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.

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