The Royal Caribbean and German tour operator joint venture Tui Cruises, ordered a new ship that will set sail in spring 2015. Tui Cruises operates two cruise ships named Mein Schiff One and Two, previously owned by Celebrity Cruises. The new cruise ship will be built at the Finnish shipyard STX, with gross tonnage of 99,300, capacity of 2,500 passengers and crew of 1,000 persons.
STX shipyard will star construction next year and the ship will be environmentally-friendly with a emphasis on ship’s energy efficiency.

STX chief operating officer Jari Anttila said: “We are extremely pleased that Tui Cruises confirmed the order of a sister ship for the magnificent Mein Schiff 3 cruise ship.
“We have reached this milestone of starting production of the first ship after a well-performed and intensive basic design phase. After this production starts, manning on this project will increase significantly during the coming months to reach the maximum level before summer next year.”

Tui Cruises CEO Richard Vogel said: "After being just four years in the business and after successfully putting two ships on the market - Mein Schiff 1 and Mein Schiff 2 - we are proud to proceed with building our first new ship and that way continue the growth of our fleet.
"We have been extremely busy with the planning over the past two years, but now things are really starting to move."