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Hapag-Lloyd Cruises: Hanseatic nature and Hanseatic inspiration.


English Voyager
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  • 4 weeks later...
EV, you and other solos should know there is HL website posting for only a 25% single surcharge for some Antarctica cruises their first season.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

I would imagine that Antarctica would be on most peoples 'bucket list'.

 

As for myself, although I would love to go there, I feel, perhaps incorrectly, that being in my late seventies I am too old for an expedition cruise and all that it entails.

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*Hanseatic Nature has SOLO availability at several levels on Lisbon to Dublin, NAT1902, April 26 to May 5,2019, 9 days* , a few cabins, but the only discount is 5% early booking, so you still pay a big solo surcharge, but the cruise is short so absolute money not too bad.

 

There really is also not much “expeditioning” per se here, ( tenders at some ports) so I think my fitness level can handle it fine, so I decided to try it out as a test of this new ship style with HL and booked a balcony solo just now online ! Awaiting confirmation email.

It is designed just like the Inspiration where I have an option in for 2020 with DH for a suite.

 

 

If I hate the ship style, I will not exercise the option with DH in 2020 on Inspiration, if offered.

 

 

All in for Category 6, Balcony, solo, with the discount and cancellation insurance, Euros 7749 ( there are as of this writing a few cheaper cabins, so grab them if interested!)

 

 

The cruise is in German, ( unlike Inspiration which is bilingual, but does not start cruising till fall 2019), though frontline crew speak English and pre-cruise information plus muster etc and safety announcements are available in English, and most ports are English language too.

 

 

I am excited and curious how this will turn out. Maybe some English speakers will even risk joining me and between crew and my ok German, the “German” only aspect hopefully would not be a huge problem for only-English speakers wanting to check out the new ship style.

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A bit off topic: The USA Today has this interesting article about the Northeast passage. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2018/09/21/arctic-cruise-northeast-passage-voyages-rare-adventure/1327353002/

It states at the bottom that Silversea will also start offering a Northeast passage cruise. The prices are nearly twice those of HL. I am sure that the Silversea Explorer is a nicer ship than the older Bremen but still - twice the price?

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

No doubt that need to take ads or something for this to happen? In any event, it would be a great thing. Whoever is on the sales team for CC needs to approach them.

There are boards for all sorts of silly stuff. My favorite is “Cruising over 55”.

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4 hours ago, Toryhere said:

Is it time they had a Hapag Lloyd had its own page on CC?

Not only does Cruise Critic block a link to Hapag-Lloyd's English language website, but it has ignored my various e-mails on the subject, so I am not holding my breath waiting for CC to give Hapag-Lloyd it's own dedicated forum.

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It does seem peculiar that CC does not have a dedicated Hapag-Lloyd forum, considering the number of ships that are either currently sailing under the H-L name or are in the works.  It is true that H-L is overwhelmingly a German company with a very small number of English-speaking passengers.    However, there is a dedicated forum for Paul Gauguin Cruises, which has only two ships.  The number of posts on this forum regarding H-L is pretty similar to the number of posts and views on the Paul Gauguin forum.

Perhaps Jacqueline is correct that CC requires a cruise line to make ad purchases in order to have a dedicated forum.   If that is the case, then H-L should determine whether it is in its best interests to do so.  We all recognize that CC is a commercial enterprise which needs to have revenue to continue to operate.   So, if H-L wishes to become more active in the English-speaking market, as it claims to wish to do, it may well be up to H-L to deal with CC, rather than be "banished" to the generic "Luxury Cruising" forum, which many CCers don't even know exists.

Although we have had one fantastic experience on H-L, a Hanseatic adventure in Antarctica, the company is quite difficult for American TA's to deal with.   It appears that H-L has not quite decided whether it wishes to pursue the North American/British market.  Maybe when H-L makes that decision, it will work with CC to create a dedicated CC forum.

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I do think Hapag Lloyd will pay for  ads on CC in view of the fact  usually the ships are sold out years in advance.

Exception made maybe for Suez canal without any port or crossings

On the other side when a ship especially the ms  Europa 2 is in a non German port ( UK Belgium Netherlands ) quite some port functions are done for press and TA.

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I wonder if paying for ads on CC is the criterion for obtaining a forum.

 

Hebridean Island Cruises has it's own (underused) forum yet I don't recall seeing it advertising on CC.

 

In any event, why should being able to place a link on CC to Hapag-Lloyd's English language website be dependent on the Company placing adverts?

Edited by English Voyager
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1 hour ago, Jacqueline said:

Wow... I guess that they are so booked that they thought they could fill another ship. Will it be international or German?

The press release does not mention if it will be International or German.

 

However the Hanseatic spirit will be the first ship in the fleet that will be ' adults-only.'

 

https://www.tuigroup.com/en-en/media/press-releases/2018/2018-07-03-hl-new-expedition-ship-named-hanseativ-spirit

 

 

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

Has anyone here booked a cruise on the Hanseatic nature or inspiration? We booked one for the Amazon and the other for the Austral Islands - Mangareva - Pitcairn - Easter Island, both in 2020. I am looking forward to having naturalists on board who will do lectures and/or guided wildlife observations on sea/cruising days - at least I hope so.

 

If there is as scant a daytime program as we had on the Europa 2, I will be sorely disappointed. I love reading and doing my own thing, but additional activities are nice for a break. Two 1 hour daytime programs in two weeks with many sea days is simply not enough for me.

 

 

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7 minutes ago, Floridiana said:

Has anyone here booked a cruise on the Hanseatic nature or inspiration? We booked one for the Amazon and the other for the Austral Islands - Mangareva - Pitcairn - Easter Island, both in 2020. I am looking forward to having naturalists on board who will do lectures and/or guided wildlife observations on sea/cruising days - at least I hope so.

 

If there is as scant a daytime program as we had on the Europa 2, I will be sorely disappointed. I love reading and doing my own thing, but additional activities are nice for a break. Two 1 hour daytime programs in two weeks with many sea days is simply not enough for me.

 

 

We're booked on one of the Great Lakes cruises on inspiration. I'm still scratching my head why the 'i' isn't capitalised.

 

I'm hoping, like you, there is plenty to do on 'lake days' as there are quite a few of them.  However, we didn't have much of a problem with things to do on Europa 2 last year: gin tastings, tours of the bridge, World Cup screenings, tours of the engine room, gym, swimming, cookery school, personal (we were the only English-speaking people there!) enrichment lectures etc. But it's certainly not full-on compared to (say) Crystal and I expect there will be less to do on the new Hanseatics from an entertainment point of view. HL seems very focused, in a Teutonic way, on education with the expedition ships.  There is no theatre, for example, on inspiration.

 

As you'll have seen from the HL blurb, apart from the Observation Lounge, the two main communal areas are:

 

HanseAtrium (in a hideous shade of green): The central HanseAtrium can be used for many different activities; its cutting-edge technology makes it suitable for presentations and expert lectures as well as intensive precaps and recaps. In the evening, the HanseAtrium is transformed into an atmospheric bar where you can see out the day and reflect on your experiences.

 

Ocean Academy (in a hideous shade of blue): The Ocean Academy allows you to experience science however you desire. You can use the large media wall and interactive poster to display fascinating information on a wide range of disciplines whenever you like.

 

I am looking forward to those 'intensive precaps and recaps' (but most of all nightcaps) before scrolling wildly around the large media wall -  like in on one of those cold case detective programmes :classic_biggrin:.  

 

Given the German-speaking passengers will take the enrichment element incredibly seriously (particularly on the two cruises you have picked), I imagine you will have wall-to-wall bi-lingual lecturers and naturalists. For example, when we were on the Europa 2, an Italian guide on a German-speaking tour was deemed insufficiently knowledgeable by the mutinous German passengers that half the tour price was refunded. We two Brits just shrugged and enjoyed the tour.

 

Hope you have a wonderful time. The Amazon journey sounds amazing. Likewise, we have to wait until 2020, but I guess we're nearly half-way there since booking!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

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Floridiana, we are also on the Amazon cruise in 2020. Based on my past experience on their expedition ship, there was programming by a naturalist everyday in English , unless we had a lot of landings. There was more than enough programming - and we (English speaking group) bonded with one guide who gave us a lot of extra time. All English speakers were in own own zodiac with our own guides,

If you are on the German speaking ship, unless you speak German, you will have no programming available to you. Everything will be in German, so you will definitely miss out and need to be happy to do your own thing. So yes, you will need to decide how you feel about that. It sounds to me like you might be disappointed.

i can look through my daily programs and put up a copy, if you like,

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Ovener,

Education is fine. :-) I am not worried about the German only ship. DH and I speak both languages, but we have profited from the more personal attention for English speakers on Europa 2 because the group was smaller. As to the lower case 'i', imagine that it is French and you are fine. ;-) Same for the 'n' on nature.

 

Jacqueline, Will see you then! I would appreciate a daily program of your previous cruise on a HL expedition ship..

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