Super luxury passenger cruiser MV Mein Schiff calls Colombo

MV Mein Schiff 1, a Century class cruise ship, owned and operated by TUI Cruises, arrived in Colombo yesterday. Having sailed from Mumbai on 15th November, she berthed at the Unity Container Terminal of Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) at 0700 Hrs, last morning. Built at Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, the vessel has a LOA of 265 m and a passenger capacity of 1,950. The vessel arrived with 1872 passengers on board and around 1500 of them embarked on shore excursions that included Kandy the historic capital of Central Sri Lanka. Having originally served with Celebrity Cruises, she was transferred to the fleet of TUI Cruises in 2009. MV Mein Schiff 1 offers a wide range of amusement, leisure and sport amenities that makes every sailing a very special experience, for both adults and children. A ceremony was held on board to mark her maiden call in Colombo and plaques were exchanged between The Sri Lanka Ports Authority, the local Agents and the Vessel’s Command. On behalf of Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) plaques were exchanged between Mr.Sanjeewa Wijeratne – the Executive Director of SLPA and Capt.Rolf Noack - Master of the vessel whilst plaques were exchanged between Capt.L.N.Jayasooriya – the Executive Director of the Shipping Agency Services (pvt) Ltd and the Master of the vessel on behalf of the local agents. The vessel left Colombo last evening headed towards her next destination Langkawi, in Malaysia. The vessel was represented in Colombo by Shipping Agency Services (Pvt) Ltd and ground tours were handled by Aitken Spence Travels (Pvt) Ltd. Firendly discussions were also born onboard MV Mein Chiff 1 in Colombo between The Master of the vessel, the vessel operators and SLPA on Sri Lanka’s emerging trades of travel and tourism and satisfactory services being rendered by Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) to boost tourism and related industries at its premises. SLPA was represented by Mr. Sanjeewa Wijeratne – Executive Director, Mr.Jayantha Perera Actg. Director (Operations), Mr.Upali De Zoysa – Director (Logistics) Capt.Ravi Jayawickrama – Harbour Master, Mr.Nimal Jayatissa – Chief Operations Manager (Conventional Cargo), Chief Security Manager – Air Commodore Channa Premarathne and Mr.Harsha Peiris – Manager (Communications & Public Relations) at the event.