With the delivery of the Iona to the British shipping company P&O Cruises, MEYER WERFT handed over an additional cruise ship on Friday. With the delivery, the new flagship of the cruise line will be integrated into the P&O Cruises fleet in order to be ready for service when the Biritsh cruise industry starts up again.
Prior to her handover, the Iona has proven her seaworthiness during several test voy-ages on the North Sea and has successfully completed many technical and nautical tests. The engine room module with the modern power plant to supply the entire ship and hotel operation was built at NEPTUN WERFT. The four low-emission dual-fuel en-gines from Caterpillar (Kiel/Rostock), which can be operated 100% with LNG at sea and in port, also come from here.
The Iona is the first of two new ships for the P&O Cruises brand. Six more ships for Carnival Corporation (Miami) have already been ordered in Papenburg and from MEY-ER TURKU for other brands of the group. "This is really a very special delivery for us for a variety of reasons. Not only because of the current Corona crisis, but also be-cause we delivered Aurora to P&O Cruises exactly 20 years ago. Iona is an exceptional ship that marks a milestone in our long partnership with P&O Cruises. I would like to thank the entire team for their extraordinary commitment", says Managing Director Jan Meyer.
The architectural highlight of the Iona is the SkyDome, a glass dome measuring around 970 square metres. The dome weighs 105 tons and consists of 340 triangular glasses. Not only in terms of architecture, but above all in the areas of energy efficiency, safety and environmental technology, the shipyard has repeatedly been able to establish inno-vative elements in the industry, such as LNG propulsion, in the construction of its 50 cruise ships.
"The two project teams from the shipyard and the shipping company, the many suppli-ers as well as the classification society and the Bremen port authorities have done an excellent job under the difficult conditions," says Stephan Schmees, member of the Project Management Board.
