The new cruise ship for Royal Caribbean International (USA), Spectrum of the Seas, will probably leave Papenburg on Tuesday, March 19 2019 to be conveyed on the river Ems to Eemshaven (Netherlands). The ship is planned to arrive in Eemshaven on Thursday morning. Later on the ship will go through several days of technical and nautical sea trials on the North Sea.
The Ems barrier will be helping Spectrum of the Seas to pass through the river Ems, a procedure which will be kept as short as possible.
Once again, a team of river pilots from Emden will be responsible for manoeuvring the ship to Eemshaven. The pilots on the river Ems also looked after the MEYER WERFT ships during their passage to the North Sea in previous years. The whole team trained the conveyance at the computerised simulator in Wageningen (Netherlands) to be better prepared for the task.
Spetrum of the Seas will proceed in reverse up the river Ems to the North Sea. This approach has proven successful in the past as it makes it easier to manoeuvre the ship. Two tugs will be providing assistance in the process.
The cruise ship with 169,300 GRT is one of the largest cruise ships to be built in Germany with capacity for about 4,284 passengers. After completing the technical and nautical sea trials on the North Sea, the ship will be handed over to the owners on April 19
Meanwhile, MEYER WERFT continues to work flat out on other ships: building dock II currently houses the Norwegian Encore which is scheduled to be completed in autumn 2019 for Norwegian Cruise Line (USA), while Spirit of Discovery gets completed in building dock I. The ship for Saga Cruises (UK) is scheduled to be delivered in summer 2019.