Out of Africa, live from the Europa 2 Capetown-Capetown

[English Voyager]

Catlover54,

 

many thanks for your very evocative posts.

 

July cannot come quick enough for me to board the Europa 2!

[TLCOhio]

Appreciate so much, Catlover54, the great reporting and detailing for your sailing on this German ship, your various sights and experiences in and around South Africa, etc., etc.

 

Excellent camera work!! Really builds up our excitement as it is just over two weeks till we depart for Cape Town in doing our first visit to Africa in sailing on the Silversea Silver Cloud, plus Botswana, Victoria Falls, etc.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Enjoyed a 14-day, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure, getting a big sampling for the wonders of "down under” before and after this cruise. Go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

for more info and many pictures of these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 131,543 views for this posting.

[Nigella]

Catlover, thanks for replying to Ithaca on my thread on the SB board!

 

I was trying to follow your thread while I was on the SB Holiday cruise, and the internet was terrible. I read several posts but didn't have much success with the photos, so I'm going to read again.

[Catlover54]

A little follow-up about this cruise, which ended 1/3. I am quoting myself below, regarding the issue of the less than luxury and unsatisfactory Cape of Good Hope excursion we had on 1/2 (our only significant complaint to personnel about service the whole cruise):

 

". . . .

Day 15 (today, our last cruise day) was my birthday, (free French champagne from the E2) and we did an excursion sponsored by the E2 around the Cape of Good Hope on this beautiful weekend day. But the roads and destinations were packed with people and the hired bus arrangement was less than optimal (almost full bus, and only the people on the right could really see the views from the bus windows as we drove 2.5 hours in the morning, and then 2 hours in the afternoon). The guide would not stop to allow people on the left side, who were seeing almost nothing, to take pictures, because we had a busy agenda, many places to go (and Germans must be on time, so we were). At the end of the excursion, I submitted a verbal and then written complaint to E2 staff (my first and only one) that the excursion was misrepresented as a ‘scenic drive’, but to be scenic, one must actually see, and here most of the time we did not see. It will be interesting to see how they handle this, i.e., see what, if anything they do, (talk, comp, send a form letter, or ignore it). It was not a cheap tour. . . ."

 

1.

Bottomline is, to date, I have had no response from HL to my complaint, which I submitted both at the reception desk verbally (they had said they would "get back to me after checking with the excursion office") but also in writing on the written cruise review form. I am not going to pursue it, as it is not worth the time and aggravation for the $300 spent (and after all I did get SOME value from the bus transportation to the Point), and percentage-wise is only a small amount of the cruise fare. Plus, I tell myself we DID get the advance free upgrade to the PH suite, worth way more, though I do not think the lack of response is connected to that upgrade. So I got my money's worth on the cruise overall, and then some, despite that excursion, but a polite "we're sorry" letter would have been nice and good customer service. This was a relatively minor issue, but I have to wonder how they would have handled a more significant complaint (and, of course, compared with how other lines have handled some complaints I've had).

 

2. Oddly,

what I did receive two days ago is a form letter, in German, from HL, soliciting information regarding whether or not I like their website, and if so, why, and if not why not, and what kind of future cruises I might be interested in. The letter also asked for information about what magazines and newspapers I read (listing many German publications). So, it was a marketing survey. The letter was dated January 13, and said that people who complete and mail in the survey by December 31, 2015 would be entered into a lottery to win a free cruise (kind of hard to complete by 12/31/15 when it is not mailed until 1/13/16, but I sent it in anyway!)

I did not receive an English version of the letter (we are signed up on the HL site to receive communications in both English and German, so I can compare them side by side in what they offer, such as future discounts, and also to practice my cruising German )

 

None of the above is going to diminish my interest in going back to do another luxury cruise on HL (I'm still thinking about their food!), however, if I could just find a proper itinerary I like that works with my schedule and that isn't already sold out in the type of suite I want!

[Travelcat2]

I, too, enjoyed every word - every syllable of your review. However, as wonderful as the luxury experience may be, I cannot get past the language barrier. Perhaps this is because we spent several years going to a French resort where, although they spoke quite a bit of English, it was very obvious that it was a second language. Admittedly, they really tried to accommodate guests from many other countries - to the extent that they translated some things in four languages. IMO, a lot was lost in translation.

 

In any case, we will stick with luxury cruise lines where English is the primary language.

[English Voyager]

Catlover54,

 

for the sake of an e-mail to Hapag-Lloyd expressing disappointment at the lack of a response to your complaint ,what is there to lose?

 

My experience as regards customer service from Hapag-Lloyd in Hamburg has been an extremely good one.

[English Voyager]

Ah, the joys of tendering!

 

I feel queasy just watching this video.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Vi8PabYDkk

[Catlover54]

Ah, the joys of tendering!

 

I feel queasy just watching this video.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Vi8PabYDkk

 

I remember that day and our roller coaster "ee-hah, ride'em cowboy" tender ride very well, early in the cruise. Water splashed not just on the sides, but also on the roof of the tender. During our private tour in Luderitz when I saw the wind and waves picking up the way they were late afternoon I was pushing DH and the guide to cut the tour a little short and tender back, just in case the crew were to decide tendering would be too precarious and they would have to bus or otherwise transport pax to the next destination, Walvis Bay. I had read that at some ports cruiselines have had to do that, when seas pick up, and generally it is much more unpleasant than lounging in the suite with canapes and Bailey's after return. I was worried getting out that I would fall and land up with a hip fracture in need of Namibian medical care, but the experienced Filipino tender crew handled it brilliantly and all I got were multiple arm bruises from their firm grips which levitated me straight unto the E2 without any hint of slipping.

[vistaman]

i would not join on that tender in such a weather :eek: - not even for free Dom Pérignon

i notice similar circumstances on ms Europa years ago in La Rochelle - so i did not go ashore

i 'll be on ms Europa calling in Capri in fall and am NOT looking forward because the ship cannot use own tenders

Santorini is the same

[Catlover54]

DH was doing a little organizing and inadvertently broke the first two links to our photos - here's the full set corrected:

 

 

http://s1354.photobucket.com/user/randomguy60/slideshow/South%20Africa/South%20Africa%201

 

http://s1354.photobucket.com/user/randomguy60/slideshow/South%20Africa/South%20Africa%202

 

http://s1354.photobucket.com/user/randomguy60/slideshow/South%20Africa/South%20Africa%203

 

http://s1354.photobucket.com/user/randomguy60/slideshow/South%20Africa/South%20Africa%204

 

http://s1354.photobucket.com/user/randomguy60/slideshow/South%20Africa/South%20Africa%205

 

http://s1354.photobucket.com/user/randomguy60/slideshow/South%20Africa/South%20Africa%206

 

http://s1354.photobucket.com/user/randomguy60/slideshow/South%20Africa/South%20Africa%207

 

http://s1354.photobucket.com/user/randomguy60/slideshow/South%20Africa/South%20Africa%208