MSC Seaview Christened in Genoa

Posted on 11 June, 2018 by Spacejunkie2

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MSC Christening in Genoa.

The MSC Seaview was christened on Saturday in Genoa in front of MSC executives, VIPs and key travel partners.

The Seaview will spend the summer in Europe before the 4,140 guest ship moves to Brazil for the winter.

Gianluigi Aponte, MSC Group’s founder and executive chairman as well as the shipowner, attended the ceremony together with the Aponte and Aponte-Vago families.

The christening ceremony was hosted by the star of Italian TV, Swiss-born Michelle Hunziker who welcomed to the stage the “father of Italian blues” Zucchero Fornaciari.

TV star Lorella Cuccarini hosted a special moment on stage, and Italian children’s choir, Piccolo Coro Dell’Antoniano, performed as the UNICEF ambassadors.

Also taking to the stage was the young talent of belcanto, Matteo Bocelli, son of the world-famous Andrea Bocelli who sang at the christening of MSC Seaside, MSC Seaview’s sister ship in Miami last December.

Godmother Sophia Loren cut the ribbon to officially name Fincantieri-built MSC Seaview, the 13th MSC Cruises ship.

Also present at the ceremony was Ramon Freixa, the Spanish two Michelin-starred chef who has now extended his partnership with MSC Cruises to develop his first restaurant at sea onboard MSC Seaview. Pan-Asian chef Roy Yamaguchi, attended his second MSC Cruises’ ship christening to celebrate his second restaurant at sea, with his first launching on MSC Seaside. Other stars in attendance included Spanish model and actor Jon Kortajarena, Brazilian presenter and actor Giovanna Ewbank and French television personality Ariane Brodier.

Largest Cruise Companies Projecting Significant 10-Year Annual Capacity Growth

Posted on 16 April, 2018 by Spacejunkie2

MSC Magnifica.

The five largest cruise companies are projected to see dramatic capacity growth over the next 10 years, ranging from 114 percent for MSC Cruises to 36 percent for Royal Caribbean Cruises.

The projections are based on new ships to be introduced and known ship withdrawals and deployment changes.

Carnival Corporation is expected to grow its annual passenger capacity from approximately 11.1 million to 15.8 million passengers, for a 42 percent increase, and the largest industry-wide hike in terms of actual passengers, 4.7 million more passengers over 10 years.

MSC will see the second largest estimated increase in terms of actual passenger capacity, going from 2.1 million to 4.6 million, an increase of 2.5 million passengers, or 114 percent.

Royal Caribbean is projected to grow its annual passenger capacity from approximately 6.2 million to 8.4 million passengers, for 2.2 million more passengers, an increase of about 36 percent.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings will see its capacity go from 2.5 million to 3.5 million, climbing 1 million, a 40 percent increase.

Genting Hong Kong will grow its capacity from 1.2 million passengers to 2.0 million, for a 66 percent increase.

The largest industry-wide growth year will be 2020 with global passenger capacity increasing 7.9 percent from the previous year.

MSC Cruises Investing for Digital Experience Aboard

Posted on 4 April, 2018 by Spacejunkie2

Luca Pronzati, chief business innovation officer at MSC Cruises, has spearheaded the company’s innovative MSC for Me app, including its new digital personal assistant which will debut next year. Much of his job has been looking at consumer and guest data to better adapt new technologies in the correct (shipboard) manner.

“The ships are becoming bigger and navigation within the ship is becoming somewhat difficult, especially for first-timers, which are still a big part of our customer base,” he said.

Thus, the company’s MSC for Me app has been linked to thousands of sensors across the ships to give guests their exact location, and potential directions to where they want to go.

Investments are also being made to provide the best experience to the cruise guest.

“It’s all about the experience for the customer. They expect a certain speed and kind of connection and we want to offer that,” said Pronzati. “In order to be prepared, we are investing. We are still struggling in getting the right satellite (bandwidth), but once we do, everything will be even better, elevating the experience we already have.”