Travelers to Florida or California often spend time sun bathing on the beaches, but what do travelers to Antarctica do? A new Antarctica cruise line is launching what it hopes will become a new trend - ice bathing.
(prHWY.com) December 19, 2012 - Seattle, WA -- Travelers to Florida or California often spend time sun bathing on the beaches, but what do travelers to Antarctica do? A new Antarctica cruise line is launching what it hopes will become a new trend - ice bathing.
"We are always looking for new ways to attract people to our cruise line", said marketing director, Linda Fields. "We noticed that there was an increased interest in ice bathing and thought that we would run with the idea."
Ice bathing is very similar to sun bathing. The real difference lies in where the event takes place. Sun bathing takes place on beaches, while ice bathing occurs on a flat glacier.
"There are just certain people who get a thrill out of the cold", said Phil Marrow, a researcher who has followed ice bathing. "Think of those people that like to go swimming in the ocean or lake when it's 20 degrees outside. They just get a thrill out of it."
There is no physical harm that can come to the body from ice bathing. If people ice bathe for up to 20 minutes, they will be able to get the adrenaline rush they are looking for without harm to their body.
"We had to go through extra legal procedures to procure the use of the glacier in question", explained Fields. "We had to gain permits to use it as an ice beach and even had to reroute the Antarctica cruise to make sure it went near the glacier."
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Antarctica cruise line will take passengers around the Arctic region. It will then sail past the glacier and passengers that are looking to take part in this ice bathing trend will be able to take part.
"All participants must sign a waiver", explained Fields. "But, it is surprising just how many people were open to the idea of trying this new trend out while on the cruise. I think we had over 20% of our passengers sign up for the first ice bathing event."
The sight of people sunbathing on a glacier was a high point of the cruise. Many passengers captured the images and posted them to the Facebook.
"I have never seen anyone bathing on the glacier like I did on this trip", said Sandy Hill. "I really thought it was cool and just had to capture the whole thing in a photo. Otherwise no one would believe me."
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