''Mein Schiff 4'' (''My Ship 4'') is a

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "s ...

owned by

TUI Cruises TUI Cruises is a cruise line based in Germany. It was formed in 2007 as a joint venture between the German tourism company TUI AG and the American cruise line operator Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., both of whom hold a 50% stake in the company. Th ...

. Built by

Meyer Meyer may refer to: People *Meyer (surname), listing people so named * Meyer (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the name Companies * Meyer Burger, a Swiss mechanical engineering company * Meyer Corporation * Meyer Sound Labo ...

Turku Shipyard in

Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...

, Finland, she was floated out on 10 October 2014, delivered to TUI Cruises on 8 May 2015, and christened by former Olympic swimmer

Franziska van Almsick Franziska van Almsick (; born 5 April 1978) is a German swimmer. She won her first Olympic medals in 1992 at the Barcelona Olympic Games aged 14. Her career began at the SC Dynamo Berlin. She has the distinction of having the most career Olym ...

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...

, Germany, on 5 June 2015. For the most part, ''Mein Schiff 4'' is a copy of her sister ship, ''Mein Schiff 3''.

Service history

On 14 May 2015, ''Mein Schiff 4'' entered her first port,

, from where she was scheduled to operate a series of short inaugural cruises. She returned to Kiel on 5 June 2015. That afternoon and evening, TUI Cruises held a ceremony at Kiel's cruise terminal, to celebrate the ship's entry into service. Around 1,000 guests were present inside ''Mein Schiff 4''s theatre; an estimated 25,000 spectators watched the event from outside. At 9 pm, following performances by a number of singers, the ship's sponsor, Franziska van Almsick, was raised above the foreship, wearing a -long christening robe weighing and with a diameter of . Van Almsick then christened ''Mein Schiff 4'', by smashing a bottle of

Pommery Champagne Pommery is a Champagne house located in Reims. The house was founded as Pommery & Greno in 1858 by Alexandre Louis Pommery and Narcisse Greno with the primary business being wool trading. Under the guidance of Alexandre's widow, Lo ...

champagne against the ship's side. The ceremony later concluded with a late-night fireworks display, accompanied by an electro and house set from DJ Tanja La Croix. The following day, 6 June 2015, ''Mein Schiff 4'' departed from Kiel on her maiden voyage, to the eastern Baltic. She was home ported in Kiel for the 2015 summer season, and operate seven-day voyages to the Canary Islands, Morocco and Madeira during the winter.

References

{{TUI ships Cruise ships 2014 ships Ships built in Turku