Ponant has announced a World Affairs Cruise in the Baltic, which will be attended by the likes of a former U.S. ambassador to NATO and a former Polish president.

The eight-night cruise will start in Stockholm on July 17, see guests visiting six countries that edge the Baltic Sea and end in Copenhagen on July 25. Ports of call include Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Tallinn, the Swedish island of Gotland, and Szczecin in Poland.

Onboard the Le Jacques Cartier – which will be carrying out the itinerary – will be foreign affairs analyst, author and journalist Robin Wright who is known for her coverage of wars, revolutions, and uprisings and who worked for The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and CBS News. The ship will also be carrying Ambassador Douglas Lute, who served as the U.S. Ambassador to NATO in 2013-2017, and Special Advisor to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Jane Holl Lute. Lute’s career is predominantly in peacekeeping and the prevention of terrorism.

Guests will have the opportunity to “interact with leading thinkers and policy makers about the current state of U.S. relations with the rest of the world,” Ponant stated in a press release.

At the final port of call, Szczecin, the ship will be joined by the first democratically elected President of Poland and Nobel Peace Prize-winner, Lech Walęsa, for an “exclusive discussion onboard the ship,” according to the press release.

Walęsa is known for leading the effort in 1989 to end the communist rule in Poland and “ushering in the conclusion of the Cold War.”  

Fares start at $7,070 per person (inclusive of 20 percent Ponant bonus savings).