''MSC Grandiosa'' is a ''Meraviglia'' Plus-class

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports of call, where passengers may go on Tourism, tours k ...

owned and operated by

MSC Cruises MSC Cruises () is a Swiss-Italian global cruise line based in Geneva, with operations offices in Naples, Genoa and Venice. It was founded in 1988 in Naples, Italy, as part of the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC). In addition to being the wor ...

. Built by

Chantiers de l'Atlantique Chantiers de l'Atlantique is a shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, Saint-Nazaire, France. It is one of the world's largest shipyards, constructing a wide range of commercial, naval, and passenger ships. It is located near Nantes, at the mouth of the Loire, ...

Saint-Nazaire Saint-Nazaire (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Loire-Atlantique Departments of France, department in western France, in traditional Brittany. The town has a major harbour on the right bank of the Loire estuary, near the Atlantic Oc ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, she is the first of three ''Meraviglia'' Plus-class ships set to operate for the cruise line. She commenced operations on 10 November 2019.

History

Construction and debut

On 1 February 2016, MSC Cruises announced that they had converted their options for two new ships into firm orders, with the new vessels being a part of a sub-class that evolves from the cruise line's original ''Meraviglia''-class platform, dubbed "''Meraviglia'' Plus". Each new vessel was designed to be larger than their older ''Meraviglia''-class sisters, at 181,541 GT, with a maximum passenger capacity of 6,334 guests. On 15 November 2017, on the day of the ship's steel-cutting ceremony at the STX France shipyard, MSC Cruises announced that the name of the first ''Meraviglia'' Plus-class ship would be ''MSC Grandiosa.'' Her coin ceremony was performed in July 2018 and her float-out occurred six months later, on 5 January 2019. She successfully completed her sea trials in September 2019. ''MSC Grandiosa'' was delivered to MSC Cruises in a ceremony at the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard on 31 October 2019. Following her delivery, ''MSC Grandiosa'' sailed her first voyage from the shipyard to Hamburg for press events and her christening, with calls in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

and

Le Havre Le Havre is a major port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the Seine, river Seine on the English Channel, Channe ...

. On 9 November 2019, the ship was christened in a ceremony by her godmother,

Sophia Loren Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone (; born 20 September 1934), known professionally as Sophia Loren ( , ), is an Italian actress, active in her native country and the United States. With a career spanning over 70 years, she is one of the ...

, whilst being moored in the river

Elbe The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Ge ...

. The ship later returned to her dock at the

Port of Hamburg The Port of Hamburg (, ) is a seaport on the river Elbe in Hamburg, Germany, from its mouth on the North Sea. Known as Germany's "Gateway to the World" (), it is the country's largest seaport by volume. In terms of TEU throughput, Hambur ...

before embarking on her inaugural cruise the following day, on 10 November 2019. Her inaugural cruise set sail on 10 November 2019 from Hamburg to

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

via

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, and

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

, and was also hampered by a storm that forced the cancellation of

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

Operational career

Beginning on 23 November 2019, ''MSC Grandiosa'' began sailing weekly

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

itineraries for her inaugural season, calling in Genoa,

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

Valletta Valletta ( ; , ) is the capital city of Malta and one of its 68 Local councils of Malta, council areas. Located between the Grand Harbour to the east and Marsamxett Harbour to the west, its population as of 2021 was 5,157. As Malta’s capital ...

, Barcelona, and Marseille. On 30 December 2019, at the Port of Palermo, the ship struck the Vittorio Veneto pier with her stern on the port side when maneuvering to dock. Minor damage was reported on her stern and the pier, but no injuries were reported, and the ship left for Valletta later that day. ''MSC Grandiosa'' was originally expected to continue sailing in the Mediterranean until repositioning to Santos, Brazil in autumn 2020 to begin cruising in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

for the 2020–2021 season, which would have made her the largest passenger ship to ever homeport in South America. However, after the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

forced MSC to reduce its operations and redeploy its fleet, ''MSC Grandiosa'' was ultimately scheduled to continue sailing Mediterranean cruises through 2021. On 16 August 2020, she also became MSC's first ship to resume operations amid the pandemic, and the first major cruise ship overall to restart operations in the Mediterranean since the cessation of cruises earlier in the year. On 25 November 2023, she arrived in Santos, Brazil to begin cruising for the 2023-2024 Brazilian Season, calling in Búzios, Salvador, and

Maceió Maceió (), formerly anglicised as Maceio, is the capital and the largest city of the coastal state of Alagoas, Brazil. The name "Maceió" is an Indigenous term for a Spring (hydrology), spring. Most maceiós flow to the sea, but some get trapped ...

. ''MSC Grandiosa'' is confirmed in the 2024-2025 Brazilian Season with the same itineraries. On 16 May 2024, MSC announced she will start 7 day eastern and western Caribbean itineraries sailing from Port Canaveral Florida beginning in December 2025.

Design and specifications

''MSC Grandiosa'' measures and houses 2,421 passenger cabins for a total guest capacity of 6,334 passengers. The ship also employs 1,704 crew members. She has a length of , a beam of , a height of , and a maximum speed of . She is also MSC's first cruise ship to be equipped with a selective catalytic reduction system that helps to reduce the ship's nitrogen oxide emissions by 80 percent, along with a closed-loop exhaust gas cleaning system that reduces her sulfur emissions by 97 percent.

References

{{Portal bar, Transport Grandiosa Ships built in France 2019 ships