Want to experience an extraordinary cruise? This is IT! I enjoyed a ten-night polar bears expedition cruise with Hurtigruten on their small 220-passenger expedition ship the MS Spitsbergen. They don't call it a polar bear cruise - they call it a 'Circumnavigating Svalbard' cruise. We were hoping to circumnavigate the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard which is so high in the arctic that it's nearly in the North Pole - it's a 3-hour flight north of Oslo. The archipelago is home to polar bears and anyone doing this cruise is hoping to spot these magnificent white creatures in the wild. This video shows exactly what the whole expedition cruise is like, from spotting polar bears to spotting other wildlife (I even get attacked by an arctic tern!) which includes seabirds, walruses, reindeer, seals and the arctic fox, to ship life from food to the cabins to the hot tubs. Everywhere on the ship comes with a view, be it the restaurant, the gym, the sauna, lounges or the hot tubs. And the scenery was always magnificent with lots of glaciers and icebergs galore. The video shows how we go exploring in inflatable zodiac boats and on hikes, drinking from icy waterfalls. I even get the chance to go kayaking at the ice edge of the North Pole (this was UNBELIEVABLE!) as well as attempting the polar plunge - it was MIGHTY cold. This is a cruise which is packed with adventures. My voyage (and the video) also includes an overnight stay in Longyearbyen (the capital of Svalbard) which is where the cruise starts and finishes. Longyearbyen is the most northern town in the WORLD and the first stop on the cruise is to NY Alesund which is the most northern settlement in the world (it's a research center) which is home to the world's most northern post office. Yes I do post a card home from here!
POLAR BEAR PHOTO/FOOTAGE CREDITS go to my fabulous fellow passenger Elle MacMillan who had a much more powerful lens than I did. Thank you for sharing your footage/pix with me
NB Music: the fabulous track accompanying this video is: Call to Adventure - Comedy by Kevin MacLeod. It's licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/