HAPAG Lloyd Cruises celebrated the next
stage in the creation of Europa 2 last week,
with the lifting of the ship’s first block into
drydock at the STX Europe shipyard in France.
The keel laying was replete with the traditional
coin ceremony, which saw Sebastian Ahrens,
MD of Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, and Laurent
Castaing, GM of STX France, each place a coin
in the block, to bring ‘luck’ to the vessel.
Concurrently with the start of drydock
construction, manufacture of the vessel’s suites
commenced in the shipyard’s cabin factory.
If all goes to plan, it is expected that the 516-
guest Europa 2 will launch in the
Northern hemisphere spring of 2013.
