By
Rebecca Gibson |
TUI Cruises took delivery of its latest newbuild, Mein Schiff 4, at the Meyer Turku yard in Finland on 8 May.
The 99,50gt ship is the first to have been delivered by the yard since it was fully acquired by German shipbuilding company Meyer Werft.
“I want to warmly thank the shipbuilders of Meyer Turku, our subcontractors and the shipowner TUI Cruises for the great cooperation that has enabled us to create this sophisticated cruise ship, which is comparable to a complex travelling city,” said Jan Meyer, CO of Meyer Turku. “Now that Turku yard is a 100% family-owned company this makes me even more proud. Our passion for shipbuilding drives us to success with a long-term view.”
Engineers began constructing Mein Schiff 4 in 2013 and laid the keel in February 2014, before the ship was floated out of her building dock in October 2014. The 294m ship has 1,253 cabins, 90% of which are outside and 82% of which have private balconies. The ship has multiple cabins categories, as well as two-deck sea-and-sky suites, which each have a private 29sqm roof terrace.
Like the rest of the Mein Schiff fleet, the newbuild features environmentally friendly technology, such as a combined exhaust gas treatment system consisting of a scrubber and a catalyser, enabling her to consume around 30% less energy compared to cruise ships of similar sizes. In addition, sulphur emissions are lowered by as much as ((%, while nitrogen oxide emissions are reduced by around 75%.
“Our expansion is advancing in leaps and bounds thanks to the perfect coordination between the shipyard, our construction team and all of the companies involved,” said Wybcke Meier, CEO of TUI Cruises. “We are highly satisfied and delighted at this new addition to our fleet.”
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. A second ‘preview cruise’ is scheduled to depart Kiel on 26 May and take the ship back to Hamburg for 31 May.
Following this, Mein Schiff 4 will become the first TUI ship to be named in Kiel, Germany, on 5 June 2015. Departing the German port, the 995,000gt ship will sail her 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 then sail another short cruise from Kiel to the Norwegian port of Oslo and the Danish port of Copenhagen.
In summer 2015, Mein Schiff 4 will offer 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.
Meyer Turku began construction work on Mein Schiff 5 this February and is due to lay the first keel block in June, which will also signal the start of the Mein Schiff 6 project. Mein Schiff 5 is due to float out of her building dock by the end of 2015 and will be delivered to TUI in summer 2016.