In this episode, Rodney is joined by Ellen McIlvaine, Vice President of the Americas for Ponant Exploration Travel, to discuss the epitome of luxury and exploration. Together, they dive into the world-class innovations of Le Commandant Charcot, Ponant's groundbreaking icebreaker-class vessel, offering unparalleled access to remote regions like the Arctic and the North Pole. Ellen shares insights into the ship's luxurious accommodations and its role as a scientific research platform. She also shares their partnership with Paul Gauguin Tours in the French Polynesia Islands.  Tune in for an inspiring journey that blends luxury, discovery, and adventure. 

IN THIS EPISODE:

• [2:30] Ellen introduces Le Commandant Charcot, Ponant's world-class, luxury icebreaker vessel redefining exploration.
• [4:55] Discover the incredible destinations and experiences awaiting travelers aboard this groundbreaking ship.
• [13:31] Learn how Le Commandant Charcot is a platform for cutting-edge scientific research with onboard experts.
• [15:27] Explore the ship’s opulent accommodations designed for comfort and sophistication in the most remote regions.
• [19:39] Ellen highlights the partnership with Paul Gauguin Tours, offering unforgettable journeys in French Polynesia.
• [24:32] Get a sneak peek into Ponant’s exciting plans and innovations in luxury exploration travel.

KEY TAKEAWAYS: 

• Le Commandant Charcot is the world's first icebreaker-class vessel designed for guest exploration in extreme environments like the Arctic and the geographic North Pole. It operates on electricity and liquefied natural gas, making it environmentally friendly while enabling silent travel to avoid disturbing wildlife.
• Le Commandant Charcot goes beyond traditional boundaries by starting its journey where others turn back, venturing deep into the ice. This approach allows travelers to experience unique wildlife and landscapes in areas previously inaccessible, including the true 90 degrees North at the geographic North Pole.
• Ponant enriches its voyages with themed collections and partnerships, including Smithsonian Journeys and the Explorers Club. It features expert speakers, real explorers, and immersive themes like culinary arts, music, and culture, offering travelers unique learning experiences.

RESOURCES:

Luxury Travelers - Podcast

Luxe Travel - Website

Luxe Travel - Facebook

Luxe Travel - Instagram

Ellen McIlvaine - LinkedIn

Ponant - Website

Paul Gauguin Cruises - Website

GUEST BIOGRAPHY: 

Ellen McIlvaine leads PONANT and Paul Gauguin Cruises' sales team across the Americas, empowering trade advisors to deliver transformative travel experiences. Ellen has a background in adventure tourism and experience working onboard expedition cruises on all seven continents. She is based in Portland, Oregon.

Step into a new era of polar exploration with PONANT’s revolutionary Le Commandant Charcot. Ellen McIlvaine, Vice President of Sales for the Americas at PONANT, shares how this groundbreaking hybrid-electric luxury icebreaker is redefining adventure travel, enabling guests to venture where few have dreamed possible—all while setting a new standard for sustainability and elegance in the world’s most remote regions.

Rodney George: Well, good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening Whatever time it is when you're [00:00:45] finally getting around to opening up this episode of the luxury travelers podcast We have Ellen Mve with us today, who's Vice President of the Americas for, for uh, Poot Exploration Travel, and the Paul Gogan. [00:01:00] For those of you who've never been to the Society Islands, po Paul Gogan Cruises.

Ellen, welcome to the show.

Ellen McIlvaine: Thank you. Thanks, Rodney. It is a joy to be here. Thank you for the invitation.

Ellen McIlvaine: I am in Portland, Oregon.

Rodney George: Okay. So, well, thanks for getting up so early.

Ellen McIlvaine: I'm usually up by noon. Yeah.

Ellen McIlvaine: Oh, Carl.

And so it's easy when people come out and they say, well, we've been everywhere and we've done everything. Well, what, what, [00:02:00] what else is there? Well, I've got a couple of places you probably haven't been. And just in case you've been there before, I've got a new advanced way for you to get, go deeper than you've ever been before.

Ellen McIlvaine: Yeah. So, I mean, I think that's certainly the lead, right? It's Le Combatant Charco is our, is our vessel that is really unlike anything else.

Um, and both are misconceptions. So, um, is. Uh, first [00:03:15] off, it's, it's rated super clean for the environment. So it's fueled by electricity and liquefied natural gas. So that on its own was a, was an innovation. Um, and an icebreaker just as in terms of how, [00:03:30] how strong the whole of the ship is, how far can it go?

Vessel [00:04:00] in the world designed to have guests on board that can safely take you to these places. So, including the geographic North Pole. It is, it has never been safer or more comfortable to go to these places and [00:04:15] it's, I mean, it's, if you, if somebody's listening and thinking, okay, I went to Antarctica and I've been to the Arctic.

Rodney George: So the experience that most people that take you to the Arctic in particular, how far away from the true North Pole?

Ellen McIlvaine: Well, I mean, some will get to the Arctic circle. Um, and most [00:05:00] expedition companies, when we're talking about the Arctic, we're talking about Greenland or Svalbard or Arctic Canada. Um, and all of these places are so amazing to visit.

It's [00:05:45] such a cool trip and on that trip at the northern most day. You might get up to where the ice starts, and you can see the edge of the ice. And you think, well, we're at the edge here. Um, and then you [00:06:00] turn back around and go back to do more exploring. Um, that day where you get to the edge of the ice, that's where the Charcot gets started.

And

Rodney George: that's,

But also, you know, all kinds of seals there is so much happening in the ice and it's it's so beautiful. There's all these different types of ice that we get to see. So, it is super interesting. Um, [00:06:45] and the, the. ship that we use, the Kaminashi Arco, it's As I mentioned, it's electric. So it's really quiet. So if we are somewhere and we spot a polar bear, we're shifted into electric mode.

Um, it's, um, it's a new kind of travel. It really is a new kind of travel that we haven't done before. Um, and as I said, like, it's never been safer. It's a wild time, I think, in expedition [00:07:30] cruising for, for us who get to, to work and travel and for, you know, people who love to travel. It's the sort of new chapter where.

It's, I wouldn't even say it's an expedition. It's true exploration. It's unlike anything else.

So luxury travel is evolving into a sense of, uh, really exclusivity [00:08:45] in this, particularly in your case, how does the experience above, uh, on board the, uh, the, uh, Charcot different from, uh, the thrill. So you've got [00:09:00] luxury and a thrill all rolled into one here, right?

Ellen McIlvaine: Yeah. Yeah. Well, as I said, it's a new kind of travel.

Um, and the ship only has 130 rooms. So we really can't take [00:09:45] everybody. But there is, there is, there's something for everybody. So if you don't want to, you know, consider yourself. You know, akin to climbing Everest or, you know, doing something that's really [00:10:00] extreme. You'll still enjoy this experience. It's more of the thrill.

And so it's, it's, uh, it's really special. We had a trip. Um, about a month, almost two months ago now, and our [00:11:00] itinerary, which I thought I heard about the first time I thought, wait, we're, we're doing what we started in, um, Nome, Alaska. And we were going over the top of the globe to, so it [00:11:15] was known to, um, Longyearbyen.

Well, apparently there are three North Poles and there's a, I know there's a place that was called the pole of inaccessibility or the, The point of inaccessibility, and it was [00:12:00] called that because it's the place the furthest north and furthest from any land in the Arctic on our planet. And nobody had ever been there before.

Graphic North Pole, the Magnetic North Pole, and they are now in the history books as the first [00:12:45] people to ever reach the pole of inaccessibility. So, and they got to, like, the group got to submit a name for the point, for the, so it, this is actual history here. I mean, it's more than signing up for a [00:13:00] cruise, but as I said, it's super Safe.

It's super comfortable. It's extremely responsible. It's such a careful way to travel. Um, so it's very, it is really thrilling.

Ellen McIlvaine: bragging rights, you've got to go. Name a point in the Arctic . So of those, of

Rodney George: those 130 state rooms, don't you have some scientists and that type of Yeah.

Ellen McIlvaine: Um, they take a few of the rooms. It depends on how many scientists we have on board. Mm-hmm . So the Charcot, in addition to being a, you know, a luxury, um, exploration. Vessel. It's also a year-round environmental research vessel. [00:13:45] So we have scientists on board all year long.

Rodney George: Right

And sometimes, you know, they're taking core samples of ice or we, there was some research going on where they were testing ice at the North Pole for [00:14:45] microplastics to see like how far have the microplastics. It was not good news. Um, they were there, but it's all very interesting. And so the researchers and scientists, it's, we have to be completely [00:15:00] separate from it because we want it to be true, hard science.

Rodney George: do the state rooms on this ship compare with your other ships, for example, a size wise accommodations, et cetera.

Ellen McIlvaine: Yeah.

Um, and there's a variety of [00:16:00] different state rooms. Some are, um, some are about the, you know, about the same size as on the rest of our fleet. And we have some stunning suites. We've got some duplex suites that are two levels with just massive terraces [00:16:15] floor to ceiling across two different, you know. Two levels windows where you can look out and just see, I mean, imagine being in the Arctic somewhere so far out and just looking [00:16:30] out.

On this icy landscape and feeling how far you've come.

Ellen McIlvaine: Oh, yes, absolutely. It is more luxurious than the rest of our ships.

This is what we've been doing for a really long time. The Charcot is a step above the restaurant on board as an Alain Ducasse restaurant at sea. So every night is a tasting menu from an Alain Ducasse chef. I [00:17:30] mean, it's so good. Yeah. Um, and The inclusions are, are, you know, of course, it's all inclusive and, um, the wines are fabulous.

Rodney George: Just in case,

Um, yeah, it's, it's lovely.

And, uh, she's going into refurbishment, uh, right after the first of the year. So PONAD's doing.

Please call us. We have an itinerary for you. Um, but as you mentioned, we, we're, we're exploring all over. And, um, I [00:19:15] think a lot of people maybe don't know Penan as a household name. Uh, it's because, yes, we are exploring all over, but in very small numbers. Our biggest ship is only 132 rooms. So, Um, that said, we did, as you [00:19:30] mentioned, uh, is our sister company and, uh, that actually happened in the beginning of 2019.

So we have the Society

Rodney George: Islands, the Marquesas, the Cook Islands.

It's part of the community there. So [00:20:30] it's not, you know, it's not a drive by we're coming in. Sometimes when we're on a cruise and I work in cruising, you sell a lot of, you know, you know, a lot about cruises. We love them, but. Sometimes the atmosphere of the ship or the [00:20:45] company is the majority of your experience, and then you're disembarking for your cruise excursions, and you're getting to go a lot of places.

Rodney George: so she going to look pretty much brand new after she comes out of refurbishment, they do an interior refurbishment or is it all below deck?

Rodney George: but people come here to hear to get the scoop,

And so a lot of the outer decks and, um, and public spaces are going to look very new and [00:22:00] gorgeous. Um, And still celebrating again, the French Polynesian piece that the Paul Gauguin is so well known for, uh, with the, the chic design that, uh, but not brings to the table.

And I said, I don't know that I have a favorite place. I can tell you with that beyond a shadow of a doubt that French Polynesia is the most beautiful place that I've ever been in the world. And I would go back there in a [00:22:30] heartbeat.

Ellen McIlvaine: Yeah. Me too. It's hard to describe the color of the water there. It

Rodney George: is.

It is.

Ellen McIlvaine: Yeah. It feels so

Ellen McIlvaine: It feels so idyllic that you're, it's, uh, when I'm there I'm thinking, I start to feel anxious. Will I remember this as it actually is? Because it's like, you know, the feels. It's so [00:23:00] idyllic. It's amazing. If, if anybody's listening and they haven't, haven't been to French Polynesia, and they're a little curious about it, just go, you will not regret it.

Rodney George: But wait until March or April, whenever the ship comes out.

Rodney George: do want to spend some time. Uh, a few nights in an over the water bungalow while you're there, but if you really want to see the society islands and if you have time to do one of the itineraries that goes on to the Cook and the Marquesas.

Ellen McIlvaine: Yeah, the Marquesas in particular, they're so far out. That's a real adventure. And I think sometimes we put French Polynesia into kind of a vacation box in our [00:23:45] minds. Like, it's, it's a vacation destination, but we don't really remember that there is this, you know, Amazing, rich, unique culture there that where we're going is, is so different than what we're used to.

Rodney George: Again, steroids come to mind.

Ellen McIlvaine: Yes. Yes.

Rodney George: Okay. We've got about two or three minutes here. What's new and exciting.

Ellen McIlvaine: We have so much. I'm like, where do I start? So the Sharko, we talked a lot about that, but I think. That will continue to make news for some time. Um, we are launching some amazing collections with [00:24:45] Partners, um, and alliances that, uh, are bringing some extra enrichment and themes to what we're offering.

We have a similar, um, Uh, trips coming with the Explorers Club. So we talked a lot about going places that are so hard [00:25:30] to reach. It's something Panant does very well. So we've got a great collection with the Explorers Club, uh, to continue to do research and travel with some, some real, Real actual explorers.

That's all, that's, that's

Rodney George: brave. Putting all those people with different religions on the same.

Rodney George: Well, if anyone in the travel industry has something to offer that's for multiple generations, and we specialize in [00:26:30] multi generational travel, this just might be one of the sweet spots to take your adult children and your grandchildren and venture off. To which one of the three North Poles take your pick.

What are they calling it? Skip gen. Um, but people want to travel with a parent or a child. We have so we had over 200 departures when I checked last week [00:27:15] with no single supplement, meaning somebody can have their own room, the same room we would put two people in for the same cost of sharing. Um, Yeah.

Which on a luxury experience for us all included is a pretty great value for a good exploration.

Ellen McIlvaine: Me too. Thank you.

Rodney George: But I really want to thank you for being on here and thank all of you for watching and, uh, think about it.

Thank you for tuning in. Bye for now. Ellen, thanks for being here.

Ellen McIlvaine: Thanks for having me.