DESTINATIONS EXPEDITION CRUISE
LEFT, RIGHT AND BELOW: Artists’ impressions of Hapag-Lloyd’s Hanseatic Inspiration, Silversea’s converted Silver Cloud and Quark Expeditions’ World Explorer
ship Crystal Endeavor. Launching in 2019, it will feature six places to eat, two mini-subs, two helicopters, jet skis, kayaks, snorkels and diving equipment. Hapag-Lloyd Cruises’ new
Hanseatic Inspiration is a 230-passenger polar-class expedition ship launching in October 2019 to cater for German and English-speaking markets. It will have an aft marina for water sports and glass-floored balconies that extend either side of deck eight but that can also be retracted – a necessary feature as the ship will be cruising the Great Lakes in the US in summer 2019 and needs to pass through the waterways’ narrow locks. Coming up in 2018, US-based Lindblad Expeditions is launching the 100-passenger National Geographic Venture, while Quark Expeditions takes delivery of new ship World Explorer. Dutch company Oceanwide Expeditions
Penguins and polar bears put the poles on top of the wanted list when it comes to expedition cruising
and Australia’s Coral Expeditions and Aurora Expeditions will also have new ships in 2019. Aurora’s vessel, as yet unnamed, is being built using new X-BOW technology which enables the ship to pierce waves instead of riding them. The company says it will make crossing the Drake Passage between Ushuaia and Antarctica more comfortable. Seabourn’s Robin West says:
“Fear of the Drake puts many people off going to Antarctica
but they shouldn’t let it. It’s only a 36-hour crossing and even if the weather is rough, you immediately forget it the moment you set foot on Antarctica.”
w BETWEEN THE POLES The allure of walking among penguins in Antarctica and seeing polar bears in the Arctic have put the poles on top of the wanted list when it comes to expedition cruising, but there are plenty of other places waiting to be explored on a ship. Silversea, which now owns
three expedition vessels, has island-hopping cruises in the Galapagos and voyages in the Kimberley in northwestern Australia, where highlights include raging rapids and Zodiac cruises in search of salties – saltwater crocodiles to the uninitiated. It also has cruises along the
Central and South American coast and to the remote
Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, where sea eagles, walruses, hot springs and helicopter rides over volcanoes are among the draws. A fourth expedition ship, Silver
Cloud, joins the Silversea fleet in November. Launched in 1994 as a classic cruise ship, it is being converted into an ice-class vessel and will sail in Antarctica this winter and the Arctic in summer 2018. A Silver Cloud module is now available in the Silversea Academy training programme. There are also expedition cruises to the Falkland Islands and South Georgia, where visitors are rewarded with sightings of thousands of king penguins and millions of sea birds, and through the Northwest Passage, the Arctic seaway that connects Canada with Europe. One Ocean Expeditions has cruises around Canada’s wild east coast. Hapag-Lloyd Cruises sails the icy Northeast Passage across the top of Russia.
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travelweekly.co.uk 19 October 2017
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