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The »Disney Wish« on the way from Papenburg to Emden
Photo: Lars Klemmer / dpa
The newly built cruise ship "Disney Wish" from the Meyer shipyard in Papenburg started in the morning towards the North Sea.
The 341 meter long colossus is towed across the narrow Ems to Emden.
The maneuver began with the passage of the Papenburg dock lock, the shipyard said.
Within the company, the "Disney Wish" is considered to be the most complex cruise ship ever built with special requirements for entertainment technology.
The interior design takes up scenes and characters from many popular Disney cartoons.
The blue and white cruise ship, which is designed for around 4000 passengers, was built for the Disney Cruise Line shipping company.
At the stern, the ship is adorned with the fairytale character Rapunzel.
At the beginning of February, the ship was undocked from the construction hall in Papenburg.
According to the latest information, the “Disney Wish” is scheduled to embark on its maiden voyage on July 14th.
Before that, the final construction is still pending.
No crowds at the Ems-Passage
During the Ems overpass and the subsequent technical and nautical test drives on the North Sea, around 750 people should initially be on board.
Unlike previous transfers, however, the often thousands of onlookers stayed away from the approximately 40-kilometer-long Ems-Passage.
Because of the high number of corona infections and in order to avoid a crowd on the Ems dikes, the shipyard had not previously announced the transfer, as it had done on previous trips.
It is therefore not foreseeable when the next cruise ship will be transferred.
Also because the corona crisis has plunged the cruise industry into a serious crisis.
The problem for shipyards: Most cruise ships are only paid after handover.
The Meyer shipyard had announced that it would slowly reduce the number of orders until 2025 and save 1.2 billion euros and 40 percent of the working capacity.
450 jobs are being cut in Papenburg, so that there are no more, the state of Lower Saxony is supporting corona aid of 14 million euros.
hba/dpa
