Tag Archives: MSC Cruises

MSC Orchestra’s arrival in Singapore marks MSC Cruises’ first foray into Asia

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MSC Orchestra sailing in Asian waters

MSC Cruises made its first foray into Asia Thursday, a region it described as ‘the new trendy area of cruising and the future area of growth’.

Welcoming some 200 passengers on board, MSC Cruises ceo Gianni Onorato said: ‘This is a historic moment in our company’s journey – the first time an MSC Cruises ship has called at the magnificent city of Singapore. In fact, all 13 ports of call on MSC Orchestra’s pioneering grand voyage are firsts for MSC Cruises.’

He added: ‘We are in Singapore to show how firmly we believe in the Asian market’s potential, which is only going to grow further in the foreseeable future.’

Speaking to Seatrade Insider, Onorato disclosed: ‘We will be deploying into Asia and need to decide when. We will perhaps go to North Asia with one of our newbuilds.’

Neeta Lachmandas, assistant chief executive, business development group, Singapore Tourism Board, also lauded the move, saying: ‘This development is testament to the potential of Southeast Asia,’

She said cruise is a high growth business with a lot of opportunities and this growth is led by Asia where now some 52 ships are deployed and including nine year-round deployments.

A Boston Consulting Group study had shown that 60% of spending is going to come from Asia by 2020, she said.

‘Southeast Asia is a cruising playground in its own right – with over 25,000 islands and diverse attractions ranging from cosmopolitan cities to pristine beaches and UNESCO Heritage sites. We are excited that travellers from all over the world will get to experience so much of Asia through MSC Orchestra,’ she added.

MSC Cruises executive director for emerging markets, Antonio Paradiso, said: ‘MSC Cruises has grown 800% since 2004. In 2014, we carried 40,000 guests per day on our fleet of 12 ships, and with up to seven new ships in two state-of-the-art prototypes coming online by 2022 we’ll double our current capacity. We used to carry 80,000 guests per year at the start and we’ll carry 80,000 guests a day at the end of our investment plan. This growth will unlock fresh opportunities, including new markets and regions, and untried itineraries.’

The 2,550-passenger MSC Orchestra is currently undertaking a 33-night voyage from Dubai to Perth, Australia. The ship will call 13 ports in eight countries across three continents. Singapore is the sixth port of call on the journey.

After an overnight stay, MSC Orchestra will sail for Benoa in Bali followed by four sea days before arriving in Cairns, Australia.

MSC Orchestra’s time Down Under covers maiden calls in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, before her final destination of Fremantle, the port serving Perth.

While MSC Orchestra marked the first time an MSC Cruises’ ship has called in Asia, the line has been carrying Asian cruisers for a period of time, particularly in the Mediterranean and the Arabian Gulf. ‘We are the biggest importers of Asian cruisers in the world,’ Onorato said.

For cruise lines, weddings mean varying locales, regulations

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A bridal couple aboard the MSC Divina.
In 1998, Princess Cruises introduced weddings at sea to the cruise industry, with the captain tying the knot aboard the Grand Princess. Since then, weddings aboard cruise ships have become an industry unto themselves, with cruise lines offering three types of legal weddings, plus symbolic ceremonies.

And last year, Celebrity Cruises introduced civil unions at sea for same-sex couples.

Weddings at sea are actually the least common of the three cruise-related ceremonies, according to wedding expert Barbara Whitehill, managing director of Imagine Weddings and Events and the Wedding Experience. Whitehill’s company runs the wedding programs for Carnival Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises, MSC Cruises, Crystal Cruises and Costa Cruises. She has also handled the wedding programs of Royal Caribbean International, Norwegian Cruise Line and Princess.

“Everybody does weddings when the ship is in the embarkation port or in one of the destinations or shore-side in the destination,” she said.

Cruise wedding products vary by cruise line.

For example, Celebrity, Cunard, Royal Caribbean and Princess do legal weddings at sea. But Carnival, which does about 2,600 weddings annually, does weddings only in ports or destinations. Seabourn does no weddings at all.

Some cruise lines do both symbolic ceremonies and weddings at sea, while other lines do only symbolic ceremonies at sea.

Weddings conducted in the port of embarkation or at a port of call on a ship’s itinerary are conducted under the auspices of local laws, while weddings at sea are conducted according to the laws of the country under which the ship is registered. Typically cruise ships are flagged by the Bahamas or Bermuda, but they can be flagged by other countries, as well.

Celebrity is registered in Malta, which legalized same-sex civil unions on April 14.

All this means that couples can get married in a variety of exotic locales that, depending on the cruise line and the itinerary, can range from the beach to glaciers.

Couples can get married in European castles, on a gondola in Venice or in a white-topped villa overlooking the Aegean. But there are limits and little standardization.

“It completely varies,” Whitehill said.

Couples on international itineraries can get married at sea as long as they’re on a cruise line that offers weddings at sea and the ship is in international waters.

While some countries and ports are easier than others, Whitehill said the experience varies not just from country to country but from port to port.

For example, Santorini weddings can only be on land, not on the ship. That is because the mayor of Santorini performs the wedding and he only does them on land. Some destinations require couples to spend a certain amount of time in the destination before the wedding and do paperwork on site, while others do not.

Laws vary from island to island in the Caribbean. As islands realized the potential of destination wedding products, many changed their laws to capitalize on the trend. Some islands revamped their laws so they’re the same for locals and visitors; others created laws to accommodate tourists that don’t apply to locals, Whitehill said.

Even symbolic ceremonies can vary from destination to destination. For example, in Grand Cayman, a same-sex couple can have a symbolic ceremony onboard the ship but not on shore.

Getting married in a U.S. port of embarkation offers the advantage of including guests who are not going to go on the cruise. They can attend the ceremony, then disembark before the ship sails.

In states in which same-sex marriage is legal, same-sex couples can be legally married onboard the ship in port under the laws of that state.

The stretching of MSC Sinfonia is underway

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MSC Cruises’ €200m Renaissance Program will see the second ship in drydock for the next 10 weeks as the MSC Sinfonia arrived in Sicily for her stretching.

Fincantieri’s marine engineers will carefully bisect MSC Sinfonia’s hull, after which the two halves of the ships will be slowly drawn apart.

On January 20-21 they will insert a prebuilt 2,200-ton, 24-metre midsection containing 193 extra cabins. Then they will refit and renew much of the ship’s interior, bringing an enhanced sense of comfort and space.

On Jan. 9, the new midsection was floated into the shipyard and hauled into the drydock area where MSC Sinfonia will remain for the duration of her stay.

Once the work is complete and sea trials completed, the larger MSC Sinfonia will weigh anchor from the shipyard on March 25 for Genoa, from where she’ll begin for her maiden cruise to Ajaccio, Barcelona and Marseille.

MSC Sinfonia will feature new purpose-built areas for children created in partnership with Chicco and LEGO,  and a new Baby Club, Mini Club, Young Club and Teens Club. MSC Cruises has also reimagined the onboard dining experiences, keeping the buffet open 20 hours per day and installing fresh new dining spaces, a brand new lounge and an extended restaurant.

The ship’s MSC Aurea Spa will also be enriched with additional massage areas, and a new outdoor spray park will be added on deck 13 – an exciting series of playful water features and jets.

The remainder of the Renaissance Program will progress according to the following schedule:

•    MSC Opera: 2 May to 4 July 2015
•    MSC Lirica: 31 August to 2 November 2015

MSC Cruises currently carries roughly 40,000 guests per day, but by 2022 will double its capacity to 80,000 guests a day – 3.4 million per year – once the Renaissance Programme is completed and the last of seven planned ships is delivered.