Author Topic: 1076 pax cruiser liner to take on NW Passage in 2016  (Read 2126 times)

Offline chrisg46

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1076 pax cruiser liner to take on NW Passage in 2016
« on: July 30, 2014, 03:31:17 PM »
1076 passenger luxury cruise liner Crystal Serenity is due to transit the North West Passage, 500 miles into the Arctic Circle in late August, 2016 - there's a Shipping TV video now on the site's video page.

The announcement, 2 or 3 days ago from operator Crystal Cruises, seemed to hit the cruise industry as something of a surprise, although a number of other, mostly smaller, vessels have made the voyage. Part of the impetus for the move came from the 2013 passage of bulker Nordic Orion, around the same size as the liner, but drawing 6 metres more when loaded with coal.

The 32-day voyage sounds like a very major undertaking for the line, which is having to employ a standby vesselfor the duration.

Crystal Serenity was built in 2003, and is ice class 1C, equipping her to steam through open water with up to 0.4m thick floes, or to follow a broken channel through similar thickness ice.

How would you fancy that?
Chris
I'm a working shipping journo, and run a website called ShippingTV . . .
http://www.shippingtv.co.uk

Offline Tuomas Romu

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Re: 1076 pax cruiser liner to take on NW Passage in 2016
« Reply #1 on: July 30, 2014, 06:36:05 PM »

How would you fancy that?

I would fancy transiting the Northwest Passage, just like I fancied travelling through the Northern Sea Route couple of years ago, but I would not do it on a cruise ship with such a low ice class.

Offline Stefan Niederer

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Re: 1076 pax cruiser liner to take on NW Passage in 2016
« Reply #2 on: July 31, 2014, 02:39:48 PM »
I would love to sail thru the Northwest passage or even the northeast passage. But the ship should have better ice class. Even this is common with large cruiseship in cold waters. "Costa Cruises in Svalbard" or "Celebrity Cruises in Antarctica". For Svalbard there are new restrictions comming in the next years so this mighty be also good for Antarctica and the far north. How would you evacuate all those people on board? Or is the Stand-by-vessel a big enough icebreaker, then I would sail for sure. If I had the money and the time... ;-)

I have been to northern greenland, Svalbard and Antarctica but all on smaller ships.

 

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