Introduction

Welcome aboard! We are pleased to host you on the Polar Explorer icebreaker cruise and invite you to explore the 7 decks of this unique ship in an audio-tour that will take you all the way down to the machine room and up to the captain’s bridge. During this tour you will discover and experience how the icebreaker operates and navigates through the ice-covered waters in rough Arctic and Antarctic seas.

The icebreaker is a unique vessel. Unlike other ships, the icebreaker has a specially designed reinforced hull to withstand the pressure of the ice, an ice-clearing shape to cut a channel through the frozen waters, and the great power to push through sea ice.

The Polar Explorer icebreaker was built at 1976 in Germany as an ice-class, anchor-handling, tug and supply vessel. The ship is used to towing large barges around the world from Norway to Brazil. It also handles anchors for oil rigs in the Arctic Ocean and brings supplies, such as water and food, to crews on oil rigs.

The Polar Explorer is 78 metres long, 14 meters wide and 22 meters high and has 7 decks. It can navigate in water that is a minimum of 5 meters deep.

During our stop at sea, the depth is approximately 10-15 meters. This is where you are welcome to swim in floating survival suits.

You’ll be able to watch how the ship starts breaking the ice as soon as it leaves the quay.

To begin your tour through the ship, please approach the main deck now and walk toward the info point–station 1 of the icebreaker tour.

Our tour includes 7 stations; you can see signs directing you to the stations all over the ship. You don’t need to follow the stations according to numerical order. You can visit any station during the cruise. Just reach your desired station, select it in the app and listen to the explanation.

You are free to enter any areas on the icebreaker except those with “crew only” signs.

During the cruise we’re going to have a stop for approximately one hour. At that time you’ll be able to swim in a survival suit in the freezing cold sea water. It’s absolutely safe and does not require any swimming ability. To avoid the line, please make sure you know the swimming time confirmed for you at check-in. You can always verify the time with the info point staff.

Station 1 “Main Deck” is located beside the info point. We recommend you to start the audio-tour from here.