Rostock-Warnemünde, 07^th March2005 - With help of a 1100t CATERPILLAR crane the 25 metre long and 270t heavy thrust unit of the TwinCruiser "Flamenco" could be lowered into the water. Together with the passenger unit it will be connected to the cruise vessel in the coming days.

The 110 metre long passenger unit of the TwinCruiser "Flamenco" has left the floating dock of Neptun Stahlbau GmbH and was handed over to the wet element.

Today, the first ship of a new series of river cruise vessels, the TwinCruiser Flamenco, has left the assembly halls of Neptun Stahlbau GmbH and will be put into the wet element within the next days.

This type of river cruiser is designed for the use on the Rhine, Main, Danube as well as the Mosel. The handover of the 135 metre long vessel to the Premicon AG will take place by the end of May.

The second ship of a series of newbuilding river cruising vessels for the Rhone river, the 125 m long A’ROSA STELLA, left the assembly hall on schedule on 22-01-2005 and will be released to her watery element in the next days. Her sister ship, the A’ROSA LUNA, left the assembly hall on 16-12-2004 already. The ships are going to be delivered to the owner, A’ROSA Flusschiff GmbH, by the beginning of March or the beginning of April.

Order placed with Rostock yard

Rostock, January 18, 2005 - AIDA Cruises has placed an order with Neptun Stahlbau GmbH in Rostock for the modernization of m/v AIDAcara. On 18th April, 2005, the club vessel is going to end her last winter voyage from Palma de Mallorca in Warnemünde and will then move into the shipyard for two weeks. Along with the specified repair work the planning also includes some modernization work amounting to EUR 2.5 mill.

Thus 44 cabins on deck no. 7 shall be provided with balconies at short notice. " By this AIDA Cruises meets an international trend as well as passengers' demands for more cabins with balconies" says Burkhard Müller, Vice President Fleet Services of AIDA Cruises. The cabin splitting will also be optimised: Families, in particular, will gain from the child-oriented "4-bed cabin" category which for the first time can be booked on AIDAcara on decks 4 and 5. The restaurant areas will be enlarged, too. 76 additional seats will be arranged inside the Caribbean Restaurant on deck 9, and (which is particularly interesting for fresh-air fans) another 49 seats in the sun outside. Furthermore, the wellness area will be equipped with new massage cabins.

An unusual technical feature is the 1.80 m long retractable platform to be arranged on the captain's bridge wing to ensure safe berthing manoeuvres. The aesthetic improvement of the club vessel will be completed by a new paint coat requiring 5 to 6 thousand litres of paint.

On the 1st of May the freshly overhauled AIDAcara will officially open the new Warnemünde Cruise Center and start on a 4-days "tasting" trip in the Baltic Sea. Another 12 trips from Warnemünde will follow, each lasting 10 days and leading to the most beautiful cities along the Baltic.

In the meantime the AIDA fleet consists of four club vessels. AIDAcara as the first vessel of the AIDA fleet has been ceremonially named in Rostock on July 7, 1996. Since her commissioning she has sailed 669,679 nautical miles and welcomed appr. 355,000 guests on board.

Manfred Müller-Fahrenholz, managing director of Neptun Stahlbau GmbH, is obviously pleased with this highly ambitious order: "The modernization of the AIDAcara is an important step to ensure a full-capacity use of the facilities of the yard and other companies in the area." All essential suppliers for this contract are regional companies. Neptun Stahlbau is an associated company of the MEYER WERFT at Papenburg which already received the contracts for the two newbuilding ships of the AIDA fleet amounting to EUR 630 mill.

(Press Release AIDA Cruises)

Rostock-Warnemünde, 16th December 2004 – Today, the first ship of a series of new buildings for the Rhone river cruise ship, has left the assembly halls of NEPTUN Stahlbau GmbH.

The newest A-ROSA vessel named A-ROSA LUNA is 126 metres long and will be put into the water within the next days. Its sister ship, the A-ROSA STELLA will leave the hall in early January 2005.

The handover of the vessels to the shipping company A-ROSA Flussschiff GmbH is plannend for the beginning of March or early April 2005.