From the Barents Observer, June 13:
Rock band Leningrad will perform and popular DJs, stand-up comedians and fitness celebrities will entertain. A group of well-connected Russians will on August 21 board the French luxury yacht Le Commandant Charcot in the Norwegian Arctic port of Longyearbyen and head into the sea ice.
Judging from information from Neverend, a Moscow-based travel and adventure company, the expedition cruise ship will be full of Russian hotshots.
It will set out from Longyearbyen at Svalbard on August 21 and sail all the way to the geographic North Pole.
Among the travelers are billionaires, showbiz celebs and TV personalities. Several of them are known for shady connections and dubious corporate interests....
....MUCH MORE
Previously on Le Commandant Charcot:
June 2019
"French Cruise Ship Set to Travel to North Pole in 2021"
This does not seem like a good idea.
Not at all....
*****...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.
September 2019
Oh Good Grief: "Arctic tours ship M/S MALMO with 16 passengers on board got stuck in ice"
Arctic tours ship MS MALMO with 16 passengers on board got stuck in ice on Sep 3 off Longyearbyen, Svalbard Archipelago, halfway between Norway and North Pole. The ship is on Arctic tour with Climate Change documentary film team, and tourists, concerned with Climate Change and melting Arctic ice....MORE
"French cruise ship makes rendezvous with Russian nuclear icebreaker near North Pole"
If there is any icebreaker in the world to have nearby as you cruise to the North Pole it is the "50 Years of Victory." There are other newer, heavier icebreakers but the big Russian ship was built to get to the North Pole if need be, in winter.....
I may purloin the phrase "... known for shady connections and dubious corporate interests."
There are some people to which it would apply, perfectly.