Mein Schiff 4 starts 30-day positioning voyage from Antalya to Dubai - Around Africa instead of through the Suez Canal

Von Jevgenijs Slihto from Riga, Latvia - Mein Schiff 4, CC BY 2.0, Link
Mein Schiff 4 starts its 30-day positioning voyage in Antalya, Turkey, with destination in the Persian Gulf in Dubai. After a successful summer season in Northern Europe and two consecutive voyages from Bremerhaven via Palma de Mallorca to Antalya, the ship is now heading for the Orient, where it will be deployed over the winter months.

Due to the current security situation in the Red Sea, Mein Schiff 4 is taking a new route this year and sailing south around Africa. This extraordinary voyage, which ends in Dubai on November 10, 2024, will call at Gibraltar on October 16 and Cape Town in South Africa from October 28 to 30. Numerous days at sea are planned between these stops before the ship reaches its destination. The positioning voyage could also be booked in two parts: as a 17-day voyage from Antalya to Cape Town and as a 13-day voyage from Cape Town to Dubai.

For this special route, TUI Cruises has invited special guest stars on board Mein Schiff 4 to offer guests a varied entertainment program. The pop icon Claudia Jung will be on board for the voyage “Transocean with Gibraltar”, which departs today. Singer and presenter Stefan Mross and musician Eva Luginger will perform on the following voyage “Time out between the continents”.

After arriving in Dubai, Mein Schiff 4 will offer weekly cruises in the Orient from mid-November 2024 to the beginning of March 2025, with departures from both Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Doha in Qatar. In February 2025, the Orient season will be interrupted for a two-week shipyard stay at Dubai Drydock World. TUI Cruises is increasingly using shipyards in the Orient for this maintenance work instead of European shipyards.