In this video we're going to explore what is probably the most luxurious
cruise ship in the world. Hi I'm Gary Bembridge of Tips For Travellers. I'm going
to take you through Europa 2. For the last five years it's had top ratings in
the authoritative "Berlitz Cruising and Cruise Ship Guide". The Europa 2 is part
of Hapag-Lloyd, which is part of the TUI Travel Group. The Europa 2 holds 500
guests. The ship was launched in 2013 and every two years the Europa 2 goes into
dry dock. The ship is tweaked refined and updated. One of the biggest changes
happened in September 2017, and when the ship came out in October (which is when I
toured the ship) there were many changes. And I'm going to show you those changes
during the course of this video. So let's go and take a look at the bars and
lounges on Europa 2. The Belvedere went through a major revamp in 2017. It's a
gorgeous venue up on deck 9. There's a library in here. There's lots of seating
space. There's music in the evening and one of the big attractions is the great
barista bar where you can get coffees, teas - huge range of teas - and also there's a massive
selection of phenomenal cakes and treats to eat. Another great venue on Europa 2
is Sansibar. Sansibar is based on a very famous
beach bar in Germany, which is very well-known to German guests. It's very
upmarket. It's a great VIP beach bar and they've created the Sansibar onboard,
which again is a great venue very popular and has a really super kind of
Beach feel to it. Big changes in the 2017 revamp are on deck 4. The first of
these is the Collins bar. This is a gin bar and, as you can see, it's a slightly
quirky and slightly unusual venue. It has an interesting take with great
murals - very amusing murals -and a great selection of drinks and cocktails.
Across the way from Collins is a great venue called Club 2. This used to be the
jazz club but because it's not only jazz music, there's a wider range of music
takes place here. So as you can see Club 2 is a great venue for live music. It's
a really vibe modern looking venue with great decor
and a beautiful bar. I really love the look of the bar. So let's go take a look at
the dining venues. What's important is there is a main dining room and this
is the main dining room here, which is called the Weltmeere. A
great feature in the dining room is it's open seated dining, which means you can
go anytime you want, and fifty percent of the tables are for two people. So if you
just want some privacy, and you want to just be with your partner, there are lots of
choices of seats for two. It's a beautiful venue.
All the speciality restaurants are included in the fare. Let's take a look
at the key ones. The Italian is called Serenissima.
As you can see it's got beautiful Murano glass chandeliers, beautiful tables and
great Italian food. Across the way from that is a venue which I really love the
look of called Elements. This is an Asian restaurant: beautiful venue and a
fantastic menu. Now the most popular speciality restaurant on board is
called Tarragon. As you can see it looks a bit like a French bistro inside.
Very very popular, in fact it's so popular they've actually extended the
size of this to cater for more people. So let's go take a look at things to do.
What are the actual facilities? Well first of all there's the theatre. This is
a magnificent venue as you can see. It's sort of a horseshoe shape, so you get
great views of what's going on on the stage. The important thing about the
shows on Europa 2, because it caters for an international audience, is all the
shows are designed to not rely too much on language. So there will be lots of
songs, dance, musicians, Cirque de Soil shows, magicians - a really
wide range of different types of shows. There's a beautiful pool deck which has
a 15 metre long pool - which up until recently was the biggest pool on board
any cruise ship. The Ocean Spa is a great venue. A major revamp happened in
2017. In addition to the usual spa treatments, it has a really large gym
with lots of equipment and classes, there's also of course beautiful
treatment rooms including some for couples and of course there is the usual
facilities like steam room and sauna. For those of you that like golf there's also
two golf simulators which are great fun - and there is always on board a Golf Pro
to help you fine-tune your golf, and also a lot the port's that are called on
there are golfing excursions. So what about the accommodation onboard Europa 2?
Well, of course, there is very luxurious accommodation. But what I'm going to show
you is the entry level room. All of the cabins on board are
outside cabins and so all have balconies. This is the entry
level cabin and, as you can see, it's pretty magnificent. Beautiful plush decor.
Very stylish. These are not massive
cabins but are a very generous size because Europa 2 is a small ship
and only caters for 500 guests. It has a separate closet with huge
amounts of storage space. In the bathroom what I like is has a separate shower and
a separate bath. So this is the basic room and from then upwards it goes right
up to huge palatial suites, but the basic room is pretty magnificent.
Another important thing about Europa 2 is often on board there will be meetings or
conferences - and at times the whole ship is actually chartered by a company for
meetings. So they've added a couple of key features including this conference
room and also across the way there is a studio for larger meetings. Also up here
on deck 9 is the cruise sales office. So there's plenty of waiting space and you
can look at all different brochures and book your future cruises here.
So there you are that's Europa 2 - it's a beautiful ship. It has magnificent
decor and feels pretty much like a boutique hotel. It still largely has
German guests but a growing and very fast appeal to international guests - and
the ship was designed for the international guests. Certainly Hapag-Lloyd
want to attract more and more international guests on to Europa 2, so
language onboard is German and English. Hopefully you've enjoyed that tour of
Europa 2 - if you liked the video I would love it if you gave the
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