Jewel of the Seas going to Sea on sunday Papenburg, 01.04.2004 - Jewel of the Seas, the new 90,090 gt cruise liner for Royal Caribbean International (RCI), will leave MEYER WERFT for the North Sea on the night of 3rd April 2004. The postponed passage of the vessel down the River Ems will take place in one go with no stop on the way, supported by operation of the Ems river barrier. Still the passage of the vessel is dependent on the tides. The following postponed schedule is valid for the transit, which may vary in accordance with the weather conditions: Sunday, 3rd April 2004 abt. 02.00 h - Passage of harbour lock (Papenburg) abt. 04.35 h - Passage of "Friesenbrücke" (Weener) abt. 07.30 h - Passage of "J.-Berghaus-Brücke" (Leer) abt. 13.00 h - Passage of Ems river barrier (Gandersum) abt. 14.55 h - Passage of Emden abt. 18.00 h - Arrival at Eemshaven The schedule is subject to wind and weather conditions and hence without engagement. Postponements may occur. The ship leaving the pier in Papenburg and passing through the harbour lock will be presented live on the Internet. The web cam can be found on the MEYER WERFT homepage: www.meyerwerft.de Moreover, the Town of Papenburg's tourist information is of-fering a bus shuttle service from the market place to the har-bour, and is also accepting short-term reservations for yard tours. More information on phone: +49-4961-83960 - Fax: +49-4961-839696 The team from the pilots association in Emden, who has gained experience in many previous river passages of MEYER WERFT ships, will be responsible on board during the journey. The passage team took several training sessions at the computer-based simulator to be best prepared for the river transit and to manage even difficult parts of the passage. Like her sister ships, Jewel of the Seas will go down the River Ems to the North Sea astern since this type of operation has proved itself. The pods mounted under the stern are "shovelling" the water under the ship, so to speak, and in addition it is easier to manoeuvre the ship with this type of propulsion which is comparable to the front drive of a car. During the pas-sage she will operate her own propulsion system. If a system should fail, three tugs will be available for reasons of safety, namely "Bremerhaven" and "Wolf" (2 x 1,600 kW, or 2 x 1,450 kW respectively) as well as the yard tug "Willm Rolf" (300 kW) as stand-by and back-up. The new luxury liner will leave Papenburg almost completed and will undertake final seatrials in the North Sea. The ship will be delivered to the owners Royal Caribbean International in the Dutch port of Eemshaven by the end of April 2004. Construction of the new, still unnamed 93,000 gt cruise liner for Norwegian Cruise Lines, to be completed by Meyer Werft by mid 2005, has already begun.