TUI Cruises and Meyer Turku shipyard have jointly designed the New Mein Schiff 1 & 2 to be an evolution on the successful foundation of Mein Schiff 6, the company said in its press release. Today the construction of these ships is entering a next stage: The keel laying of New Mein Schiff 1 and the start of production of New Mein Schiff 2.
New Mein Schiff 1 & 2 will be longer with 315 meters compared to the 295 meters of the previous ships. This lengthening allowed for a substantial redesign giving the ships several new features and interesting spaces for guests to enjoy. Both ships will be 111 500 GT and house approximately 2894 passengers.
Both important milestones in ship building were executed with traditional ceremonies: CEO Wybcke Meier started the steel production of New Mein Schiff 2 by starting Meyer Turku’s plasma cutter. In the following keel laying ceremony, the traditional lucky coins were placed on top of the keel block. After the float out of the ship the coins will be gathered and then eventually placed into to the ship for good luck.
“The Mein Schiff series is very popular with its passengers. Still the already good ship design inspired our customer TUI Cruises and us to develop the Mein Schiff series further. New Mein Schiff 1 & 2 will be longer than the earlier ships and that allowed us together to reinvent the spaces inside the ship. Today is an important day as we are now starting to assemble the hull of Mein Schiff 1 – and our ideas and designs are taking physical shape. The fact that both New Mein Schiffs are in production is also a sign that we are increasing our production output according to our ramp-up plan”, CEO Jan Meyer comments.
Meyer Turku will deliver New Mein Schiff 1 in spring 2018 and New Mein Schiff 2 in 2019.