Cruise Line Plans At-Sea Christening for New Ship

TUI Cruises set a June christening date onboard its new ship, Mein Schiff 7, now undergoing her final outfitting at the Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland. The cruise line also revealed who the ship’s godmother will be, and her identity confirms the brand’s commitment to green technologies.

Mein Schiff 7 Readies For June Debut in Germany 

TUI Cruises, a joint venture of the TUI Group and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., set June 22, 2024, as the christening date for the new-build Mein Schiff 7. The ceremony will be held at sea, as part of a 2-day christening cruise. 

The cruise will depart Kiel, Germany, on June 21, 2024, and sail in the Danish South Sea, also known as the South Sea Islands, an archipelago off southeast Denmark. Following the onboard naming ceremony, the ship will return to Kiel on June 23, 2024, the capital city of Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein state, where the annual Kiel Week festival will be underway.

Kiel Week is a major sailing regatta, with competitions, live music, food, and other entertainment. Guests will be able to enjoy the event after debarking the ship.

“After the christening of the Mein Schiff 4 in 2015, we consciously decided to have a christening in the Bay of Kiel again, because it is the perfect place to start wonderful journeys north and discover seventh heaven at sea. And this is exactly what we are inviting the guests of Mein Schiff 7 to do from June,” said Wybcke Meier, CEO of TUI Cruises.

Mein Schiff 7 was floated out of her construction bay in late 2023, and work on her final interior design was launched. In a nod to the ship’s environmental protection policies and systems, the cruise line named Fenia Kalachani, the environmental officer of the Mein Schiff fleet since 2022, as godmother.

Working with her environmental officer team, Kalachani is responsible for the implementation and compliance of all environmental regulations. 

The 111,500-gross ton Mein Schiff 7 is designed to use lower-emission marine diesel with a sulfur content of just 0.1%. Equipped with catalytic converters, the ship will achieve a reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions of about 75% vs. traditional fuels. 

The ship is also being fitted with a system that will enable it to eventually run on green methanol, a climate-friendly fuel that can be derived from renewable energies.

Moreover, the 2,900-guest ship will have the infrastructure for shoreside power connectivity, as well as a “HydroTreat” system that processes organic waste using thermal treatment.

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“As an environmental officer, I am pleased to be able to contribute to ensuring that our guests experience how seriously we take environmental protection and the responsible and sustainable use of resources on board,” said Fenia Kalachani, godmother and environmental officer of Mein Schiff 7.

“It is a particularly great honor for me that I am now the godmother for the Mein Schiff 7 – on behalf of the entire Mein Schiff crew. This sister ship of Mein Schiff 1 and Mein Schiff 2 is a good example of how innovative cruising can be in the area of environment and sustainability,” added Kalachani.

Ship Will Sail Northern Europe in Maiden Season

Mein Schiff 7‘s inaugural season will feature voyages in the Baltic region, and the Norwegian Fjords and Arctic Circle, calling at ports such as Stavanger, Eidfjord, Molde, North Cape, and Longyearbyen on Spitzbergen.

Like her sister ships, the new vessel will feature mostly ocean-view cabins, 12 restaurants and 17 lounges, a gym, sports courts and a climbing wall, a full spa, and an outdoor pool. A number of single cabins also will be available.

TUI Cruises has two more ships under construction. The 160,000-gross ton, LNG-powered Mein Schiff Relax and Mein Schiff 9 are being built at a Fincantieri shipyard in Italy. They are slated to launch in 2025 and 2026, respectively.