Tag Archives: Jan Meyer

Royal Caribbean Group’s Executives Get a Preview of Silver Nova

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Royal Caribbean Group President and CEO Jason Liberty, Chairman Richard Fain and Silversea’s President Barbara Muckermann enjoyed an exclusive preview of the Silver Nova.

Royal Caribbean Group’s executives were welcomed by Meyer Werft Managing Directors Jan and Bernard Meyer and enjoyed a detailed tour of the ship. 

“Innovation drives our mission to provide the best vacations, responsibly, and Silver Nova embodies this commitment in every way. This stunning ship revolutionizes ultra-luxury cruising and represents an important step on our sustainability journey,” said Jason Liberty, president and CEO of Royal Caribbean Group. “I would like to officially thank and congratulate the Meyer family, and the talented teams at Meyer Werft, Royal Caribbean Group, and Silversea for pushing industry boundaries to create such a pioneering ship.”

 “Silver Nova embodies the vision of our brand and the evolution of our fleet, demonstrating the extent to which our guests are benefitting from our brand being part of Royal Caribbean Group,” said Barbara Muckermann, president of Silversea. “Silver Nova introduces an industry-leading approach to sustainability, an unprecedented openness to the world, and an entirely new take on luxury at sea. She is a beauty and I can’t wait to personally greet our guests on board, introducing them to the future of ultra-luxury cruise travel.”

The Silver Nova will set sail on its maiden voyage on August 14, sailing roundtrip from Fusina (Venice). After a series of Mediterranean cruises, the new ship will cross the Atlantic to the United States of America to offer Caribbean and Central America voyages.

On January 4, 2024, the Silver Nova will depart on the 71-day Grand Voyage South America.

Mein Schiff 2 Floats Out at Meyer Turku

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Mein Schiff 2

The Mein Schiff 2 touched water for the first time today at the Meyer Werft shipyard ahead of her 2019 delivery.

Delivery is set for spring 2019, and Meyer Turku said in a statement that the “timetable for the construction of the ship shows how Turku shipyard has already been ramping up the production volume to meet the increasing demands from the order book.”

“Our block production capacity is already up on the level with a previous high from 2010, when the shipyard was building Allure of the Seas. Ramping up the production at the same time as we are implementing an investment program of 200 million euros has not been a simple task. Still, as the saying at the shipyard says, if it was simple, anybody could do it and that would not be good either,” said CEO Jan Meyer, in a written statement.

The float out of New Mein Schiff 2 marks the beginning of the final stage of the ship’s construction. After the weekend she will be berthed at the outfitting pier of the shipyard, where she will be finalized for delivery.

“Our new Mein Schiff 1 has successfully completed her first cruises and has been very well received by our guests. Our new generation of ships meets our expectations completely. We are looking very much forward to taking with new Mein Schiff 2 a sister ship into service very soon,” added Wybcke Meier, CEO of TUI Cruises

Meyer Turku Expanding and Hiring

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Mein Schiff 2 at Meyer Turku

With an order book stretching into 2024, Finnish shipyard Meyer Turku is investing €200 million in infrastructure improvements, new technologies, an expanded design team, and a sustained staffing ramp up for at least the next five years, a company spokesman said Wednesday.

A new 120-meter crane looms over the shipbuilder’s drydock, where crews are assembling TUI Cruises’ Mein Schiff 2 ahead of a 2019 delivery.

When the big blue crane goes online this summer, it will be able to lift 1,200 tons — twice that of the yard’s current lifter.

Pieces of Costa’s Smeralda sit in open-sided warehouses within earshot of construction for new steel cutting lines. Half of a 500-meter hall is ripped apart while the new technology is installed.

Crews in blue coveralls craft steel sheets for Smeralda’s superstructure in the other side of the hall. When the plasma-cutting robots are ready the crews will move over and this side will be ripped up. There’s a joke around the yard that shipbuilding has gotten much easier: Robots do all the work while people are simply there to make them comfortable.

That’s far from true, of course. There’s plenty of people work to be done. There were some grumbles when the machines took over obvious jobs — ten men sandblasting is now two pushing buttons to start and stop their mechanical colleagues — but most humans are being retrained for other, more engaging work. Furthermore, Meyer Turku is on a hiring tear, looking to grow their in-house staff of around 1,900 to 4,000, said Tapani Mylly, the yard’s communications manager. It’s not an easy task as the working language at Meyer Turku is Finnish, one of the world’s less common tongues.

Mein Schiff 2 at Meyer Turku

German shipbuilder Meyer Werft bought the facility from struggling Korean-owner STX Finland in 2014, acquiring 100 percent ownership a year later. With seven generations of shipbuilding know how the Meyer family has turned Turku’s fortune’s around considerably. “The previous owner was not interested in making investments,” Mylly said. “A family-owned company is able to make decisions very fast — around the breakfast table. … When decisions need to be made there is no need to contact Korea.”

The yard is also adding steel treatment facilities, more panel lines and storage areas, further IT and automation, and enhanced in-house design capabilities to reduce reliance on subcontractors. That said, about 800 subcontractor companies work on each ship — so many that the city of Turku is considering zoning an industrial park outside the shipyard for them.

If it’s built, Meyer Turku CEO Jan Meyer would see his subcontractors each day when bicycling into work from the city centre.