AIDAprima is the flagship of AIDA Cruises, built by Mitsubishi Shipbuilding at their shipyard in Nagasaki in Japan. The cruise ship entered service on April 25, 2016. The ship was christened on 7 May 2016 in Hamburg in Germany as part of the 827th Hamburg Port Anniversary (Hafengeburtstag). Like the other AIDA ships she sails under the Italian flag. For the cruise operations Costa Crociere in Genoa is responsible. The ship, which is specially designed for the German market corporate brand AIDA Cruises, start year-round from the Hamburg Cruise Terminal Steinwerder to weeklong cruises in Western Europe. read more…
The Meyer Werft is one of the remaining large German shipyards, headquartered in Papenburg. Since 1997, it has been part of the Meyer Neptun Group together with Neptun Werft in Rostock. Founded in 1795 as a wharf for the construction of wooden ships, Josef Lambert Meyer started the construction of iron ships in 1874. Until 1920 there were more than 20 dockyards in the Papenburg area. Today, Meyer Werft is the only remaining shipyard in Papenburg. For more than six generations, it has been a privately held and family-owned company. It gained international recognition through the construction of roll on/roll off ferries, passenger ferries, gasoline tankers, container ships, livestock ferries and most recently luxury cruise ships. Meyer is one of the largest and most modern shipyards in the world with 2300 employees, and home to the by far largest roofed dry docks in the world. The first covered dock was inaugurated in 1987 and was 370 meters long, 101,5 meters wide and 60 meters high. In 1990/91 the dock was extended by an additional 100 meters. In 2000, a second covered dock was built, which is announced to be extended to a full length of 504 meters, a width of 125 meters and height of 75 meters in order to compete with Asian shipyards. Meyer Werft will as a result of this be able to build 3 cruise ships a year. read more…