“Planning a refit project is a precise art and to pull it off with a happy customer at the end takes months of meticulous preparation,” said Dieter Dehlke, managing director, Blohm+Voss.

“We can have projects on the books a year or more in advance or we can get a call for an emergency repair just weeks or even days before it is due to dock with us,” he said.

The German yard offers seven drydocks and is among the leading options for cruise ship repair in Northern Europe.

For the bigger jobs, it is not uncommon for the yard to manage some 3,500 workers.

They also offer what they call flying squads, groups of skilled workers that can carry out refits anywhere.

“If the ship can’t make it to the yard, we send the team to the ship,” said Dehlke.

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