Luxury cruise lines are not all created equal. Each line has strengths and weaknesses, differences in style and execution, and special things they’re noted for.
At Brand g, we’ve chartered many sailings with three small luxury cruise lines (often referred to as “superyachts”, since they hold about 150-180 guests), so below is a comparison of the differences between the three lines.
The cruise lines are:
- Atlas Ocean Cruises
- Swan Hellenic
- Ponant
STYLE / DÉCOR0
We began our foray into superyacht cruising with an Atlas cruise to Antarctica back in 2022. And since then (as of this writing), we’ve done nine more superyacht cruises on the various lines, with three more scheduled for 2027. Because we began with Atlas, we’ve chartered them the most, including Mediterranean sailings, Northern Europe, etc.
Atlas’ style is contemporary glam, with mid-century modern accents. Their 5 ships get high marks for their décor and design, with glossy woods, marble, etc. Very sophisticated. For 2026, we have the Athens to Barcelona cruise in October.
2026 was the first year we chartered Swan Hellenic, beginning with our Panama Canal cruise in April. We also have the exotic Skeleton Coast (West Africa) cruise in October. Swan’s style is sleek Scandinavian – more minimalist than Atlas, with lots of blond woods.
The ships of Ponant – on whom we have two sailings for 2027, in the Baltic (Northern Europe) and French Polynesia, both of which have extremely limited availability remaining – are designed like a French boutique hotel, but a modern version, not the antiques and snotty waiters version. Lots of gray and white, very soothing and really beautiful.
CABINS
All three lines have cabins that are significantly bigger than standard big-ship cabins. A standard balcony cabin on NCL, Celebrity, etc. averages 220 square feet; a cabin on all of these luxury lines averages 270-290 (about the size of a minisuite on the big ship cruise lines).
There are generally about 6-8 categories of rooms on these ships, and NONE are bad, because (outside of a small handful where you may have your view blocked a bit by a lifeboat or the bridge), there are no bad locations. So know that even if you book somewhat last minute and there aren’t a ton of choices, you’ll be very happy with your room.
Suites on these ships differ from the big ship cruise lines in that there are no palatial 1500 square foot suites. The largest tend to be under 500 square feet.
The differences between the three cruise line brands we’re discussing tends to be in the details:
Atlas’ showers have a closing glass shower door. Swan Hellenic’s have the half glass wall. I personally prefer the Atlas door that closes, because even with a vent drain at the edge of the Swan Hellenic shower to keep water from splashing onto the floor of the bathroom, you do end up throwing a towel down to soak up a bit of it.
Ponant has a very unique feature where you can slide over a panel to reveal a wall of glass in the bathroom that looks into the room (and thus out the windows to the sea). If you’re alone – or you don’t mind your partner seeing you shower – it’s a lovely way to get clean!
With that criticism of Swan Hellenic’s shower, though, SH has two other distinct pluses to their cabins:
- They have the most storage space we’ve ever seen in a standard cabin. An insane amount. There were cabinets and cubbyholes we didn’t even use. Quite ingenious design.
- Their cabins feature a fireplace. It’s not real, of course (fire on a ship?!), but it’s fabulously realistic, even down to the crackling sounds that emanate from it (which you can control the volume of). When you come back at night after dinner and a show, it’s a lovely feature to help you wind down.
PUBLIC AREAS
There are a few differences between the cruise lines in terms of their size and offerings of public areas.
All have gyms, but Swan Hellenic’s seems to be the winner in terms of size, with more cardio machines and a larger selection of weight training equipment.
Atlas offers a larger pool than Swan Hellenic or Ponant, and it’s in that midship position (with two hot tubs) that you expect on a cruise ship.
Swan Hellenic and Ponant place their pools on the aft (back of the ship). Theyir pools are smaller, but have that infinity feel, and it’s a lovely thing to be in a pool looking out at the ship’s wake.
Atlas and Ponant have onboard laundry services of course, and they typically do one of those “fill a bag” promotions mid-cruise where they do all the laundry for that one (quite low) price. Swan Hellenic, in comparison, offers paid laundry service, but also has laundry rooms with 3 sets of washers/dryers where you can do your laundry for free. And soap is provided (it is fed automatically into the machines). A lovely plus if you’re sailing somewhere hot!
FOOD
This is, of course, a central part of cruising, and all three lines offer exemplary food, but with differences.
Atlas tends to be a bit more flourish-y in their menu, offering adventurous eaters some really unique options.
Swan Hellenic tends to be less “adventurous”, but the quality is extremely high.
Ponant’s tends to be heavily French-influenced, which, if you love French food like I do, is a gift from heaven.
Atlas has slightly smaller breakfast and lunch buffets than Swan Hellenic does, but they offer several more menu options. (On all these lines, breakfast and lunch are buffets, but there are always additional items that you can order from a menu.)
Swan Hellenic offers a slightly larger room service menu. Swan features a main restaurant for sit-down meals, as well as a second one that features an all-day and night buffet.
Atlas has one main restaurant, plus a fantastic “grab-n-go” café called Paula’s Pantry where you can get specialty coffees, smoothies, and wonderful pastries, sandwiches, etc.
All of the lines have pool grills, of course, where you can get burgers, hot dogs, chicken, etc.
For those who prefer less adventurous food, all three lines offer “always available” options which tend to be quite good – steak, chicken breasts, etc. And all 3 make presentation a central focus, so you feel (particularly at dinner) like you’re dining in a Michelin-quality restaurant.
STAFF
This is, perhaps the one area where the three lines are quite similar: all offer warm, extremely professional service (they’re taught never to say no to a reasonable request). And all staff – if you are playful and like to have fun with them – have members who will drop just a bit of the polished demeanor and joke right back with you.
But the onus, of course, is on you, because they don’t ever want to seem unprofessional unless you invite that. My husband, in particular, loves joking around with the staff and always makes friends with a couple of the restaurant servers and such, to the point that he ends up tipping them extravagantly because they’ve become so dear to us. (A note, here: you need never feel obligated to tip staff on the ships if you don’t want to – Brand g tips them quite well.)
These lines recognize the importance of continuity, and they’re known for bringing staff that our guests have particularly loved on one cruise onto the next Brand g cruise on a different ship. Atlas has done this repeatedly. And I was recently on the Swan Hellenic Panama Canal cruise, and several of the servers and managers that we adored will be working our cruise on a different ship this fall.
SHORE EXCURSIONS
Generally, all three do an excellent job with shore excursions, particularly when it’s an expedition-type sailing, such as the Skeleton Coast (West Africa) one or French Polynesia. The expedition teams on these ships love it when they can get their active excursion on, and they’re extremely knowledgeable about the environment (nature, wildlife, etc) you’re touring in.
All three cruise lines do an excellent job with typical “touring” or sightseeing excursions as well (like in Europe), but those involve local tour guides and don’t give the ship’s team a chance to shine the way the active shore excursions do in places like Africa or French Polynesia.
As with Brand g excursions on ALL cruises, these lines use extra buses (so our guests aren’t crammed together), and only the finest local tour guides available – licensed, educated, highly knowledgeable men and women who don’t treat tour guiding as a side hustle. With perhaps the exception of locales where tourism is only seasonal, it’s their profession.
WI-FI
Wifi continues to become better on ALL ships, big and small, as they switch to Starlink. Love Elon Musk or hate him, Starlink (his company) is a phenomenal improvement for cruise lines, airlines, etc. It’s cheaper and much faster and more reliable.
Swan Hellenic offers guests unlimited standard wifi, as does Ponant. Our experience with Atlas has varied; early sailings extended only 1GB of free internet to guests (you can, of course, purchase additional gigabytes or an unlimited plan, and the price is more reasonable than big ship lines), and yet a recent Atlas cruise included unlimited wifi. They may be switching to an entirely unlimited offering like the others, so by the time you experience Atlas, it will hopefully be unlimited.
All of them – as do the big-ship lines – limit you to email, texts, web surfing, etc., on that standard unlimited plan. You cannot send 10 photos to a friend, stream shows, etc. But you can upgrade to premium (where you can stream all day if you want) for a reasonable fee. Most people find they don’t need the premium feature unless they’re jonesing for a Real Housewives marathon and didn’t download the shows to their iPad or laptop before getting on the ship.
BOOZE
On all luxury cruises with Brand g – actually, this is true of Brand g’s European European river cruises, as well – all drinks are unlimited. Cocktails, wine, beer, coffee drinks, everything.
We actually try to have some form of included drinks on all trips, on land, river and sea. But because of local regulations, and because of the cost of liquor in some areas of the world – Egypt, for example, taxes it heavily – the included drinks vary from trip to trip.
But on all European river cruises and on all luxury ocean cruises in ANY part of the world, all drinks are unlimited. This is not always true of even the small-ship luxury lines, but Brand g makes it a standard offering.
Now, the liquor brands a may vary a bit on each cruise line in terms of which ones are included and which might be considered premium – meaning there’s a small charge – but all of them have excellent brands that are included. The ones we know and love, like Tito’s, Ketel One, that kind of thing, are typically included. And they typically just do the “gay pour” like we’ve seen in gay bars, rather than shot-glass measuring. Not that it matters – you can have as many drinks as you like!
ENTERTAINMENT
Entertainment is a big factor on our cruises, because we MAKE it a big factor. We bring on really fabulous Broadway, cabaret and comedy stars so that, as we always say, “Every night is opening night”.
These include people like Broadway and cabaret star Meghan Murphy, Tony winner Levin Kreis, hilarious drag queens like Miss Conception, Dixie Longate and Sutton Lee Seymour, and many, many more. Our guests do not book a cruise solely for the entertainment, but they consider it a major selling point, nonetheless.
The best thing about these performers is that, because they’re on the entire cruise with us, going on the shore excursions, dining with us, etc., you have the chance to really get to know them. We only book entertainers who also happen to be wonderful human beings who are completely approachable. Many of our frequent guests have become fast friends with these performers.
If you like a performer and want to get to know them, don’t be shy. Walk right up to them and chat them up. You’ll be surprised how welcoming they are.
Ready to sail a luxury line? Once you do, you won’t want anything less!
