The ''Seaside'' class is a class of four

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 ...

s 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 ...

. The lead ship of the class, , entered service in the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

in December 2017. A fourth cruise ship, the ''MSC Seascape'' was christened in New York on December 7, 2022.

Design and engineering

The ''Seaside'' class is based on Fincantieri's "Project Mille". The two original ''Seaside''-class ships in the class have 18 decks and , with a length of , a

draft Draft, the draft, or draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a v ...

of , a depth of , and a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Radio beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially lo ...

of . The maximum passenger capacity is 5,119, with a crew complement of 1,413. The two ''Seaside'' EVO ships will measure , with a length of ; an additional deck and modified cabins will give them a passenger capacity of 5,646. ''Seaside''-class ships are powered by a diesel-electric genset system, with four

Wärtsilä Wärtsilä Oyj Abp (), trading internationally as Wärtsilä Corporation, is a Finnish corporation, Finnish company which manufactures and services power sources and other equipment in the Marine propulsion, marine and energy markets. The core ...

engines driving GE Marine electrical equipment. Main propulsion is via two propellers, each driven by a electric motor; four forward and three aft thrusters allow for close-quarters maneuvering. The system gives the vessels a maximum speed of .

Construction

The first two ships were ordered in May 2014 from

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 ...

, with each ship costing US$700 million, and scheduled to be delivered in November 2017 and May 2018, respectively. The order also came with an option for a third vessel. Upon delivery of ''MSC Seaside'' in November 2017, MSC Cruises announced that it signed an order from Fincantieri for two new vessels that were to be an evolution from the existing ''Seaside''-class platform, a sub-class to be dubbed "Seaside EVO". MSC explained that the option to build a third ''Seaside''-class vessel was replaced with a new agreement to build the two ''Seaside'' EVO-class ships. Delivery for the two ships is expected for 2021 and 2022, respectively. So far all of the ships of this class have been given the "Sea" prefix.

Ships in class

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seaside-class Cruise Ship Seaside-class Cruise Ship Ships of MSC Cruises