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quote:Originally posted by Rex:WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE CURRENT ONE? It's barely TEN YEARS OLD!!!!!
It's simply not a nice ship - by far not adequate for the product Hapag Lloyd is offering (and this was the case from the beginning on). Beside that, she actually had some severe engine problems this year.Of course, this new ship might not be a replacement but an addition to the fleet (if it's indeed for Hapag Lloyd).
quote:Originally posted by Ernst:It's simply not a nice ship - by far not adequate for the product Hapag Lloyd is offering (and this was the case from the beginning on). Beside that, she actually had some severe engine problems this year.Of course, this new ship might not be a replacement but an addition to the fleet (if it's indeed for Hapag Lloyd).
quote:Originally posted by Rex:Why does Berlitz give it 5+ stars then? Douglas Ward claims it near-perfect.
A cruise is more than the ship. And Europa is - even with this less than ideal hardware - hard to beat.Mind you, the ship is not (much) worse than some of her competitors - one simply would expect more of an 'Europa' - and that is definitely possible. The ship is simply is not up to the very high standard of the overall 'product'.
Beside that, I remember a documentary on German TV where they followed Mr. Ward aboard Europa - as far as I remember (it's many years ago) he was not too enthusiastic about the ship (hardware) either.
One could of course argue that in this segment the 'hardware' is less important. I actually have many friends who say that the new Europa is horrible compared to the predecessor (which in my opinion indeed had to be replaced) but that they enjoy having a balcony. However, I think that if one wants to achieve perfection one should also have a nice ship.
[ 10-05-2010: Message edited by: Ernst ]
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