| Hapag-Lloyd’s 88 maiden calls

NEW Zealand’s Great Barrier Island is among
the 88 new ports of call for Hapag-Lloyd
throughout the 2013-14 season.
Bremen will make 48 maiden calls, including
three nights at Russian Federation’s Wrangel
Island (30 July-02 August 2013), a UNESCO
World Heritage Site that is home to more plant
species than any other Arctic island.
The full cruise, round-trip cruise from Nome,
Alaska, also visits the Chukchi Peninsula’s
Prowidenija, Janrakynnot, Lorino, Kolyuchinskaya
Bay, Kolyuchin Island and Cape Vankarem.
In October 2013 Bremen will call for the first
time at Cape Verde, an archipelago of 10
islands in the central Atlantic Ocean, off the
coast of West Africa, as well as Santiago, Chile.
Hanseatic is also scheduled to visit Cape
Verde in autumn 2013, plus another 39
maiden ports of call.
Highlights include a Asian politics-themed
cruise from Kanazawa to Manila in the
Philippines and an arts and architecture
voyage to the UK.
Hapag-Lloyd also has plans for two semicircumnavigations
of Antarctica and two
cruises through the Northwest Passage.
The company will be hoping to attract
families to its two ‘Cruises for Young Discoverers’,
aimed at children aged from 10 to 17.
Meanwhile, its new 698-passenger ship is
due to debut in one week.
The German line is chartering Oceania
Cruises’ 1998-built Insignia for two years and
will rename it Columbus 2.
Columbus 2’s first cruise is scheduled to depart
from Palma de Mallorca on 16 April and will
sail to Malta via Formentera, Ibiza and Menorca.