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Service history:

Concept and construction

MV Galaxy after her maiden voyage.
In March 1993 Celebrity Cruises had placed an order with the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany for a new ship that was eventually delivered as MV Century. The contract also included an option for two additional vessels of the same design. Celebrity Cruises decided to utilize the option for additional vessels, but changes to the overall design were made to the subsequent ships compared to the Century. Therefore the second ship, MV Galaxy, was given a 15.4-metre (50 ft 6 in) longer hull compared to the Century, and the galley and pantry areas were completely redesigned.

The keel of the Galaxy was laid on 25 May 1995, she was launched from drydock in May 1996 and delivered to Celebrity Cruises on 10 October 1996. Following a promotional visit to Southampton, the ship sailed across the Atlantic Ocean without passengers. Further promotional visits in Boston, Philadelphia and Port Canaveral followed, after which the ship sailed to Port Everglades to begin her commercial career with Celebrity Cruises.

Celebrity Cruises

Galaxy docked in Key West.
Galaxy entered service with Celebrity Cruises on 21 December 1996 on a week-long cruise from Port Everglades to the Caribbean. Alongside her near-sister ship Century she operated week-long alternating western and eastern Caribbean cruises. During the 1997 northern hemisphere summer season the Galaxy relocated to the west coast of North America to operate week-long cruises to Alaska from Vancouver, Canada. This pattern was repeated from 1997 up until 2000.

In 1998, Galaxy was the setting of BBC television's docusoap The Cruise, which made Jane McDonald famous.
Celebrity Galaxy docked in Istanbul.
For the 2001 summer season, Galaxy was replaced by the brand-new GTS Infinity in the Alaskan service. As a result, Galaxy was relocated into European waters, cruising the Mediterranean and Baltic Seas. On 2 June 2001, while departing Amsterdam in the Netherlands for a two-week cruise the Galaxy touched bottom on an outskirt of Forteiland at IJmuiden due to heavy northwesterly squalls, resulting in major damage to the port side propeller. The ship returned to the Port of Amsterdam for inspection and disembarkation of the passengers. The cruise had to be cancelled as theGalaxy went into drydock at Blohm + Voss in Hamburg, Germany. There it was discovered that all four blades of the port side propeller would have to be replaced; however the ship only carried two spare blades on board. To solve the problem two extra propeller blades carried on board Galaxy's sister ship MV Mercury were flown from the Caribbean to Hamburg and installed on the Galaxy. Following repairs the ship re-entered service on 16 June 2001.

For the 2002 and 2003 summer seasons the Galaxy was based in Baltimore, making 10- and 11-day cruises to the Caribbean.

On May 21, 2004 the Galaxy berthed at Civitavecchia (Rome) and began its series of summer voyages in the Mediterranean. The Galaxy made multiple transatlantic crossings during the fall and winter seasons to take advantage of the Caribbean's tropical climate.
Mein Schiff at the Port of Hamburg In 2004 asGalaxy.
In February 2008 the Galaxy was renamed Celebrity Galaxy to comply with Celebrity Cruises' new naming scheme.

TUI Cruises

Mein Schiff at the Port of Hamburg prior to entering service with TUI Cruises.
In April 2008 Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., the parent company of Celebrity Cruises, announced that the Celebrity Galaxy would cease service with Celebrity in March 2009 and subsequently be transferred to the fleet of TUI Cruises, a joint subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Cruises and TUI AG aimed at the German cruise market.
Mein Schiff's pool deck, 2009
Following withdrawal from Celebrity Cruises' service, the ship sailed to the Lloyd Werft shipyard in Bremerhaven, Germany where she received a € 50 million refit to upgrade her facilities and refit her cabins by BLUMARINE Ltd to make her better suited for the needs of the German market. Additional cabins were also fitted on existing outside cabins. Following the 38-day refit the ship was renamed Mein Schiff in Hamburg on 15 May 2009, and she entered service with TUI Cruises on a Baltic Sea cruise starting from Kiel on 23 May 2009.

In August 10, 2014, the 76 meter long service supply vessel Princess Marseilles struck the Mein Schiff 1 in the port of Bergen, Norway. The Mein Schiff 1 sustained minimal damage.
Mein Schiff 1 in Puerto Del Rosario, Fuerteventura (2010)
In the evening of Oct 12, 2014, around 9 p.m. a fire broke out in the incinerator on deck 3 while the cruise ship was en route from Barcelona to Palma de Mallorca with more than 2000 passengers. The crew was able to extinguish the fire within short time, and the ship docked as scheduled at Palma in the morning of Oct 13. The message "Bravo, Bravo, Bravo, Fire in the Garbage" could accidentally be heard from the PA system. Some minutes later the master Rolf Johannes Noack notified the passengers about the incident. The show in the Theater had been interrupted until the fire was out. The passengers had remained calm. In May 2015, TUI Group announced that as part of their modernization strategy, TUI Cruises' Mein Schiff 1 and Mein Schiff 2 would be transferred to Thomson Cruises over the next few years.

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Main Dates:

History
Name:	1996—2008: Galaxy 2008—2009: Celebrity Galaxy 2009—2010: Mein Schiff 2010 onwards: Mein Schiff 1
Owner:	1996—2009: Celebrity Cruises 2009 onwards: TUI Cruises
Operator:	1996—2009: Celebrity Cruises 2009 onwards: TUI Cruises
Port of registry:	1996—2002: Monrovia, Liberia 2002—2008: Nassau, Bahamas 2008 onwards: Valletta, Malta
Builder:	Meyer Werft, Papenburg, Germany
Cost:	$320 million
Yard number:	638
Laid down:	25 May 1995
Launched:	May 1996
Acquired:	10 October 1996
In service:	21 December 1996
Identification:	Call sign: 9HJH9 IMO number: 9106297 MMSI number: 249051000
Status:	In service
General characteristics
Class and type:	Century-class cruise ship
Tonnage:	76,522 GT 6,500 DWT
Length:	259.70 m (852 ft 0 in)
Beam:	32.20 m (105 ft 8 in)
Draught:	7.70 m (25 ft 3 in)
Decks:	10 (passenger accessible)
Installed power:	2 × MAN B&W 9L48/60 2 × MAN B&W 6L48/60 diesels 29,250 kW (combined)
Propulsion:	Twin propellers
Capacity:	1,870 passengers (lower berths) 2681 passengers (all berths)
Crew:	909

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MS. Mein Schiff 1 by CUBIC BRAINSTORM is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.