MSC Cruises on Thursday (November 18) celebrated the float out of the line's next flagship MSC Seascape at Fincantieri's Monfalcone shipyard (near Trieste Italy), a traditional event as the shipowner and the shipbuilder of a newbuild come together to witness the vessel touch water for the very first time.
MSC Seascape (scheduled for delivery in November 2022) is the 2nd Seaside-EVO class boat to enter the MSC fleet, and the 4th in the general Seaside class.
According to Pierfrancesco Vago (MSC's Executive Chairman), the float out marked yet another significant milestone in the growth of their fleet, and the vessel would "pay homage to the oceans through yet another host of highly innovative maritime and design features."
“We have continued with our ambitious newbuild plans, in spite of the pandemic, and today is a double celebration for MSC as our next flagship MSC Seascape is floated out into water simultaneously as her sister ship MSC Seashore is officially named at our very own private island, Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve.
“MSC Seascape – together with MSC Seashore – features some of the latest environmental technologies and solutions to minimize her impact on the environment which will help us take a further step forward towards realising our ambition of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050”.
With GT tonnage/volume 169,400 tons, MSC Seascape has max passenger capacity 5877 (plus ~1650 crew), 19 decks (12 passenger-accessible, 11 with cabins), 2270 staterooms, 13000+ m2 (~140000 ft2) of outdoor deck space.
Seascape’s sistership MSC Seashore was simultaneously named at Ocean Cay (MSC's private island in The Bahamas), the first official naming ceremony for a cruise ship held at a private island. The ceremony also marked the formal inauguration of Ocean Cay which opened in late 2019 but closed temporarily due to the global COVID crisis.
Seascape and Seashore have ~70% of their public spaces redesigned (in comparison to the original Seaside class) in order to enhance the onboard vacation experience.