The “cruise bible”, the authoritative Berlitz “Complete Guide to Cruising and
Cruise Ships”, has for years said this line has the best ships in the world, but almost
no cruisers outside its home country have ever heard of it, even though it's 50% owned
by Royal Caribbean, a line everyone’s heard of.
So, I decided I should test the line out to see if they were better, and if I would recommend
that cruisers like you consider taking a risk and cruising a line you’ve never heard of.
If you're new here, welcome aboard.
I'm Gary Bembridge, making it fun and easy to discover, plan and enjoy unforgettable
cruise vacations.
The line is Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd.
They have 5 ships (at time of recording), two classic cruise and three expedition ships.
As an English-speaker there were only two ships in the fleet I could choose from that
operate as “International”, with bi-lingual (German and English) speaking crew and program.
This is Europa 2, a classic cruise ship, and Hanseatic Inspiration, an expedition ship.
I chose the 230-passenger Hanseatic Inspiration expedition ship to Greenland and the Canadian
Arctic.
As the cruise approached, I was increasingly concerned that I would be made to feel like
a second-class citizen, with English speakers less well accommodated, and I worried that
I would be the only English speaker on board and feel isolated.
I soon discovered going on Hapag Lloyd means that could be a risk, as the crew told me
the number of English speakers varies dramatically cruise by cruise.
On my cruise were 25 English speakers (so about 10%).
But 21 were travelling in one group on a tour via the UK Noble Caledonia tour operator and
did tend to stick together.
As there so many of us, some English-language events were arranged.
For example, the Muster Drill, Daily Briefing and all the enrichment talks.
However, I discovered when there are only a handful of English speakers everything is
done in German and a live translation is given via earpieces.
That would have been challenging, and tiring, I think.
All the key announcements made by the Captain or Cruise Director were done in both languages
with equal measure of content, and all the major events like Captain’s Welcome and
Farewell Parties were also done in both languages.
On board everybody, passengers and crew, though always spoke to me in German first.
But because they are small ships, over time, a few crew (mostly in the dining room) started
to recognise I was English speaking and adapted.
So, for example, they'd hand me an English menu and talk first in English.
One promising thing I found is that the German passengers were mostly bilingual and seemed
comfortable and happy to talk in English.
So, it was a bit easier to get to know and chat to passengers, than I had expected, though
with some limitations that I will talk about later.
An English-language daily program was available each day, and there was an English setting
on the TV so all the information on there was in English.
The entertainment was designed to be largely neutral and not language dependent, so pianist,
song, and dance events.
Though, I did find it a bit draining, isolating and I felt I did miss out because one of the
things that makes cruising is the upsides of the informal chatting, sharing experiences,
meeting passengers and overhearing conversations.
So, at dinner English and German speakers were not put together.
I only ever socialized with English speakers, and as most were in that group, they would
hang out together anyway.
I did sometimes feel I was missing out.
For example, on a Zodiac ride around the Crocker Bay Glacier in the Canadian Arctic, I was
the only English speaker on the Zodiac, and the driver / guide spoke, I would say, 98%
of the time in German because people were asking her questions, they were discussing
things amongst each other.
And so, I kind of felt a little bit isolated and left out because I knew there was lots
of discussion and questions going on that I was not learning and a part of.
It got a little bit draining out on the landings over time, as when we got to shore, they had
to repeat the briefing as we landed in both languages, as did the guides out in the landing
sites.
I was travelling solo on the trip and I felt a bit more isolated than on other lines, and
a key learning was going on Hapag-Lloyd, or any foreign language line, is even though
they do things bilingual, it would have been a better idea to go with a travelling companion
or even better, with a group of friends because we could have created own social interaction.
I would say though that Hapag-Lloyd didn't make me as an English speaker feel like a
second-class citizen, or an afterthought.
I did feel they tried hard to make me feel included, and welcome.
It was more over time the bi-lingual everything and missing out on the informal interactions
with guests did feel I was missing out on a fuller experience.
However, there was another thing I was worried about before going that I want to explain
how that went, as it was rather different to what I had expected.
Hapag-Lloyd is priced around the Seabourn, Silversea, and Crystal Cruises level, and
I was concerned if I would find it was worth it: design, facilities, program and level
of service and inclusions.
Particularly, as a German-focused line, would those feel foreign and unfamiliar to those
more American rooted lines I am used to?
There are a several things that I need to talk about that I did find different.
The first is the crew.
There was a noticeable difference on Hapag-Lloyd versus those other lines and pretty much any
other line.
They had mostly European, and specifically German crew, in pretty much every passenger
facing role.
Although, the Cabin Stewards and some barmen were from more traditional cruise crew countries,
overall, it was mostly a European crew.
I did find the service was good, and not stereotypically German as I expected it to be.
It was more informal and jokey that I had expected.
I guess I sort of expected German service to be more formal and reserved.
The second difference was it was way more family friendly than any luxury line I've
been on.
I know they have amazing family cabins on Europa 2, connected cabins with bunk beds,
toys, and family features.
On my ship there were multiple occupancy cabins, and some like the large cabin I stayed in
had separate bedroom and lounge area with sofa bed for the kids.
They ran a big Young Explorers program, on the trip with events in the day, in ports
and in the evening.
The third difference that I found was in the ship design.
I've already mentioned this is a small ship, so I knew there would not be lots of venues
and facilities, but it was comparable with other luxury small ship lines with a large
lounge for talks and shows, a bar and live music lounge, Main Dining Room, Buffet restaurant,
Speciality restaurant, fitness centre, spa, small shop, and pool deck with hot tubs.
The big difference though was the look and décor.
It was a more Scandinavian feel.
The closest cruise line I've been on is Viking, which of course is a Scandinavian-based line.
There's lots of light woods, modern and crisp design.
So, people who are more used to the darker, richer kind of design tones of those US-focused
lines, would find this quite a stark difference.
I felt it was a very different feel to those others in the luxury space.
Though I really liked the feel.
The cabins though some may feel a bit stark, I did not.
They did though have a smoking room, which was called the Invisible Lounge which is not
something you find these days on most lines I am used to, and I know on Europa 2 they
have an even bigger one called Collins.
But there is another issue that I need to talk about as I did worry about this and was
the most asked about area I got from followers while I was on the cruise.
That was about food.
Now, I know from experience that going on a French line like Ponant or CroisiEurope
that the menus and food are very French focused.
I worried it would be overally German on Hapag Lloyd, but realised beyond a stereotype of
sausages / bratwurst, sauerkraut, Schnitzel, pretzels, Black Forest Cake, and Apple Strudel
I wasn’t sure what that would mean.
I found instead that while there was some German influence in the menu most days, like
a sausage station on the buffet one day, sausage and beer pool deck party and so on, the cuisine
was more international and themed to a region most days, so Italian, Spanish, French, Latin
American, Japanese, and so on.
I was very impressed with the food because I don't think of Germany as being kind of
a culinary centre.
The main dining room was good with attentive service.
The menu at dinner would be quite an elaborate event with an amuse bouche, starter, a soup,
sorbet, main course, and dessert or cheese.
It had items of the day as well as some classics, like salmon, every day.
They have specialty restaurants that differ between classic and expedition ships.
On Hanseatic Inspiration, I had Nikkei, which is an unusual Japanese-Peruvian crossover
with interesting food.
By the way beer and wine were included at lunch and dinner, and they did a very bizarre
thing where they charged for water at meals, which I believe is a kind of running issue
cruisers have with Hapag-Lloyd.
In terms of other inclusions, it was more of a pay-as-you-go mindset.
Included in the fare was an hour of internet each day and then I could buy add-ons, but
by the megabyte.
There was no drinks package, it was charge per drink.
And almost no upselling, other than on this trip a photo and video which cost a staggering
345 Euros and upwards.
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So, the real big question is, would I go back on Hapag-Lloyd?
I felt that while the ships were beautiful and service good, I'm not sure that they're
way better than some of the others as the guide would suggest.
And I think I would only go back on Hapag-Lloyd based on the expedition itinerary or perhaps
if I was a learning German and wanted to practice my German as I can go to the same itineraries,
particularly in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean and so on, on a line where I am
going to feel a little bit less at sea as it were.
So, it'd be heavily driven by itinerary.
One of the most telling things is I want to go back to Antarctica and I could find a similar
itinerary on Silversea, which includes South Georgia and I booked Silversea over Hapag-Lloyd.
So that's probably the telling thing.
But they were impressive, and if you want to push yourself out of your comfort zone
and have the budget they are worth a try.
If you want to know much more about cruising Greenland that I did, including the incredible
shock that I had on the first day on the trip, join me in this video over there where I talk
about that.
See you over there.