MSC Seaview Christened in Genoa

Jason · June 13, 2018

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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ExpatCruise · June 13, 2018

I'm sure it is a great ship. But like the new Royal Ship just put into service it is just two big, with two many passengers. I just do not believe they give a good all cruise vacation, unless you like cattle calls.

And while it is rare in a emergency I do not believe they are safe. The strict safety standards under SOLAS for lifeboats and deploying them cannot be met by guests is a abandon ship is called for. The rules require lifeboats to be loaded and launched within 30 minutes of a signal to abandon ship. And while this maybe is possible using hand selected passengers, it can never happen on a ship with 7000 plus souls on the ship

Jan115 · June 15, 2018

Not only is it humongous, but it doesn’t even look like a ship. Even the Epic’s Haven sitting on top of the ship like a giant block bothered me. Let’s bring back the ships where you feel like you’re on, well, a cruise ship!

Edited June 16, 2018 by Jan115

Shari2 · June 16, 2018

Have to agree with you both!

ExpatCruise · June 16, 2018

16 hours ago, Jan115 said:

Not only is it humongous, but it doesn’t even look like a ship. Even the Epic’s Haven sitting on top of the ship like a giant block bothered me. Let’s bring back the ships where you feel like you’re on, well, a cruise ship!

It is becasue "Cruise Ships" today are really not design to be ocean going ships. Lets face facts, they are floating bath tubs with a hotel resort on top of them. They are design to be a resort for guests, that happen to float on claim waters. It is all about maximum passengers, more balcony cabins, bigger and more for the guest.

Look at true ocean liners or ships built for trans ocean trips they do not look like the average cruise ship today. And while some cruise ships are very large, they are also very top heavy. But the largest cruise ships in the world in a the middle of a class 4 hurricane and they will not come out in good shape, unlike real ships which have been through the middle of these storms.

Even the largest ships in the World are very very small in a major storm. That is why cruise lines run away from storms. The SS United States was a true ocean liner at 54,000 GT it was more stable in seas than the most advance modern cruise liner today is. And the SS United States went into service in 1951, almost 70 years ago, if she was still operational she would run circles around today's cruise ships in any weather, with a cruising speed 150% of the average current cruise ships.