Six months to the day ahead of the naming ceremony, Mein Schiff 5 was launched today at the Meyer Turku Oy shipyard. Following a construction period of 14 months, Ferdinand Strohmeier, Vice-President Operations TUI Cruises, was on hand for the so-called “floating” celebrations.
Together with Dr. Jan Meyer, head of the shipyard, and other members of the Mein Schiff 5 project team, he opened the bulkheads to flood the dry dock. The water flowed despite the bitter cold of -12 degrees Celsius. In the next few hours, the dock will fill with up to 300 million liters of seawater. Mein Schiff 5 will then be towed to the outfitting pier upstream from the shipyard where the interior and exterior areas will be fitted out over the coming months. “Although this is meanwhile TUI Cruises’ third new build – it is still a long way from becoming
routine. It’s always a great feeling the first time we see the ship afloat,” said Ferdinand Strohmeier.
TUI Cruises and the Meyer Turku shipyard had already provided a glimpse of construction progress on Mein Schiff 5 earlier this morning. A total of 1,500 employees are currently involved in the construction of the latest feel-good ship, and with 72 percent of the work complete, the shipyard is right on schedule. “Step by step the good work of our team is coming together and the ship starts to look like a ship. I'm confident that, once again, we will be able to deliver TUI Cruises a wonderful new cruise ship on the agreed schedule," said Dr. Jan Meyer.
Mein Schiff 5 to be named near Travemünde
On July 15, 2016 Mein Schiff 5 will be christened in Lübeck Bay. She will make her maiden voyage from July 16 to 24, 2016. This will take the youngest member of the fleet to the Baltic States: from Kiel she will sail across the Baltic Sea, calling at
Tallinn, St. Petersburg, Helsinki and Stockholm before returning to Kiel. During the 2016 summer season, Mein Schiff 5 will travel on a variety of routes in the Baltic to the Baltic States and in northern Europe around Norway, as well as in western Europe.
During the winter, the fifth well-being ship in the fleet will cruise in the Caribbean.
Facts and figures for Mein Schiff 5
Start of construction/steel cutting: November 18, 2014
Commissioning: July 15, 2016
Length > Width >Draught: 295 m > 36 m > 8 m
Size: 99,500 GT
No. of decks: 15
Flag: Malta
Crew complement: Approx. 1,000
No. of passengers: 2,534 (on a 2-bed basis)
No. of cabins: 1,267 in total (82% outside
cabins
No. of restaurants & bistros: 13
No. of bars & lounges: 14
