Generous space
Aside from the heaving dance floor, Europa 2 feels incredibly spacious. Not just in her suites and bathroom, but throughout the ship.
The ceilings are high, the reception area is vast, the outside seating area of Sansibar at the aft spans the width of the ship, and the pool is one you can actually swim laps in, something of a novelty at sea.
Europa 2 was launched in May 2013. Her sister ship, Europa, is aimed more squarely at the German market, has a traditional feel and is faithful to certain cruising rituals such as the captain’s dinner. But the more contemporary
Europa 2 has been built with an international audience in mind.
It’s also going after the first-time cruise market with its flexible approach. When I turn up for the lifeboat drill, the safety officer tells me it is the only mandatory thing I have to do. The rest is flexible, with no set meal times and even a late risers breakfast until 2pm in the Yacht Club.
Dining options
There is plenty of choice when it comes to eating and drinking - 35 varieties of gin, in fact, in the Herrenzimmer bar. The six restaurants include Weltmeere, the largest restaurant onboard, the open air Yacht Club, and speciality restaurants Tarragon (French), Elements (Asian), Serenissima (Italian) and Sakura (sushi).
The food is sublime in every venue. And although I eat incredibly well, the portion size is not ridiculous, and I avoid that permanently stuffed feeling that can be a feature of eating three meals a day on a ship.
Temptation though comes in the form of a daily waffle hour and every time I return to my suite, there’s a new “amuse bouche” for me to sample. So I head to the gym to burn a few calories.
The fitness class is mainly in German - one of the few times I feel the German bias of the ship. The only other time I feel out of my depth is when a letter written in German is delivered to my cabin and I have to take it to reception for a translation.
While all the menus and onboard announcements are English, not all the shore excursions are. But the typical Europa 2 passenger is pretty active and depending on the destination, guests often prefer to organise their own time on shore.
We call into Lesbos and Mytilene in Greece, where a good number of our fellow guests organise their own taxis and head off in search of traditional villages and long, lazy lunches. Our final stop, Kusadasi in Turkey, offers the well-preserved ancient city of Ephesus as a must-see, and most of Europa 2’s guests consider it so.
Latest technology
One has to wonder what the ancient civilizations would have made of modern cruise ships. But they would have appreciated the innovation behind Europa 2, one of the most technologically advanced.
It’s the first to be equipped with an SCR-catalytic converter, which reduces nitrogen oxide emissions by almost 95%. Her cutting-edge propulsion system is located under the main restaurant, but there’s no obvious vibration.
There’s also a lot of thoughtful design that is not so discernible. The whole ship is acclimatised with 100% fresh air - it’s not recycled. And the suites have been fitted with two air-conditioning systems operating at different pressures, so if it smells a bit whiffy in the toilet, that will not spread into the suite.
“It’s the combination of aesthetic appeal, technological expertise and intuitive service that makes it such a winning ship”
Some of the thoughtful touches merit a second look - like the artwork. On a ship’s tour with gallery exhibitor Jessica Bauer, pieces of art that I had casually glanced at before take on new significance. When I have dinner in
Weltmeere on my first night, I pass off the Kline and Kline framed pictures as impressionist-style paintings. On Bauer’s tour, she draws my attention to the fact that the pictures are collages, created using hundreds of scraps of postcards, cleverly pieced together for an overall effect.
“It invites you to have a closer look and work it out. The longer you look, the more you discover,” she says. These pictures, part of the biggest art collection at sea, are not for sale, but you can buy the artwork in the onboard gallery.
It’s this combination of aesthetic appeal, technological expertise and intuitive service that makes Europa 2 such a winning ship in my book.
And it’s while I’m on the bridge, watching us sail away from Lesbos, that I spot a copy of that other book - the Berlitz 2014 guide, when Europa 2 was also ranked top. It is clearly labelled as a bridge copy - I can’t see the captain or his crew giving up the guide or the top spot without a fight.
Book it: Hapag-Lloyd Cruises offers a seven-night Cultural radiance in the Aegean voyage, departing Piraeus (Athens) on October 3, 2015, from £3,140pp cruise-only, including full board on the ship, minibar in the suite and gratuities.
