Much-ballyhooed luxury ship to sail from NYC, Miami

One of the most luxurious cruise ships to debut over the past decade will visit the USA for the first time in 2014.

Hapag-Lloyd Cruises on Tuesday announced the 516-passenger Europa 2 will make a maiden call in New York from Dec. 4 to 6, 2014 before setting sail on a Caribbean voyage that includes stops in St. Barts, St. John, Antigua, Antilles, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Curacao, and the Bahamas.

The line says Europa 2 then will dock in Miami for the first time on Dec. 20, 2014, where it will kick off a Christmas cruise to the Caribbean.

Billed as one of the most elegant and upscale cruise ships ever, the Europa 2 debuted in May in Europe and is spending its first year sailing around the continent and in Asia.

Hapag-Lloyd on Tuesday also revealed that Europa 2 will sail to South America for the first time during its 2014-2015 season with five voyages that can be combined for a full, 76-day circumnavigation of the continent. The ship also will sail its first short, four-night cruises in the Baltic and North Sea.

With a crew of 370, Europa 2 offers the highest staff to passenger ratio in the industry. Every cabin on the vessel is a suite, and its public areas include half a dozen gourmet restaurants. See photos of Europa 2's luxury suites, deck-top pool area, restaurants and lounges.

Long an iconic brand in Germany, Hapag-Lloyd until now has catered mostly to Germans, Austrians and other German speakers. But with Europa 2, Hapag-Lloyd is making a big push to broaden its appeal among North Americans and other English speakers -- and marketing to them much more heavily.

Europa 2 is the first Hapag-Lloyd ship that is fully bilingual. All on-board announcements, as well as signs and written material, are in English as well as German, and for the most part, the mostly German crew switches back-and-forth flawlessly between the two languages. The line also is offering shore tours in English in most ports, although fewer than the number it offers in German.

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