Four out of five Hapag-Lloyd Cruises’ vessels are either berthed in Hamburg or are heading towards the German port.
The expedition ship, ‘HANSEATIC nature’, was the first to arrive in Hamburg on 20th April. Her sistership, ‘HANSEATIC inspiration’, and the two luxury ships, ‘Europa’ and ‘Europa 2’, are expected to arrive in port on 2nd May and will remain there for the time being until they can start operating their schedules again, the company said.
The fifth vessel, ‘Bremen’ will remain off Auckland, New Zealand.
In addition, ‘HANSEATIC nature’ and ‘HANSEATIC inspiration’ will enter Blohm+Voss shipyard for repairs. ‘Europa 2’ will be berthed in Altona and ‘Europa’ will moor at the O’Swaldkai.
The last guests on board the cruise ships returned to port on 21st March. Hapag-Lloyd had brought around 1,000 pax home early from all over the world, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Charter flights were organised as scheduled flights had been cancelled.
Earlier, ‘HANSEATIC nature’ had picked up crew members from the ‘HANSEATIC inspiration’ and ‘Europa’ at Bridgetown, Barbados, to bring them back to Hamburg.
“We wanted to give as many crew members as we could the opportunity to return home as soon as possible. This posed a logistical challenge, due to the suspension of flights and the travel restrictions in place currently. Therefore, we took matters into our own hands for the return transport and transformed the journey of our ‘HANSEATIC nature’ into a ‘crew cruise’. So we are bringing our crew back to their families safe and well,” explained Karl Pojer, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises CEO.
