Hapag-Lloyd Expedition Cruises: Antarctica.

Hapag-Lloyd has posted an English language video on cruising in Antarctica.

This is a beautiful, extensive video of the Antarctic area on clear days with terrific photography, which I very much enjoyed viewing. However, it does not show why one would want to take an Antarctic cruise with HL's Hanseatic or Bremen, as opposed to other luxury ships that go there (though I would hope the food and service is as good as on the E2, adjusted for an expedition of course).

Every time I seriously think about going to the Antarctic, people I know come back after expensively floating around on stormy seas in cloudy weather, seeing very little, and getting seasick (though I realize there are others who have been lucky and gotten terrific weather, this is probably one of the most weather-dependent cruise destinations, and from what I have read, the weather is often bad and then with little to see, or inability to Zodiak-land).

When DH and I cruised on the Silver Cloud late 2012 Buenos Aires to Valparaiso (Santiago), around Tierra Del Fuego, though we enjoyed the cruise, we had several stormy days that were so bad even many crew members were out sick, and the restaurants were quite empty, or people just ate bullion and toast (which was a shame, as there was a terrific chef) . I can't imagine going further south towards Antarctica, during weather like that, though I might consider going back to the southern tip of South America area on the E2 to see if I tolerate it, as a compromise (holiday cruise on the E2 EUX1800, Dec 12, 2017-January 6, 2018, Valparaiso-Buenos Aires)

This is a beautiful, extensive video of the Antarctic area on clear days with terrific photography, which I very much enjoyed viewing. However, it does not show why one would want to take an Antarctic cruise with HL's Hanseatic or Bremen, as opposed to other luxury ships that go there (though I would hope the food and service is as good as on the E2, adjusted for an expedition of course).

The Hanseatic has the advantage of being small at 8378 tonnes with a total passenger complement of 184, and having the highest passenger vessel ice classification.

It is also rated 5 stars by Douglas Ward.

Out of a maximum of 400:

He awards:

Hanseatic:

Food 348.

Service 346

Europa 2:

Food 373.

Service 360

I thought the food on Hanseatic was just as good as on Europa but of course with less choices.