In the early morning of 25th of February 2020, German cruise ship Mein Schiff 4 has arrived to the port of Marseille, France due to a 10 days long maintenance called Dry Dock in the local shipyard. This editorial gives an exclusive insight right from the bridge about the apprx. 1,5 hour long procedure how a 300 meters long, 100.000 tons heavy floating hotel approaches the port, while the Captain, his officers and the local French pilot were maneuvering this giant ship. During this procedure Mein Schiff 4 had to perform a 360 degrees turn meanwhile lowered all the 16 installed life boats one by another off the ship to complete the smoothest maneuver as possible.
Dry Dock is a type of docking facility in marine industry,where ships have a regular maintenance occasionally every few years. This operation can either take days, weeks or even month in a specific shipyard, while the water is drained during the whole period. The inspection doesn't include only a mechanical maintenance, but also an interior reconstruction e.g. renovation of ship bars, hotel rooms, swimming pools and so on.
