dates: 15 in 2026, 35 in 2027 and 26 in 2028. Inventory for distant years opens gradually, so a low figure for 2028 does not mean the ship stops.
Yes. It carried ten questions and answers from the previous generation, which we replaced. Two other pages in this fleet were in the same state, Le Boreal and L Austral; the other ten carried none at all.
