Look who’s getting christened in Southampton

It has been announced this week that MSC Bellissima will be christened in the UK when the ship launches next year. The ship will be in Southampton from 1-3 March 2019 and she will be officially christened on 2nd March. This will be the first time an MSC ship has been christened in Southampton and only the 2nd MSC  ship to be christened here in the UK since MSC Poesia in Dover in 2008.

Sophia Loren has been godmother to all of the previous MSC ships but the Godmother for Bellissima has still  to be announced. Bellissima will be the sister ship to  Meraviglia which launched in June 2017, and which I had the pleasure of sailing on in November 17, and had an amazing time. There will be a few differences between the 2 ships with Bellissima having a new French Bistro dining concept and British brands like Radley being sold in the shops onboard. Another new concept the ship will have is that Amazon Alexa style virtual assistants will be installed in every cabin so that passengers can ask requests about onboard services and get an instant response. I hope they wont be as random as the one I have at home that randomly starts playing a song when it picks up certain noises or words!

So why are ships christened? The ceremony of christening new ships began a long time ago and by the 1800’s the christenings began to follow a pattern . A “christening fluid” would be poured against the bow of the ship, though it wasn’t always wine or champagne. These became public events with large crowds attending to watch the ceremony. Tradition also has it that it is a female that has to do the honours and is meant to wish the ship luck and safe sailings. It is supposed to be bad luck if the bottle doesn’t smash and in in 2007 the Duchess of Cornwall failed to smash a bottle on the hull of Queen Victoria but thankfully she has completed all her voyages without a hitch.

Would you be superstitious if you sailed on a ship that christening didn’t go to plan?


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With the better half! Hello There, Well now my blog has had a makeover I thought I had better update the details about me. It doesn't seem like 5 minutes since I was writing about myself for the first time but that was nearly 5 1/2  years ago, they do say time…

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