When you step onto a ship for the first time and simply gasp with joy, you know you’ve found something special. Sue Bryant reports from Hapag-Lloyd’s new expedition ship, Hanseatic Inspiration.

Everything I touch on Hanseatic Inspiration is finished in natural stone, bleached wood and soft leather, in a colour palette of ice white, cream, stone, soft greens and sky blues.

In every stairwell, a fissure splits the wall vertically from top to bottom, jagged like rock, glowing a fiery yellow from within. The motif on the cream and blue carpets throughout resembles fractured ice. The 230-passenger ship’s mantra is ‘Inspired by Nature’ and this is apparent everywhere.

Hanseatic Inspiration is the second of three expedition ships being built by Hapag-Lloyd. It’s aimed at an international, as opposed to solely German-speaking audience, with everything in dual languages for the currently small number of passengers coming from the US, Canada, Australia and the UK.

The fact is, in shipping circles, Hapag-Lloyd is better known as a cargo line, but its goal is to achieve up to 15 per cent international guests on this new ship.

The line’s international sales manager Michael Steffl says: “We still have to tell our international markets and partners that we’re not only the orange container guys.

“I really want to achieve 10 to 15 per cent international guests overall. It’s a fact that we have low brand awareness, although we do well in the group business with companies like Noble Caledonia.

“We are trying to develop our brand with key partners and sales partners. We want people to know that there is an alternative. We’re the hidden gem in the expedition cruise market. We’ve had customer events in the UK, including one in an ice bar in London, and a day visit to Europa 2.”

Education at sea

Hanseatic Inspiration manages to combine the features of a serious expedition ship – a fleet of 17 zodiac inflatables for exploring, a hull built to the highest possible ice class standard – with unfettered luxury.

In some spaces, it feels more like a luxurious cruise ship, especially on deck 8, where there’s a deep pool surrounded by squashy loungers, hot tubs and acres of teak decking. Or in the four Grand Suites, in which a free-standing bath faces a whole wall of glass.

Hapag-Lloyd has also shunned gimmicks like submarines and helicopters embraced by its rivals, but has nonetheless come up with some nifty features. On deck 8, two glass-floored balconies can be extended over the water, so you feel as though you’re gliding above the ocean.

I gingerly step out onto one, admittedly only on the Elbe river as we sail out of Hamburg, and the sensation is strangely liberating. I imagine in some remote, frozen landscape, the views will be incredible.

Aft on Deck 8, the Ocean Academy is a futuristic educational space. Images and text float around a giant touchscreen the length of one wall.

Zoom in on one and the story of great explorers like Nansen or Amundsen pop up. Another screen gives fun, interactive demos of plate tectonics, ocean currents and weather systems. Seven Leica microscopes are available to examine anything from polar bear hairs to glittering grains of sand.

Regular lectures take place in the Hanse Atrium Lounge, the heart of the ship. Here, three floor-to-ceiling LED screens display more than 20 dazzling scenes from nature in high definition.

One day, I walk in to see Arctic terns flitting around blue-white icebergs. The next day, it’s aquamarine sea and a white sand beach. Birds fly overhead, projected onto a long, backlit panel set into the ceiling, while columns resemble the crystalline texture of ice.

Culinary excellence

The 120 cabins are exquisitely beautiful, all white, cream, pale grey and ice blue, with a bed so comfortable I feel as though I’m floating on a cloud.

There’s masses of storage and all sorts of extra touches: organic bathroom goodies in biodegradable bottles, a Nespresso machine, a minibar stacked with free soft drinks, an expedition rucksack, a heated wall for drying soggy gear, walking poles, a pair of Leica binoculars (sadly not to keep, as they retail at around £1,500), and a welcome bottle of champagne.

Hanseatic Inspiration has three restaurants. The Lido serves buffet food for breakfast, lunch and dinner and has 110 outside seats. Everything is dainty and beautifully presented; no canteen food here. The ice cream section alone has me drooling over the toppings, from crushed pistachios to salted caramel sauce.

The Hanseatic Restaurant is another lovely space, in shades of cream, lime and moss green, seating areas divided by white lattice screens.

The effect is supposed to be that of sunlight filtering through a forest canopy – and it works. Nikkei, to me personally, is more of a miss than a hit, as its Japanese-Peruvian fusion menu isn’t geared up to vegetarians, but I heard good reports of its beef tataki and tuna yakitori from my meat-eating friends.

To work all this off, there’s a decent-sized gym and yoga studio, again, with walls of glass so you never miss a view. Opposite the gym, the Ocean Spa offers treatments using all-organic products.

The space is exquisitely designed, with natural textures: a smoothly curved wooden reception desk, tiles in stone and mother-of-pearl and, strangely, wall panels lined with hay, which look suspiciously like chipboard to me. There’s a huge sauna, again, with a wall of glass, and a steam room.

Not everything is perfect. Outdoor heaters are used on the pool deck, which seems to contradict the eco-friendly ethos. Also, drinks aren’t included. But these are small niggles. Hanseatic Inspiration provides the excitement of a proper expedition with some extremely luxurious trappings.

16-night Antarctica expedition, departing Ushuaia on 1 December 2020, from £12,426pp including return flights from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia, international flights extra, hl-cruises.com