MSC Group’s Cruise Division on Wednesday, November 16, officially took delivery from Fincantieri of the new flagship MSC Seascape in the presence of Hon. Matteo Salvini, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Sustainable Infrastructure and Mobility.
The ship is the 21st to join the MSC fleet. Seascape is also the 4th to have been built by Fincantieri as part of a EUR 7 billion investment package for 10 liners. The shipyard will also build 6 new ships for the luxury travel brand of MSC, Explora Journeys.
MSC Seascape is the largest/most technologically advanced cruise ship ever constructed in Italy and features major innovations from an environmental perspective.
The handover ceremony was held at Fincantieri’s Monfalcone shipyard and attended by Anna Maria Cisint (Mayor of Monfalcone), Massimiliano Fedriga (President of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region), Admiral Nicola Carlone (Commandant of the Port Authorities), Pierfrancesco Vago (Executive Chairman of the MSC Group’s Cruise Division), Gianluigi Aponte (Founder & Chairman of the MSC Group), the ship’s godmother Zoe Africa Vago, and for Fincantieri General Claudio Graziano and Pierroberto Folgiero (Chairman and CEO), and Luigi Matarazzo, (General Manager Merchant Ships Division), as well as representatives of the MSC team along with managers/workers from the shipyard.
Monfalcone shipyard director Cristiano Bazzara presented Roberto Leotta (MSC Seascape’s captain) with an ampoule containing the first water that touched the hull when the vessel was floated out a year ago.
A tribute of remembrance was paid by all attending the official ceremony to Dr. Giuseppe Bono, who for twenty years until May 2022 was CEO of Fincantieri and passed away on November 8th. Pierfrancesco Vago announced that on MSC Seascape, representing the last major project undertaken by Dr. Bono with MSC, a plaque named in his honour would be placed inside the ship.
MSC Seascape will commence her inaugural season in the USA, where she will be named on December 7th in New York. The newbuild will then move to the Caribbean, offering 2 different weekly itineraries departing from PortMiami Florida.