Mein Schiff 7 under new command, fleet captain role for Omar Caruana

He supervised the construction of Mein Schiff 7 in the shipyard and was captain of the vessel at the naming ceremony last weekend in Kiel.

25 years at sea

He was a navigation officer on TUI’s first ship and later promoted to deck officer, security officer and finally staff captain. He received his captain's license after training in Glasgow.

At the helm of Mein Schiff 7

On the first voyage of Mein Schiff 7 after the christening, Captain Jens Troier took command and set off on Sunday for the North Cape and Spitsbergen.

Troier has been at sea since 1996, first in the navy as a radio operator on a submarine. Between 1998 and 2001, he trained as a ship operations assistant at the State Maritime School in Cuxhaven. He then obtained the nautical officer's commission there between 2002 and 2004.

Troier has been in passenger shipping since 2008 and joined TUI Cruises in 2010, where he first worked as chief safety officer and later as staff captain.

Since April 2016, he has been the first man at the helm on both TUI’s Mein Schiff and the Hapag-Lloyd Cruises fleet.

Captain Kjell Holm

Meanwhile after 10 years with TUI Cruises, Captain Kjell Holm, who commissioned the new ships in its fleet and played a significant role in the development and construction of the bridge of each of the Mein Schiff vessels, is stepping down.

Wybcke Meier, CEO TUI Cruises, said: ‘Captain Kjell Holm has done a great job for our fleet and we are very grateful to him for putting nine ships into service for us. We are pleased that we have two such experienced captains on the bridge of our new fleet member in Omar Caruana and Jens Troier.

Having Omar Caruana responsible for the entire fleet on land in the future is an even greater stroke of luck for TUI Cruises. We congratulate him from the bottom of our hearts on this step.’