Tag Archives: stx france

MSC Cruises Officially Receives MSC Meraviglia

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MSC Meraviglia

 MSC Cruises officially took delivery of MSC Meraviglia.

During the ship’s flag ceremony, the ship received her official flag and blessings for good fortune. The ceremony was attended by Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic and other high-level dignitaries from the French government.

MSC Cruises said it estimates that its total investment at STX France from 2003 to 2020 will amount to over 7 billion euros, effectively making the company the country’s number one foreign private investor.

Following her christening ceremony, which will take place in Le Havre on June 3, MSC Meraviglia will start her inaugural season sailing the Western Mediterranean.

“MSC Meraviglia’s coming into service marks a key milestone in the history and future of our Company,” said Pierfrancesco Vago, Executive Chairman of MSC Cruises. “She represents the first realization of our long-term vision for further significant growth, which, in its first phase, culminated with MSC Cruises becoming two years ago the number one cruise brand across all of Europe, while on its way to further global growth.”

“Above all, we must celebrate the work of everyone: from all the workers of our partner STX France to MSC Cruises’ New Builds Team, each and every supplier and sub-supplier who has contributed to turning our vision into reality as well as everyone at MSC who has worked ashore and on board on this amazing project. A galvanized team of up to 3,000 workers a month and over 400 suppliers, built over the past three years the largest and most technologically advanced cruise ship ever constructed by a European ship owner. This is worth celebrating!” added Vago.

Marcon at STX France

“Delivering a ship is always a time of great emotion for the shipyard: it is the culmination of three years of intense work for our employees and those of our partners, who have spared no effort to deliver on the exact date and in the quality conditions desired by our client MSC Cruises, this first ship of the Meraviglia class,” said Laurent Castaing, CEO of STX France. “Benefiting from our advances in R&D from the “Ship of the Future” program supported by ADEME, this prototype is a great achievement that we can all be proud of and which allows us to look confidently at the next three ships.”

During today’s flag ceremony, the shipyard’s pennant and the French flag were lowered, accompanied by the French national anthem, before Laurent Castaing, CEO of STX France, formally handed the ship over to MSC Cruises’ owner Gianluigi Aponte.

Aponte then gave command of MSC Meraviglia to Master Raffaele Pontecorvo before the ship’s flag and MSC Cruises’ pennant were raised.

The honor of cutting the ribbon fell to the ceremony’s godmother, Zoe Africa Vago, daughter of MSC Cruises’ Executive Chairman and Alexa Aponte-Vago, MSC Group’s CFO. After the traditional breaking of the bottle of champagne, three blasts from the ship’s siren signaled the end of the ceremony.

From Celebrity, wind of change

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The Celebrity Edge Stateroom Concept.
I suppose a 90-ton platform that hangs over the side of a ship and moves over the span of 14 decks is impressive, but there’s another marvel of technology on Celebrity Cruises’ new Edge-class ships that shouldn’t be overlooked.

The Edge-class cabins will have hair dryers in the bathroom.

What’s the big deal, you ask?  Isn’t just about every hotel room in the civilized world so-equipped?

Exactly the point.

I’m not 100% positive that Edge is the first with this cutting, er, edge equipment, but I can say that to the best of my memory, none of the ocean ships I’ve been on recently have had them.

Instead, there’s usually a dryer in the drawer of a bureau, or in a cloth bag sitting on a cabinet shelf, for use in the cabin itself. A few older ships have low-powered dryers fastened to the wall.

I don’t know exactly why wiring cruise cabins for hair dryers has been such a difficult challenge. I do know that the problem goes back a long time.

Vicki Freed, senior vice president of sales, trade support and services at Royal Caribbean International, once looked back on how the industry has changed and recalled that when she worked at Carnival Cruise Line in the 1970s, she couldn’t plug in a hair dryer in any outlet in her cabin.

Carnival solved the problem by designating a cabin on each deck as a blow-dry suite and wiring it specially so that the appliances wouldn’t blow all of the circuit breakers that they normally would have.

Cruise lines eventually figured out how to wire the cabin for portable hair dryers, but not the bathrooms.

Most of the appliances that are going to be plugged into a cruise ship cabin outlet don’t draw as much wattage as a hair dryer, which can pull as much as 2,500 watts. That’s more than a coffee maker or a toaster (not that they’re allowed) and way more than a laptop computer, which only draws about 100 watts.

That much power consumption can use up a lot of the capacity of a typical household electrical circuit.

Most cruise ship bathrooms don’t have any outlets at all, except for one that is limited to electric shavers, which consume about 20 watts. Lighting is about the only electrical application in the bath.

That has left cruise passengers perched on an upholstered stool, their knees shoved into a little cubby space beneath the desk, in a posture that may or may not be comfortable, at the mirror above the desk in their cabin trying to dry their hair before a gala night out at some specialty restaurant.

So three cheers for the bright engineer at Celebrity or STX France that has figured out the age-old hair dryer in the bathroom problem. That’s progress we can all believe in.

MSC Cruises to develop LNG bunkering system with ARTA

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MSC Seaside

MSC Cruises is to develop an LNG bunkering system for its cruise ships after striking a partnership with ARTA.

The two companies revealed their new partnership at the 2017 LNG Bunkering Summit in Amsterdam, where they said they would create a tailor-made LNG bunkering system that takes full account of the cruise industry’s specific needs.

MSC Cruises LNG project director Yves Bui said: “With up to four LNG-powered cruise ships scheduled to join our fleet, we are highly committed to developing the best possible technologies and systems to support the introduction of LNG to cruising. In ARTA, we have found a partner that matches our focus on innovation and the best maritime technology at sea and that understands our industry’s specific needs.”

The result is a system that features a newly developed coupling and decoupling mechanism and a double-walled hose that will allow MSC Cruises to conduct bunkering operations without disrupting the activities taking place on board the ship.

Andreas von Keitz, managing director of manufacturer of gas and liquid transfer solutions ARTA added: “We are exceptionally pleased with the new system we have developed to suit the cruise industry’s specific bunkering needs. Thanks to our partnership with MSC Cruises we have been able to fully understand these needs and have put over 40 years of our bunkering engineering experience to good use. The result is a technologically advanced solution that will help ensure that the double-wall principle is maintained across the entire LNG bunkering supply chain.”

MSC Cruises and STX France signed a letter of intent last June to build  up to four LNG-fuelled cruise ships – part of the company’s plan for 11 new next-generation cruise ships over the next 10 years.

The first LNG-powered vessel is scheduled for delivery in 2022.