Via New York Post- A luxury cruise ship that charged passengers $33,000 has run aground in a remote area of Greenland — and will be stranded for days in the freezing Arctic waiting for help to arrive, according to reports.

Aurora Expeditions’ Ocean Explorer, an Australia-based cruise operator carrying 206 passengers and crew, got stuck Monday while navigating through Alpefjord in Northeast Greenland National Park, the world’s northernmost park situated between two glaciers.

To make matters worse, several cases of COVID have been reported on board among the mostly elderly passengers, most of whom are Australian, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

You couldn’t pay me to go on a cruise.

Consider this unusual situation: a boat found itself trapped amidst the icy expanse of the Arctic Ocean. Quite the predicament, isn’t it? For the modest cost of $33,000, passengers were treated to a week filled with experiences such as observing majestic glaciers, enduring the somewhat lacklustre stand-up comedy routines of the cruise ship’s resident comedian, participating in nightly karaoke sessions from 8 to 10 p.m., all while confined to their cabins due to an airborne illness, with frigid temperatures outside.

Cruises have never been my preferred mode of travel, except for that one week in my life when I contemplated a career on a cruise ship during a personal crisis. Generally, I’ve held reservations about cruises even before the challenges of being stranded or dealing with COVID-19. I often perceive them as having amenities comparable to a high-end penitentiary, albeit without the comfort of stable ground beneath your feet. Since the onset of the COVID pandemic, it seems like embarking on a cruise voyage comes with a one-in-three chance of finding oneself marooned onboard. For a while, it felt like a daily occurrence to hear about yet another ship carrying 300 unwell passengers who were denied entry into any country’s ports, leaving them with nowhere to disembark.

However, this particular cruise is the first instance I’ve encountered where a combination of COVID and being sandwiched between two colossal glaciers became the ultimate challenge.

The Ocean Explorer hasn’t been able to free itself since it ran aground around nearly 900 miles from Greenland’s capital, Nuuk.

As of Tuesday morning, Arctic Command’s closest inspection vessel, Knud Rasmussen, was 1,200 nautical miles (1,381 land-measured miles) from the cruise ship, JAC said.

Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command (JAC) said in a statement that no one on board has been injured, and the ship hasn’t sustained any damage, according to Arctic Command Commander Captain Brian Jensen.

Jensen said it’s possible that Ocean Explorer could free itself once the tide becomes high.

It sounds like everyone on board will be fine, so that’s a plus. Losing 33K to be stuck at sea is not a good bounce. Did we not learn anything from the Titanic?