Some notes on Hapag Lloyd's MS Europa

Since there isn’t really any information on the MS Europa here, I thought I would post some impressions from my recent cruise with them.

The ship is rather small (about 400 pax). Embarkation was a bit chaotic but took no more than 20 minutes from arrival at the harbour (Travemünde) to our cabin.

The cabins are spacious (27sqm). The furniture shows some wear and tear but is of good quality and still in good shape. Walk-in-wardrobe. Shower and bathtub in the bathrooms. Huge balcony with two loungers (one was added for us), two chairs, and a table.

We dined at Dieter Müller once, five times at Venezia, and the rest at Europa or the Lido. Dress code is jacket plus tie for about half the nights (Lido is casual). The food was great, only the Asian dishes (except the laksa) were a bit boring. And outside the Venezia, the pasta was a bit lackluster. Apart from that, some of the best meat and fish I have ever had.

They have a couple of bars (photo of the Sansibar below). Some of them allow smoking.

Entertainment is mostly geared towards the older (German) crowd, classical music, theater, comedians, and cabaret. And of course the lectures. The lecturer Wolfgang Peters was amazing.

The tours are reasonably priced and often visit places outside the official opening times (especially great e.g. in St. Peterburg).

The fitness center is small but very modern. Lots of loungers around the pool, half of which can be covered (so always a decently temperatured place to sit).

The spa with sauna and steam room is small but nice with acceptable prices (45 minute massage for 65 Euros).

Service was quite good which is always a positive surprise in Germany.

All food, tea, coffee, and ice-tea is included. Same goes for tips. Alcohol is very reasonably priced.

There were a couple of English speakers on bord but unless you plan to arrange your own tours or choose one of the bilingual cruises or go somewhere like Antarctica, I wouldn't necessarily recommend choosing Hapag Lloyd.

For those of you who can read German - I posted a huge review here.

Thank you for your recent posting about Europa. I am taking my wife and daughter to their Norway Fjord cruise later this month. We are looking forward. This will be my 5th time aboard and so far I have been extremely happy. I posted a review myself after an Asian cruise aboard Europa.

Hopefully this upcoming cruise will be just as good. I have always been impressed with the high quality service and food.

Sounds like we will just miss each other. We are getting back on on August 3rd for their UK garden cruise.

Hi, Cathaana, so glad to see interest in Hapag-Lloyd (and Europa) here! My husband and I did a fjords cruise (the itinerary was awesome MDR-Dan) last summer. It was our second trip on Europa (and I'll post a link to the review below). I will say we adored the first trip, thought that standards had slipped on our most recent voyage. Service was poor; it was one of its handful of English cruises and featured a tremendous classical program, but little of that was translated. We didn't do any shore ex because the ports were so easy to manage on our own (on our Middle East cruise, which also was an English-language sailing, we were the only pax who spoke it, and all the tours turned out to be in German. But because some of the ports were dicey we took 'em anyway).

Loved Dieter Muller, had one or two (went twice) of the best meals at sea in that restaurant! The smoking was a problem if you're sensitive; not allowed in restaurants but other places, like lounges and such, yeah, it was bad, like the serial cigar smoker in Sansibar who just ruined the environment for us. And yes, I'm sensitive. I thought a bigger problem was that the ship was dated. It was maintained nicely, but just not lovely. Less of an issue was the divide between German speaking pax and the handful of us (representing Hong Kong, Finland and the US); we don't always feel like we have to socialize a lot.

Heading out Friday to try Europa 2; curious if it's better at keeping up with the times -- we'll see.

Carolyn

Carolyn Spencer Brown

Editor in Chief

Cruise Critic

Link to last year's Europa review: http://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/review.cfm?ShipID=348

Since there isn’t really any information on the MS Europa here, I thought I would post some impressions from my recent cruise with them.

 

The ship is rather small (about 400 pax). Embarkation was a bit chaotic but took no more than 20 minutes from arrival at the harbour (Travemünde) to our cabin.

 

The cabins are spacious (27sqm). The furniture shows some wear and tear but is of good quality and still in good shape. Walk-in-wardrobe. Shower and bathtub in the bathrooms. Huge balcony with two loungers (one was added for us), two chairs, and a table.

 

We dined at Dieter Müller once, five times at Venezia, and the rest at Europa or the Lido. Dress code is jacket plus tie for about half the nights (Lido is casual). The food was great, only the Asian dishes (except the laksa) were a bit boring. And outside the Venezia, the pasta was a bit lackluster. Apart from that, some of the best meat and fish I have ever had.

They have a couple of bars (photo of the Sansibar below). Some of them allow smoking.

 

Entertainment is mostly geared towards the older (German) crowd, classical music, theater, comedians, and cabaret. And of course the lectures. The lecturer Wolfgang Peters was amazing.

The tours are reasonably priced and often visit places outside the official opening times (especially great e.g. in St. Peterburg).

The fitness center is small but very modern. Lots of loungers around the pool, half of which can be covered (so always a decently temperatured place to sit).

The spa with sauna and steam room is small but nice with acceptable prices (45 minute massage for 65 Euros).

 

Service was quite good which is always a positive surprise in Germany.

All food, tea, coffee, and ice-tea is included. Same goes for tips. Alcohol is very reasonably priced.

 

There were a couple of English speakers on bord but unless you plan to arrange your own tours or choose one of the bilingual cruises or go somewhere like Antarctica, I wouldn't necessarily recommend choosing Hapag Lloyd.

 

For those of you who can read German - I posted a huge review here.

We will be leaving on our next Europa cruise in 10 days. :D

I would have loved to book the Europa 2 but their Med cruises are not as interesting as the longer cruises on the other ships and are even more expensive. I am looking forward to hearing about your experience.

Safe travels, cataana. Hope you'll write a review when you're back....

Carolyn

We will be leaving on our next Europa cruise in 10 days. :D

I would have loved to book the Europa 2 but their Med cruises are not as interesting as the longer cruises on the other ships and are even more expensive. I am looking forward to hearing about your experience.

i am just back from another great but short cruise on ms europa - was my number 8

ok it is not cheap but there are a lot of niceties on board very rarely seen on other 5 starred lines now these days

welcome is with real french champagne - and a small bottle is in the suite as well - same on the parties no sparkling stuff announced as "champagne "

it is not all in but prices for wines are very reasonable and service extremely professional and polished

it is indeed another approach and formal is formal how it used to be .

breakfast is simply superb with all the cold cuts (6 or 7 ) , 2 bread cheeses and a full speciality cheese display i counted up to12 bread specialities - even better when it is a sailing day with "gourmet breakfast" steak tartare or gooseliver with orange or coppa ham with asparagus ? the choice is yours...yes for breakfast Duval Leroy champagne included

"dieter muller" is simply great - a real tasting menu of an european top class place

the venezia is also great and the menu change a few times during a cruise :)

It's a German ship marketed to Germans. So yes, smoking is allowed in bars and it can be impossible for those who are even slightly sensitive to smoke. I think everything about this ship is more German than Germany.

Observations from recent fjords cruise. Service not at all time high, but give them a break for having a new ship afloat. Comments heard from passengers and crew that they want nothing to do with Europa2. Cabins dated, but being refreshed (whatever that means). I did not notice wear and tear anywhere. Terribly dated, but I can see this group of passengers loving every bit of it. One out of the four dinners we had in the Italian place was not so good. Our neighboring table also noted poor food on same evening. Every other night was at least very good and on average, far superior to anything else we have experienced. In Bergen, the chef purchased king crab, fish and berries at local market and turned lunch into an unforgettable feast.

There are so many well engineered features built into this ship. It blows the mind to see it here and not on others. In fact, most are not visible to passengers.

Not recommended for non-smokers and social, English only speaking types.

I met the lovely international hostess Theresia during our last trip. You will be in good hands, should you choose to sail the Europa.

Service was not quite as good as the last time (but still very good). Quite a few of the experienced people left for Europa 2 and you noticed that some of the crew were new on the ship. On the other hand, our room steward, who boarded the same day as we did, was exceptional.

I also asked around about Europa 2 and the feedback was fairly mixed. Most reported that theystill had to 'find their way' a bit over there.

Our dinner at Dieter Müller was even better this time. Quite sensational actually. The menu was (sorry, only German):

Wachtel-Frühlingsrolle mit Erdnussmousse und Pflaumendip

Creme Brulee und Praline von der Gänseleber mit Rosmarinbrioche

Duo von Jakobsmuschel und Garnele mit Karottenstampf und Chilikokosfumet

Steinbuttfilet mit Melone, Kartoffelpüree und Safran-Zitrusfruchtsauce

Champagnercremesorbet

Gefülltes Paillard vom Rind mit getrüffelter Kartoffel-Roulade und Linsengemüse

Aprikosentarte mit Schokoladen-Cremeux, Aprikosenkompott und Mandeleis

unfortunately a few very good and experienced people left the ms europa for the "2" - very true

concerning the service : you must go to the very small details to find some items previously better

despite only 4 days the party was with - the one and only real - Champagne and canapes with gooseliver, caviar, lobster, salmon and othet niceties

also the gala menu was very top : including a sorbet served in a silver cup and topped with Champagne

other items for dinner : pasta with truffes and steak tartare made in the dining room and wiener schnitzel served in a white napkin

the display in the dining room for breakfast is great including cold roastbeef with tartar sauce and a full cheese table and high quality fruits.:)

OK there are no giant steaks or hamburgers as on 5 starred ships where some 90 % of the passengers is from the US .

It's a German ship marketed to Germans. So yes, smoking is allowed in bars and it can be impossible for those who are even slightly sensitive to smoke. I think everything about this ship is more German than Germany.

 

Observations from recent fjords cruise. Service not at all time high, but give them a break for having a new ship afloat. Comments heard from passengers and crew that they want nothing to do with Europa2. Cabins dated, but being refreshed (whatever that means). I did not notice wear and tear anywhere. Terribly dated, but I can see this group of passengers loving every bit of it. One out of the four dinners we had in the Italian place was not so good. Our neighboring table also noted poor food on same evening. Every other night was at least very good and on average, far superior to anything else we have experienced. In Bergen, the chef purchased king crab, fish and berries at local market and turned lunch into an unforgettable feast.

 

There are so many well engineered features built into this ship. It blows the mind to see it here and not on others. In fact, most are not visible to passengers.

 

Not recommended for non-smokers and social, English only speaking types.

smoking is now banned in full in the restaurant and in the speciality restaurants - only on open deck In Lido as "eating plave"

smoking is permitted in Sansibar and Cigar room and partly in Clipper Lounge.