Hapag-Lloyd Cruises Announces Two New Expedition Vessels
TUI Group will invest in two new-builds for its Hamburg-based subsidiary Hapag-Lloyd Cruises. The 5-star expedition ships are scheduled for launch in April and October 2019, respectively, following 20 months of construction. Both will carry the highest Polar Class designation. Financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed.
The two vessels will be built at the Norwegian Vard shipyard of Vard Holdings Limited, a shareholding of the Italian Fincantieri shipyard. The hulls are to be constructed at Vard Tulcea, Romania with final delivery from Vard at Langsten, Norway. Both ships will be equipped with state-of-the-art technological features and environmental technology. With PC6, the highest Polar Class designation for passenger ships, they will be able to cruise not only in polar regions in the Arctic and Antarctica but also in warm water destinations such as the Amazon. On-board Zodiacs will allow landings in otherwise inaccessible expedition areas. The ships will each feature a water sports marina.
One new-build will serve the German-speaking cruise markets (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), while the other will serve German-speaking markets and in addition Belgium, the UK, Netherlands and the US.
- Identical ships, data for each ship:
- GT 16,100
- Length: 138 metres
- Width: 22 metres
- Draught: 5.4 metres
- Passenger decks: 7
- Cabins and suites: 120
- Maximum passenger capacity: 240 persons
- Crew: Up to 170 crew members
- High ratio of balcony cabins
- Restaurants: 3
- Modern spa and fitness area
- Interior design: Architecture firm Oceanarchitects
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Love the looks of all the HAPAG-LLYOD ships as usual.
Expedition vessels have come a long way from when I traveled to Antarctica on the “little red ship”–the Explorer. Now one travels in the lap of luxury! However, I can’t help but think it was more fun when we roughed it a bit.
Love it! And its about time as well. I wonder what their names will be. However, its still surprising how HAPAG-LLOYD did not build larger cruise ships as HAL did way back when, but thrilled that we still have the the grand old company still with us 🙂 I’m also an expedition cruise ship kind of person myself and don’t usually care much for the oversized behemoths they make nowadays for most other lines.