Breaking the ice: luxury cruise ship brings mass tourism to the Arctic, thanks to climate change
The once forbidding Arctic region, home to polar bears and ice-covered seas, has melted enough that this summer it’s open not only for shipping but high-end tourism.
The proof lies in the Crystal Serenity cruise, a luxury tour of the Arctic that promises to carry passengers through the storied Northwest Passage and across the roof of the world. The controversial cruise set sail Tuesday from Seward, Alaska, and was to dock 32 days later in New York City.
As many as 1,700 passengers and crew were expected to be on board the Crystal Serenity, which will transit the Bering Strait and visit Greenland. Tickets for the historic journey started at about US$22,000 and went into the six figures. That price doesn’t include extras that guests can book, such as a helicopter ride or side excursion to a Greenland glacier.
Despite the cost, the trip sold out quickly, and the company behind it said a second journey is already in the planning.
The location might be the Arctic, but the Crystal Serenity’s 1,100 guests aren’t exactly roughing it. The US$350 million ship is 248 metres long and has 13 decks and 535 state rooms. It has a driving range and putting green, a casino, a movie theatre, half a dozen restaurants, multiple pools and a library with thousands of books, games and DVDs. There’s also a spa, fitness centre, hair salon and 24-hour complimentary room service.
More than anything, the cruise is a symbol, a harbinger of the tourism and commercial traffic that is likely to fill the once-isolated, ice-choked waters of the Arctic. Many scientists have projected that the ocean could become virtually free of ice during summers at some point, perhaps as soon as the next few decades.
But the expedition also has raised safety concerns. The Northwest Passage is extremely isolated and remote. The small towns that dot its shores could hardly handle an influx of patients if there were a major medical emergency. And were the ship to somehow get stranded or need help, sending aid could be dangerous, uncertain and massively challenging.
“If the entire ship - all 1,000 passengers, all 600 crew - require search and rescue, for instance, if the ship sinks, then that would actually break the Canadian search-and-rescue system,” Michael Byers, a research chair in global politics and international law at the University of British Columbia, told the CBC news.
“The area is plagued by a lack of adequate nautical charts, virtually no navigation aids, poor communication systems, and a lack of infrastructure,” Roger Rufe, a former vice admiral of the US Coast Guard, said recently.
That’s not to say there hasn’t been huge amounts of preparation for the voyage. US and Canadian government and Coast Guard officials have worked closely with Crystal Cruises to plan for the trip - and for any emergencies that might arise along the way. The ship will be accompanied by an ice-breaking boat and two helicopters.
“Crystal Cruises has safely operated its ships routinely in remote areas, including long trans-oceanic voyages for over 25 years, and, in fact, the Northwest Passage is not as remote as one might expect,” said Paul Garcia, director of global public relations for the company. “
