Crystal Cruises can’t promise its passengers that they will see a polar bear — but in addition to the standard shuffleboard, open buffets and Zumba classes, the company does promise its passengers an opportunity to venture where no luxury cruise liner has gone before.
In August, the 820-foot, 14-deck Crystal Serenity will chug through the Northwest Passage on a 32-day voyage from Seward, Alaska, to its final docking in New York City. Over 110 years ago, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen took three years to navigate his small, gasoline-powered ship through the same icy route, becoming the first person to complete the fabled transit across the icy northern rim of the Western Hemisphere.
The loss of Arctic ice cover in recent years has transformed the waters along the coasts of Canada and Alaska into a navigable route, increasing shipping and commercial traffic. But less ice doesn’t necessarily mean worry-free travel. Plowing a mammoth cruise ship big enough to house a casino, a movie theater, six restaurants and a driving range through these polar waters will be no easy feat.
That’s why executives at California-based Crystal Cruises LLC hired a seasoned expedition leader to guide them through the planning process. For the past two years, Tim Soper, founder of Expedition Voyage Consultants, has worked with Crystal Cruises to assemble an expedition team and plan logistics for the trip.
Though Mr. Soper has over 20 years of experience voyaging through the Arctic, he has never dealt with this number of passengers. Mr. Soper said it’s not the size of the boat but the 1,070 passengers and 655 crew members that could lead to complications.
“The actual logistics of the ship going through is not much different,” Mr. Soper said.
The largest ship he has guided through the passage is just about 150 feet shorter than the Crystal Serenity.
“It’s really the search-and-rescue aspect of it,” he said. “If we had a problem and it needed to be evacuated, it could be challenging. This is why Crystal has spent three years planning this voyage.”
Still, Crystal Serenity passengers will be required to have $50,000 in emergency evacuation insurance before they walk up the gangplank.
In April, Coast Guard officials from the U.S. and Canada met in Anchorage along with Crystal Cruises and other agencies involved to conduct a “tabletop exercise” to ensure all forces were on the same page to respond to any life-threatening incident.
“Success in the Arctic requires unified effort between all of the agencies,” said Lt. Cmdr. Jason Boyle, the Coast Guard’s prevention officer for the Alaska region. “Right now, in the planning and preparation stage, we need to have everybody at the table, and this exercise allowed us to do that.”
The Crystal Serenity passed a final Coast Guard maintenance check — including drills for on-deck fires and for “abandon ship” orders — in Juneau.
“Everything was in fairly good working order,” Lt. Cmdr. Nicholas Neely told reporters in Alaska.
Despite the passenger count, Peter Garapick, Canadian Coast Guard superintendent of search and rescue, said procedures would be similar to those in the Caribbean.
“It’s not that different,” Mr. Garapick said. “The Arctic may actually have more communities or resources that could arrive quickly.”
Dealing with the locals
The cruise ship’s Alaska-to-New York itinerary will include stops to visit Inuit communities in Alaska, Canada and Greenland. The smallest community is home to 450 people.
With the locals in mind, passengers will be banned from using mobile phones on the tiny networks. Before tickets for the voyage went on sale, cruise officials met with members of the communities to ask whether they would like these sorts of visits. Mr. Soper said the answer was a clear “yes.”
“They’re actually quite used to people visiting by ship, but usually in smaller groups of 100 to 200 people,” Mr. Sopersaid. “We want to make sure we don’t overwhelm the locals, so we’ll be bringing people in small groups over an extended period. They’ve been really enthusiastic about the economic benefits our visit may bring and the opportunity to showcase their home to a larger audience.”
The coastal town of Nome had just 35 dockings in the 1990s and more than 730 last year. Mayor Richard Beneville said he thinks tourism is good for Nome.
The prospect of regular cruise traffic through the once-inaccessible Northwest Passage “is kind of a game-changer,” Mr. Beneville recently told Alaska Dispatch News. “It’s indicating what’s going to be the future of transportation through the Bering Strait because of climate change.”
Still, the city of 4,000 offers just 18 hospital beds. Mr. Garapick said that in certain emergencies, passengers would likely be airlifted out of the region.
“The question is, ‘What is the nearest stable platform?’” Mr. Garapick said. “It could be a community, and at that point we’re not worried about the size of the community. At that point, we’re looking at aircraft. This is where Crystal Cruises would say, ‘We need to look after our clients,’ and they would take over.”
Crystal management started planning for transit in January 2013 and has since chartered an escort vessel through RSS Eric Shackleton that will travel with the liner to break up ice and provide logistical support. In case of emergency, the vessel could tow or provide power to the Crystal Serenity. Additionally, two onboard helicopters will allow for real-time ice reconnaissance.
The Crystal Serenity is likely to face more floating ice than a ship a decade ago would have encountered, but the cruise has budgeted a seven-day leeway period so the captain can leisurely, and safely, navigate the waters.
The cruise will be decked with an expedition team of historians, Arctic guides and even a polar bear specialist to inform the guests about the regions.
Crystal Cruises marketed the voyage to its most adventurous cruisers, emphasizing the excitement in journeying through waters largely unexplored by outsiders.
Prices start at nearly $22,000 and rise to $120,000 for a spot in a Crystal Penthouse. This fee doesn’t include the optional $4,000 helicopter ride in Nome or the $6,000 three-day excursion to the Glacier Lodge Eqi “eco lodge” in Greenland.
Spots for the maiden voyage sold out in just three weeks, and Crystal Cruises is booking for another trip through the passage next year.
To address environmental concerns, the Crystal Serenity will be followed by an oil cleanup ship and will burn a low-sulfur oil to reduce its carbon footprint.
Still, John Sauven, director of Greenpeace UK, is not happy. He told The Daily Telegraph, “The melting of the Arctic sea ice should be a profound warning for humankind, not an invitation to oil companies and now tour ships to move in.”
Mr. Soper argued that the cruise is an ideal way to expose the Arctic to travelers who otherwise would never get a chance to experience the great frozen North — and become advocates for its preservation.
“People read a lot about the Arctic, how the region is changing, and it’s an opportunity for them to see an incredibly special part of the world,” he said. “It’s a place that you need to experience to understand. The more people that experience it, the more ambassadors it has, which can only be a good thing for a region that we need to take care of.”
Sources: www.washingtontimes.com