Mein Schiff 1 launched at Meyer Turku shipyard

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Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä

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Published: 29 September 2017 29 September 2017

Mein Schiff 1, the next generation cruise ship for TUI Cruises, has taken another milestone with the completion of its assembly from giant blocks and its floating out from Meyer Turku’s dry dock for further interior outfitting before delivery. This marks another important step to bringing the many improvements that are coming with New Mein Schiff 1 & 2 to reality.

New Mein Schiff 1 is an evolution of the successful Mein Schiff 6. She will be 20 meters longer (315 m) than her predecessor, which allowed for substantial redesign and further improvement of the interior spaces. The delivery will be in spring 2018.

"With the new Mein Schiff 1, TUI Cruises creates a whole new ship generation in its fleet. She is based on our existing newbuilds, which we have again developed and supplemented with new attractions. We can now see these improvements come to life and cannot wait to show them to our passengers,” CEO of TUI Cruises, Wybcke Meier comments.

“So far we could only see the design developments of New Mein Schiff 1 in parts or in our computer renderings. But to see them in reality is always again fascinating. Even more exciting is that we are in parallel rebuilding and modernizing the shipyard with new recruitments and our investments. A concrete sign is the preparations for the erection of our new gantry crane. This complicated heavy lifting procedure will start right away after New Mein Schiff 1 has left the dock.”, notes Meyer Turku CEO Jan Meyer.

New Mein Schiff 1 is already a fifth ship (starting from Mein Schiff 3 in 2014) built by Meyer Turku shipyard for German TUI Cruises.

New Mein Schiff 1 will have her name giving in Hamburg on the 11th of May 2018 and begin operating shortly afterwards.

 

More than 230 cruise ship transits Panama Canal during the upcoming 2017-2018 season

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Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä

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Published: 28 September 2017 28 September 2017

The Panama Canal announced that it expects to receive approximately 235 cruise ship transits through the Panamax and Neopanamax Locks during the upcoming 2017-2018 cruise season. Beginning in October, this will be the first full cruise season to welcome vessels through the Expanded Canal.

“In addition to the existing locks, cruise lines now have the option to include the Expanded Canal as part of their itineraries,” said the Panama Canal’s international trade specialist Albano Aguilar. “This will open up additional scheduling and repositioning opportunities for the industry and its larger cruise vessels, and provide new and unique experiences for their passengers.”

In April 2017, Disney Cruise Line’s Disney Wonder became the first cruise ship to ever transit the Expanded Canal. This season it will transit again along with the Caribbean Princess, Carnival Freedom, Carnival Splendor and Norwegian Bliss. Together, the five ships will make a total of 20 transits, and 11 new cruise ships will transit either the Canal’s Panamax or Neopanamax Locks for the first time from the following lines: Princess Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, Carnival Cruise Line, Silversea Cruises, Viking Ocean Cruises, Lindblad and Ponant, with each ship making multiple transits.

Perhaps the most visible sign of the Expanded Canal's impact on the cruise segment this season will be the Norwegian Bliss, when it makes its repositioning transit through the waterway en route to the U.S. West Coast to begin its cruise season in Alaska. Currently under construction, the ship will hold up to 4,200 passengers once complete, and will become the largest capacity cruise vessel to ever transit the Canal.

As in previous years, the main cruise lines, such as Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line, will offer itineraries for complete and partial transits through the Panama Canal to add to their passengers’ experience. Smaller cruises, including the Wind Star and the expedition cruiser National Geographic Quest, will offer seven and eight-day itineraries, respectively, to the west coast of Central America.

The Panama Canal’s 2017-2018 cruise season begins October 2, 2017 with the partial transit of Princess Cruise' Island Princess on a roundtrip voyage to and from Los Angeles with stops along the West Coast of North and Central America.

 

Koncept Stockholm to design the interiors of Viking Line’s new vessel

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Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä

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Published: 28 September 2017 28 September 2017

Viking Line has ordered a new passenger vessel with delivery expected in 2020. It has now been disclosed that the new vessel, which will sail from Turku (Finland) via Åland to Stockholm, will have interiors designed by the Swedish architecture firm Koncept Stockholm. Koncept Stockholm previously did the interiors for the Stockholm hotel Haymarket by Scandic.

Viking Line is pioneering environmental advances in the Baltic Sea. In 2013, the world’s first large passenger vessel powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG) made its debut, in the form of Viking Grace. Since then, the Company has been planning for the next vessel powered by natural gas, the objective being to further reduce its environmental impact on this sensitive body of water. Viking Line’s new vessel will be delivered in 2020, and the task of designing the interiors has been awarded to the Swedish architecture firm Koncept Stockholm.

“The choice was between a number of highly respected architecture firms, and Koncept Stockholm stood out with its attractive combination of Scandinavian simplicity and playfulness. It is also important to Viking Line that the architects contribute to an appealing travel experience that works for cruise passengers, families with children, conference guests and the substantial cargo traffic between the two countries. This is a challenge that we foresee Koncept Stockholm handling with a sense of flair and great skill. We have also taken into consideration our international guests, who perhaps have never before experienced archipelago scenery like ours, by taking a further step in prioritising views of the sea and archipelagos,” says Jan Hanses, president and chief executive officer of Viking Line.

The architecture firm Koncept Stockholm has a group of ten people already working full-speed to create the cruise experience of the future. This work is being led by Niclas Makowsky and Ann Marie Ekroth, who previously headed other interior design projects such as Haymarket and Grand Central by Scandic as well as Copperhill Mountain Lodge in the Swedish resort of Åre.

“We are very proud to be chosen as architects and are now taking all our experience from exciting, successful projects for hotels, bars, spas and shops across the Nordic countries with us on board this passenger vessel. We want to enhance the experience of travelling through some of the world’s most beautiful archipelagos by offering a range of rich and varied experiences on board the vessel inspired by marine life and the Nordic world,” says Niclas Makowsky, from Koncept Stockholm.

Viking Line’s new vessel will be 218 metres in length with a gross registered tonnage of 63,000 tonnes and capacity for 2,800 passengers. The length of its cargo lanes will be 1,500 metres. The vessel is being built by Xiamen Shipbuilding Industry Co., Ltd in China and is a collaborative project in which the plan is to engage a number of Finnish and other European contractors.

Tallink Silja becomes first shipping company with MSC certificate

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Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä

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Published: 27 September 2017 27 September 2017

Kalle Id reporting from onboard the Silja Serenade

Tallink Silja Oy, the Finnish subsidiary of Tallink Grupp, the Estonian cruise ferry operator, revealed today that it has become the first shipping company in the world with a Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Chain of Custody certificate. Five ships in the Silja Line and Tallink fleets are certified: the Silja Serenade, Silja Symphony, Galaxy and Baltic Princess sailing between Finland and Sweden under the Silja Line brand, and the Silja Europa sailing between Finland and Estonia for the Tallink brand.

The cerfiticate proves that all shrimp and herring served onboard is from sustainable stock, caught by responsible methods, and that it can be traced back to origin. According to Heikki Härmä, the Head Chef of the Silja Serenade and Emmi Kokko, the Product Manager of Restaurant Services, the company has a long tradition of sourcing as much as possible of its fish from MSC certified or other sustainable sources (including removing items that cannot be acquired from sustainable sources from the menu), but now the availability of certified shrimp and herring – two of the most popular ingredients in cuisine onboard – has made it possible to guarantee that all shrimp and herring served onboard are certified, and the onboard staff is properly trained to ensure that the Chain of Custody is unbroken and traceable. Marika Nöjd, Tallink Silja's Communications Director, further noted that the company's passengers have requested MSC-certified fish and now Tallink Silja is able to demonstrate that it answers this demand.