| IMO | 9753208 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 98,811 GT |
| Length | 295.0 m |
| Beam | 36.2 m |
| Passenger capacity (max) | 2534 |
| Service speed | 21.7 knots |
| Builder | Meyer Turku |
| Yard | Perno shipyard |
| Hull number | 1390 |
| Launched | 2017 |
| Maiden voyage | 2017-06-03 |
| Operator | TUI Cruises |
| Status | Active |
Overview
Mein Schiff 6 is a cruise ship of TUI Cruises, the German joint venture between TUI and Royal Caribbean, built by Meyer Turku in Finland and delivered in May 2017. She is the fourth ship of the near-identical series that began with Mein Schiff 3 in 2014 — the first newbuild design created for the brand — and she is, by TUI Cruises' own description, similar to Mein Schiff 3, 4 and 5 with only minor differences. At about 99,500 GT on the dataset's figures and carrying 2,534 passengers, she embodies the German market's answer to the contemporary large cruise ship: full-scale in facilities, but marketed on calm, space, inclusive fares and a wellness-led onboard culture rather than on spectacle. She sails under the Maltese flag with registry at Valletta.
Key specifications
The dataset records Mein Schiff 6 at 99,500 GT, 295.0 metres long and 36.2 metres in beam, with a maximum passenger capacity of 2,534, a service speed of 21.7 knots, built by Meyer Turku at the Perno yard as hull number 1390, IMO number 9753208. The classification register figures differ in detail: DNV records 98,811 GT and a length of 295.26 metres. Her machinery is diesel-electric, with Wärtsilä engines totalling 48 MW installed power driving twin shafts with fixed-pitch propellers, three bow thrusters and two stern thrusters; her draught is 8.25 metres. Crew numbers about 1,030 on published figures. The dataset's maiden-voyage date, 12 May 2017, is her official in-service date following delivery; her naming ceremony took place on 1 June 2017 and her maiden cruise in the commercial sense followed in June, a distinction explained below.
Design and construction
Mein Schiff 6 was ordered on 26 August 2014, as part of the follow-on orders that extended the Mein Schiff 3 design into a four-ship series. The keel was laid at Meyer Turku's Perno yard on 21 August 2015, the ship was floated out on 3 January 2017, and she was completed on 8 May 2017 and delivered to TUI Cruises on 9 May. Building four near-sisters in four years at one yard let the design mature incrementally: each ship incorporated small arrangement changes from its predecessor while keeping the class's defining architecture — a broad stern with a large diamond-shaped glass facade, long pool decks, an unusually generous share of balcony cabins, and interiors styled in the restrained, design-hotel idiom that the brand used to distinguish itself in the German market. Construction proceeded without the delays that afflicted the yard's work for some other owners in the same period, and the ship was handed over on schedule in May 2017.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
TUI Cruises names its ships by number rather than by romantic title — Mein Schiff ("my ship") plus a sequence number — a piece of branding aimed at the German market's preference for the unpretentious; the numbers also quietly assert continuity, each ship presented as the latest version of the same idea. Mein Schiff 6 entered service on 12 May 2017, the date the dataset records as her maiden voyage, and was christened on 1 June 2017 at Hamburg, the port city most associated with German cruising, before her first full cruise programme began. She was floated out at Turku on 3 January 2017, in the Finnish winter, in the straightforward industrial manner of the yard's deliveries; the ceremonial weight of the class's introductions has always sat at the German naming ceremony rather than at the launch.
Career by operator
The ship has carried one name for one operator throughout:
| Period | Name | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| 2017–present | Mein Schiff 6 | TUI Cruises |
Her career has followed the TUI Cruises pattern of seasonal deployment for the German-speaking market, rotating between northern and southern programmes as the fleet's schedule requires, and she remained with the brand through the pandemic suspension and the industry's return to service. She is one of the four Mein Schiff 3-series ships around which the fleet was built in the 2010s, before the brand moved on to the larger Mein Schiff 7 and the subsequent InTUItion class. No renaming, charter to another operator or change of flag has occurred; the dataset's single-line operator history reflects a settled, single-brand career.
Onboard character
The onboard character of the Mein Schiff 3 series is defined by space and quiet rather than attractions. The design gives an unusually high proportion of its volume to open deck — including a 25-metre outdoor pool and broad sun terraces — to a large spa and wellness complex, and to balcony cabins, which dominate the accommodation. The diamond-shaped glass structure at the stern, housing a concert and event space, is the class's visual signature from astern. Dining is organised around inclusive, waiter-served and buffet restaurants without the formality of fixed sittings, matching TUI Cruises' "premium all-inclusive" concept, and entertainment is pitched at an adult, German-speaking audience — theatre, live music and lectures rather than headline thrill attractions. Mein Schiff 6, as the fourth iteration, presents this formula in its most settled form: nothing about the ship was experimental by 2017, and that was the point.
Major refits and incidents
The ship's article records one notable incident. On 28 September 2020, during the pandemic-era restart of cruising, twelve crew members of Mein Schiff 6 were initially reported to have tested positive for COVID-19 in routine sampling while the ship was sailing a Greek islands programme between Heraklion, Piraeus and Corfu. The ship continued to Piraeus for further investigation; the following morning all twelve crew members retested negative, indicating the original results had almost certainly been a false alarm, and by 2 October the ship had been cleared to continue to Corfu. The episode became a minor landmark of the restart era — an early test, passed in public, of the testing protocols on which the industry's return depended. No structural casualty or major refit is recorded for the ship in the sources consulted; her maintenance has followed the normal drydock cycle.
Sister ships and class
Mein Schiff 6 belongs to the four-ship series built by Meyer Turku to the Mein Schiff 3 design: Mein Schiff 3 (2014, built under STX Finland before the Meyer takeover of the yard), Mein Schiff 4 (2015), Mein Schiff 5 (2016) and Mein Schiff 6 (2017). The dataset leaves her class field blank; the ships are nonetheless a documented class in all but name, sharing hull form, tonnage, capacity and general arrangement with only minor differences between units. They should not be confused with the later Mein Schiff 1 and 2 of 2018–19, which are a larger, different design despite the numbering, or with the still later InTUItion class. Within the series, Mein Schiff 6 is the final and most refined example of the design that established TUI Cruises as a newbuilding brand.
Fate and where she is now
Mein Schiff 6 remains in active service with TUI Cruises, listed as operating in the dataset, as one of the core ships of the German fleet. Not yet a decade old, she is in early mid-career, with no change of role on the horizon; the brand has grown around and beyond her with larger new ships, but the four Mein Schiff 3-series vessels remain the fleet's foundation. For this directory she represents the German school of modern cruise-ship design at its most characteristic: a 100,000-ton ship whose selling points are deck space, quiet, wellness and inclusive dining — the anti-megaship megaship — delivered on time by Turku in the spring of 2017.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cruise_ships; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mein_Schiff_6