MSC Cruises are to build two new cruise ships for delivery in 2017 and 2018, and judging from the recently released artists impressions they are promising a revolutionary new design to incorporate a sea-level promenade. They say to‘bring the beach to the sea on MSC!’

MSC claim the ships, costing €700 million each, will be built with ‘revolutionary’ architecture, aimed at making an unsually large area of exterior deck space accessible to passengers.

Overall the 154,000-ton ships will have 43,500 m² of public areas including a sea-level promenade. Employing cantilever technology, the promenade deck will be significantly wider than the norm and will also feature a large theatre, a terraced balcony and panoramic sea-view lifts to take passengers from the lower “outside” area to the upper without the need to go inside the ship.

UK and Ireland managing director Giles Hawke described it as ‘very South Beach’ adding, ‘the idea is to bring passengers closer to sea level so that they feel as if they are at the beach.

Looks fantastic to me – what do you think?