The 68,870gt/2003 built Crystal Serenity’s visit to Alaska’s western coast in September was an historic one. The cruise ship became the first of her type and size to ever traverse the Northwest Passage, where her guests viewed polar bears, kayaked along Canada’s northern coastline, landed on pristine beaches and hiked where few have trodden. Some remote villages along the route saw the financial rewards whilst environmentalists were not as pleased as they say the voyage represents global warming and man’s destruction of the Earth. Ironically the ship could only sail where she could due to there being a navigable passage where ice impenetrable to large ships usually resides, due to either climate change or a more complex climatic cycle.

The Northwest Passage, which connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, has long been a no-go area but now a month-long cruise through the Bering Strait and then east towards Greenland via the Arctic Ocean before arriving in New York has become achievable.

The ship departed Seward on the Kenai Peninsula on 16th August with around 900 guests and 600 crewmembers on board. At calls such as Nome the ship’s 1,070 passengers were disembarked in groups so as not to overwhelm the community. The itinerary included port calls in Kodiak, Dutch Harbor, and Nome, Alaska; Ulukhaktok, NW Territories, Cambridge Bay and Pond Inlet, Nunavut, Ilulissat, Sisimiut, and Nuuk, Greenland, Bar Harbor, Maine, Boston, Massachusetts and Newport, Rhode Island. The ship transitted waterways including the North Pacific Ocean, Chukchi & Beaufort Seas, Amundsen Gulf, Dolphin & Union Strait, Coronation Gulf, Dease Strait, Queen Maud Gulf, Victoria Strait, Larsen Sound, Franklin & Bellot Straits, Peel Sound, Parry Channel, Barrow Strait, Prince Regent Inlet, Lancaster Sound, Croker Bay, Navy Board Inlet, Eclipse Sound, Baffin Bay, Davis Strait and the Labrador Sea.

This cruise was three years in the making and the Crystal Serenity was fitted with special equipment to operate in the Arctic, including an ice navigation satellite system. Her operators even chartered cargo flights to northern communities to gather fresh perishables for the vessel’s five-star restaurants. Crystal Cruises is now planning another Alaska-New York City voyage next August. The 4,028gt/1995 built and Ice 05 classed icebreaker Ernest Shackleton escorted the Crystal Serenity throughout.

On the safety side, the Ernest Shackleton was equipped with two helicopters (for ice reconnaissance and emergency use), hightech communications equipment, tools for oil pollution containment and even survival rations. The Icebreaker’s crew is highly experienced in sailing the Northwest Passage.

Hapag-Lloyd cruises’ 8,378gt/1991 built Hanseatic completed her second navigation of the Northeast Passage in the early hours of 7th September and, after sailing a total of 5,542 nautical miles, the ship arrived in Nome on 10th September. In 2014 the Hanseatic became the first non-Russian cruise ship to navigate the Northeast Passage. This second and fully booked expedition through the legendary sea route departed from Tromso, Norway on 16th August callings at Murmansk, Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Land, Severnaya Zemlya, Siberia, Wrangel Island and Chukchi Island. Regent Seven Seas has cancelled its Grand Northwest Passage voyage which was scheduled to depart on 19th July 2017 from Seward. Navigational experts strongly recommended postponing the cruise to mid-August but this was not possible due to the impact it would have on all subsequent itineraries offered on the 28,803gt/1999 built Seven Seas Navigator.