During the winter 1899/1900, Kaiser Friedrich remained in Hamburg where repairs were undertaken by the well-known shipyards of Blohm & Voss, mainly for increasing the number of cabin passengers, as well as its cargo capacity. At the start of the new travel season, on 30 March 1900, the ship set off from Southampton to New York City. This departure marked the beginning of the most stable and successful period of the liner's operating life, since HAPAG was not interested in breaking speed records and since taking delivery of SS Deutschland was soon expected, the speed of Kaiser Friedrich was deemed more than sufficient by the company.
