French-designed ship is a floating masterpiece cruising our waters

The ship: Le Jacques Cartier, Ponant

• The cruise Darwin to Broome, “Australia’s Iconic Kimberley” (10 nights)
• Commissioned 2021
• Passengers 184
• Crew 127
• Decks Seven, with 92 suites
• Length 131.5 metres

The ship

Here’s where adventure meets luxury, and each is delighted with the other’s company. Named for a French explorer in the 1500s – he ventured into what is now known as Canada – Le Jacques Cartier is a nimble ship built for soft adventuring, enabling passengers to roam around remote and otherwise inaccessible places in its fleet of Zodiacs.

Boarding

Ponant arrange the transfer from hotel to port; there’s a boom gate to navigate at the port entrance in Darwin, but it lifts for us without a query. Check-in is a breeze, our luggage is whisked away, IDs exchanged for ship smart card and lanyard, and before we know it, we’re shaking the captain’s hand, heading up the gangway and into our stateroom.

The design

Ponant collaborates with French architects and designers, Studio Jean-Philippe Nuel and the results are remarkable – the colours are soft and subtle, leather trims discreet and vast walls of glass all over to take in the views. There’s plenty of timber, including the top rails around the decks, and on that timber and glass never is there a smudge to be seen. Art in the stairwells follows a theme for each landing, the carpet is Ulster and if they weren’t looking, I’d take it home. Among many, one astonishing piece of design is the Marina at the ship’s stern, where guests board the Zodiacs. It lives behind the pool and folds down like the roof of a smart sports car to settle at water level, making expedition departure and return so simple.

The spaces

From the top down, on deck six you’ll find the Jules Verne Observatory Lounge, a plush space with a bar and seating for 35 or more inside and maybe a dozen outside and huge windows to about 180 degrees over the bow. Most of the public spaces are on deck three, including reception and expedition desk and a small boutique. To the width of the ship towards the bow, the theatre can fit all guests and is more gold class than standard class in seating. Towards the stern is the main lounge with its bar and seating in all sorts of configurations and just outside is the grill restaurant, Le Nemo, doubling as a departure point for expeditions. Here you’ll find outdoor settings and the pool and its sun lounges. Way down on deck one is the night club-style Blue Eye Lounge, well below sea level with a pair of big elliptical windows to see what’s under the sea.

The stateroom

The standard cabin is 19 square metres – intriguing to see what smart design can do with that. There’s enough cupboard and drawer space for two people who packed too much in the first place and suitcases slip under the bed, so there’s that problem solved. The bathroom (separate to the lavatory) has a sliding screen – shut it for privacy, open it for sea views. All staterooms have a balcony with table and chairs, easily big enough to relax and watch the Kimberley Coast pass by. Small touches make a big difference: open any cupboard and a light clicks on; bathroom products are by Clarins, suitably French and high-end; the mini-bar is stocked daily; missing something? Room service is yours, 24/7.

The food

The two restaurants are the more casual Le Nemo on the pool deck and the more formal (“flip-flops are not considered appropriate”) Le Nautilus. Breakfast can be in Le Nautilus where it’s a buffet with made to order hot dishes, or in your room with all the usuals and excellent bread and pastries (when the entire crew was introduced to the guests, the pastry chef received the loudest applause of all). For lunch, there’ll be a chef’s station set up near the pool – one day serving pasta rolled in a massive cheese wheel, another time paella and yet another a roast suckling pig. Salads and appetisers are buffet style, as are deserts. At dinner in Le Nautilus, the fine dining kicks in with table service all the way in a five-course meal. Serving sizes, thankfully, are modest, with maybe a tuna tartare for entree and a rack of lamb or barramundi for main, then cheese and a desert. Want to stay in your cabin? No problem, the hamburger is world-class and the club sandwich absolutely club-worthy. As for breakfast, the miracle is your server’s ability to hold the tray balanced at head height in one hand, manoeuvring past the stateroom door with the other.

Wellness

Up on deck seven you’ll find a gym, a sauna and the spa for beauty, hair and massage treatments. This is one of the best spaces on the ship – treatment rooms with glass walls for windows, taking in whatever view there is between you and the horizon. Purely for research purposes, your correspondent had a full-body massage and came away floating on air.

Entertainment

A small but enthusiastic band of entertainers play music, perform the shows and lead guests in dance and exercise if they wish. Worth catching early on is the “2000 steps of Le Jacques Cartier” – a quick 15-minute walk that covers all the ship’s decks in a handy familiarisation. Time at sea moving from point to point has a roster of talks from the ship’s expert expedition team covering their particular area of passion (you can also watch them live on the TV monitor in your cabin).

The crew

Just about everything is included in a Ponant cruise, but on this one, an exception is the laundry service. I think I know why – there’s no way the entire crew could keep their uniforms, especially the daytime whites, so universally unblemished without frequent laundering. My guess is the charge is to slow the traffic from guests. Presentation is one thing, beyond that, there’s a kind of relaxed formality with the crew – always charming, smiling and up for a chat, but serious about delivering service at the right level. The captain is often on deck with us and the bridge open a couple of times in the cruise to see how this sophisticated ship operates (spoiler – there’s no big timber steering wheel). It’s the expedition crew you’re closest to though, and they’re a force – most with master’s degrees or doctorates and eager to share their knowledge and love of the unique geology, flora, bird life, marine life and Indigenous art and culture we encounter.

The verdict

A masterpiece where design meets function, and in so doing enables expedition cruising in a luxurious and entertaining style.

The details

A 10-night 2026 Kimberley expedition cruise aboard Le Jacques Cartier from Darwin to Broome in June 2026 from $15,430 a person, all-inclusive. See au.ponant.com

Our rating out of five

★★★★½

Swell
Being on an expedition ship that enables access to otherwise inaccessible Indigenous rock art, at least three times older than any creations of Ancient Egypt.

Not so swell
It’s an understandable compromise, given the astonishing marina that unfolds behind it, but the pool is petite.

The writer was a guest of Ponant.

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