Hapag-Lloyd Cruises has offered a first look at the planned 2024/25 operation of its two luxury ocean ships and trio of expedition vessels. The program includes the return of MS EUROPA 2 to Oceania waters and the deployment of HANSEATIC inspiration to the South Pacific.
Non-binding reservations are open now, meaning clients can hold a firm booking via their travel agency until the catalogs are released in early 2023, providing detailed itineraries and pricing. The publication for the three expedition ships and MS EUROPA is planned for April 2023. The catalog for MS EUROPA 2 will follow in May.
The 2024/2025 season takes the five small ships on a total of 116 new routes around the world and offers exciting destinations for every type of travel. Premiere ports and untouched regions in the most diverse climate zones are on the timetable. In addition, guests can again look forward to popular and varied format trips, including EUROPA Refresh with a focus on mindfulness and holistic wellbeing or MS EUROPA 2 unplugged® with live concerts in an intimate atmosphere.
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Expedition
The three identical expedition ships – HANSEATIC nature, HANSEATIC inspiration and HANSEATIC spirit – offer 64 extraordinary trips, including premiere routes, for a maximum of 230 guests. In the summer of 2025, HANSEATIC nature will connect Canada’s Hudson Bay with Greenland for the first time. The passage through Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait is only possible for a few weeks a year due to the ice situation. The small, manoeuvrable expedition ship uses the valuable time window on two consecutive voyages and plays to its greatest strengths: the highest ice class for passenger ships (PC6) as well as many years of expertise in ice.
At the height of the arctic season, the HANSEATIC spirit crosses in late summer 2025 the legendary Northwest Passage from Kangerlussuaq to Seward. Here there is a chance of a ship meeting in the ice, because at the same time the HANSEATIC inspiration is coming towards her on the opposite route.
Sun worshipers can look forward to traveling with the HANSEATIC inspiration when it sets course for rarely visited islands and atolls in the South Pacific at the end of April 2025. Destinations will include Vanuatu, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands and Palau.
Among the South Pacific itineraries are:
- 21-day New Zealand and New Caledonia, from Christchurch to Noumea, departing on 28 February 2025
- 23-day Expedition Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Palau, from Noumea to Palau, departing 16 March 2025
Also popular classics, such as the Antarctic, the Chilean fjords as well as the Great Lakes and the Amazon expeditions, will return aboard the modern expedition ships.
Ocean
Hapag-Lloyd Cruises’ German-speaking ship, MS EUROPA, will feature 24 new trips, encompassing Asia, Oceania and Africa. For the first time, the small luxury ship is traveling to these three destinations in one season. Among the new routes aboard MS EUROPA will be an XX-day voyage from Melbourne to Mauritius. In addition, the stage concept updated for the 2023/24 season will be continued. Three attractive travel combinations between 53 and 66 days combine several cruises into one unforgettable stage and enable an intensive experience of the countries and continents.
The focus is on the regions around Australia and New Zealand, Africa with premiere ports in Tanzania and Kenya and the Mediterranean including the Côte d’Azur, Sicily and the Greek islands.
Local options offered on MS EUROPA include:
- 19-day New Year Down Under, from Bali (Benoa) to Sydney, departing on 17 December 2024
- 21-day The natural spectacle of New Zealand, from Sydney to Melbourne, departing on 2 January 2025
- 22-day In the kingdom of kangaroos and koalas, from Melbourne to Port Louis (Mauritius), departing on 20 January 2025
The international-speaking MS EUROPA 2 offer 28 new routes, with some destinations being represented twice in the program due to their popularity. Guests will benefit from double calls in Australia and New Zealand, the South Pacific, China or Japan during the cherry blossom season.
Local options aboard MS EUROPA 2 include;
- 21-day Highlights of Australia’s east coast, from Bali (Benoa) to Melbourne, departing on 13 November 2024.
- 18-day Australia and New Zealand at its best, from Melbourne to Auckland, departing on 1 December 2024
- 24-day Christmas in paradise, from Auckland to Lautoka (Fiji), departing on 16 December 2024
- 20-day Koalas, kangaroos and South Sea dreams, from Lautoka to Bali (Benoa), departing on 5 January 2025
For the first time, the EUROPA 2 is heading for the west coast of the USA visiting Portland (Oregon) and Seattle (Washington), Vancouver and Vancouver Island (British Columbia). The route from Tokyo via Hawaii to Los Angeles combines tradition and modernity, exoticism and glamorous Hollywood flair.
The trip is also an IN2BALANCE format on which selected coaches and trainers share innovative training methods, relaxation techniques from the Far East and the latest findings on nutritional issues.
View the 2024/2025 deployment at hl-cruises.de/vorschau/ihre-exklusive-reisevorschau