Blogs
A Bug’s Life in Svalbard
When you think about Svalbard wildlife, you might imagine reindeer, Arctic foxes, polar bears – the primary animal attractions that draw passengers...
Polar Cruises: The Ultimate Icebreakers
Travel is one of life’s great eye openers. It brings you into contact with new people and perspectives, challenges old assumptions you haven’t...
All About the Sami
Before the formation of Viking culture, another people populated the far north of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The Roman historian Tacitus described...
5 Life Lessons You'll Learn in Antarctica
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.” - Mark Twain
7 Questions for the Captain
It takes a village to run a polar cruise: The guides boat us safely from ship to shore and lead us on the gamut of glacial hikes, the service...
10 Key Traits of Post-Ice-Age Greenland to Upgrade Your Arctic Awareness
During the last ice age, most plants and animals vanished from Greenland as a thick sheath of ice coated the landscape. Once this ice started...
15 Stunning Photos for Those Curious About Antarctic Cruises
Though the following photos are all fantastic, they’re no substitute for the real thing.
Remembrance of Expeditions Past
Today I sit in the sun, thinking back on the years I spent with my Oceanwide family since my retirement in 1997. My first trips were on a little...
The islands that call Svalbard home
Svalbard is located between the North Pole and the Norwegian mainland and is home to some of the most dramatic and isolated landscapes in the...
An igneous paradise: Franklin Island
In the most desolate reach of seas on Earth all those adventurous enough to journey on the Ortelius to the Ross Sea excitedly hopped onto zodiacs...
Ortelius on my mind
Imagine having an alarm clock that didn’t wake you with the usual BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! but instead purred gently into your ear, “Good morning. This...
Weddell Sea: the Original Antarctic Adventure
According to the historian Thomas R. Henry, you have to be brave to visit the Weddell Sea. In 1950 he wrote in his book, The White Continent,...
OTL12-17, trip log, Around Spitsbergen
This morning the weather was moody and atmospheric, a true testament to arctic summer with low lying fog and mist. We were woken early with news...
PLA11-17, logbuch, Spitzbergen Umrundung
Nach einem ausgiebigen Frühstück erklärten uns Katja und Phillip die richtigen Verhaltensweisen bei Landungen im Eisbärgebiet, zusammen mit den...
PLA08-17, trip log, North Spitsbergen, Polar Bear Special
Our first stop of the trip was in Yoldiabukta where we saw the beautiful Wahlenberg glacier coming down from the mountains all the way to the...
PLA07-17, trip log, North Spitsbergen, Polar Bear Special
For those of us who had never been on a cruise before, any fears of moving water and moved stomachs were totally unfounded – the Arctic sea had...
OTL07-17, trip log, Spitsbergen: Polar Bear Special
Our overnight journey was so smooth that it seemed as if our ship was alongside the dock! Follow-ing a leisurely breakfast we attended two more...
PLA06-17, trip log, North Spitsbergen, Polar Bear Special
As we were reaching the Western end of the fjord and finishing dinner, Michael cleared the dining room by announcing "Blue whale!" We all rushed...
OTL06-17, trip log, Spitsbergen: Polar Bear Special
Snow buntings sang their lovely musical songs on the high ground, Rock Ptarmigan, still in white winter plumage circled around and Arctic skuas...
PLA05-17, trip log, North Spitsbergen, Polar Bear Special
After a nice, calm night cruising southwards, we had not counted on being woken up before the scheduled wake-up call, but we were, and with a...
OTL05-17, logbuch, Nord-Spitzbergen Eisbär Spezial
Allmählich kamen wir in Expeditionsstimmung! Unterdessen hatte sich die Ortelius der Nordwest-ecke Spitzbergens genähert, und der Kapitän steuerte...
