MSC Cruises christened its newest ship this weekend, celebrating the 5,331-passenger MSC Seaview during an over the top ceremony in Genoa. The huge new ship will now spend the summer sailing the Mediterranean—including ports like Barcelona, Marseille, Naples, and Valletta—before crossing the Atlantic to spend the winter in Brazil, sailing from the city of Santos, near São Paulo.
It’s the latest mega-ship from MSC, which specializes in family-friendly cruises that are hugely popular in Europe but perhaps a bit less known here in the U.S. Of course, MSC is trying to change that: A sister ship to Seaview, the MSC Seaside, arrived in Miami in December 2017 and has been sailing the Caribbean ever since. The company took fourth place, ahead of stalwarts like Holland America and Celebrity, in Condé Nast Traveler’s 2017 Readers’ Choice Awards for best large-ship line.
While the Seaview’s not necessarily a record setter in terms of size—at 1,059 feet long, it’s a shade smaller than the world’s largest cruise ship, Royal Caribbean's Symphony of the Seas—it is a quintessential example of how much a ship can offer these days. Onboard, Seaview has seemingly endless stateroom categories (many with balconies), ten restaurants, 19 bars, water slides, pools, a wrap-around boardwalk that offers plenty of outdoor space, kids clubs, even bowling alleys. Among the restaurants are two concepts from Roy Yamaguchi, the Asian fusion pioneer behind the Roy's Restaurant chain, and the first-ever cruise ship restaurant from Ramón Freixa, who holds two Michelin stars for his eponymous restaurant at the Hotel Único Madrid.
If that’s still not enough for you, MSC promises to up the ante in coming years: Its still-in-development World Class ships are slated to arrive in 2022 and 2023. They’ll be among the world’s largest, with room for 6,850 guests each—and we’re guessing even more stuff to do onboard.
By Paul Brady, Conde Nast Traveler
Re-posted on CruiseCrazies.com - Cruise News, Articles, Forums, Packing List, Ship Tracker, and more
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Edited by Jason
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