Additional cruise vessel for MSC

The latest Meraviglia-Plus class ship will carry 6,300 passengers in 2,400 cabins and have a crew of 1,700. It will be 331.4m long and 43m wide. The announcement of the order was made at the first steel cutting ceremony for the fourth Meraviglia class vessel which is named MSC Virtuosa.
The latest ship ordered, the fifth in the series, will be delivered in 2023 and will be fitted with a new generation of dual-fuel engines designed to run on liquefied natural gas (LNG). It will have a service speed of 21.4 knots. The vessel will also feature an advanced waste water treatment system to make sure regulatory standards are followed. This will enable operations in regions with higher environmental protection standards including the Baltic Sea. Mr Pierfrancesco Vago, MSC Cruises’ Executive Chairman, said: “Our fifth Meraviglia-class cruise ship will bring a new generation of cutting-edge environmental technology to the market, benefiting from a new generation of LNG-powered engines. This will help us further reduce our environmental footprint and advance in our journey of constant improvement.” The fifth ship in the class will be an identical design to MSC Meraviglia which only entered service in 2017. In March 2019 the second in the class named MSC Bellisima will be delivered and in November 2019 the first of the larger Meraviglia-Plus class ships named MSC Grandiosa will arrive. In total the cruise line has nine cruise ships being constructed or on order not including the newly announced fifth Meraviglia class.