Good but not Great

Le Lyrial Cruise Review to South America

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 6
Helpful Votes: 290

Overall rating:

4 out of 5
Verified Review
Le Lyrial

16 Night Beyond The Polar Circle (Ushuaia Roundtrip)

Sail date: February 09, 2020

Ship: Le Lyrial

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 519

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 4 years ago

Review summary

Highlight was the destination. Ship Stabilizers are great. Ship really cuts through a high waves/heavy seas and winds of the Drake Passage. We felt very safe. Safety first as very evident all the time on this trip. Wish the Naturalist Staff had been better. We had one British Lady that was outstanding. A Swedish Gentlemen that was great. They both spoke excellent English and were very knowledgeable. They clearly loved their job. Two more guides were pretty good with moderate English skills to a couple "English" speaking naturalist that were truly awful. Poor presentations. Very little interest in really telling you anything in the field and should find another career. I just learned to try and get on the Zodiac with the good naturalist if at all possible when Zodiac tours were the activity. Passing on presentations by the poor quality naturalists. Searching out the good naturalists if I had any questions when on shore. 1 The other half of the naturalist were not English speaking (when it came to activities with them) and we did not have much interaction with them. We watched a lot of Movies in the evenings and even during the long sea days when not much was going on of interest on the ship. There was a lot of free time. Bring some good reading for this cruise! I am so glad we did the trip that included Falklands and South Georgia! The animals were amazing there!

Embarkation

5 out of 5
Quick and easy. Well done.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5
Food was too French? Is that possible? Food options were a bit limited some times. Quality was OK. We ate a lot of steak/baked potatoes and burgers towards the end of the trip as we were just tired of fancy French styled foods. Would have loved more Italian, Asian, or more simple food options. Toasted hot sandwiches or cold sandwiches would have been nice for lunch. The included wine served was EXCELLENT! Great selection!

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5
Pool was heated one afternoon and we had a party! It was not organized by the crew. We just did it on our own after begging to have the pool heated. Fitness center is very small. No hot tub etc.

Entertainment

3 out of 5
Very limited shows. A little more variety would have been nice.

Service and Staff

4 out of 5
Waiters and Room Stewards were great. Waiters were some times over worked and spread too thin during peak dining times. Service was extremely slow some times. Two hour dinners was not un common.

Ship Quality

5 out of 5
Nice Ship.

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5
Small but well designed. Very little noise from neighbors.

Ship tip

Very french. What I am trying to say is all announcements are in french and then english. The english speakers start noticing that announcements are twice as long in french and many times we just did not get the joke. We would laught about "lost in translation". Shows are "French" style. Many of the staff are not French and loved having English speakers on board.

Ports of call

Ushuaia, Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina

4 out of 5
No Excursion. Walked around town.

New Island, Falkland Islands

5 out of 5
Penguins! Seals!

GRAVE COVE, FALKLAND ISLANDS

5 out of 5
Penguins! Seals!

South Georgia Island

5 out of 5
Penguins! Seals!

Antarctic Experience

5 out of 5
Penguins, Seals, Whales!

CRUISE ANTARCTIC POLAR CIRCLE

5 out of 5
Beautiful in every way!

Cruise Drake Passage

5 out of 5
Rough seas, but the ship stabilizers are EXCELLENT!

Disembarkation

5 out of 5
Easy. Only negative is arriving in Buenos Aires in the AM and then having late 9pm flight to USA. Perhaps they should have provided a City tour or some other optional tour for most of us with extremely long layover.
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4 Comments

vals    2 years ago

How is the onboard internet in the Antarctic region?

Cruiserike0322    4 years ago

Nice review, thank you

portofrome    4 years ago

Thanks for your review

jenyfur    4 years ago

Perhaps pick a English ship next time. Duh