MV Plancius

MV Plancius is a small, ice-strengthened expedition vessel built in 1976 and operated by Oceanwide Expeditions. Originally named HNLMS Tydeman, the ship served as an oceanographic research vessel for the Royal Netherlands Navy before being converted for passenger cruising. In 2009, she was renamed Plancius, honoring Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius, who lived from 1552 to 1622.

With 116 passengers across 53 staterooms and a crew of 45, Plancius is a genuinely small ship built for serious polar exploration rather than resort cruising. She carries rigid-hulled Zodiac boats used for landings and coastal cruising in remote regions, which shapes the entire experience onboard. This is not a floating hotel; it is a floating base for getting people ashore in places where large ships cannot go. Life aboard is intimate, casual, and focused entirely on the work of reaching the ice, wildlife and landscapes that are the real reason people book.

The 45-strong crew includes 6 chefs, expedition guides and lecturers, and a doctor. In 2023, her dining room was reconstructed to serve both as the main restaurant and as a lecture hall, reflecting the rhythm of an expedition ship, where meals are shared, then followed by talks and briefings about what lies ahead.

Cabins are compact but practical. The ship has no theatres, no casinos, no sprawl. Instead, days are spent in small group landings, Zodiac cruises among icebergs, and wildlife watching, while evenings bring talks from the expedition team on the polar biology, history and environment guests have been seeing. During her decades in naval service, roughly 30 percent of the ship's operational time was devoted to non-military research organizations, and that scientific spirit persists today.

Oceanwide Expeditions emphasizes careful, low-impact exploration in partnership with conservation groups, and the ship's small passenger numbers make that possible.

She suits experienced travelers and wildlife enthusiasts who want to see the polar regions up close, understand the science and ecology behind what they are seeing, and accept that comfort takes a back seat to access. This is expedition cruising in its truest sense, and Plancius delivers it.

Visited the polar world aboard the MV Plancius? Log this expedition voyage on your account at The Cruise Globe to add it to your Passport stats and see your actual route!