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Tui Cruises Mein Schiff 3 Bremerhaven to Majorca 11 Sep 2018


Tuffydog
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Kevin,

 

BH means bra in German. ;-)

 

And to continue the language lesson: the word "Deutsche" with an e at the end is a) eine Deutsche = a German woman or b) the plural, Deutsche = Germans.

 

Hi Floridiana.

 

I had to laugh at my poor use of acronym BH in this instance. Of course I meant my better half- Meine Frau.

 

I have been doing Deutsch lessons for two and a half years and this is the first time someone has explained the feminine "e" for eine / plural Deutsche relating to German/Germany!. I should have realised.

 

I hope that I can survive with basic conversational German on the cruise and will be continuing lessons until the trip commences.

 

Cheers,

 

Kevin

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  • 2 weeks later...

BREMERHAVEN PORT: MUST VISIT DEUTSCHES - AUSWANDERER - HAUS

Last Friday my excellent German friends visited the"Deutsches- Auswanderer-Haus" in Bremerhaven and advised us about the Emigration Museum

"It is great. It shows a real illusion of emigrants living on board of sail and steamships. You can see the life-histories of hundreds of emigrants, documented with fotos and letters.Each station there are telefones, for hearing about exponates.

I forgot to ask, hearing in Englisch is possible too. There is one room for family searching. We saw all dates and pictures about your grand-grandfather (that) you inserted in ancestry. You will find all German emigrants worldwide by name.

When you come next year,you must visite this Haus"

 

I couldn't ask for a better recommendation. He advised we should allow about 2 hours minimum to explore the exhibition.

 

We are looking forward to it before we board Mein Schiff 3 for an afternoon departure.

Kevin

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  • 2 weeks later...

Gibraltar Excursions:

In Port 800-1800. Temperatures 20-27 degrees in September, Average rainfall 20 mm over 8 days in September

A review of in Port activities from Cruise Critic Reviews shows in order of rating

1. Gibraltar Museum (1 review only)

2.Rock of Gibraltar

2.St Michaels Cave

3. Apes Den

4. Great Siege Tunnels

5. World War 11 Tunnels

6. Fortress Gibraltar

7 City Under Siege Exhibition

8 City Tour

9 Dolphin Watch

10 Alameda Gardens

 

In addition Trip Advisor has the additional points of interest:

* Mediterranean Steps (high level of activity)

* Moorish Castle

* Ocean Village

 

Most activities listed have entry fees or are part of a tour so I would be interested in what piques the interest of other travelers.

 

Looking forward to hearing your experiences in Gibraltar on what is great to do, including walking around the old fortress, eateries and sights.

 

Kevin

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  • 4 weeks later...
Hi tuffydog,

we won´t be on this particular cruise but we´ll try "Mein Schiff" for the first time in November, too. We are Germans but since we have cruised mostly with american cruiselines before, we love CC and met a lot of nice people at the M&M onboard (also from Australia :) ) .

I don´t live in the north of Germany so I won´t be able to tell you much about Bremen or Bremerhaven but if you have questions about Germany or "Mein Schiff" feel free to ask. I will do my best to answer

TUI is not well represented on CC, I found you thread looking for our cruise. There is a german forum called pooldeck24 which provides a lot of information about "Mein Schiff". Maybe you want to post there, there even might be a roll call for your cruise.

Hope you will enjoy your cruise and Germany! I hope to be able to visit Australia once, too.

Maria

 

Hi Maria, you are correct in Tui not being well represented on CC. Indeed whilst there have been over 2000 reads, we are yet to find any fellow cruisers on Cruise Critic.

 

I am astounded with the interest on reading our blog, but wonder if these readers are English/Thomson Cruises UK cruisers. I think that they charter and use certain Tui ships.

 

I have registered on the German website and made a couple of posts and can read contributions. Because of my poor German, I cannot now locate the login area (like CC) or are blocked from making another contribution.

 

My Username there is Ruffydog if you have time to look.

 

Your advice on login would be appreciated.

 

Thank you

 

Kevin

 

PS How was the Cruise in November? Which MS was it and what was the route?

Edited by Tuffydog
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Hi Maria, you are correct in Tui not being well represented on CC. Indeed whilst there have been over 2000 reads, we are yet to find any fellow cruisers on Cruise Critic.

 

I am astounded with the interest on reading our blog, but wonder if these readers are English/Thomson Cruises UK cruisers. I think that they charter and use certain Tui ships.

 

I have registered on the German website and made a couple of posts and can read contributions. Because of my poor German, I cannot now locate the login area (like CC) or are blocked from making another contribution.

 

My Username there is Ruffydog if you have time to look.

 

Your advice on login would be appreciated.

 

Thank you

 

Kevin

 

PS How was the Cruise in November? Which MS was it and what was the route?

 

HI Maria , My German tutor has helped me find the login section. I feel like a dill!

 

Kevin

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Tuffydog,

 

I am just back from our cruise on Mein Schiff 5 and learned something: no need to learn the word 'inbegriffen'. The drink menu says 'inklusive'. :D

 

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

 

Thank you Floridiana.

 

How was MS 5 and the ports of call?

 

Kevin

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The ship is fabulous. It has a lot of indoor space and doesn't feel cramped at all. We had 2 600 passengers which means that several cabins had 3 passengers. I guess they were very young children and babies. None of them bothersome.

 

Since many people had booked the cruise to get away from the abysmal German fall/winter weather, the outdoor areas around the pool and on the higher sun decks were packed, sardines in a can come to mind.

 

Food was good to excellent, but we shouldn't have bothered with the pay restaurants.

 

I loved this itinerary, maybe not as much as the Baltic and Norway, but these emerging cities are simply fascinating. Their architecture is very varied. The United Arab Emirates are only 46 years old, sand, water and palm frond shacks in the fifties, then wham! the oil boom! Bahrain, Qatar and Dubai have lots of construction sites and the accompanying traffic jams. The Souk in Muscat still had shops for locals not just tourist souvenirs.

 

If you do this itinerary on a German ship, arrange your own tours or combine taxis with the rail in Dubai or use the Hop off hop on bus whose tickets they sell in the ship's lobby. Our guides were German speaking from countries that have lost much of their tourist trade, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Sri Lanka. One guide spoke English, but the ship provided a translator.

 

English is widely spoken and the common language for locals and guest workers. Guest workers make up 50% to 90% of the population depending on the country.

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The ship is fabulous. It has a lot of indoor space and doesn't feel cramped at all. We had 2 600 passengers which means that several cabins had 3 passengers. I guess they were very young children and babies. None of them bothersome.

 

Since many people had booked the cruise to get away from the abysmal German fall/winter weather, the outdoor areas around the pool and on the higher sun decks were packed, sardines in a can come to mind.

 

Food was good to excellent, but we shouldn't have bothered with the pay restaurants.

 

I loved this itinerary, maybe not as much as the Baltic and Norway, but these emerging cities are simply fascinating. Their architecture is very varied. The United Arab Emirates are only 46 years old, sand, water and palm frond shacks in the fifties, then wham! the oil boom! Bahrain, Qatar and Dubai have lots of construction sites and the accompanying traffic jams. The Souk in Muscat still had shops for locals not just tourist souvenirs.

 

If you do this itinerary on a German ship, arrange your own tours or combine taxis with the rail in Dubai or use the Hop off hop on bus whose tickets they sell in the ship's lobby. Our guides were German speaking from countries that have lost much of their tourist trade, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Sri Lanka. One guide spoke English, but the ship provided a translator.

 

English is widely spoken and the common language for locals and guest workers. Guest workers make up 50% to 90% of the population depending on the country.

 

Just a question, and in relation to an earlier comment you made on the class of Mein Schiff ships, is MS3 and MS5 of the same class/style and facilities offered?

 

MS 5 sounds great and I can't wait to experience MS3.

 

Kevin.

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The present MS1 and 2 are the same old Celebrity ships of the same class as far as I know. They will be sold and replaced by MS 7 and 8 which will then be renamed MS 1 and 2.

 

MS 3 and 4 are the same class and almost identical.

MS 5 and 6 are a few meters longer and almost identical to each other.

 

The art work is different on each ship. MS 5's restaurants and décor was different from MS 4, but there are more similarities than differences. I think MS 5 had some improved features compared to MS4, all in the restaurants and public spaces. But MS 5 has not roof over one of the pools whereas MS 4 had a roof over the smaller pool.

 

Annoying features on all the TUI ships, just be prepared: Passengers are allowed to smoke on balconies despite the fact that the majority of passengers are non smokers. Standing in line is not always enforced, lots of pushy people. It's not as bad as in China, but as bad as on the French ship Ponant. I also didn't like that some passengers came back from excursions into the buffet restaurant with their backpacks and shopping bags. I think we should all go back to our cabin, put our stuff there and thoroughly wash our hands before showing up in a ship's restaurant. The ship has free (included) food 24/7, no need to rush anywhere.

 

Excellent on MS 5: Public restroom doors open with a switch when going in and automatically when coming out. Reminders for hand washing and sanitizing are at the exit door. You can't get out without brushing past them. In addition to hand sanitizers everywhere, restaurants also have (elegant) sinks at the entrance.

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Mein Schiff 3 & 4 are the best in their fleet.

 

 

Not finished yet, still much to do, but probably most comprehensive: All about Mein Schiff.

Enjoy!

 

Yes, I do agree that their cruises are quite expensive.

This brand is a kind of RCI umbrella, so as things are going downhill, the other two ships (#4 & #5) are following the trend.

But the beginning (#3 & #4) was fantastic!

 

Thanks for your post Ronbe65,

 

I found the links provided a spectacular visual insight into the MS 3 facilities and decor .

 

We are impressed.,

 

I will spend some more time reviewing the videos.

 

Cheers

 

Kevin

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  • 3 weeks later...

Happy New Year!

 

Only 249 days to go before we board Mein Schiff 3 in Bremerhaven.

 

Whilst there has been some interest, I'm not sure if there any fellow passengers on this thread. There are a few on the German equivalent website.

 

Looking forward to finalising some excursions over the coming months. Options include

Bremerhaven- Auswanders Haus.

Le Havre- Bus to Honfleur.

Lisbon (considering BlueBear4Travel experience). This sounds great!

"Our shipped docked close to Santa Apolonia station. We walked to the station and bought a day ticket for public transport. We then took the subway to Martim Moniz and took a ride on the 28 tram car. Be there early! At 9am lines already started to grow. We rode until close to Praca de Camoes and then joined a fantastic guided tour (free walking tour) with Sandeman´s New Europe. The end of the tour was at Praco do Comercio and from there (asked the guide for directions) we walked along the water to the market (Time Out Market Lisbon) to have some of these famous vanilla pastries (Pasteis de Belem)."

Gibraltar- will probably be a simple walk around perhaps public transport to key lookouts.

Barcelona- Walk around the Gothic quarter, Cable Car, and beach area Barceloneta. If time permits and the queues are not to long, perhaps a revisit of La Sagrada Familia and see what has been finished on this masterpiece since we last visited in 2010.

Mallorca- Have a limited time before our flight out, but last time we we there (2010) we had private taxi who took us to key spots for a very reasonable and agreed price. Maybe do the same, look for different sights to explore.

If we had time I would like to try to see the residence or locations used in the TV show "The Night Manager" but it is on the other side of the Island. The residence, La Fortaleza is privately owned, its owner is reportedly the British banker Lord (James) Lupton who bought it for between £30 and 35 million in 2011. Apparently opened to the general public four days of the year. Pollensa town hall, as part of its History of Pollensa programme is organising the guided tour of La Fortaleza.

 

 

Still some more research to do.

 

 

Looking forward to making contact with fellow travelers.

 

 

Kevin

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just wondering what the dress code is on board MS for restaurant dining, and if there are formal (at sea) nights on a 13 night cruise?

 

We have cruised on Cunards QE and they take formal nights fairly seriously, as do some of the river cruises. CMV have a dress code that they enforce in the dining rooms and formal nights can be for men a dinner suit or neat slacks,coat and tie.

 

As we are away for 9 weeks we have to plan ahead with what we are packing for the Mediterranean, southern France to Paris and Northern Europe.

 

Thanks.

 

Kevin

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Just wondering what the dress code is on board MS for restaurant dining, and if there are formal (at sea) nights on a 13 night cruise?

 

Dandelion from the German forum answered my query on Restaurant dress code and formal nights:

"tuicruises.com/blog/2015/09/5-dos-donts-fuer-eine-kreuzfahrt-mit-der-mein-schiff-flotte/

 

Hi @Ruffydog

by accident, I found your question from Jan 12th in your CC thread regarding dresscode. Please check the link above, it is from TUI Cruises. There are no gala nights nor other formal events at all, on "Mein Schiff", you will not need neither a suit nor ties on your cruise in general. You need, of course, for restaurant dining, full-length trousers and closed proper shoes (which mean: no flip flops, no sandals and no shorts or other kind of swim wear in MDR).

Polo-Shirts and good Chinos/neat Jeans are also appropriate and sufficient. If you consider to visit fine dining in "the Richards", you may would like to dress up with long-sleeve cloth shirts (with or without a tie) and slacks. Hope this helps?

 

I found in addition this discussion w/ dresscode, maybe helpful?

Kleiderfrage ....

 

In case of other general queries, feel free to start a new thread -on the forum".

That took a bit of sleuth work and is much appreciated .

 

 

Thanks Dandelion

 

 

Keviin

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On three cruises with different Mein Schiff ships, nobody was ever dressed formally in any way. Not in the dining room nor in the specialty restaurants. I don't remember a tie, I sometimes saw a dress shirt and jacket. Polo shirts are not as popular as in the USA, therefore German men tend to wear casual cloth shirts with patterns. My husband brings his polo shirts.

 

The only thing you should not do is wear flip flops or other rubber sandals, shorts, sleeveless shirts and similar extremely casual, beach or work-out clothing in the dining rooms.

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On three cruises with different Mein Schiff ships, nobody was ever dressed formally in any way. Not in the dining room nor in the specialty restaurants. I don't remember a tie, I sometimes saw a dress shirt and jacket. Polo shirts are not as popular as in the USA, therefore German men tend to wear casual cloth shirts with patterns. My husband brings his polo shirts.

 

The only thing you should not do is wear flip flops or other rubber sandals, shorts, sleeveless shirts and similar extremely casual, beach or work-out clothing in the dining rooms.

 

On our last cruise, we saw a passenger wear a robe into the Bistro area for breakfast at a busy time mid morning.

 

However the Bistro was only a short distance to the sun deck above! Saves two trips!

 

Kevin

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Bremen Stopover.

 

Currently booking accommodation before we board ship in Bremerhaven in September.

 

Hopefully without offending any locals, is one day or 24 hours sufficient to see a selection of points of interest in Bremen?

We only have 9 days travel window in Germany, coming up from Paris to Bremen with a longer stop off in the town where my ancestors lived.

 

We will forgo a port cruise as we will be sailing shortly thereafter and have undertaken a harbour cruise in Hamburg previously.

 

Has anyone visited Bremen and what is a must see and do with public transport or taxi's?

 

Thank you

 

Kevin

 

.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Flavia on the German website has commented :

 

"you have to drive 1 hour (on german Autobahn) from Bremen to Bremerhaven ( so Bremerhaven is not really the habour of Bremen, it is a separate Town). If you like to stay one Night in Bremen, it is a good idea to book a Hotel directly in the City. So you can walk to see the old City Hall, Schnorr Viertel, Böttcher Straße. The „Bremer Geschichtenhaus“ is perhaps perfekt for

you. At night (and when the wether is fine) it is a good idea to have Dinner in a Restaurants direct by the river Weser in an area named „Schlachte“. .....in Bremerhaven, it could be interesting for you to visit the „Auswandererhaus“.

We are looking forward to exploring both Bremen and Bremerhaven as outlined above.

 

Tuffydog

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  • 2 weeks later...

Message in a bottle:

 

Interesting article in the Australian newspapers today about a 132 year old German message in a bottle found on the West Australian coast from the Captain of the ship Paula and found some 950 kilometers from drop off point:

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-06/oldest-known-message-in-a-bottle-found-on-wa-beach/9518632

 

The point of the exercise was to measure ocean currents, when found and inform the German Naval Observatory in Hamburg.

 

Tuffydog

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My parents were both born in Germany, my father in Hamburg and my mother in a small village near Baden Baden, and met in New York City. After our first visit to Hamburg, DH and I traveled to Bremerhaven, especially for the Emigration museum which I had heard about. This museum was phenomenal for me, as it so personalized the experience my mother had in November, 1926 when she left there for the journey to NYC. As her brother was already there in NY, as her sponsor and holding a job for her and a place to live, she did not have to go through Ellis Island (location of a famous immigration museum) but got off in New Jersey. Ellis Island is always emotional (especially the movie part showing the people leaving Bremerhaven). When the grandchildren are ten, I take them to New York for their heritage tour to show them about where we the grandparents grew up and where the great grandparents lived, were married, etc. Bremerhaven was a lot of fun -- things to do, etc. We even took a public bus to an outdoor concert. Fabulous museum -- wish I could take the grandkids there. We found the ship's manifest (when my parents went to visit her family in Germany in 1932), in the computer room there.

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My parents were both born in Germany, my father in Hamburg and my mother in a small village near Baden Baden, and met in New York City. After our first visit to Hamburg, DH and I traveled to Bremerhaven, especially for the Emigration museum which I had heard about. This museum was phenomenal for me, as it so personalized the experience my mother had in November, 1926 when she left there for the journey to NYC. As her brother was already there in NY, as her sponsor and holding a job for her and a place to live, she did not have to go through Ellis Island (location of a famous immigration museum) but got off in New Jersey. Ellis Island is always emotional (especially the movie part showing the people leaving Bremerhaven). When the grandchildren are ten, I take them to New York for their heritage tour to show them about where we the grandparents grew up and where the great grandparents lived, were married, etc. Bremerhaven was a lot of fun -- things to do, etc. We even took a public bus to an outdoor concert. Fabulous museum -- wish I could take the grandkids there. We found the ship's manifest (when my parents went to visit her family in Germany in 1932), in the computer room there.

 

Great story Hildy and Joe. We are looking forward to our visit to the emigration museum. If it is OK I will post your comments on the German equivalent site. I am in Bali Indonesia this week and will do it on my return. Cheers Kevin

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Hello Tuffydog. It is ok to post my comments elsewhere. At the museum, you "select" a person's life and story to follow as they emigrated. I chose a woman who departed around the time of my mother.

 

Some more to the story: For fifty+ years, we have traveled to my mother's very large family in the Schwartzwald (Black Forest) region in the south of Germany. This tradition continues down to my children and their children My father had NO family (his mother had been an orphan, no siblings, and his Dad died when he was nine). But at some point in time, I wanted to go there, so a year and a half ago we did (and loved it). I had envelopes with return addresses over a hundred years old. I could not find these addresses, but we did see the fish market building where my father worked for coins when his dad died. The museum in Bremerhaven, a short train ride from Hamburg, was on my bucket list.

 

Prior to this same trip, I had decided it would be fun for my husband to see where his Italian-side grandparents had emigrated from. He is half German, and my family is long his family. He remembered his Italian granddad as he lived til my husband's high school years. I wrote to the mayor of this very small village in the south (way south) of Italy and no answer. (It was by regular post.) We had only found out the actual name of the village through a fluke because they always said Salerno which is really about two hours' drive north.

 

A few weeks before our trip, I cut and pasted the letter into an email to addresses I had found online. Then came a response from a gentleman, married to a woman, born with the same last name as my husband, saying they would like to meet us and would be there in the village when we were there. We exchanged photos, phone numbers, and on the appointed day, we followed them to have "lunch". When we walked in, we had not even sat down yet, and, mind you, did not know if they were related, when my husband saw a picture of what looked like his grandfather. He became emotional and he mentioned his grandfather, had also brother and sister that went to NYC. We know no Italian and they knew hardly any English. But saying the name, this woman's sister went into her mother's bedroom and came out with an envelope from 1974 from my father- in- law's Aunt (one whom I had met several times early in the marriage). So this was proof! We all started jumping up and down, laughing and crying, excited to have found relatives. We proceeded to have a home cooked four hour, six course lunch -- the best meal we had in Italy! We did this (they and us) on a lark. We keep in touch. The picture was the nephew to my husband's grandfather -- a brother who had not gone to America's son. This village has 350 population, yes, 350, and both my husband's grandparents came through Ellis Island, very early 1900s. We made our way to the "city hall" in this tiny village, and found his grandparents marriage certificate, on my husband's birthday 1900!! An angel (an Italian, speaking English, and just happened to be passing through) interpreted for us for an hour and a half.

 

That, too, was very exciting for us. We have always felt so blessed to know my mother's big family (my generation had 24 cousins, and I am second youngest, so many gone). Now we know the rest of the story, and when I take my young grandchildren to NYC to the Statue of Liberty, the Ellis Island emigration museum, we also go to Little Italy from my husband's youth. I must say this is a fabulous one- on- one time with the grandchildren.

 

My last example -- my parents were married in 1930 in the German parish, my husband's parents by the same priest in the same church in 1938 and we in 1967 (so 50 1/2 years ago). When I explained all this to my second granddaughter, last year, she was so overcome with the HISTORY (having just visited my grammar school next door, where my mother- in- law graduated also 1928), that she just went up to the altar and ? prayed? thanked God? I didn't ask, but CLEARLY she was impressed. She was full of her heritage!!!

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Hildy, we had a similar experience when researching our German heritage. We knew some details verbally passed down and an memorium notice in the paper in OZ. We paid a Hannover ancestry firm to do research in Duderstadt archives, and found nothing whatsoever. We then went to the town and by appointment went to the Catholic Archives. There we met the supervisor who did no speak English, but brought her daughter in law who did speak English to help us. Judi met a guardian angel also doing his research, and he stopped what he was doing to help us. We went through 18 nearby parish records all in beautiful Latin but came up blank. The guardian angel arranged next day to pick us up at our B&B and take us to some town historians, and a little research showed that he had left from a neighbouring village 1kilometer away. His age was incorrect on the memoriam notice by one year, and his age on the Ships List was 10 years out. Apparently when you left the village you had to advertise in the papers a month or so before you left so that if you owed money people could catch up with you. We found this article from 1857. Since then this guardian angel Dieter has found our family history back to 1500 and some relatives, plus the old family home. So our visit to this beautiful walled city will be something special too. Kevin

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