All Crew Members will be provided living accommodations in a house or apartment, which may be shared with other members of the Vessel Commissioning Team. All accommodations will be fully furnished and include the needed amenities for living (linens, kitchen supplies, etc.). WiFi and television are provided in all accommodations, and most will have their own laundry machines. In addition, there are two laundry machines in the Wismar VCT office. Please know pets are not allowed to accompany members of the Vessel Commissioning Team.

Cleaning services and accommodation of inspections will be conducted on a weekly basis, beginning 10 days after your initial arrival. Linens will be changed every second week.

Disney Cruise Line will not be held accountable or responsible for loss and/or damage to your or anyone else’s personal belongings or property.

If you wish for the weekly cleaning service to include your bedroom then please leave the bedroom door unlocked. Please note the insurance provided by the ACE American Insurance Company (Chubb) does not cover missing items and that DCL is not liable for the same. Therefore if you prefer to keep your door locked then you would need to service your own bedroom.

All crew members are responsible for proper garbage separation and disposal. Please refer to the Recycling in Germany article on this site for further instructions.

No Smoking

All accommodations are smoke-free. Look for the designated smoking areas with ashtrays within your housing complex. Please know the shipyard also has designated smoking areas.

Wi-Fi

Each housing is equipped with a router and the password will be provided to you by the owner. The downloading of any unlicensed files (such as torrents, media, software, etc.) is strictly prohibited and could result in a fine up to 5,000 EUR.

Meals

Crew Members will be responsible for providing their own meals and should bring lunch to the shipyard. Each apartment is prepared with a kitchen, and the office has a fridge and microwave. Please see the Grocery Stores, Pharmacies, and Other Shopping article on this site for additional information.

Maintenance

For any concerns regarding any maintenance issues in your accommodation please speak with the Crew Services Manager, who will arrange for repairs as needed.

With a wide array of grocery stores, pharmacies, and other department stores in Germany, there are various options for how you can acquire all of the goods that you need.

When visiting one of Germany's grocery stores, bring a 0.50 or 1.00 EUR coin. This is needed to obtain a shopping cart and will be returned when you park the cart.  Simply place the coin in the top handle of the shopping cart and pull the cart to release the chain from the rest of the attached carts. It is also encouraged to bring your own shopping bags.  The stores do not provide free bags, although you can buy a bag or two at checkout. When checking out, be prepared to move really fast and bag your own groceries while simultaneously paying the bill.  Parking for major stores is usually free.  At some stores and shopping centers, you will have to enter into an underground parking garage and will have to pull a ticket to enter the garage.

Papenburg

For your first groceries, you could drive to Kaufland, one of the larger grocery stores in Papenburg which also features a pharmacy (Apotheke Avie), or Marktkauf, another large grocery store with a drugstore, Rossmann, next door. Other options for grocery stores include Lidl, Edeka, Aldi, and Combi. Near the various grocery stores, you will also be able to find a hardware store called OBI, an electronic store called Media Markt, and another drugstore, DM.

Please be advised German facilities and stores are not open on Sundays. If you are looking for a grocery store or any other department store that is open on a Sunday, you may travel to The Netherlands. A city that is situated approximately 30 minutes from Papenburg is Winschoten, which will be able to offer you facilities such as a cozy yet extensive city center, grocery stores such as Albert Heijn, Lidl, Jumbo and Aldi, convenient stores such as Hema and Kruidvat, a train station, etc. 

Wismar

In Wismar, Germany, shopping is convenient with several supermarkets such as Edeka, Rewe, Markant, Norma, and Kaufland, typically open from 07:00 or 08:00 until 20:00, though they are closed on Sundays. The city is home to numerous pharmacies, including Markt-Apotheke (open 08:00 to 18:00) in the city center and Hansa-Apotheke (07:00-18:00) on Lübsche Str. For general shopping, the historic old town offers a variety of stores, and the shopping center Burgwall Einkaufszentrum on Lübsche Str. provides additional options.

Grocery Stores

Pharmacies

Department Stores

Lieferando is a service which lets you order food online from various restaurants’ menus and have it delivered by the restaurant, or company couriers, directly to your home or workplace by using their website or mobile app. You can change the language displayed on the website and the app.

There is a wide selection of available restaurants in and near Papenburg/Wismar that you can access through Lieferando. Most restaurants will be able to deliver the food directly to your doorstep at your home or apartment; however, some require you to pick it up on-site.

The delivery fee and the minimum amount you are required to spend are listed for each restaurant within its description.

Recycling may be different in Germany than your home country. In Germany you should recycle “bio waste” which includes organic, kitchen and garden waste, “lightweight packaging” which includes plastic, metal and composite materials, “paper,” “glass,” which should be sorted by color, green, brown and white, “residual waste,” which is all non-recyclable waste and “pollutants.”

Recycling Bins

Located at your home, apartment or flat, you should be equipped with three big waste bins, placed on your property. The bins entail the following:

Black Bin – Non-recyclable waste. (Restmüll)
Brown Bin – Food waste (Biomüll)
Blue Bin – Paper and cardboard (Altpapier)

Yellow bins are used for recycling, primarily for packaging materials as well as other metal or plastic waste. Packaging marked with the green dot symbol should be placed in these bins; however, they may also be used for the recycling of other items, such as broken plastic bowls or clothes hangers or damaged metal cooking pots, cutlery, or tools.

Waste Pick-Up Calendar

When it comes to the pick-up of your waste, your home, apartment or flat might already be equipped with a waste pick-up calendar.

The evening before the scheduled pick-up day, you should put the bins or bags outside along the street.  If you’re uncertain where- or how to exactly place your waste, you can always look at how your neighbors are doing it.

Glass Disposal

When it comes to the disposal of glass, this can be done at a Glass Container (Altglas). There are many places you can go to throw away glass (food jars, wine bottles, etc.), which all need to be cleaned beforehand in order to avoid smell and bees. The glass also must be separated into brown, green, and white glass. Glass Containers can be found at numerous places. For example, Kaufland and Edeka have containers in their parking lots.

Bottle Return

Germany uses a bottle return system. You pay a deposit (Pfand) for certain bottles/cans. When you return the empty bottles/cans, mostly inside grocery stores, you get your deposit back (8-25 cents per bottle to use as a coupon inside the store). Usually all supermarkets have returning machines (Pfandautomat).

You can recognize eligible bottles/cans by looking at the label, usually situated near the barcode. It will say “Pfand-Glas”, “Pfand-Flasche” or “Mehrwegflasche” or include this logo:

Other Items

Batteries also need to be disposed separately in grocery stores. They have special containers for the disposal of batteries, usually near the bottle return machines or at the entrance or exit of the store.

Papenburg

Visit this link to learn more about recycling in Papenburg.

If your apartment doesn’t have a waste pick up calendar, you can see the schedule by visiting https://www.awb-emsland.de/service/abfuhrkalender/. Scroll down slightly, select your location (Ort), street (Straße) and house number (Hausnummer). The final field (Hausnummerzusatz) is only mandatory to fill in if you have a house number with a letter, e.g. 7a, which should be noted within this field. After selecting everything, press “weiter” and you will be presented with your waste pick-up calendar.

Bigger items, such as electronics or furniture, or anything that can’t be recycled in the above categories can be brought to the waste deposit center Wertstoffhof. Please note the opening hours are limited.

Wismar

EVB is the service provider in Wismar for waste disposal.  Please visit https://www.evb-wismar.de/entsorgung/abfuhrtermine and enter your street name to verify the most up-to-date waste collection dates. 

Bigger items, such as electronics or furniture, or anything that can’t be recycled in the above categories can be brought to the Müggenburg waste management yard. Please note the opening hours are limited.

In most European countries, both emergency services and/or the police use 112 as the emergency number.

In case of an emergency, go to the nearest hospital or call 112. This number works across Europe, even on most locked mobile phones. You are able to tell them what happened in English and they will call the police, an ambulance, or the fire brigade depending on what is required.

Medical Treatment

If you want to see a doctor or dentist, you can choose the one you prefer. When doing so, they will ask you for your health insurance card (if it is not available, a confirmation from the health insurance company is sufficient). Crew Members will receive information about their medical insurance from the VCT Onboarding team. There is no limit on the cost of medical treatments; health insurance covers most of the medication costs.

Most doctors’ offices are open from around 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. If you need non-emergency medical assistance after hours, call 116117. They will let you know which doctor’s office is on standby duty or send a doctor to you.

In Wismar, there are several clinics available; you may wish to consider  the below options:

Pharmacy

Marked with a large red A, the German word is “Apotheke”. Prescription and over-the-counter medication is only available in pharmacies. You will be able to find the “pharmaceuticals” in the supermarket, which usually are food supplements or herbal mixtures. For most prescription drugs, you should expect to pay up to 10 Euros, while the rest is covered by your health insurance. Pharmacies have regular operating hours; there is a stand-by service outside of regular hours. Which pharmacy is currently open and closest to your location can be found online at https://www.aponet.de/apotheke/notdienstsuche . Once you enter your city, a map will show you which pharmacy is available at the moment, and where it is located. You can find this information in the local newspaper as well. Standby costs a little more than at regular operating hours.

If you have any further questions regarding medical treatment throughout Germany, please speak with the local Manager of Human Resources.

Living in a new country can be challenging, especially if you do not speak the native language. We’ve provided a list of key German phrases below to help you with your move to Germany.

It may be helpful to download a translation app to your phone to look up key phrases. Some apps, such as Google Translate, offer the ability to translate using your phone's camera, which may be useful for menus, signs, and labels, for example.  If you have any further questions, please also feel free to ask any of your German-speaking co-workers.