Poseidon Expeditions offers May through September cruises in the Arctic and October through February itineraries in the Antarctic. The 114-passenger, all-suite Sea Spirit serves both regions.
With the early booking discount, Arctic rates in 2018 start at $4,660 per person if three people share a triple suite. This rate applies to a June 27-July 5, 2018, 'West Spitsbergen & Polar Ice Edge/Searching for Polar Bears' adventure. This same suite for three with the early booking discount brings a Nov. 26-Dec.7, 2018, Antarctic Peninsula tour to $7,564 per person. Double occupancy rates for these departures begin at $6,596 and $10,204, respectively.
Sea Spirit accommodations range from 215 square feet/20 square meters to 463 square feet/43 square meters. The ship offers two multipurpose lounges for educational programming and entertainment, a restaurant that can serve all passengers in one seating, a well-stocked polar library and ample outdoor deck space.
Activities on and off the ship are directed by a team of experienced multilingual polar guides, scientists and educators. Shore landings provide the chance to take part in guide-led interpretive walks and photography workshops. Sea kayaking and Zodiac explorations are offered in both polar regions and camping can be arranged in Antarctica. The ship’s expedition staff-to-passenger ratio is a generous 1:9.
Travelers bound for the Antarctic Peninsula embark in Ushuaia at Argentina's southern tip. Other destinations in this region include the Falkland Islands and South Georgia Island.
Arctic-bound cruises focus on wildlife—walrus, polar bears, reindeer, Arctic fox, whales and birdlife—and delve into the history of polar exploration more than 100 years ago. Early summer travelers will come face-to-face with contemporary Inuit culture and echoes of the Vikings.
The next frontier in polar expedition cruising is the High Arctic region known as the Franz Josef Land Archipelago. The seal industry drove the first explorers there in the mid-1800s. They were followed by others searching for the North Pole.
Few visitors have ventured there and because of multi-year sea ice, access by ship is possible only a few weeks each summer. Poseidon is the only company offering dedicated cruises from Longyearbyen, Svalbard, to this archipelago of 191 uninhabited, volcanic, mostly glaciated islands that since 2012 have been part of the Russian Arctic National Park.
The Arctic and Antarctic schedules, rates and offers are at https://poseidonexpeditions.com/. A new 80-page catalog can be requested online.
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