"French Cruise Ship Set to Travel to North Pole in 2021"

This does not seem like a good idea.
Not at all.

From High North News, May 22 2019:

The Le Commandant Charcot, the world’s first icebreaking cruise ship, is scheduled to travel to the North Pole in 2021. While the vessel uses cleaner natural gas and is built to a Polar Class 2 standard, questions surrounding passenger safety and environmental impact remain.

With the continued melting of Arctic sea ice and the further opening of the Arctic Ocean to maritime traffic, cruise ship tourism is the latest economic sector forecasted to experience a boom in the region over the coming years. Cruise ship operators around the world are adding to their existing fleets of ice-capable expedition cruise ships. In 2019 alone, 13 such new vessels will be launched, with an additional 28 vessels to be commissioned by 2022.

The technologically most advanced and most capable new vessel will be Ponant’s – a French cruise ship operator – Le Commandant Charcot, which will be powered by a hybrid Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and battery propulsion system to reduce emissions by up to 85 percent. The vessel will have Polar Class 2 designation placing it on the same level as the newly designed U.S. Coast Guard icebreakers and allowing it to travel virtually anywhere across the Arctic. Ponant plans to regularly offer trips to the geographic North Pole which will be a first for non-nuclear powered vessels and highlights the vessel’s proposed capabilities in ice-infested waters.

However, even high ice-class designations are not a “carte blanche” when it comes to safely navigating in ice-covered waters, emphasizes Pierre Leblanc of Arctic Security Consultants. Even powerful icebreakers can become stuck and potentially require rescue when they encounter very old ice and pressure ridges. In 2017 two large Russian icebreakers, the Kapitan Dranitsyn and the Admiral Makarov, became stuck in the East Siberian Sea. In 2014 China’s Xue Long icebreaker became stuck in Antarctica after assisting the Russian research vessel Akademik Shokalskiy.

In the Arctic Ocean’s vast distances assistance and rescue may be many hours or likely days away if a vessel encounters difficulties. “Search and Rescue resources are very limited above 82 degrees North and due to the large distances even aircraft will take many hours to arrive on scene,” explains Bent-Ove Jamtli, Director at Norway’s Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC).

World’s first icebreaking cruise ship

The vessel, which was designed by Ponant in cooperation with Stirling Design International, Aker Arctic and VARD, will deploy Aker’s Dual Directional Hull, which allows it to travel forward through light to medium ice, and operate in reverse to ram through extreme ice conditions. The ship also employs newly-developed ice navigation and routing technology to help it find the optimal and safest route through icy waters.

Ponant contracted Vard, a shipyard group, with building the $330m vessel and construction began at Vard’s Romanian Tulcea facility in December 2018. The vessel is expected to be launched in 2020 and will enter into service in early 2021.

Aside from the vessel’s icebreaking design, it features a new generation of Wärtsilä medium speed engines, which Ponant will power with LNG, rather than the traditional and more emissions-heavy diesel. In order to operate without any emissions for short periods of time, according to Ponant for up to 2-3 hours, the vessel will combine the LNG engines with large high-capacity battery banks to create a the world’s first hybrid icebreaker.

Less dirty but still not clean Ponant’s effort to move towards cleaner fuels in Arctic shipping was welcomed by the Clean Arctic Alliance, a global campaign to protect the Arctic from the hazards and risks of Heavy Fuel Oil. However, the company’s efforts can’t be but a first step the organization stressed. “While Ponant is heading in the right direction, the Clean Arctic Alliance believes that shipping companies must embrace a future where international shipping is fueled entirely without the use of fossil fuels,” said Dr Sian Prior, Lead Advisor to the Clean Arctic Alliance.

Propulsion will come in the form of two ABB Azipod VI units producing a combined 34MW of power and fitted with massive six meter propellers, comparable to the power output of the new U.S. Coast Polar Security Cutter icebreaker. The vessel will also resemble the latest generation of icebreakers in terms of overall size and weight, with a length and width of around 150 meters by 28 meters and a weight of approximately 30,000 tons....

....MUCH MORE

With other types of eco-tourism you can at least make the rationalization that the tourists will spend some money in what are usually pretty poor places. Not on board a boat in the middle of the ice pack though.

And speaking of money, there's the issue of how big a rescue bond should be posted—$10 million might prove to be insufficient depending on the complexity of the rescue.

One positive, with the LNG powertrains they won't be spewing carbon particulates onto the ice, something the Chinese coal-fired power plants do with awful effects on the albedo of the great white north. (Russia burning heavy fuel oil up there doesn't help)

You need the ice.

So the polar bears can walk out to nosh on passengers should the boat get stuck for too long.

Here's Ponant's homepage for Le Commandant Charcot, it does look fascinating.