The first ship in MSC Cruises’ new Meraviglia Plus class will be named MSC Grandiosa, Executive Chairman Pierfrancesco Vago said during two back-to-back ceremonies that marked key construction milestones for two of the line’s upcoming new cruise ships.
Held at STX France, the two events celebrated the coin ceremony for MSC Bellissima, the second ship in the line’s new Meraviglia class, and the steel cutting ceremony for MSC Grandiosa, the first ship in the line’s new Meraviglia Plus class. The two ships are due to launch in March 2019 and November 2019, respectively.
At the event Vago said that the MSC Grandiosa would sail with a new “fine art museum at sea,” and that it would be the third of four MSC Cruises ships to include the Cirque du Soleil at Sea concept, hosted in the custom-built Carousel Lounge. The two ships will also incorporate a number of sustainability features, including hybrid exhaust gas cleaning systems, SCR-Catalysts, updated waste management and recycling capabilities, emission-reducing energy and heat recovery systems and advanced wastewater treatment.
The Meraviglia Plus class of ships builds on the line’s new Meraviglia class, which includes the MSC Meraviglia that launched in June 2017 and the MSC Bellissima. They will have a maximum capacity of 6,334 guests, as well as a number of new original shows. A total of eight shows will be exclusively available on MSC Cruises’ Meraviglia and Meraviglia-plus generation ships. Each of the four ships will sail with two brand new contrasting shows, with the first two debuted on MSC Meraviglia in June this year. Creative work is underway on two more shows for MSC Bellissima.
MSC Cruises currently has four new cruise ships under construction – MSC Seaside, MSC Seaview, MSC Bellissima and MSC Grandiosa – with the MSC Seaside set to be delivered in two weeks in Miami. The line’s overall $10 billion investment plan calls for six out of a total of 11 new ships to come into service between June 2017 and November 2020, more than doubling MSC Cruises’ fleet capacity in three and a half years.
Sales are currently open for MSC Bellissima’s inaugural summer season in the Mediterranean, while the opening of sales for MSC Grandiosa is set to be announced soon.
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