''MSC Sinfonia'' is a

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 the

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

-based

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 ...

. She was built in 2002 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 ...

for the now-defunct

Festival Cruises Festival Cruises (known as First European Cruises in North America) was a Greece-based cruise line that operated between 1994 and 2004. It was founded in 1992 by the Greek entrepreneur George Poulides using second-hand ships. The company acquired ...

as MS ''European Stars''. She was the last ship built for Festival Cruises.

Concept and construction

''European Stars'' was the second in a pair of two sister ships ordered by

from

(the first sister being ). The contract price for the ship was $245 million, and her yard number was X31. Both new ships were built on the same platform as , built by the same shipyard for Festival Cruises in 1999, but with an added midsection providing more passenger spaces, and one additional deck of cabins with private balconies. Newbuilding X31 was launched in Saint-Nazaire on 4 March 2001. Following fitting out, she was delivered to Festival Cruises on 18 April 2002 and officially christened ''European Stars'' the following day in Saint-Nazaire.

Service history

''European Stars'' entered service for Festival Cruises on 25 April 2002 on a cruise from

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 ...

. Her career with Festival proved short, however, as the company went bankrupt in January 2004 and the ''European Stars'' was subsequently impounded and laid up in Barcelona on 19 January 2004. The ship remained laid up for several months, until she was sold to

in July 2004 for

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

220 million and renamed ''MSC Sinfonia'' (her sister ''European Vision'' also joined the MSC fleet, as ). The ''MSC Sinfonia'' entered service with her new owners in March 2005.

Design

Exterior design

The ''European Stars'' and her sister ''European Vision'' shared a similar box-like exterior appearance as the ''Mistral'', but with a longer and higher hull, which was said to have improved the ship's external appearance compared to the ''Mistral''. As ''European Vision'' the ship had an all-white hull and superstructure, with blue and yellow decorative stripes painted on the hull, and a blue funnel with the yellow F logo of Festival Cruises. As ''MSC Sinfonia'' she retained the blue funnel colour but now with the white compass logo of MSC Cruises. Initially her hull was all-white without decorations, but on 2008-04-15 MSC made known their intention to paint their compass logo on the sides of all their ships during 2008.

Renaissance program

A section was added to the ship during a 10-week refit beginning on 20 January 2015. The new section consists of 193 extra cabins and weighs 2400 tonnes. The work took place at the

Fincantieri Fincantieri S.p.A. () is an Italian shipbuilding company based in Trieste, Italy. Already the largest shipbuilder in Europe, after the acquisition of Vard in 2013, Fincantieri group doubled in size to become the fourth largest in the world (2014 ...

shipyard in

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 ...

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

. The midsection was prebuilt, before being floated to the shipyard.

Interior design

The interior decorations of the ''MSC Sinfonia'' are described as European Moderne by cruise review author Douglas Ward, with

minimalist In visual arts, music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in the post-war era in western art. The movement is often interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism; it anticipated contemporary post-mi ...

furniture that is in places impractical. The public spaces include two main

dining room A dining room is a room for consuming food. In modern times it is usually next to the kitchen for convenience in serving, though in medieval times it was often on an entirely different floor level. Historically the dining room is furnished with ...

s, a self-serve

buffet A buffet is a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners serve themselves. A form of '' service à la française'', buffets are offered at various places including hotels, restaurants, and many social eve ...

cafeteria A cafeteria, called canteen outside the U.S., is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether in a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school; a scho ...

, two-deck high showlounge, a

discothèque A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighting displays, and a ...

, several bars, a

casino A casino is a facility for gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos also host live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, conce ...

and a

library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

. The

lido deck In British English, a lido ( , ) is a public outdoor swimming pool and surrounding facilities, or part of a beach where people can swim, lie in the sun, or participate in water sports. On a cruise ship or ocean liner, the lido deck feature ...

includes two outdoors swimming pool, two

thalassotherapy Thalassotherapy (from the Greek word ''thalassa'', meaning "sea") is the use of seawater as a form of therapy. Note: Thalasso therapy is a sub-definition under the listing for Thalasso. It also includes the systematic use of sea products and shor ...

jacuzzi Jacuzzi is an American private company that manufactures and markets hot tubs, pools, and other bath products. It is best known for the Jacuzzi hydrotherapy products. The company is headquartered in Irvine, California. It is the largest hot tu ...

s and the Doremi spray park for children.

Decks and facilities

The ship has eleven decks with passenger-accessible facilities most of which are named after musical composers.

References

External links

Official websiteCruise Critic review
{{Mistral class

Sinfonia Sinfonia (; plural ''sinfonie'') is the Italian word for symphony, from the Latin ''symphonia'', in turn derived from Ancient Greek συμφωνία ''symphōnia'' (agreement or concord of sound), from the prefix σύν (together) and Φωνή (s ...

Ships built in France 2001 ships