Four Ships For MSC

Italian cruise line MSC have just announced that they are planning to build  four new ” World Class ” ships to be launched in 2022. To quote MSC Executive Chairman Pierfrancesco Vago ” “The new MSC Cruise World Class prototype will feature – amongst other highly innovative elements – a futuristic design that will maximise the open space available to our guests.”

The new ships will be 200000 tone with around 2700 cabins and carry 5400 guests, innovative in design and technology they aim to also be environmentally friendly too. They will be ships designed to sail all over the world. MSC already have 2 Meraviglia Class ships and 3 Seaside Class ships starting to enter service in 2017, with another 2 Meraviglia Plus Class  arriving from 2019 onwards. This will make MSC probably the most modern fleet sailing today with 11 new ships over the next 10 years at a unbelievable cost of over 9 billions euros! They must have money to burn!

I have sailed on the beautiful MSC Magnifica and she is a truly stunning ship, and no expense has been spared on her both inside an out. She is probably on of the most opulent ships I have seen, take a look at the Tiger Bar you would almost think it was real! If it looks like marble on these ships it will be the real thing. We only had an inside cabin on her but one thing I remember clearly is how well soundproofed it was, perfect for a good nights sleep.

So would you choose MSC? Slendida sails out of Southampton this year going to Northern Europe, their prices are really  good and MSC are brilliant for children with good facilities and probably the lowest child fares in the cruise market, making it an excellent choice for families and no flights to worry about either.

The thing you have to remember about MSC though is they are an Italian Cruise Line, its not going to be like P&O or Fred Olsen where 99.9% of the passengers are British. This is like being in Italy – but on water. Things happen later , the Italian`s are quite noisy and formal dress tends ot be designer formal rather than ball gowns and black ties. As long as you are fine with that it could be the perfect cruise !