TUI Cruises orders to STX Finland the construction of a cruise ship of 99.300 tsl



German crocieristica company TUI Cruises, joint venture constituted in April 2008 by German TUI and American Royal Caribbean Cruises, has transformed in order the option for a second new fixed cruise ship last year with navalmeccanica company STX Finland of group STX Europe ( on 27 September 2011). The announcement of the new order is communicated today in occasion of the ceremony of cut of the first sheet of the first ship, the Mein Schiff 3, that it will be launched in the autumn of the next year and will be delivered in May 2014.

The construction of the second ship, of 99.300 tons of tonnage, will be started in the ship yard of Turku the next summer and will be completed in April 2015. The unit will be long 294 meters, wide 36 meters, will have 1,250 cabins (of which external 90% and 82% equipped of balcony) and an ability to 2.500 passengers and 1,000 members of the crew.

"We are extremely pleased - he has declared the vice president and executive director of STX Finland, Jari Anttila - than TUI Cruises has confirmed the order of the twin unit of the magnificent cruise ship Mein Schiff 3. Today we have reached this goal with the start of the construction of the first ship after the execution of an intense phase of planning. After the beginning of this production, in the next few months the efforts will be increased remarkablly on this project in order to reach the maximum level before the summer of the next year".

The managing director of TUI Cruises, Richard J. Vogel, has remembered that Meyer Werft has constructed the two current ships of the fleet of the German company: the Mein Schiff 1, that it has entered to take part of the fleet of the German company in the spring of 2009, is constructed in 1996 and employed initially from the Celebrity Cruises of the group Royal Caribbean Cruises with the name Celebrity Galaxy, while the Mein Schiff 2, that it has entered to take part of the fleet of TUI Cruises in the spring of 2011, is constructed in 1997 and employed initially always from the Celebrity Cruises with the name Celebrity Mercury. "After to be by themselves four years in activity and to have place with success two ships on the market, the Mein Schiff the 1 and Mein Schiff 2 - it has found Vogel - we are proud to proceed with the construction of the first new ship and to continue with the increase of our fleet. In the past couple of years we have been a lot occupied with the planning, but now the things are indeed beginning to move".