Has anyone cruised with Hapag-Lloyd?

[jeff74]

In particular, I was curious as to any thoughts that people might have on their expedition ships.  I'm about to pull the trigger for an arctic cruise for summer '24.  The overall product looked nicer than Silversea for roughly the same price but it would be great to hear first hand experiences.  All the reviews I could find on youtube are in German.

 

Thanks!

[vistaman]

On 2/2/2023 at 9:25 PM, jeff74 said:

In particular, I was curious as to any thoughts that people might have on their expedition ships.  I'm about to pull the trigger for an arctic cruise for summer '24.  The overall product looked nicer than Silversea for roughly the same price but it would be great to hear first hand experiences.  All the reviews I could find on youtube are in German.

 

Thanks!

there is quite a lot published in cruise critic under "luxury cruises"  and a few reviews as well if you are going to the "reviews " by the name of the ships 

i did more as 40 cruises on hapag lloyd however never  on the expedition ships 

the Inspiration is international , the Spirit adult only and the Nature is German 

I did visit the Inspiration in my hometown when she was brand new : beautiful ship 

i can assure you everything is exxtremely wel organised by Hapag lloyd! 

 

[CruisingAlong4Now]

You won't find many HL cruisers here because this is an English language board and the HL ships are mostly German speaking.  

 

"The on-board language on EUROPA, HANSEATIC nature and HANSEATIC spirit is German. On EUROPA 2 and HANSEATIC inspiration the on-board language is German and English.

 

"FAQ - Life on board - Hapag-Lloyd Cruises (hl-*****)

[jimdee3636]

I've been interested in booking a cruise on the Hapag-Lloyd Europa 2, but I'm wondering if the Hapag-Lloyd experience is as good as it was before Royal Caribbean (RCCI) bought 50% of the company (about three years ago). I've sailed on both Silversea and Seabourn, which are now owned by RCCI and Carnival, respectively, and there's always a lot of grumbling on Cruise Critic from past guests about the alleged "cheapening" of the experience by the current owners. Although I've never cruised on Regent, there's been similar grumbling about that line ever since it became part of the Norwegian (NCL) empire.

 

If anyone has sailed on the Europa 2 since the RCCI ownership involvement, I'd be interested to know what changes, if any (including changes for the better), you've seen.

 

Thanks.

 

Jim

[tinkky]

we are booked on the 17th dec Antarctica cannot find anything about them here

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

Information about Hapag-Lloyd should be here, since they don't have a separate forum.  But I found two threads in the Luxury Cruising forum.

 

 

[ClipperinSFO]

We are booked one a 9 day Norwegian cruise in early September 2023 on Europa 2 out of Bergen.  While we have no previous comparison to HL and E2 cruises, will provide a report upon return.  We are normally Cunard guys, sailing back and forth across the Atlantic, so the ship size and cruise aspect will be a relatively new one for us.  We booked Hapag Lloyd based on the historic lineage of the line, and the fact that the ships are highly regarded.

 

 

[jimdee3636]

@ClipperinSFO

I'm looking forward to your review of the Europa 2. Have a fun time!

 

Jim

 

P.S.---We've been on Cunard's QM2 and QE, and are booked on the still-being-built Queen Anne for a 14-night Baltic/ Scandinavia cruise next June and July. It will be our first time in Britanna Club. The Club dining room on QA looks much nicer than on the other Cunard ships, and the cabins are in better locations.

[ClipperinSFO]

13 hours ago, jimdee3636 said:

 

P.S.---We've been on Cunard's QM2 and QE, and are booked on the still-being-built Queen Anne for a 14-night Baltic/ Scandinavia cruise next June and July. It will be our first time in Britanna Club. The Club dining room on QA looks much nicer than on the other Cunard ships, and the cabins are in better locations.

 

Thanks Jim -- we are hoping there will be some nod to Hapag Lloyd's history on board, although likely it won't be on the Cunard level.  I recall seeing a large stylish caricature of (I think) Albert Ballin in one of the lounges of Europa 2, but not many hints beyond that.

 

We are also booked on QA for her first transatlantic in Jan 2025, ironically from Hamburg.  Something about Germany keeps pulling us in...   

[frogfish12]

Hi I'm researching a Svalbard & East Greenland combo itinerary and Hapag-Lloyd's Hanseatic Inspiration is one of the few that has this itinerary. Has anyone traveled on this ship?

 

According to Hapag's website, Inspiration and Europa 2 are their two ships that offer "international cruises" and have lectures in English and "one shore excursion in each port of call which will be conducted in English"

 

Read the posted review but I think the reviewer speaks/understands German. However I don't know German at all!

 

@ClipperinSFO Looking forward to your review. Do you understand German? Please report back if all the lectures are conducted in English or only certain ones. I'm concerned with the lack of choice in excursions because only one is in English. Also curious about the food. Thank you and have a good trip! 

 

@jeff74 did you book with Hapag-Lloyd? I also looked at Silversea but like Hapag's itinerary better

 

 

[jeff74]

@frogfish12, yes we are booked for next summer😀.

[frogfish12]

@jeff74 On which Hapag ship? Are you concerned with lack of choice, it seems only one excursion per port is in English or you understand German? Also I don't know if all the lectures will also be in English or a select few, did you or your TA ask Hapag to what degree the cruise will be in English? Thank you

Edited August 20, 2023 by frogfish12

[jeff74]

@frogfish12, we are booked on the inspiration since we don’t speak German at all.  I thought that all the lectures would be in English but I could be mistaken.  Hopefully any limitations on excursions would just be by timeframe at worst and not scope.  I just assumed that since Hapag is trying to make a push into broader markets that the not understanding German won’t be too much of a hassle on their bilingual cruise.

 

 This one blogger named Gary Bembridge is currently on the inspiration so ideally he will post some good info on this topic.

[ClipperinSFO]

@frogfish12 We leave in 2 weeks for the Europa 2 Norway trip, and are all booked for our shore excursions.  There were multiple English language options in each port, and I was happy with the selection. Neither of us speaks German fluently, beyond a few rudimentary phrases, so we will be depending on the English skills of the crew.

 

As for the food, I am especially looking forward to the cuisine aboard, both in the main dining room and the buffet. The speciality restaurants on E2 also look very very tempting indeed.  I am a big fan of German breakfasts so am greatly looking forward to what’s on offer each morning.  Full report upon in return in mid-September! 

[ClipperinSFO]

24 minutes ago, jeff74 said:

 This one blogger named Gary Bembridge is currently on the inspiration so ideally he will post some good info on this topic.

 

I second this — I have also been following Gary Bembridge’s posts during his current trip.  He is a non-German speaking Anglophone so his review will be especially pertinent and give you a good feel for the ship and the over HL cruise experience from an English-speaker’s perspective. 

[frogfish12]

jeff74, Have heard of Gary Bembridge but never watched his videos, what good timing! If his upcoming video doesn't talk about excursions and lectures, then I will email Hapag to ask

 

ClipperinSFO, it's good there are multiple English language tours in each port for your cruise, probably not the same for the Arctic. I just looked at the Europa 2, did you know the 2024 cruise is different in that there's less time in fjords and visits Oslo instead? You have the much better itinerary, enjoy!

 

 

[jeff74]

@frogfish12, it might be worth even trying to get a hold of Gary as well.

[frogfish12]

@jeff74 "approximately three months before departure you will be informed which German airport the charter flight will take off". Frankfurt? Munich? Berlin? Didn't realize this, I need to know much earlier which city to fly into to arrange flights. Is yours the same situation? Don't think this cruise will work for me, however I like Hapag and they have other good itineraries on Inspiration or Europa 2 that don't involve an unknown city so still interested to know more

 

Looking at Seabourn plus do more searching online....     

[jeff74]

@frogfish12, I was told that it was more like 6 months ahead of time.  Even this is less than ideal but I went ahead and booked flights that bookend the cruise by a day or two on each end in Amsterdam as a placeholder.  I can decide at a later date to either keep the flight and tour around the city we fly into before taking a train to the Chester l charter flight city or rebook to fly into the city where the charter flight is.

[whylion]

We’re booked for a Spitsbergen cruise next May.  I was also wondering about the charter back to Germany, so I looked at the cruises they did this summer on the German speaking expedition ships. The charter flight on these returned to Hannover- so that’s a good guess but obviously no guarantee.
Our cruise  leaves from Hamburg and has a charter flight back.  We’ve booked the international flights, planning on the return to take a one way flight to Austria (which we’ll book when we get the final airport info) stay a few days and get the transatlantic flight back from there.

We took a cruise on the Inspiration  to Patagonia last year and enjoyed it very much. The food was very good and the ship had lots of room and never seemed crowded.  There was an English speaking guide on board who gave lectures to the English speakers (all four of us) and some of the German naturalists also gave talks in English. For the excursion, the English guide was always in our zodiac group and did the hikes with us etc . All of the guides speak very good English so you can ask questions. I don’t think there were any excursions that weren’t open to us.  

[jimdee3636]

@whylion

It's good to know that, at least on the Inspiration, the expedition people spoke English. But were the "regular" crew members (servers, bartenders, room attendants) able to communicate in English?

 

Jim

[whylion]

Yes all the servers and crew members were fluent in English.  All very friendly and efficient. 

[ClipperinSFO]

@frogfish12 Gary Bembridge is just back from his trip on Hapag-Lloyd’s Hanseatic Inspiration, and did a live chat today (at 1800 BST) largely covering his experience.  You can go to YouTube and watch it, and gain some insights into what it would be like. As always, full of great insights.  As an Fyi, he does cover other cruise related topics.

[frogfish12]

ClipperinSFO, thank you I'll check out the new Bembridge video later today. I watched one of his after learning how useful they are on this board, didn't know for Nile cruises they park the boats 3 or 4 deep and Gary was saying how bad the noise and fumes were

 

Wasn't considering Hapag because of the unknown departure city but after reading Whylion's report that Hapag would do English lectures for only 4 people I'm impressed. It's now between Hapag and Seabourn..

 

Slightly off topic, why are people saying that you should do Antarctica first? I'm going against the flow lol and planning to do Arctic first because I feel I'll be disappointed the other way round. There's lot less wildlife in Arctic (and Greenland) and it's more for scenery so I don't get why

 

 

[jeff74]

I will say that one huge plus for Hapag with us having a kid in tow is the added cost was just 1,600 EUR including the charter flight to bring him along as a 12-15 year old.  11 year old kids and younger only have to pay the charter flight cost which was 700 EUR for our particular flight.  We were limited to choosing either the of the two types of suites which bumped up the cost but it's still cheaper than the alternative of getting 2 separate rooms.  Compared to the Galapagos cruise on the Celebrity Flora that we got back from earlier this month where we had to get a 2nd cabin with zero single supplement discount it feels like a great deal.

 

A piece of advice that I'd give anyone stateside that is booking on Hapag is to request to pay in euros.  At least at the time when I booked, the conversion rate to USD that the cruise line was using was 1.2 USD per EUR which was at the time and still is a fair amount over the spot rate.  Going this route will end up costing us about $2600 less and I've bought a EUR/USD ETF to hedge FX risk for my remaining amount that is due next year.  If you don't want to go through the trouble of hedging you can always "let it ride" and go ahead and pay the balance early if the fx rate starts moving adversely.