We will start off with yesterday in a moment but we did want to say how wonderful our visit to Ulukahktok has been and to congratulate Crystal Cruises and the Expedition Team on being so very organized. There were so many people from the Serenity crew that assisted us. This started with Assistant Shore Excursion Manager Joyce at the designated meet up location. When it was time to go to the Zodiac Platform we were escorted from the lounge to the stairwell and down to Tender Deck number 4. There were lots of Crystal Crew members at designated spots reminding us to be careful walking down the steps and directing us. Several members of the crew were on hand to give us and help put on our life jackets. Then we walked down to Crew Deck 3 and security swiped our room cards and there were plenty of crew to safely help us on the Zodiac. Twenty guests and one Zodiac driver were on the Zodiac. We were then driven over to the beach area where we did what we had learned a few days ago and were reminded again today. We moved carefully to where we would get out of the Zodiac, lifted our legs towards the sea and got out of the Zodiac and walked a few feet in water. There were lots of personnel to assist those who needed help. Our rental boots worked flawlessly. We then waited for everyone and we were escorted up to the Village and the guide was very helpful pointing out key places to visit. We will discuss those later. While we were there were lots of personnel from the expedition team available to answer any and all questions. A similar process was used for our return. Twenty of us were placed in a Zodiac about five minutes after we returned to the beach zodiac drop off/pick up point. We road back to the ship. We were assisted out of the Zodiac by several Crystal crew members. We were welcomed back by Shore Excursion Manager Daniel who asked us how our visit went. We loved it. We went through secrurity and then we walked thru three buckets (oblong) with water to clean our boots and then we were able to dry them on a rug that was placed on the floor for that purpose. We were welcomed back by other crew members and as we walked up the stairwell we were greeted by other crew members. We have posted some additional photos from Friday, August 26. Since we had arrived to our first stop at the Northwest Village we decided to wear jackets that we had purchased the other day on board Serenity to commemorate this historic visit. We also wanted to mention that it was an unbelievable experience when we saw all of the zodiacs, speed boats kayaks and the two helicopters deployed. It was a combination of watching a James Bond or Mission Impossible movie while at the same time being an emotional experience. Anne Marie teared up as our ship started to play the song of this community. We spent the remainder of the afternoon enjoying views from the ship. Up until that point we thought we made a mistake not taking our regular room and going to the starboard site but from our vantage point we had excellent views of everything. The funny item about the starboard side is from time to time Keith goes the wrong way to get to the fitness center, laundry room and. We all get a little set in our ways. LOL, but so very true. Throughout the afternoon zodiacs ran back and forth to Serenity. Some brought the locals over who would perform as well as other personnel such as the Canadian Mountain Police and Canadian Immigration personnel. Some of the lectures were brought over and some supplies were also brought over from the zodiac, Some of the crew went back and forth as part of the dry run to make sure all was in order to get people back and forth from Serenity Last evening we had a pre-dinner drink at the Avenue Saloon. At one point we saw several of the Inuit children who had come on board walking around the ship. As we were making our way over to the Crystal Dining Room, we spoke with one of the children. She said how much she was enjoying the ship and had never seen anything like this before. She also told us how she wished she could stay on board for a few days. The only ship that some of them might have seen that is larger than an expedition ship is The World. As we had learned in the lectures, many of the locals can be shy and she was. This is perfectly understandable. We told her how nice it was to meet her. The dining room was not full which has been the case for most of this voyage as a few hundred people over both seating’s had plans to dine in the specialty restaurants. It was still a little louder than usual which we think has to do with the excitement of arriving to our first Northwest Passage Village. Two local shows were shown with participation from forty or more of the locals. The show was very special. Between shows the locals posed for photos at the Crystal Plaza. When we arrived back to our room there was a gift on our bed along with a card. The gift is an original piece of traditional inuit art. Each piece is unique and hand-crafted by renowned carvers of Nunavut. The gift was ordered a year ago and is part of the effort to make contributions to support the arts and crafts of the Northwest Passage villages. We slept very well as we were anchored off of Ulukhaktok, Canada. Keith was up first and completed a relatively long workout. All of the satellite stations were unavailable but he watched one of the Crystal programs about our visit to Ulukahktok and watched a movie. We had a relatively early breakfast as we got ready for our community visit. This village has a population of about 415 people. Crystal Serenity has a population of almost 1,600 people. Ulukhaktok is the smallest of the Aricticl Village locations that we will visit. This village has one hotel, three shops and is serviced by regular flights several times per week. Apart from a couple of expedition ships, that arrive each summer, very few tourists have ever visited this area. There were four types of excursions. Community Visit, which was by far the most popular of the excursions. It was complimentary and provided an opportunity for guests to have a short walk from the beach landing over to the village and to walk around the village, visit various sites and interact with the locals. The start times for these visits was staged throughout the entire day to limit the number of people at the village. Each person had an assigned time to leave the ship but they could return whenever they wanted. Hiking. We originally signed up for hikes for all three villages. This would involve a fairly long hike. However, we changed our plans as we thought through logistics of bathroom facilities or let us say the lack of these facilities. Anne Marie is on a daily pill for a disease she has and hydration is important so we just thought it best to pass on the hikes. Instead we did the community visit. Helicopters. Both helicopters were used and we believe they held five guest plus a pilot. Kayaks. Each Kayak held two guests. Before leaving the ship the guests were taken to a special area on Crew deck 4 to be fitted for special outer gear that they would wear for this excursion. Today represented several firsts. One of them was Crystal Cruises deploying zodiacs from their vessels for the very first time. Of course another first was today marking the first time that guests of Crystal Cruises put foot onto a Northwest Passage Village and that a cruise ship of this size officially called on a Northwest Passage Village. Our experience was wonderful. Because Crystal Cruises carefully staggered the number of people going ashore the village did not feel crowded nor did we overwhelm the locals. The locals were very friendly. When we arrived on the beach two large tables were set out with maps and baked goods for us. We visited the arts center, the school where some locals were selling items. We purchased some to make a nice donation. The photo with the four people including a little two and one-half young child was where we purchased some items. They were very friendly and also took our photo to keep for themselves. We went to the community center where several locals were selling handmade items and other items such as paintings. Everywhere we walked we were greeted by friendly people. They truly welcomed us to their village. As we have said numerous times we hope that we left them with as nice an impression about us as they have left us about themselves. When asked by several crew members and members of the Expedition Team what we thought of the experience we noted that it was outstanding. We also mentioned that you can do a lot of advanced reading, watch documentaries and video clips, and go to all the lectures but that to see this through our own eyes is so very important to us and is so very meaningful. Also some have said that the experience would be better by taking an expedition ship because we would overcrowd the village. That was not the case for us. For us it’s the entire package both on and off the ship. This was a memorable visit and one that we will carry with us for the rest of our lives. We are posting early since we are not sure what the internet connection will be like later today. Keith & Anne Marie
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