MSC Cruises will officially name a ship in the United Kingdom for the first time in over a decade in 2019.
MSC Bellissima will be christened in Southampton on March 2, next year with about 3,000 British and Irish agents invited during a 3-day celebration.
Managing director UK and Ireland, Antonio Paradiso, said he believed that the move would see Bellissima become the biggest ship ever to be christened in the United Kingdom.
The Meraviglia-class ship will sail her maiden voyage out of Southampton to Genoa a couple of days later. The last MSC Cruises ship to be named in the United Kingdom was MSC Poesia in Dover 2008.
Bellissima will become the 4th mega-ship of MSC Cruises to come into service in less than 3 years since 2017 as part of a twelve-ship, 10-year EUR 10.5 billion investment programme.