Fast-growing MSC Cruises to bring third ship to Miami
MONFALCONE, Italy -- Get ready to hear a lot more about MSC Cruises in North America.
The Europe-based line plans a big expansion in the region that includes the deployment of a third ship to Miami, the company's top executive revealed Thursday.
Speaking at a ceremony at a Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy, MSC Cruises executive chairman Pierfrancesco Vago said the company would deploy one of its new Meraviglia Class vessels to Miami in 2019.
Scheduled to begin debuting this year, MSC's Meraviglia Class ships will be the line's biggest ever at 167,600 tons. They'll hold 4,500 passengers at double occupancy.
The Meraviglia Class ship heading to Miami in 2019 will join two other MSC vessels that by then will be operating out of the city: The five-year-old MSC Divina, which currently sails to the Caribbean year-round from Miami, and the soon-to-debut MSC Seaside.
New cruise ships for 2017: MSC Seaside
Under construction here at the Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone, Seaside will head straight to Miami after completion in November, becoming the line's second ship based year-round in North America. Like Divina, it will sail to the Caribbean.
Vago didn't say whether the Meraviglia Class ship heading to Miami would remain in the city year-round or only during winters.
Vago hinted the line would devote even more capacity to North America in the next few years as it rolled out two new "Meraviglia Plus" vessels that are even bigger than the Meraviglia Class ships. The Meraviglia Plus vessels are due in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
"With the two Meraviglia Plus vessels set to join our fleet ... (our presence in North America) will grow well beyond what we are officially announcing today," Vago said.
Currently operating 12 ships, MSC is in the midst of a massive growth spurt that includes the addition of at least 11 more ships by 2026. The company's passenger capacity is set to nearly triple over the coming decade.
A giant of cruising in Europe, MSC has had a relatively small presence in North America until now. Until recently, it only deployed a single ship to the market for part of the year, and it has far less name recognition in North America than such U.S.-based rivals as Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Norwegian. But Vago suggested all that was about to change.
"We are here to (announce) the big entrance to the North American market," he said at the ceremony, which took place just a few hundred feet away from the dock where Seaside is under construction. "We want to become in North America a mainstream, recognized brand."
Seaside, notably, is being tailored to the North American market like no other MSC ship. Its exterior architecture and pool decks will boast a Miami Beach vibe that's designed to fit right in to its new home. While international in flavor, its on-board offerings will have elements that will be familiar to North Americans such as a Pan-Asian restaurant by celebrity chef Roy Yamaguchi.
In a sign of MSC's seriousness about pushing into the North American market in a big way, Seaside will be christened in December in Miami -- the first time an MSC ship has been christened in North America.
Vago spoke at a traditional coin ceremony for MSC Seaview, a sister ship to Seaside that is scheduled to debut in 2018. Dating back to ancient times, coin ceremonies take place at shipyards early in the construction of vessels and involve the welding of ceremonial coins to their keels.
During Thursday's event, two commemorative coins were welded to an initial block of Seaside's keel. A giant, 600-ton crane then lifted the block off the ground and slowly maneuvered it into a nearby dry dock where construction of the ship will continue.
