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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. So, I tried out and this is what I discovered
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0:00
the cruise Bible the authoritative
0:02
berlet's complete guide to cruising and
0:05
cruise ships has for years said this
0:08
line has the very best ships in the
0:10
world but almost no Cruisers outside its
0:13
Home Country have ever heard of it even
0:16
though it's 50% owned and operated by
0:19
the Royal Caribbean line that everyone's
0:22
heard of so I decided to book myself on
0:24
the line to see if they were better and
0:26
if I would recommend that Cruisers like
0:28
you consider taking taking a huge risk
0:31
and cruising on a line that you've never
0:33
heard of if you're new here welcome
0:35
aboard I'm Gary benbridge helping make
0:37
it fun and easy for you to discover plan
0:39
and enjoy Unforgettable Cruise vacations
0:42
the line is Germany's hapag Lloyd they
0:45
have five ships at the time of recording
0:47
two classic cruise and three Expedition
0:49
ships now as an English speaker there
0:52
were only two ships in the fleet that I
0:55
could even choose from because those are
0:57
the only ones that operate as
0:59
International which means bilingual
1:01
German and English speaking crew and a
1:04
bilingual program this is Europa 2 a
1:07
classic cruise ship and htic inspiration
1:10
and Expedition ship I chose the 230
1:13
passenger htic inspiration Expedition
1:16
ship because I wanted to go to Greenland
1:17
and the Canadian Arctic So I Married
1:20
those two things together now as the
1:21
cruise approached I was increasingly
1:24
concerned that I would be made to feel
1:26
like a second class citizen with us
1:28
English speakers less accommodated and I
1:31
also worried in fact that I would be the
1:34
only English speaker on board and kind
1:36
of feel therefore a lot isolated I soon
1:40
discovered that going on Haag Lloyd does
1:42
mean that could be a risk because the
1:45
crew told me during the cruise that the
1:47
number of English speakers varies
1:50
dramatically cruise by cruise on my
1:53
cruise in the end there were actually 25
1:55
English speakers so about 10% but 21
1:59
were traveling in one group on a tour
2:01
via the UK Noble Caledonian tour
2:04
operator and they did tend to stick
2:06
together now because there were so many
2:08
of us though some English language
2:10
events were actually arranged so for
2:12
example the mustard drill the daily
2:14
briefing and all the enrichment talks
2:16
were done for us in English however I
2:19
discovered when there were only a
2:20
handful of English speakers everything
2:22
is actually just done in German and a
2:24
live translation is given via ear pieces
2:26
now I think that would have been pretty
2:28
challenging and Tire
2:30
all of the key announcements by the way
2:32
were made by the captain or the cruise
2:34
director and these were done in both
2:36
languages with I think a good equal
2:39
measure of content uh all the major
2:41
events though like the Captain's welcome
2:44
and the farewell parties were also done
2:47
in both languages you know they switch
2:49
between the two now on board everybody
2:52
passengers and crew though would always
2:55
speak to me in German first but because
2:58
it's it's a small ship over a time uh
3:00
some of the crew mostly in the dining
3:02
room started to recognize I was english-
3:04
speaking and so they kind of adapted so
3:06
they would speak to me in English first
3:08
they would hand me an English version of
3:10
the menu without me kind of asking for
3:12
that one promising thing though that I
3:14
did find that the German passengers were
3:17
mostly bilingual and they seemed very
3:19
comfortable and very happy to talk in
3:22
English so that did make it a little bit
3:24
easier to kind of get to know a little
3:25
bit and chat to passengers um though it
3:28
did have some limitations that are
3:30
really important that I will come to
3:32
later an English language daily program
3:35
was available every day and there was an
3:37
English setting on the TV so then all
3:40
the information in that format was then
3:42
done in English the entertainment itself
3:44
was designed to be largely kind of
3:46
neutral and not very language dependent
3:49
so there was a Pianist maybe a song and
3:51
dance event though to be honest with you
3:53
I did find it a little bit draining and
3:55
isolating and I did feel that I was
3:57
actually missing out because one of the
3:59
things
4:00
that I realized makes cruising is the
4:02
upside of those informal chats sharing
4:05
experiences kind of meeting passengers
4:07
and actually kind of overhearing and
4:09
kind of listening to other people's
4:11
conversations you pick up so much stuff
4:13
at dinner English and German speakers
4:14
were never put together I only ever
4:17
ended up socializing in reality with the
4:18
English speakers but because most were
4:20
in that group they would kind of hang
4:22
out together so they were kind of like a
4:24
little bubble anyway I did sometimes
4:26
feel that I was missing out so for
4:28
example on a zodiac ride around the
4:31
cocer bay glacia in the Canadian Artic I
4:34
was the only English speaker on the
4:36
Zodiac uh there was about 10 people on
4:38
that so the driveing guide spoke I would
4:40
say probably 98% of the time in German
4:43
because people were asking her questions
4:45
they were discussing things amongst each
4:46
other and so I kind of got a little bit
4:49
left out I felt a little bit isolated
4:51
because kind of I knew there was so much
4:53
going on that I was missing out on
4:55
questions of people asking that I was
4:56
just was not really learning and being a
4:58
part of so it did over time get a little
5:02
bit training out on The Landings as well
5:04
because when we got to the shore they
5:06
had to repeat the briefing as we landed
5:08
in both languages then the guides that
5:11
you'd come across on the various Landing
5:12
sites would again have to explain things
5:14
in English and then in German now I was
5:16
actually traveling solo on this trip and
5:18
I did think that probably made me feel a
5:21
little bit more isolated than when I'm
5:23
on other lines as solo because I decided
5:26
that key learning if you're going on
5:28
hapag Lloyd or any foreign line is even
5:30
though they do things bilingual it would
5:31
have been a much better idea to go with
5:34
a traveling companion or even better
5:36
with a group of friends because then you
5:38
create your own kind of social
5:39
interaction many of those issues then
5:41
kind of float away I would say though
5:43
that despite all that haid didn't make
5:46
me as an English speaker feel like a
5:48
second class citizen or as an
5:50
afterthought I did feel that they tried
5:52
really hard to make me feel included to
5:54
make us English speakers feel welcome it
5:57
was more that over time the biling
5:59
lingual everything and missing out on
6:01
those informal interactions with guests
6:03
did make me feel I was kind of missing
6:04
out on a fuller cruising experience
6:07
however there was another thing that I
6:10
was really worried about before going
6:13
that I want to explain how that went
6:15
because it was rather different to what
6:17
I'd actually expected now haac lloid is
6:19
priced around the kind of Seaborn silver
6:22
sea Crystal Cruises levels and I was
6:24
really concerned if I would find that it
6:26
was really worth it all you know the
6:28
design the facility the program the
6:30
level of service the inclusions
6:32
particularly because I was worried that
6:35
like it's a very German Focus line so
6:36
would many of these things feel a little
6:38
bit foreign a little bit unfamiliar to
6:41
those of us like me that are used to
6:43
more American rooted lines now were
6:45
several things that I really want to
6:46
talk about that did in fact feel
6:48
different the first of these is the crew
6:51
there was a noticeable difference on Hab
6:53
B loid versus those other kind of more
6:55
American lines and pretty much in fact
6:57
any other line I've been on they had
6:59
mostly European and specifically German
7:01
crew in pretty much every single
7:05
passenger facing role although the cabin
7:07
STS and some of the bman and of course
7:09
much of the kind of sailors as they were
7:12
were from more traditional Cruise
7:14
countries Cruise crew countries but
7:16
overall it was mostly a European crew I
7:20
did find the service that was really
7:21
good and it actually wasn't what I'd
7:23
expected stereotypical German service to
7:26
be you know I thought it would be quite
7:29
for but it was more informal it was much
7:30
more jokey and I guess I just really
7:33
expected German service was going to be
7:35
kind of very formal and very kind of
7:36
reserved the second difference was it
7:39
was way more familyfriendly than any
7:42
Luxury Line that I've been on I know
7:44
they have a amazing family cavins on
7:47
Europa 2o these are kind of connected
7:50
cabins with bunk beds Toys lots of
7:52
family features and on my ship there
7:54
were multiple occupancy cabins some like
7:57
the large cabin that I stayed in had a
7:59
really separate bedroom lounge and then
8:01
a separate Lounge area with a surfer bed
8:03
for the kids they ran a really big
8:06
active Young Explorers program on this
8:08
strip with events in the day in the
8:10
ports and in the evening the third
8:13
difference was that I found that the
8:15
ship design was different now I've
8:17
already mentioned it's a small ship so I
8:19
knew there would of course not be lots
8:21
of venues and Facilities but it was in
8:24
fact comparable with any other kind of
8:25
luxury small ship lines you know it had
8:28
a large Lounge for talks and shows a bar
8:31
for uh kind of live music Lounge there's
8:34
the main dining room there's a buffet
8:36
restaurant a speciality restaurant
8:38
fitness center Spa small shop and of
8:41
course your pool deck with hot tubs the
8:43
big difference though was the look and
8:45
the decor it was more I guess
8:48
Scandinavian in feel the closest Cruise
8:50
Line I've been on is Viking which of
8:53
course is actually a Scandinavian
8:54
Baseline there was lots of light Woods
8:57
it was very modern very crisp design so
8:59
I think people who are more used to the
9:02
kind of the darker richer wood kind of
9:05
design tones of those us Focus lines
9:08
would actually find this quite a stark
9:09
difference for me it was I felt it was
9:11
very different to the feel of all those
9:14
other ships in kind of the comparable
9:16
luxury space I did though actually
9:18
really like this kind of fresh feel the
9:20
cabins though I think some people might
9:23
find them a little bit Stark a little
9:24
bit kind of harsh in many ways I didn't
9:27
they did also have a smoking room which
9:29
was called The Invisible Lounge which is
9:31
not something you find these days on
9:32
most lines that I'm used to and I know
9:35
that on Europa 2 they have an even
9:36
bigger smoking Lounge which I think is
9:38
called Collins now there is another
9:40
issue that I do need to talk about that
9:43
because this is another one that I was
9:44
worried about and this is actually in
9:46
fact the most asked about area that I
9:48
got from followers when I was away on
9:50
the cruise itself that was of course
9:52
about food now I know from the
9:55
experience of going on French lines like
9:57
Pont or across Europe that the the menus
9:59
and food on those lines are very French
10:02
focused so I was worried a little bit
10:04
whether it would be overly German on
10:06
Haag loid but I realized actually Beyond
10:08
The Stereotype of kind of sausages brat
10:10
first sauerkraut snitel pretzels black
10:14
forest cake and apple strudel I wasn't
10:16
really sure what it would actually mean
10:18
would it just be kind of that
10:20
stereotypical I actually found instead
10:22
that while there was of course some
10:23
German influence in the menu most days
10:25
you know there might be a sausage
10:26
station on the buffet one day we had a
10:29
sausage and beer deck party and so on
10:32
but the cuisine overall was much more
10:34
International and it actually was themed
10:36
to different regions on most days
10:37
Italian Spanish French Latin American
10:40
Japanese and so on I must say I was
10:43
really impressed with the food because
10:45
you know I don't think of Germany as
10:46
being kind of a a culinary center of the
10:49
world but the food was great the main
10:51
dining room was really good had really
10:53
attentive service the menu at dinner
10:56
would be quite an elaborate event you'd
10:59
have your moose boo you'd have a starter
11:01
a soup sbet main course you'd have
11:05
dessert or cheese it had items of the
11:07
day uh which were you know be different
11:09
every day and then they had Classics
11:11
like many Cru lines you know salmon that
11:13
kind of stuff every day they also have
11:16
special head restaurants on hyloid and
11:18
they differ between classic and the
11:20
Expedition ships now on htic inspiration
11:22
I had uh one which was called nikai it's
11:26
it's a really unusual Japanese Peruvian
11:28
crossover interesting food really good
11:30
again by the way beer and wine were
11:33
included at lunch and dinner and they
11:34
did have a very bizarre thing where they
11:37
charged for water ad meals which which I
11:39
believe is kind of a running issue that
11:41
Cruises have with hait I found it just
11:43
really kind of strange now in terms of
11:45
other inclusions it was more of a pay as
11:48
you go mindset which is kind of
11:50
different to what I'm used to so
11:52
including the fair was like for example
11:54
an hour of Internet each day but then I
11:56
could buy add-ons but it was by kind of
11:58
megabyte it wasn't kind of all you can
12:00
eat if you like all you can consume
12:02
Wi-Fi there was no drinks package it was
12:04
a charge per drink but there was almost
12:06
no upselling other on this trip I was on
12:09
the had a photo and video package which
12:10
cost like from € 345 upwards so that was
12:13
kind of quite a big item now before I
12:16
talk about the next issue I just want to
12:17
have a quick plug here if you're
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enjoying my content why not consider
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becoming a patron because you can get
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update videos while I'm on trips like
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this one that I did on hlid you get
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if I was I don't know learning German
13:00
and wanted to practice my German because
13:02
I can go on the same kind of itineries
13:05
on the classic cruises you know in the
13:07
Mediterranean Caribbean Alaska and so on
13:10
I can go on a line where I'm going to
13:11
feel a little bit less kind of at Sea as
13:13
it were on those itinery so very very
13:16
much itinery driven so my decision will
13:19
be heavily driven by itinery one of the
13:21
most telling things I guess was I really
13:23
want to go back to Antarctica and I
13:25
could find a similar itinery on hpid and
13:27
on Silver sea which includes South
13:29
Georgia but I booked silver SE over
13:32
Haack Lloyd just because I really felt I
13:35
would just be so much more immersed
13:37
because of the language thing but they
13:39
were impressive and if you want to push
13:41
yourself out of a comfort zone and you
13:43
have the budget I do think they are
13:46
really worth a try now if you want to
13:48
know much more by the way about cruising
13:50
Greenland that I did including the
13:52
incredible shock that I had on the first
13:54
day on my HP trip join me over in this
13:57
video where I talk about that
13:59
I hope I see you over there right now