Expedition Cruises - HAPAG-LLOYD CRUISES gets two new expedition ships

HAPAG-LLOYD CRUISES recently has announced plans for two new expedition ships.
by Earl of Cruise

The new vessels, which will launch in spring and autumn 2019, will expand the TUI-owned lxury line’s fleet to a total of five ships.

The new HAPAG-LLOYD CRUISES expedition cruise vessels, above and below © HAPAG-LLOYD CRUISES

GT/BRZ

Length/Länge

Width/Breite

Draught/Tiefgang

Decks/Passagierdecks

Cabins/Kabinen + Suites/n

Max Passengercapacity/Maximale Passagierkapazität

Crew/Besatzung

high balcony ratio/Hoher Anteil Balkonkabinen

Restaurants

modern fitness and wellness area/Moderner Fitness und Wellnessbereich

Interior Design/Innendesign - Architektenbüro Oceanarchitects

16.100

138 Meter

22 Meter

5,4 Meter

120

240 Personen

up to/bis zu 170

At present HAPAPG-LLOYD CRUISES has two expedition cruise vessels, the aging BREMEN 1993, ex FRONTIER SPIRIT 1990 and HANSEATIC 1993, ex SOCIETY EXPLORER 1991 (laid up till ´93), which soon will leave the fleet. Besides the TUI owned cruise operator is offering the EUROPA and the EUROPA 2. The new ships show quite a family resemblence, similar as in the automobile industry ...

ms HANSEATIC 1993, ex SOCIETY EXPLORER 1991, owned by billionaire from Hamburg © HAPAG-LLOYD CRUISES

ms BREMEN 1993, ex FRONTIER SPIRIT 1990, only by HAPAG-LLOYD owned vessel © HAPAG-LLOYD CRUISES

Both will have the highest Polar Class designation. Both will be build in Norway at VARD WERFT of VARD HOLDINGS Ltd. a portfolio company of the Italian FINCANTIERI GROUP. This means they can cruise in polar regions, in the Arctic and Antarctica. One of the ships will serve especially the German speaking markets only, and the other will be for intenational for German speaking markets and also the UK, US, Netherlands, and Belgium.

Onboard zodiacs and a water sports marina will also be a feature on both ships. But a Marina at the stern, can be critical if a wave is running under vessel and rising the stern, and then diving back ... Side Marinas would have been a better solution.

Sebastian Ebel, member of the executive board of Tui Group in charge of cruises:

“The cruise business is one of the key elements of Tui’s growth strategy. Our ambitions are underpinned by our investment in the two new ships for HAPAG-LLOYD CRUISES. HAPAG-LLOYD CRUISES’ luxury and expedition cruise segments serve as world-class benchmarks.”

Karl Pojer, chief executive of HAPAG-LLOYD CRUISES:

“HAPAG-Director Albert Ballin did invent 125 years ago the modern. With our EUROPA and EUROPA 2 we are at best positioned in the luxury market. We are charting the course for the future. We already operate successfully in our expedition segment, which offers growth potential for five-star cruises. Our newbuilds will help us to further develop the expedition segment and offer a modern interpretation. They will also serve to strengthen our leading position in this market, in particular at the international level.”

ms EUROPA, 1999, one of the first mega yacht cruise vessels, when inaugurated a real benchmark © HAPAG-LLOYD CRUISES

The "international level" is the critical point in the HAPAG-LLOYD offer as it is seen abroad of Germany. For UK customers HAPAPG-LLOYD is seen as "the German" offer ... It will a challenge getting this prejudice out of the minds. But elsewhere the HAPAG-LLOYD cruises are seen as this "German offer" ... If the vessels are still crewed by members which hardly can speak English, the challenge will be a real big one.

The real 5star complement of passengers is ending to me at a max of 400 to 420 passengers, and deserves min a crew/pax ratio of 1:1. Further the cabins should start at a certain minimum of sqm or sqf. As for the EUROPA and EUROPA 2 it is 27m²/29m² ... And these big staterooms are sold all over the cruise industry as suites, only for the better service. But a suite is consisting of more than one room - simple definition. Anything other is a fake created by marketing departments.

ms EUROPA 2, 2013 © HAPAG-LLOYD CRUISES

Compared to the expedition newbuilds of SCENIC CRUISES and CRYSTAL CRUISES with less or quite equal passenger numbers, but on bigger ships, the new HAPAG-LLOYD expedition cruisers with their 240 passengers, to my opinion, are aiming for the top end of the mass market, but are not 5star.

The days when passenger vessels, the Tranatlantic liners and "Ships of State" in the golden Era, had been at the peak are gone. today the 5star offers don´t even meet the land based hotels in their 5star level.

A new HAPAG-LLOYD CRUISES?

Comments

HISTORY - ts / ss BREMEN and ts / ss EUROPA

Germany’s two luxury liners, BREMEN and EUROPA , have not only played an important part in their country’s mercantile revival, but have added also an immortal chapter to the history of transatlantic travel. Copy from Shipping Wonders of the World From part 6 , published 17 March 1936 editing by Earl of Cruise ss / ts BREMEN in her early years - Source: Shipping Wonders of the World/Bundespresse Archiv The PRIDE OF A NATION - the NORDDEUTSCHER LLOYD quadruple-screw turbine express liner BREMEN . The keel of this ship was laid in June 1927. Her launch took place in August, 1928. In less than a year later, the Bremen made her first voyage to America, when she crossed the Atlantic from Cherbourg to New York in four days seventeen hours forty-two minutes, thus setting up a new record and gaining the coveted “Blue Riband”. During the passage the Bremen attained an average speed of 27.83 knots. ss / ts BREMEN in her early years - Source: W ikipedia For the pop...

Ocean Liners in Movies or Films at Sea (updated Nov 2017)

For liners and the shipping companies movies and films had been a top marketing tool Movies or Films and liners at sea, had been intriguing me since I have read about in my youth in LUXUSLINER - BILDER EINER GROSSEN ZEIT by Lee Server ( THE GOLDEN AGE OF OCEAN LINERS ). But earlier, mot only since my first crossing, I was keen watching movies with liners in it, and disapointed, which was an understatement, when I realized the films have been made in a set ashore in some movie "factory". That was after my first crossing. by Earl of Cruise an essay in progress `Sabrina´, Humphrey Bogart in the office, while LIBERTÉ is sailing out of New York harbor - screenshot Ocean liners, especially those of the luxury category, had been the location of dramas, love stories, thrillers, suspense and catastrophies sinde film was born, or nearly. In this list, the most descriptions are taken from Wikipedia, as I guess no one can expect having seen all these films ... otherwise I w...

ss NORMANDIE 1935 - 1942 IX

s s / te NORMANDIE starting from cold Owners: COMPAGNIE GÉNÉRALE TRANSATLANTIQUE BUILDERS: PENH Ö ET, St. Nazaire, France by Stephen Carey © , editing by Earl of Cruise This document is almost exclusively about the engineering aspects of NORMANDIE , mainly on how to start her up from cold. If you are looking for photos of the passenger spaces, there is a plethora of them on the web, in Facebook groups - Admirers of the ss Normandie , ss Normandie photographic file , The French Ocean Liners / Les Paquebots Fran ç ais , ss Normandie , GREAT LINERS OF THE PAST & PRESENT , and others, Pinterest and in articles about NORMANDIE here in the blog, please see at the end of the article. Using "ss" for NORMANDIE is quite incorrect, as NORMANDIE was a Turbo Electric vessel and not a steamship, therefore NORMANDIE should be adressed as "te". by Earl of Cruise te / ss NORMANDIE berthed in Le Havre, Gare Maritime May 29th, 1935 - colouring courtesy ...

HISTORY - The CUNARD - WHITE STAR Liner rms QUEEN ELIZABETH (1938-1972)

Over years, in my early youth, the QUEEN ELIZABETH was shaping my mind for the perfect ocean liner, despite having made my first experiences with a liner onboard the HANSEATIC (1), ex EMPRESS OF SCOTLAND, ex EMPRESS OF JAPAN. When leaning at the rail of HANSEATIC entering the port, my eyes where every where and I wished to by a camera, I took all in. And when seeing the QUEEN ELIZABETH with my own eyes, the nice behaving young boy turned into a tomboy, that my grandmére was no longer able to tame ... I did draw quite a lot of looks, back then. I found, while on research, this article and thought it interesting publishing in my blog: written and published by John Sheperd at liverpoolships.org editing and comments by Earl of Cruise I ( John Shepard ) joined the CUNARD LINE in March 1962 as an Assistant Purser and sailed the QUEEN ELIZABETH throughout that year, before transferring to the Liverpool-based CARINTHIA in November, where I remained as Crew Purser for the next five...

Thank You 500,000 readers

ss NORMANDIE 1935-1942 XII - The Most Beautiful Ocean Liner Ever Built

For many, or should I say for "a great many" Ocean Liner Lovers, NORMANDIE is the most beautiful liner ever built. Me, I am among those aficionados. NORMANDIE was technically decades ahead of time. The vessel got implemented technologies that would have been copied by others, who then claimed to be the first to have. Alternative facts are not a modern days invention of a certain chrétien and his backward oriented entourage ... NORMANDIE´s interior was the peak of ART DECO in France, and was, still is, the peak of chic. Never again any liner, or passenger vessel, except NIEUW AMSTERDAM had been designed exterior and interior that strict in the "guide lines" of the ART DECO (Link in German) movement - as ART DECO is "only" a movement and not a school like BAUHAUS . Therefore the style was in a permanent "move" and development. NORMANDIE, the perfect ocean liner, Le Vaisseau de Lumière, Le Deesse de la Mer - courtsey coloured by Dary...

HISTORY - RHEINGOLD the German luxury day express train

Between May 1928 and August 1939 the luxury day express train RHEINGOLD operated between Hoek van Holland and Basel as a FFD Pullman train of DEUTSCHE REICHSBAHN GESELLSCHAFT (DRG) and MITROPA. The name was mystic and elitarian. by Earl of Cruise RHEINGOLD, the name of the most luxurious train ever of Germany - detail, own photo On May 15th, 1928 the luxury express train RHEINGOLD started for the first time, connecting Hoek von Holland, Netherlands, and Amsterdamn with Basel, Suisse. Name giving was the legendary treasure of the Nibelungen. This special service for most international travelers was an immidiate success. Advertisment for the RHEINGOLD created by Frank Newbould - collection Earl of Cruise For the most travelers in the RHEINGOLD meant the voyage in the luxury train more than being transported in high comfort. From their soft armchairs they could watch the pitoresque Rhine landscape, with wine villages, vine-growing slopes, forteresses and castles, and th...

HISTORY - AUSTRO AMERICANA the Austro-Hungary shipping line into the new world

Not many know about the Austro-Hungary shipping line, AUSTRO AMERICANA , which sailed out of Trieste to the Americas. Austro-Hungary and shipping? You may ask ... you may have heard about Vienna Walz, coffe house culture, Hotel Sacher and its famous chocolate cake, the Prater, chateau Schönbrunn, the Fiakers - the famous horse carriages and such things. But passenger shipping lines? There has been AUSTRO AMERICANA and ÖSTERREICHISCHER LLOYD , renamed in LLOYD TRIESTINO after 1918 and after purchased by EVERGREEN renamed in Italia Marittima. The actual company ÖSTERREICHISCHER LLOYD is a new formed management company situated in Austria. by Earl of Cruise KAISER FRANZ JOSEH I. the biggest liner of AUSTRO AMERICANA - own collextion Parts of my family lived for a long time in the Austro-Hungary empire, which can be qualified as a "United Nations of the Balkan". Having traces into Austria-Hungay, the realm of Hungary in special, it is a pleasure for me making thes...

ss NORMANDIE 1935-1942 XIII - Le NORMANDIE the great triumph and tragic end of the greatest ship of France

NORMANDIE at sea - courtsey coloured by Daryl LeBlanc Le NORMANDIE , the greates ship of France, was a great triumph for the French industry, economy the most gracious ambassador of France - a symbol of cultur and Savoir de Vivre. NORMANDIE never surppassed by any liner. But whom the gods love, they beat him to a tragic ending. In case of NORMANDIE the gods let do their dirty job by careless, ignorant and arrogant US Navy officials and their sub contractors. by Earl of Cruise NORMANDIE had 4 years of living and the chance to bring Glitz, Glamour and Luster into a world that was just in front of an abyss since October 1929. Sailing with NORMANDIE , created to cater primarily the First Clas clientele, and enjoying life on board seems to me today, as a Dance on the Volcano, that errupted in 1939. Longitudinal cutaway of PARIS - own collection copy from a CGT broshure ÎLE DE FRANCE , Cie Gle TRANSATLANTIQUE provoking ART DÉCO liner - own collection ...

HISTORY - FRENCH LINE - COMPAGNIE GÉNÉRALE TRANSATLANTIQUE, a review - Part II Belle Epoque

The COMPAGNIE GÉNÉRALE TRANSATLANTIQUE, known since the Belle Epoque as FRENCH LINE in the English speaking world (or TRANSAT or CGT), had its origins in 1861. by Earl of Cruise E mperor Napoléon III. wanted strengthening the French primacy on the oceans and an adequate mail line for the French mail. The 1855 established COMPAGNIE GÉNÉRALE MARITIME of the Péreire brothers was the core for the new company. This company´s headquarter was, as any major business in France, situated in Paris, while the homeport of the vessels had been Le Havre for the North Atlantic and Marseille for the route to the Orient and Africa. Houseflag of COMPAGNIE GÉNÉRALE TRANSATLANTIQUE S.A. - soure: ebay "On limited space, we put our country on display", a crewmember declared once. And no other line put in more of its national personality into its product than COMPAGNIE GÉNÉRALE TRANSATLANTIQUE . After the French - Prussian/German war of 1870/71 France had to sig...

Search This Blog

Thank You 500,000 readers