| IMO | 9760524 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 171,598 GT |
| Length | 315.0 m |
| Beam | 43.0 m |
| Passenger capacity (max) | 5714 |
| Service speed | 21.8 knots |
| Builder | STX France |
| Hull number | F34 |
| Launched | 2018 |
| Maiden voyage | 2019 |
| Class | Meraviglia-class cruise ship |
| Operator | MSC Italian Cruises |
| Status | Active |
Overview
MSC Bellissima is the second ship of MSC Cruises' Meraviglia class, built at Saint-Nazaire, France, and delivered in early 2019. At about 171,500 GT in the dataset she entered service among the largest cruise ships in the world, and she embodied the strategy of her owner in that period: very large ships, built in long series at a single French yard, deploying a Mediterranean design language — marble, crystal staircases, an indoor promenade under an LED sky — at a scale previously associated only with the American lines. Her name, Italian for "most beautiful," was announced in September 2016 on the day her sister MSC Meraviglia was floated out, a piece of theatre typical of the programme's confidence.
Key specifications
The dataset records IMO 9760524, 171,500 GT, dimensions of 315.0 m by 43.0 m, a maximum capacity of 5,714, a speed of 22.7 knots, builder STX France and hull number F34. Published figures refine these: tonnage is given precisely as 171,598 GT and length as 315.83 m. Capacity published for the ship is about 4,500 passengers at double occupancy, with maximum figures in the 5,686–5,714 range depending on source and refit state. Her published speed in her ship article is 21.8 knots, against the dataset's 22.7. She has 18 decks in total (15 passenger decks in most counts), twin ABB Azipod propulsion, installed power of about 38,400 kW, and a draught of about 8.75 m. The builder naming also needs a note: the Saint-Nazaire yard traded as STX France when the ship was ordered and built, and as Chantiers de l'Atlantique in her ship article — the same yard under its restored historic name.
Design and construction
The Meraviglia class was MSC's step into the industry's largest size bracket, and Bellissima repeated the lead ship's design with refinements. The order dates to 20 March 2014. Her keel was laid on 15 November 2017 and she was launched on 14 June 2018; she was delivered on 27 February 2019. The design is organised around a two-deck interior promenade, the Galleria, roofed by an LED screen sky about 80 m long that changes with the time of day — the class's signature architectural device — with the line's crystal-inlaid Swarovski staircases (a reported 640 crystals per step) as its decorative signature. Aft and forward, the design layers the standard elements of the modern mega-ship: a large aquapark, a multi-deck sports and family area, a two-level theatre and the MSC Yacht Club, the line's enclosed luxury enclave, at the forward end. She was also an early showcase for MSC's in-cabin voice-assistant technology, a much-publicised experiment of the period.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
The name MSC Bellissima was revealed on 2 September 2016 at Saint-Nazaire, during the float-out ceremony of her sister MSC Meraviglia, by MSC's chief executive Gianni Onorato, who described it as embodying "the beauty and the magnificence" of the new generation of ships. The dataset lists her launch year as 2019; the launch (float-out) in fact took place on 14 June 2018, with 2019 being her delivery and service year. She was christened on 2 March 2019 at Southampton by Sophia Loren, the long-standing godmother of the MSC fleet, at a ceremony that featured a performance by Andrea Bocelli. Her maiden voyage began on 4 March 2019.
Career by operator
| Name | Operator | Period |
|---|---|---|
| MSC Bellissima | MSC Cruises (dataset: MSC Italian Cruises) | 2019–present |
The dataset's operator fields — "MSC Italian Cruises," with "MSC Cruises" in the history — reflect the corporate naming of MSC's cruise arm rather than any change of operator: the ship has sailed for MSC throughout her career under one name. Her early career was interrupted, with the entire industry, by the COVID-19 pandemic, during which MSC suspended operations in market after market in 2020. A drydocking in Shanghai in November 2023, with hull coating and cabin and public-area work, was reported ahead of her deployment in Asian markets. Deployment regions are not tracked by this directory; the structural point is that a Meraviglia-class ship is a globally deployable asset, and her career has reflected that.
Onboard character
The Meraviglia class's era-defining statement is the Galleria: a Mediterranean street moved indoors, two decks high, lined with shops, bars and restaurants and roofed by a luminous artificial sky. Around it, Bellissima arranged the mature MSC formula — a chocolatier and crêperie on the promenade, an American-style steakhouse, Japanese teppanyaki and sushi venues, a dedicated Cirque du Soleil-style dinner-show lounge (the Carousel Lounge, created for immersive acrobatic productions), a large aquapark, and the Yacht Club enclave forward. The design intent, consistently described in launch coverage, was European elegance at American scale: crystal, stone and warm woods in place of the theme-park palette of rival mega-ships. That combination — promenade, LED sky, Swarovski staircases — is what a directory records; the venue list itself will change with refits and is deliberately not reproduced here.
Major refits and incidents
No major casualty is recorded for MSC Bellissima in the sources consulted. Her refit record to date consists of the reported November 2023 Shanghai drydocking noted above, at which cabins and public areas were updated and hull coating renewed. The defining interruption of her early career was external: the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down her operating markets in 2020 within a year of her debut and reshaped the deployment of the whole MSC fleet. For a ship of her age, the absence of fires, groundings or collisions in the published record is the accurate summary, and this guide leaves it at that.
Sister ships and class
The dataset leaves the class field blank; the ship's published record places her in the Meraviglia class. The class, as built at Saint-Nazaire, comprises MSC Meraviglia (2017) and MSC Bellissima (2019) in the original size, with the enlarged Meraviglia Plus ships — MSC Grandiosa, MSC Virtuosa and MSC Euribia — following to a stretched version of the design. The two original ships are effectively twins: same hull form, same promenade concept, same general arrangement, with Bellissima incorporating the detail changes of a second-of-class. Together with the Seaside and World classes built around them, the Meraviglia ships mark MSC's arrival as a builder of the world's largest cruise ships in series.
Fate and where she is now
The dataset records MSC Bellissima as active, and fleet listings agree: she remains in MSC service under her original name, a young mega-ship in the first decade of what is normally a thirty-year career. No sale, renaming or major conversion has been announced. Her historical position is secure as the second ship of the class that took MSC into the top size bracket — the vessel that confirmed Meraviglia was a programme, not an experiment — and as a representative example of the late-2010s European mega-ship: French-built, Italian-styled, globally deployed.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cruise_ships, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSC_Bellissima