Cruise Ship Floated at STX Turku Shipyard

The float-out of Mein Schiff 3, an environmentally friendly cruise ship being built for TUI Cruises, was performed at STX Turku Shipyard on Friday, November 8, 2013. At the press conference held at STX Finland Oy’s Turku Shipyard earlier the same day, Richard J. Vogel, CEO of TUI Cruises and Jari Anttila, Deputy CEO of STX Finland Oy were pleased to speak about the important milestone Mein Schiff 3 project reached on that particular day.

One year ago, the start of production of newbuilding 1383 was celebrated at Turku Shipyard. Mein Schiff 3 is scheduled for delivery in spring 2014. Her sister ship NB 1384, Mein Schiff 4, is currently under production and she will be delivered one year after Mein Schiff 3. The building periods of these two ships are record-breaking tight. New building practices with high block outfitting ratio and modularization have been utilized more than ever. New innovative and efficient building concepts, such as the outer decks concept, have proved to be successful, the builder said.

Mein Shiff 3 and her sister ship Mein Shiff 4 are sophisticated and highly innovative GT 99,000 cruise ships. Once completed, these cruise ships will be approx. 295 meters long and approx. 36 meters wide. They will both have 1,253 staterooms (2,500 lower beds) and have a crew of 1,000. The cruise ships will have many environmentally friendly features. The combined system for treating exhaust gases minimizes sulphur, nitrogen oxide, fine dust and soot emissions. Compliance with the safe return to port requirement includes also additional passenger comfort features. Particular emphasis has been put on the ship’s energy efficiency. Therefore the ship consumes around 30% less energy compared to cruise ships of similar sizes.

Before the ship got water under her keel the very first time, the invited guests had an opportunity to visit at the bottom of the drydock and see the ship from a rare perspective. The float-out ceremony was witnessed by representatives of TUI Cruises and Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, STX Finland and the classification society Det Norske Veritas, as well as invited guests and members of the press.

"After this float-out, the work will continue very intensively with final installation of the various systems of the ship and interior outfitting. The ship will be ready for delivery to the customer in spring of 2014,” says Jari Anttila, Deputy CEO of STX Finland Oy.