Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach
While working on finishing the story of my sea voyage last week down from Canada to Oregon, I was surprised to see that there is a new market in the world of marine “eco-tourism”. This one involves burning thousands and thousands of gallons of eeevil fossil 
fuels so that rich folks can make a futile attempt to traverse the Northwest Passage, over the top of the US from Anchorage to New York. In a giant cruise ship. Not this year, not next year, but in the year 2016. Polar cruises of all kinds seem to be hot right now. As a seaman, I think that there are places where no cruise ship should go. Here’s a picture of an Antarctic cruise that went wrong …
Now, as others have commented, I’ll believe CO2 is a problem when the folks who claim it’s a problem act like it’s a problem. But what intrigued me was, how was the Crystal Cruise line going to deal with the fact that there’s a good chance they won’t be able to make it all the way through the Northwest Passage in 2016? Would they issue refunds if they couldn’t complete the trip? Do you get half the money back if they only make it half way?
So I did some research on the Crystal Cruises site, and found a couple of oddities. First, since the cost of the cruise alone starts at $20,000 per person and goes up from there, we’re gonna assume that most contestants will be well past fifty years old … and as a result, subject to a variety of weaknesses of the flesh, including but not limited to dropping dead without prior notice. So on their “Frequently Asked Questions” (FAQ) page, the cruise ship operators put the following restriction on potential cruisees …
Due to the remote locations, emergency medical evacuation by plane from the Arctic regions can reach costs of $50,000 or more. Therefore, proof of a minimum of $50,000 per person in Emergency Evacuation Repatriation insurance is required to participate in this cruise.
Well, that’ll keep out the feather merchants. However, on either the page advertising the 2016 Northwest Passage cruise or their FAQ page, I couldn’t find one word about too much ice. So I dug deeper, and here’s what I found in their fine print that applies to all cruises:
9. Itinerary/Right To Change/Detention: Crystal Cruises reserves the right at its sole option and discretion and that of the Captain of the Ship without liability for damages or refund of any kind, to deviate from the Ship’s advertised or ordinary itinerary or route, to delay, advance or cancel any sailing, to omit or change ports of call, to arrange for substantially equivalent transportation by another vessel and/or by other means of transportation, to cause the Guest to disembark from the Ship temporarily or permanently, to tow or to be towed or assist other vessels or to perform any similar act which, in its sole judgment and discretion, is justified for any reason. SOURCE
Holy moly, talk about signing your life away. Once you’re on their ship, they can do anything they damn well please, including saying they’re going to Tenerife and taking you to Texas instead, or tossing your poor benighted corpus off the ship if they don’t like the cut of your jib.
Oh, if the cruise is cancelled before it starts they’ll refund the ticket, but otherwise? Once the ship sails, they’ve got your money, and if there’s too much ice … tough. They’ll just shorten the cruise, go to Vladivostok instead, and call it good enough. And if you get sick? Pay for it yourself.
Clearly, we’re all in the wrong business …
Best to everyone,
w.
PS—Care to sign up? Do you have $20,000 to spare? Their web site is here, a news story on their crazy-like-a-fox plan is here. To their credit, the journalists do note the irony of burning fossil fuels in order to save the planet from fossil fuels.
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Where is the faith in our melting of the Arctic? The Church of Climate Change has such a timid and faithless flock.
Although Arctic ice has been generally shrinking for 30 years, it has been growing in the last few years. People who sign up for this cruise are taking a big risk.
A big cruise ship is not getting through the NorthWest Passage this year. Even a large ice-breaker would not attempt it unless they had to save a big cruise ship.
http://s28.postimg.org/duhjdkjil/North_West_Passage_Aug_15_2014.jpg
When was the last time the Northwest passage was open for traffic? 2012?
Isn’t there a ship or two half way through and have been waiting for a year or so?
I plan on going…. NOT!
What I meant to add before hitting enter is, where are all of the greens, screaming bloody murder about this. You had better believe they will hire a ice breaker to ensure success of this cruise. That means any multi-year healthy ice that gets in its way will be broken…. Then again every scientific voyage into the arctic cuts through at least the fragile first year ice.
I think the main purpose of that “$50,000 per person in Emergency Evacuation Repatriation insurance” is to cover eventualities like the one pictured. Let’s see, $50,000 per passenger, a couple hundred passengers: they just might decide to head on in even if the passage is blocked.
Wadhams was right. Check out the year.
At the last Permafrost Conference in Yellowknife, NWT earlier this year.. Captian Joe spoke of his years sailing the NW passage.as a Captain. I asked him what was the average depth of the NW passage.You should hear his lecture on “The Mysterious Receding Sea” Interesting.
Is that ship on its side a cruise ship? It doesn’t look much like the Caribbean type cruise ships we have all seen. The infamous Francesco Schettino was enjoying the favors of a female passenger when he ran a typical warm water cruise ship literally on the rocks. It ended up in much the same attitude as the one you show on the ice. But these real cruise ships look to my untutored eye much less sea worthy.
The ship lying over on the ice looks more like a freighter, not one of these modern over tall floating hotel-casinos.
But what intrigued me was, how was the Crystal Cruise line going to deal with the fact that there’s a good chance they won’t be able to make it all the way through the Northwest Passage in 2016? Would they issue refunds if they couldn’t complete the trip? Do you get half the money back if they only make it half way?
I was wondering how much extra a customer would have to pay for a cruise where the ship was guaranteed to capsize; and if you had to pay extra for practice walking on the walls.
‘Oh, if the cruise is cancelled before it starts they’ll refund the ticket, but otherwise? Once the ship sails, they’ve got your money, and if there’s too much ice … tough.’
I wouldn’t mind betting that if, having bought your ticket, you take a look at Anthony’s sea ice page and work out for yourself that the ship won’t get through, you’ll lose your money if you try to cancel.
Just last summer the northwest passage was free of ice. Many made it through to tell their tale of catastrophic Arctic heating.
Maybe, if there was a time machine, we could send the cruise ship back to 1100 where they would find, as congressman Don Young said
“Remember, the Arctic didn’t have any ice. And the Northwest Passage was wide open. They were raising grapes in Scotland for God sakes, had a huge winery. Iceland was a farming community. As some of the glaciers retreated they found villages that were covered with ice.”
I guess the Anthropogenic Catastrophic Climate Warming Lemmings would have to scratch out their own lying eyes, all the while screaming “I don’t see any Medieval Warm Period!”
And maybe we could leave them there.
The NW Passage will soon be the route of preference for masses of climate refugees.
I’m lobbying to get the Tim Hortons’ franchise. Double double?
Then there were the rowers. It seems as if everyone believed what the scientists told them about the NW passage.
Oh what a shame.
Fools and their money are soon parted.
Here is the massive death spiral in all its glory.
The north west passage finally opens up.
Wadhams predicted this.
Fact is that once you are on-board a cruise ship (any cruise line), you are at their mercy. They do not even need to leave the dock! I speak from personal experience.
Last January the ex-fiance and I took a Quark cruise to the Antarctic Peninsula. Quark’s people are well trained and will intimidate you into observing all of the safety rules. Consequently, there were no incidences, unlike with those Australian clowns. It was a breathtaking trip. The kayaking among the icebergs was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done and we got to do it several times. It even surpasses doing the upper Amazon and crossing the Gobi Desert on camels. The organized jump into the cold sea was an experience, too. It was expensive, almost as much as the Passageway trip, but I’m months away from being 70 and I can’t take it with me.
To Boyle, above: Companies that plan off the ship activities need a smaller ship with an open stern to store Zodiacs and kayaks and to facilitate getting people into them. There are are larger, more modern cruise ships down there, but you will never get off the ship to go ashore. It’s a “look, but don’t touch”. We were right in penguin and seal nesting areas. Carefully, of course. And we had open decks to film the numerous whales up close.
the blog “Northwestpassage2014” on blogspot follows the current attempts of the sailors and boats trying to make the passage this summer. There are links to the boats own websites and logs and much information and links to charts showing ice conditions in the NWP as well as detailed weather maps. The blog is maintained by an experienced sailor and USCG licensed Ocean Master Motor and Steam Vessels, retired who is not loath to question decisions made by others in the harsh environment up north. The ice varies from day to day with the weather and much strategy is involved in choosing where and when to go. Apparently there is more ice this year so it is not certain that any will succeed without the help of ice breakers. The information on this blog is fantastic for armchair sailors.
The Vikings were probably the last ones to cross the North West Passage with ease about 1,000 years ago, in a boat not much bigger than a rowboat with a flimsy sail plunked in the middle. But shhhh, please don’t tell the climate warmists about this, because it makes them rather unsettled.
Their survivor kit probably has instructions on how to catch a polar bear for food. Since they are rather elusive, the preferred method is to first catch a polar bear cub so the mother will come to you. 🙂
Damn is two years enough time to set up; Hug a Polar Bear booths on their route?
In the interest of fairness to the cruise line with respect to their “Itinerary/Right To Change/Detention” section; they have a legal and moral obligation to assist others in distress regardless of the itinerary.