TUI Cruises took delivery of the Mein Schiff 5 (above) from the Meyer Turku shipyard on 20th June, ten days ahead of schedule. Wybcke Meier and Frank Kuhlmann, CEO and CFO of TUI Cruises, together with Dr. Jan Meyer, CEO of Meyer Turku Oy shipyard, marked the occasion with invited guests at the handing-over ceremony. Steel cutting had commenced for the ship on 18th November 2014. On the afternoon of 21st June the 98,785gt ship departed for Kiel where she arrived two days later. As with the entire Mein Schiff fleet, the focus on the Mein Schiff 5 is on well-being and spaciousness. But there are plenty of new features to discover as well. For example the Japanese restaurant Hanami, by Tim Raue that offers a tempting menu created by the two-Michelin-starred chef from Berlin. In the ‘Schmankerl-Entspannt genießen’ restaurant, guests can enjoy Austrian specialties in a relaxing atmosphere. On Deck 14, the ‘Lagune‘, a further outdoor pool, invites passengers to take a dip whilst in the reception area on Deck 3, guests can enjoy a completely redesigned space with Thalia reading lounge and Nespresso Bar. Energy consumption is a further 4 percent lower than on sistership Mein Schiff 3. State-of-the-art technologies thus make the 2,794 passenger capacity Mein Schiff 5 one of the most energy-efficient ships in her class worldwide, plus she is of course fitted with an exhaust gas cleaning system (exhaust scrubbers). TUI Cruises then announced that the Mein Schiff 7 and Mein Schiff 8 will be renamed Mein Schiff 1 and Mein Schiff 2, once the current ships carrying those names have transferred to its Thomson brand. The announcement was made aboard TUI’s Mein Schiff 5 in Kiel, Germany. The original 76,998gt/1996 built Mein Schiff 1 and 77,302gt/1997 built Mein Schiff 2, will leave the fleet in 2018 and 2019, when they will assume the name TUI Discovery 3 and TUI Discovery 4 with Thomson Cruises. By the end of 2019, TUI Cruises will have six identical ships.

The TUI Discovery 2 (still sailing as the Legend of the Seas for Royal Caribbean at present) will home port in Malaga and the Canary Island of Tenerife when she joins the fleet in 2017. Following refurbishment, the 1,832-passenger ship will sail out of Malaga, Spain from May 2017. Ports of call include Barcelona, Valencia, Porto, Ibiza, and Marseille. The TUI Discovery 2 will reposition to Tenerife, Canary Island in September 2017, visiting ports in the Canaries, Madeira and Morocco.