TUI newbuild will sail two short voyages to enable line to gain passenger feedback about the ship
By
Rebecca Gibson |
TUI Cruises is to offer two additional sailings onboard Mein Schiff 4 before her official christening in Germany on 5 June.
The 2,506-passenger newbuild, which has been under construction at the Meyer Turku yard in Finland yard since May 2013, left the building dock on 11 October 2014 and is due to be delivered ahead of schedule.
Mein Schiff 4 will sail a new ‘test cruise’ between 22-25 May, taking guests from the German port of Hamburg to Kiel via Copenhagen in Denmark. The cruise will be open to customers who sailed with TUI in 2013 and 2014, or those who have sailed at least twice with line. In addition, a team from TUI’s shoreside office will board the ship to take passenger feedback.
A second ‘preview cruise’ is scheduled to depart Kiel on 26 May and take the ship back to Hamburg for 31 May. The cruise is open to anyone and will provide TUI with the chance to gather additional passenger feedback before the ship’s official launch.
Following this, Mein Schiff 4 will become the first TUI ship to be named in Kiel, Germany, on 5 June. Departing the port, the 995,000gt ship will sail her official maiden roundtrip from 6-14 June calling at various ports in the Baltic Sea including Tallinn, Estonia; St Petersburg, Russia; Helsinki, Finland; and Stockholm, Sweden. From 14-18 June, she will offer another short cruise from Kiel to the Norwegian port of Oslo and the Danish port of Copenhagen.
In summer 2015, Mein Schiff 4 will sail a variety of Baltic Sea itineraries, which also include port calls in Northern Europe and Norway, before embarking on seven-day voyages to the Canary Islands, Morocco and Maderia during the winter cruise season.