| IMO | 9359806 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 137,936 GT |
| Length | 333.0 m |
| Beam | 37.92 m |
| Passenger capacity (double) | 3274 |
| Service speed | 21 knots |
| Builder | Chantiers de l'Atlantique |
| Hull number | B33 |
| Launched | 2008 |
| Maiden voyage | 2009-03 |
| Class | Fantasia-class cruise ship |
| Operator | MSC Italian Cruises |
| Status | Active |
Overview
MSC Splendida is the second of MSC Cruises' Fantasia-class ships, built at Saint-Nazaire in France and entered service in July 2009. At 137,936 GT she and her elder sister MSC Fantasia were, at delivery, among the largest cruise ships ever ordered by a European owner, and they marked the moment MSC — until then a mid-sized Mediterranean operator — joined the industry's big-ship league. Two dataset dates need correcting in prose: the dataset records her as launched in 2009 with a maiden voyage in March 2009, but her own ship article records a float-out on 18 July 2008, delivery in early July 2009 and a maiden voyage beginning 4 July 2009. The March 2009 date appears in some listings as an "in service" date and does not match the documented delivery sequence.
Splendida has carried one name and one operator throughout her career, which makes her page simpler than most in this directory — but her design mattered. The Fantasia class introduced MSC's Yacht Club, a private suite enclave with its own lounge, pool and concierge, an early and influential version of the "ship within a ship" concept that rival lines later copied.
Key specifications
The dataset gives 137,936 GT, a length of 333.0 metres and a beam of 37.92 metres, all matching her ship article (which gives 333.33 m in some listings). Her height is 66.81 metres and her draught about 8.29 metres, across 18 decks, 13 of them for passengers. The dataset's capacity figure of 3,559 maximum sits between the figures her sources quote: 3,274 passengers at double occupancy and up to about 3,900 in total, with a crew of about 1,313. Capacity is quoted differently by almost every source for this class, which is why the dataset figure is retained here and the range stated rather than a single "correct" number substituted.
The dataset speed of 22.7 knots is best read as a maximum; her ship article gives a service speed of 21 knots. She is a post-Panamax ship — too wide for the original Panama Canal locks — driven by twin propellers from a diesel-electric plant of about 40,000 kW installed power.
Design and construction
Splendida was built by STX Europe — the Saint-Nazaire yard now again trading as Chantiers de l'Atlantique, the name the dataset uses — as hull B33. She was part of a two-ship order placed on 16 November 2005, at a reported cost of $550 million. Steel cutting began on 12 April 2007, and she was floated out on 18 July 2008. Sea trials ran from 21 to 27 May 2009, and she was delivered on 4 July 2009, a build of roughly 27 months from first steel.
The design, by De Jorio Design International, took the Mediterranean-resort formula MSC had developed on its smaller ships and scaled it sharply upward: a broad pool deck, a large theatre, and interiors that leaned on glass, stone and Swarovski-crystal staircases. Structurally she is a near-sister to MSC Fantasia, with the class's layout refined rather than reinvented.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
The ship was not always to be Splendida. She was ordered and begun as MSC Serenata, and in May 2007 the name was changed to MSC Splendida "to reflect the ship's beauty and elegance," in the line's own phrasing. She was floated out under the new name on 18 July 2008.
Unusually, her maiden voyage preceded her naming. Delivered on 4 July 2009, she sailed that day on a week-long Mediterranean maiden voyage, returning on 11 July, and was formally christened the next day, 12 July 2009, in Barcelona, by Sophia Loren — godmother to a long succession of MSC ships.
Career by operator
Splendida has never changed operator, owner brand or name. The two entries in the dataset's operator history reflect MSC's corporate naming rather than any transfer.
| Period | Name | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| 2009–present | MSC Splendida | MSC Cruises |
Her deployments have moved with MSC's strategy — Mediterranean seasons in her early years and, in 2018, a move to the Chinese market following a 2017 drydock in which she was customised for that deployment, including a new specialty restaurant developed with chef Jereme Leung and shipwide translation technology. Deployments themselves are deliberately not catalogued here: this directory records the ship, not her itineraries.
Onboard character
The Fantasia class's era-defining idea was the MSC Yacht Club: a self-contained enclave of suites on the upper decks with its own lounge, pool, restaurant access and 24-hour concierge and butler service, sold at a premium inside an otherwise mass-market ship. Splendida carried that concept from new, and it shaped how the whole industry thought about tiered experiences on large ships in the 2010s.
The rest of the ship expressed MSC's Mediterranean identity at scale: a large Balinese-style spa, a retractable roof over one pool so the deck worked in poor weather, a 4D cinema, and public rooms decorated in a deliberately Italian idiom — marble, brass, dark wood and crystal. She was, in design terms, an argument that a European line could build as big as the American majors without copying their style.
Major refits and incidents
Her most significant recorded refit is the 2017 drydock undertaken before her deployment to China, which adapted venues and signage for the Chinese market and added the specialty restaurant noted above. Routine drydocks for technical maintenance and interior refresh have followed the normal cycle for a ship of her age, but no structural alteration — no lengthening, no added cabin block — is recorded for this hull.
No major incident involving MSC Splendida was found in the sources consulted for this guide.
Sister ships and class
The Fantasia class comprises four ships, all built at Saint-Nazaire: MSC Fantasia (2008), MSC Splendida (2009), MSC Divina (2012) and MSC Preziosa (2013). Preziosa began life as an order for a Libyan state company and was taken over by MSC during construction, joining the class with detail changes. The class was succeeded in MSC's growth plan by the larger Meraviglia class from 2017.
Fate and where she is now
MSC Splendida remains in active service with MSC Cruises, as the dataset records, under the Panamanian flag. She is now a mature member of the fleet — no longer a flagship, but one of the ships that carried MSC from a regional Mediterranean line into the front rank of global operators, and a clean single-name, single-operator hull in a directory full of renames.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cruise_ships, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSC_Splendida, https://www.cruisemapper.com/ships/MSC-Splendida-675