19 Quick Photos That Show What Life’s like on Board the Cruise Ship Ortelius
It’s understandable that most of your questions are going to revolve around what you can do once your Arctic or Antarctic cruise reaches its destination. Still, you may very well be curious about the journey itself; after all (depending on your cruise) you may be spending as much as a month aboard a ship.
With that in mind here’s a sneak peek at some of the things you can expect aboard the m/v Ortelius.
1. Welcome aboard m/v Ortelius! It is 90.95 metres long and 17.20 metres at its widest.
© Olga Lartceva-Oceanwide Expeditions
2. The Ortelius has an ice class rating of UL1, which means it does just fine making its way through pack ice.
© Rolf Stange-Oceanwide Expeditions
3. She can reach speeds of up to 14.5 knots. This equals over 26 km per hour.
© Elke Lindner-Oceanwide Expeditions
4. She can hold 108 passengers in her 50 cabins.
© Victoria Salem - Oceanwide Expeditions
5. And has a crew and staff of about 50 members total.
© Victoria Salem-Oceanwide Expeditions
6. The Ortelius was born as the Marina Svetaeva in Poland in 1989 and worked as a special purpose vessel for the Russian Academy of Science.
© Rolf Stange-Oceanwide Expeditions
7. She was renamed the Ortelius in honour of Abraham Ortelius (1527 – 1598), a Flemish/Dutch cartographer who published the world’s first modern atlas (this was the most expensive book ever printed in the world at the time).
© Wouter Kaandorp-Oceanwide Expeditions
8. She comes equipped with a helicopter pad.
© Rolf Stange-Oceanwide Expeditions
9. This means she can take you inland to destinations other cruises may not be able to reach. (Don’t worry though, we always land far enough away to not disturb the wildlife).
© Elke Lindner-Oceanwide Expeditions
10. Inside, m/v Ortelius shares standards of a comfortable hotel. It boasts two connecting restaurants and a bar.
© Geert Kroes - Oceanwide Expeditions
11. It also has an observation lounge where experts (geology, history, wildlife, etc.) load you up with interesting information on what you might be seeing on any given day.
© Sara Jenner - Oceanwide Expeditions
12. Check out the bridge where Ortelius is run during normal day-to-day operations.
© Oceanwide Expeditions
13. This is how we sometimes save fuel.
© Oceanwide Expeditions
14. Zodiacs whisk you back and forth to the shore.
© Sara Jenner - Oceanwide Expeditions
15. And also out to deeper waters if there’s the chance of making new friends.
© Sara Jenner - Oceanwide Expeditions
16. You rarely have to walk very far before you discover something interesting.
© Pippa Low - Oceanwide Expeditions
17. And quite often wildlife can be seen from the vessel.
© Rolf Stange - Oceanwide Expeditions
18. At night you’ll be happy to head home to the lights of Ortelius and the welcoming warmth and food inside.
© Elke Lindner-Oceanwide Expeditions
19. And then you’ll be off on your way home again.
© Rolf Stange-Oceanwide Expeditions
