July 18-19, 2026

The Arctic adventure began with a warm welcome to Longyearbyen by the official greeter, a delicate arctic fox. Wearing it’s summer coat of sienna stripes along it’s flanks and legs, it scampered up a pile of coal beside out ship, and stood, fur lifting in the breeze, backlit by the midnight sun. We hoped this was a good omen.

Our flight to Longyearbyen was a bit of a mess. A charter flight taken by a Polish airline called “Enter Air,” not an auspicious name choice. All 150 of us boarded in a herd. I’d always wondered what would happen if there were no boarding zones, and now I know! It took about an hour, and by the time we got into the plane, all the overhead space was taken. A kindly tour leader found overhead space forward for Erich’s camera gear and all was well.

You guessed it, until it wasn’t! When we arrived in Svalbard, Erich had to stay behind me to retrieve his camera bag, and awaiting our luggage I heard the trip leaders talking about a panicked passenger who had lost their camera gear. Yup. Stone-faced and fuming, Erich came into the baggage claim area. 

We circled the crowd to see if anyone had taken it by mistake, and couldn’t find it. As the checked bags came around the belt, there it was. Someone had taken it upon themselves to remove it from the overhead and put it in with the rest of the bags, despite Erich telling them that it contained very delicate photography gear.

The ride to the ship, thankfully short, was tense as he checked through his gear to make sure all was OK. Luckily, nothing seemed amiss and then we saw the lucky fox.

Our ship is again spectacular. We have a large balcony and are near the bow, which does mean we feel the motion more, but also means we’re very close to the observation deck.

This proved auspicious as we left Longyeabyen, and we took in the stark beauty of Isfjord.

Barren hills laced with arctic tundra and dotted with weathered buildings lined the shore.

Just off the port side, we saw a splash and then a glint of white. Two walruses wrestled and swam just yards from the ship. 

Atlantic puffins, ungainly fliers, darted about the bow and we could hear the calls and see the guano of nesting thick-billed murres on the cliffs.

The ship rocked us gently to sleep, and we awoke to a beautiful sunny vista of the Greenland Sea. We opened the balcony door and were slapped with wind, gusting up to 55 knots, which prevented our landing at our projected site of dinosaur tracks and reindeer, and we opted for plan B, and then Plan C after a polar bear was spotted by our guides at our next projected landing site. Arctic tour regulations say if polar bear are spotted in the region, we must not land, or leave if we are already there. Makes it concerning that we might not spot them at all!

Plan C, as it turned out, was beautiful. Cruising close to a beautiful glacier. Very close. 

This was the closest I’ve ever been to a glacier, and it was spectacular. Thanks goodness for the wind and our lucky fox.