Arctic Questions

I was looking at cruises to the Arctic and I see many start in Iceland or Norway and end in Greenland. (or reverse)

There doesn't seem to be any way to get from Greenland to or from the US. Does SS have a charter back to Iceland/Norway, or ???

Also, we had been toying with Churchill, MB to see polar bears. It's pretty "rustic" and quite expensive for what they offer. We don't really care much about where we see them, we just want to see them in a natural environment. So we are now thinking we'd rather see them from the SS Explorer. The question--is there an itinerary or time of the season where the chances are higher than others of seeing the polar bears? We have a strong preference to not cruise longer than about 10 days due to work and family commitments.

I was looking at cruises to the Arctic and I see many start in Iceland or Norway and end in Greenland. (or reverse)

 

There doesn't seem to be any way to get from Greenland to or from the US. Does SS have a charter back to Iceland/Norway, or ???

 

Also, we had been toying with Churchill, MB to see polar bears. It's pretty "rustic" and quite expensive for what they offer. We don't really care much about where we see them, we just want to see them in a natural environment. So we are now thinking we'd rather see them from the SS Explorer. The question--is there an itinerary or time of the season where the chances are higher than others of seeing the polar bears? We have a strong preference to not cruise longer than about 10 days due to work and family commitments.

We looked at a 7 night cruise on the Silver Explorer (then called the Prince Albert II) vs. a Churchill trip. In those days (2009 booking for late June 2010 sailing) you got a real discount for paying in advance (probably 1 year ahead as I remember). It was cheaper to fly to Oslo (frequent flyer miles) spend the night, fly on our own to Longyearbyen on SAS, spend another night, cruise for 7 nights, fly back to Oslo (again SAS on our own), spend the night at the airport hotel, fly to Copenhagen (SAS on our own), spend 4 nights in Copenhagen (Marriott points), and fly home (again, frequent flyer miles) than it was to go to Churchill! It was a spectacular trip - I think a total of 10-11 polar bears (7-8 at one location and 3 at another). Just an incredible experience. Add in reindeer, walrus haul-outs, history, wonderful scenery, and - well, you get the picture. I cannot recommend the experience highly enough.

Would it now be more expensive than Churchill? Undoubtedly, but I doubt Churchill could match the unbelievable experience of being 20 yards off shore in a zodiac photographing bears feeding on a whale carcass.

We did the Churchill to Greenland cruise last year on Explorer and the Iceland to Longyearbyen cruise the year before.

In answer to your question about how one gets back to the US from Greenland, there is a charter flight from Greenland to Copenhagen. (Or vice versa if the cruise starts in Greenland.) This is not a regularly scheduled flight, so you pretty much have to take the Silversea charter. Same with going to Churchill--you take a Silversea charter from Winnepeg.

As far as seeing polar bears. We did not see any in Churchill as it was really the wrong time of year for that. But we did go to the polar bear jail--you can't go in though. We did however see plenty of polar bears on the actual cruise from the comfort of the zodiac where you can get quite close. The lodging in Churchill looked pretty basic, as did the dining options. I think Silversea would win out hands down as far as those two areas. Plus you get to see a lot more than just polar bears with the Silversea cruise--walrus, narwhale, beluga whales, arctic fox, thousands of birds.

Rachel highlights the problems with nature.We did the cruise before Rachel last year.So the day before Rachel arrived in Churchill we saw several polar bears whilst cruising the river looking at the Beluga whales.Two of the bears were close to the water and the zodiacs got pretty close.

No quarantees with nature.

We did the Explorer Oslo (charter flight to Longyearbyen) to Tromso in July 2013. We did see polar bears from the ship (on ice floes) and from the zodiacs (on land). No guarantees ever but they search for them. It was a wonderful trip. I think that I was more impressed by the walruses.

Rachel highlights the problems with nature.We did the cruise before Rachel last year.So the day before Rachel arrived in Churchill we saw several polar bears whilst cruising the river looking at the Beluga whales.Two of the bears were close to the water and the zodiacs got pretty close.

No quarantees with nature.

Really good point! We were on Sil Exp for 3 weeks from middle of Jun to 1 wk of July and never saw a Polar bear. Thousands of Puffins (sp) though. People on board were wonderful, so it made up for the lack of bears.

 

Would it now be more expensive than Churchill? Undoubtedly, but I doubt Churchill could match the unbelievable experience of being 20 yards off shore in a zodiac photographing bears feeding on a whale carcass.

I will have to beg to differ ... we spent a week on the Churchill tundra, sleeping in the tundra buggy lodge. Yes, it was nowhere near the luxury of Silver Explorer, but we were practically nose to nose with polar bears when they came up to and put their paws up against the buggy we were in. We've been to the Arctic several times now -- on Silver Ex and other ships -- and on each we had great polar bear sightings ... but nothing that would even be remotely close to what we experienced in Churchill.

A trip to the Arctic is about the total experience ... the landscape, the wildlife ... and if you're lucky, polar bears. Churchill is all about the polar bears, and therein lies the difference IMHO. If you're looking for a 'polar bear experience' then Churchill wins hands-down. There's something quite special when you're lying in your bed and outside your window is a bear curled up in the snow, sleeping.

I took hundreds of photos ... here's one of them.

Wow, u have some astonishing photos, h2so4. When u were in the buggy, were u allowed out in the snow or was it too dangerous with the bears around? Is November the best time of year to see all the bears?

Churchchill has just gone onto my bucket list...sigh

Cheers

Jennifer

Wow, u have some astonishing photos, h2so4. When u were in the buggy, were u allowed out in the snow or was it too dangerous with the bears around? Is November the best time of year to see all the bears?

 

Churchchill has just gone onto my bucket list...sigh

 

Cheers

Jennifer

If you want a polar bear focused trip -- you can't beat Churchill.

You are not allowed on the ground once on the tundra -- although they did make special arrangements for a helicopter ride that was to have been done from town but had to be canceled due to bad weather. This helicopter ride was an optional activity. By the time it was rescheduled we had seen over 50 bears up-close (and countless ones from a distance) so we canceled the chopper ride and saved our money!

The buggies at the lodge had open balconies connecting the units, and there was an open balcony at the back of the travel buggy ... it was amazing to be close enough to the bears to hear them snuffling.

The trip pre-dates my blogging days, but I did put up a few summary posts about the trip. Starts with this blog post; the follow-on posts about the tundra experience are all in the November 2008 archive.

When we went November was a good time ... I would check out current itineraries being offered to see how far into November they go now. The biggest issue is formation of the sea ice ... too early, and the bears are still too scattered; too late, and the bears are off to hunt on the ice and nowhere to be seen. We chose November for various reasons, not the least of which was that we wanted to see the bears in a snowy landscape and not on the brown tundra landscape ... nothing wrong with the latter; it just wasn't what we wanted.