| IMO | 9595321 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 139,072 GT |
| Length | 333.33 m |
| Beam | 37.92 m |
| Passenger capacity (double) | 3502 |
| Passenger capacity (max) | 4345 |
| Service speed | 23.7 knots |
| Builder | Chantiers de l'Atlantique |
| Hull number | X32 |
| Launched | 2013 |
| Maiden voyage | 2013 |
| Class | Fantasia-class cruise ship |
| Operator | MSC Italian Cruises |
| Status | Active |
Overview
MSC Preziosa is the fourth and final ship of MSC Cruises' Fantasia class, delivered in March 2013 — and she was not ordered by MSC at all. She was begun at Saint-Nazaire as Phoenicia for Libya's state shipping company, to a specification that included a 120-ton shark aquarium specified by Hannibal Gaddafi. When the Libyan civil war collapsed the project, the yard was left with a part-built Fantasia-class hull and no buyer, until MSC — whose own ships the design copied — bought her for €550 million and completed her as Preziosa. No other major cruise ship of her generation has so improbable a birth certificate, and the story is fully documented in contemporary reporting; this guide tells it with the flags the sources warrant.
Key specifications
The dataset records IMO 9595321, 139,072 GT, dimensions of 333.33 m by 37.92 m, a capacity figure of 3,502, a speed of 23.7 knots, builder Chantiers de l'Atlantique and hull X32. Published class figures are consistent in outline: the Fantasia class runs to about 138,000–139,000 GT and 333.3 m, with Preziosa and her near-twin MSC Divina carrying 1,751 staterooms — 114 more than the first two ships of the class — plus two additional elevators and more powerful machinery than the lead ships, including four bow thrusters rather than three. The dataset's capacity figure of 3,502 corresponds to double occupancy; her maximum capacity is published at about 4,345. Her five Wärtsilä engines — three 12-cylinder and two 16-cylinder units — give a combined output of about 70 MW in class reporting. The dataset's 23.7-knot speed is at the high end of published figures for the class.
Design and construction
Construction began in 2010 under the Libyan contract. The design was a Fantasia-class ship — essentially a sister to MSC Fantasia and MSC Splendida — with additions specified by Hannibal Gaddafi, who controlled Libya's maritime sector and had reportedly ordered the ship after becoming frustrated at being unable to charter MSC ships at short notice for private parties. The centrepiece was to be a seawater aquarium of about 120 tons holding six sharks — two sand tiger, two white and two blacktip reef sharks in one detailed account — set into the atrium, flanked by marble pillars, gold-framed mirrors and statues, attended by four full-time biologists; other reports describe gold finishes and a mosque among the intended features, most of which were never begun. The hull was being built under MSC's project management to MSC's own class design, which made the eventual rescue straightforward in engineering terms, if not in politics.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
The ship's working name under the Libyan contract was Phoenicia, after the ancient civilisation that first settled in Libya — a name that never appeared on a stern. War intervened before any launch under that identity: the Libyan civil war broke out on 15 February 2011, STX France cancelled the contract in June 2011 and sought a new buyer, and on 13 March 2012 MSC agreed to buy the hull for €550 million, specifying completion to the standard of MSC Divina and the name Preziosa ("precious"). She was delivered a year later and christened by Sophia Loren, godmother also of Divina. The dataset dates both launch and maiden voyage to 2013; her pre-inaugural sailing ran from Saint-Nazaire to Genoa, and she was christened on 23 March 2013. The shark aquarium, needless to say, was deleted from the design long before MSC took over — its materials, in one yard account, were stranded in Japan by the 2011 earthquake in any case.
Career by operator
The dataset's names field records only MSC Preziosa, and the Phoenicia chapter belongs in the table for completeness, marked as a project name rather than a service name:
| Name | Operator | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Phoenicia (project name; never entered service) | General National Maritime Transport Corporation (Libya) — order cancelled 2011 | 2010–2012 (under construction) |
| MSC Preziosa | MSC Cruises (dataset: MSC Italian Cruises) | 2013–present |
Her service career with MSC has been that of a standard large fleet unit. Documented milestones include becoming, in February 2017 with MSC Fantasia, among the first ships retrofitted with exhaust-gas cleaning systems certified under the EU marine equipment directive after MARPOL testing, and interior enhancement work in 2019 in which dining areas were revised and De Jorio Design added Italian interior elements. Beyond such dated events, this directory does not follow her deployments, which are itinerary rather than history.
Onboard character
As completed for MSC, Preziosa is a full expression of the Fantasia class: a post-Panamax resort ship whose signature spaces include the MSC Yacht Club enclave, an adults' infinity pool area, and — her most publicised single feature — Vertigo, a waterslide about 120 m long whose transparent sections loop out beyond the side of the ship, the longest such slide at sea when she debuted. The Platinum Theatre seats about 1,645, the atrium rises through five decks, and the class's Italian design language — stone, glass, Swarovski crystal staircases — runs throughout. The historical irony is permanent and worth recording plainly: the atrium that was designed around a shark tank became, in service, a conventional (if grand) cruise-ship atrium, and nothing visible aboard hints at the ship's first intended owner.
Major refits and incidents
No major casualty is recorded for MSC Preziosa in the sources consulted. Her significant alterations are the 2017 exhaust-gas cleaning (scrubber) retrofit noted above and the 2019 interior and dining enhancements. The cancellation of her original contract in wartime is a construction event, treated in the sections above, rather than a refit or incident of the ship in service. As with her sisters, routine drydockings have kept her current without altering her configuration in any way the published record treats as major. This guide accordingly records an uneventful operational history — the more remarkable given the violence of the circumstances in which her hull changed hands.
Sister ships and class
The Fantasia class comprises MSC Fantasia (2008), MSC Splendida (2009), MSC Divina (2012) and MSC Preziosa (2013), all built at Saint-Nazaire. The class was, at its introduction, the largest in MSC's fleet, succeeding the roughly 93,000 GT Musica class. Divina and Preziosa form an enhanced pair within the class: more staterooms (1,751 against 1,637), additional elevators, redesigned public areas and uprated machinery, and Preziosa was completed explicitly to Divina's specification — making the two ships effectively twins despite their different origins. That a Libyan state prestige project and a mainstream MSC fleet unit could end up as sister ships is explained by the design's history: Phoenicia was a Fantasia-class copy from the keel up.
Fate and where she is now
The dataset records MSC Preziosa as active, and she remains in MSC service under the name she was delivered with, the Phoenicia identity having never existed outside contracts and one extraordinary design brief. At well over a decade in service she is a mid-life ship of a class that remains a fleet mainstay. Her permanent place in the record is her origin: the cruise ship ordered by the Gaddafi regime, complete with shark tank, orphaned by a civil war, and absorbed so completely into a commercial fleet that most of her passengers will never know. The directory's task is to make sure the hull's whole life — Libyan project, French yard, Italian fleet — stays on one page, which is what this entry does.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cruise_ships, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSC_Preziosa, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasia-class_cruise_ship, https://www.rivieramm.com/news-content-hub/and-msc-preziosa-makes-12-40511