Kit PetersSWANSEA: Luxury cruise ship docks in the city — one of just two due all year
Le Champlain, operated by the French luxury line Ponant, arrived in Swansea on Thursday as she nears the end of an 11-night cruise around the Celtic Sea and British Isles.
The 184-guest ship was guided into the docks by tug, and passers-by stopped along the waterfront to watch the unusual arrival.
A rare visitor
Swansea is chiefly a commercial cargo port, handling everything from steel and agribulks to components for the offshore wind industry, and it takes only the occasional cruise call at its Kings Dock berth.
According to the Cruise Wales calendar, just two cruise ships are scheduled to visit the port this season — Le Champlain, and Windstar Cruises’ Star Legend, which called on 14 June.
Most of Wales’s cruise traffic goes elsewhere, to ports such as Holyhead, Milford Haven and Fishguard.
Cruise tourism across Wales has been growing, however. The country recorded 84 cruise ship visits in 2025 — more than double the 41 logged in 2021.
And Swansea has welcomed passengers before: in May last year, hundreds of cruise visitors stepped ashore for a day sampling the best of South Wales.
A floating boutique hotel
Le Champlain is no ordinary ship. Built in 2018, she is the second of Ponant’s six “Explorer”-class expedition vessels — luxury yachts designed to slip into smaller, remoter ports that larger liners cannot reach.
She carries just 184 guests, looked after by around 110 crew, and her amenities lean firmly towards the indulgent: French fine dining with menus developed in partnership with the kitchens of acclaimed chef Alain Ducasse, a spa, an infinity pool and a fleet of Zodiac boats for shore landings.
Her most unusual feature sits below the waterline. The “Blue Eye” lounge — a Ponant signature — is an underwater bar with two whale-eye-shaped portholes, where hydrophones pipe the sounds of the sea through the room and sofas gently vibrate in time with the ocean.
It does not come cheap. Fares for Ponant’s voyages typically run well into the thousands of pounds per passenger.
A port with bigger maritime ambitions
The arrival is a reminder of the council’s hopes to see more passenger traffic through the city’s docks.
Swansea once had its own ferry link across the sea to Ireland, with the port serving as the terminal for the Swansea–Cork service until it ended more than a decade ago.
More recently, the council has set its sights on a new crossing closer to home. It has been pursuing plans for a zero-emission fast ferry across the Bristol Channel, linking Swansea with the South West of England.
The idea has drawn strong public support in consultation, though it has also met scepticism, with one councillor branding it a “fairy story”.
Rouen to Greenock
Le Champlain’s current voyage began in Rouen, in northern France, on 10 June, and has taken her guests through Cornwall’s Isles of Scilly, Bantry in Ireland, the Isle of Man, Liverpool and Holyhead.
After her day in Swansea she sails on for Belfast, the Scottish isle of Tobermory, and finally Greenock, near Glasgow, where the cruise concludes on 21 June.
For Swansea, it is a brief but glamorous visit — and, with only one other cruise call due this year, a rare chance to see a ship like her on the city’s doorstep.
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