Hapag-Lloyd Cruises

Hapag-Lloyd Cruises To Bid Farewell To The MS Columbus In May 2012

Hapag-Lloyd Cruises will be taking its premium

ship MS Colunbus out of the fleet one year earlier than planned, in May 2012, by mutual agreement with Conti, the Munich based group of companies and owner of the ship. All cruises offered up to May 2012 will be taking place on the

Columbus as scheduled.

The ship is to be replaced in Spring 2012 by her successor the Columbus 2, under a two-year charter with Oceania Cruises. The Columbus crew will transition over to the renamed vessel.

The successor ship, Oceania Cruises’ Insignia, 2 will be welcomed to the fleet in spring 2012 and offers a passenger capacity of 698 people. “The Columbus 2 is a modern ship. She provides more diversity and comfort at a very good price/performance ratio,

represents for us an economically attractive expansion of our capacity in the

premium segment,“ said Sebastian Ahrens, Managing Director of Hapag-Lloyd

Cruises.

The Columbus will be offering her world tour 2011/2012 as planned. At the end of

that voyage on May 7, 2012 in Nice, France, the ship will depart the Hapag-Lloyd

Cruises fleet. Only two published cruises following the world tour will be

cancelled. Hapag-Lloyd Cruises will be offering special deals for re-booking

onto the Columbus 2 for any customers who have already booked these two cruises.