Arctic cruise limits black-tie events for its well-heeled adventurers

The 32-day luxury cruise from Seward to New York City, via the coast of Alaska and the Northwest Passage, is brought to you by climate change.

If the voyage of the Crystal Serenity does not end with headlines making comparisons to the Titanic, the voyage will do much to change attitudes about the accessibility of Alaska and the Arctic.

Part of the attraction, after all, is the Arctic Ocean has been deemed among the few places on Earth that has been beyond the reach of most travelers, off-limits to all but the hardiest souls.

That image, frozen in popular culture for so long, will give way if a giant cruise ship, even one accompanied by an icebreaker, manages to reach the Atlantic. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said satellite images taken Aug. 9 showed a "nearly ice-free Northwest Passage."

One journey won't turn northern villages into anything like Skagway in summer, but a pattern of regular cruise ship traffic in the years ahead will move isolated communities closer to the beaten track, for better or worse.

After Kodiak, Dutch Harbor and Nome, the cruise ship plans three stops in Canadian waters and three in Greenland.

Crystal Serenity passenger and reporter Tim Jepson, writing for the Daily Telegraph in London, said before leaving Seward there was "an obvious buzz of excitement among the 1,070 cruise passengers, but also — and I don't think I'm imagining this — a faint air of trepidation."

Because the "serenity prayer" is not enough, passengers had to show proof of purchasing $50,000 in "evacuation/repatriation insurance," just in case they need to be extricated.

In a congressional hearing in July, the vice commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard said the logistics of dealing with any emergency on the Northwest Passage are formidable because help is not close at hand. There are no tugboats, ports and repair facilities, but there are uncharted waters and sometimes there is ice.

The icebreaker is carrying two small helicopters, but if a big helicopter is needed it would take 15-20 hours in good weather to reach the ship in the Arctic, said Adm. Charles Michel.

"Even during the summer the weather is an incredible challenge," said Michel. He said he believes the company is prepared, but cautioned that operating conditions can be treacherous.

This is something of a shakedown cruise for the cruise industry, driven by the steady decline of Arctic ice and the dream of capturing new tourist territory.

The journey has drawn considerable worldwide news coverage for a couple of years now, some of it a little unfair. A headline in Slate this week said, "The World's Worst People are on a Luxury Mega-Cruise Through the Northwest Passage."

For its part, a company press release said it welcomed "nearly 1,000 intrepid guests" in Seward for an "extraordinarily rare endeavor."

If the Serenity succeeds, other ships will pick their way from the Beaufort Sea to Baffin Island across the Canadian Arctic in the years ahead. The real safety challenge will come if the route becomes such a routine companies turn complacent.

This voyage sold out three weeks after it was announced and Crystal Cruises is already selling tickets for next summer, with prices from $22,000 for a "deluxe stateroom," to $120,000 for an apartment-sized "crystal penthouse."

On the day before Crystal Serenity departed from Seward, Capt. Birger J. Vorland posted a video on Facebook in which he said he looked forward to showing passengers things that "very, very few people have seen before."

"Personally I am very excited to follow in the footsteps of my fellow countryman Roald Amundsen, who on the Gjoa, together with six other men, sailed the Northwest Passage for the first time between 1903 and 1906," said the Norwegian captain, a mariner for 38 years.

"Amundsen spent three years to do it. We're going to do it in 32 days and in a lot more comfort," he said.

By Amundsen's time, the passage had been a dream for 300 years, though it never led to the tremendous riches explorers thought would come from shaving thousands of miles off journeys to India and China.

Today, with the shrinking summer ice in the Arctic, the cruise company sees a narrow commercial window in late summer.

Crystral Cruises has marketed the voyage as the "ultimate journey" that will blend an "extreme wilderness adventure with unsurpassed luxury cruising."

The idea these two contradictory experiences can coexist is a marketing ploy, one that simply requires plenty of cash.

The company is giving every passenger a parka, complete with an "eco ruff," and it suggested travelers buy $120 boots and pick up a clothing package for $448.90 — complete with $79 waterproof pants, $19.99 Merino socks, long underwear, $64 gloves and $29 glove liners.

"This package eliminates the guesswork of what to wear to stay warm because it provides everything you'll need for the Zodiac and shore landings in the Arctic," the company said.

The ship will not allow all passengers to go ashore at once at the smaller stops because the ship has a larger population than some of the communities. Three of the landings beyond Alaska will require use of inflatable boats.

"This may result in guests stepping into water several inches deep in order to reach the shore; this is known as a 'wet' landing and is very common on expedition cruises," the company advised passengers.

As a nod to the explorers on board, the company has limited "black tie optional" nights aboard ship, in favor of more casual clothing.

"We initially thought to forgo Black Tie evenings on this voyage, yet upon further consideration we felt that the grandeur of this history-making adventure calls for two elegantly festive celebrations," the company said in a letter to passengers late last year about its plans.

"As always, Black Tie for both of these special parties is optional; suit and tie is acceptable for men and cocktail attire is perfect for women," the company said.

For centuries, the literature about travelers through this region consisted of tales of  ships trapped in the ice and those who faced frigid weather, deprivation and death.

It will take time to reconcile that legacy with the latter-day instructions about how to dress for dinner in the Northwest Passage.

Columnist Dermot Cole lives in Fairbanks. The views expressed here are the writer's and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@alaskadispatch.com or click here to submit via any web browser.