CUTTING EDGE On its route to the North Pole, Ponant’s Le Commandant Charcot, a hybrid-electric polar exploration vessel, glides slowly through the ice so passengers can view arctic foxes, whales and walruses. Popular megaships with over 6,000 passengers—and extras like an ice-skating rink, IMAX, crazy waterslides and Broadway-scale theaters—welcome the budget-conscious. “Smaller expeditions are up 43% over 2019,” reported Misty Belles, vice president of global public relations for Virtuoso, a network of 20,000 travel advisers. Sleek vessels now break through Arctic ice floes to access the North Pole, and river cruises let the curious visit multiple towns without enduring turbulent seas. Here, a few examples of what small ship cruises can offer.

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