| IMO | 9871036 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 136,201 GT |
| Length | 323.6 m |
| Beam | 37.2 m |
| Passenger capacity (max) | 5246 |
| Crew | 1200 |
| Service speed | 23.0 knots |
| Builder | China State Shipbuilding Corporation |
| Yard | Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding |
| Hull number | H1508 |
| Launched | 2021 |
| Maiden voyage | 2024-01-01 |
| Class | Vista-class cruise ship |
| Operator | Adora Cruises |
| Status | Active |
Overview
Adora Magic City (Chinese: 愛達·魔都号) is the first large cruise ship built in China, and at 136,201 GT the largest Chinese-built cruise ship recorded as of 2025. She is a Vista-class ship built by Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding for Adora Cruises — the joint venture between China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) and Carnival Corporation — and she entered commercial service on 1 January 2024.
Her significance is industrial as much as maritime. Chinese officials and the builder presented her completion alongside the country's aircraft carrier and large LNG carrier programmes as the third great shipbuilding milestone: a large cruise ship is widely regarded as the most complex commercial vessel to build, integrating hundreds of suppliers and millions of parts. The contract was signed at the first China International Import Expo in Shanghai in November 2018; five years of design and construction followed, involving, by CSSC's account, 361 first-tier and more than 1,100 second-tier suppliers and some 5,000 technicians from 30 countries.
Key specifications
Dataset and Wikipedia agree closely: 136,201 GT, 323.6 m overall length, 37.2 m beam, 5,246 passengers maximum, 1,200 crew in the dataset (up to about 1,292 in some secondary listings), 23 knots, hull H1508. Wikipedia adds draught of 8.55 m, 14 passenger decks (16 decks in total in some counts), 2,125 guest cabins and diesel-electric installed power of 62,400 kW driving two propellers.
One secondary figure needs handling: several sources quote 135,500 GT. That was the design / pre-delivery figure widely used during construction; the measured 136,201 GT from Lloyd's Register data, used by Wikipedia and the dataset, is the figure of record for the completed ship. The variant is logged rather than silently averaged.
Design and construction
The design derives from Carnival Corporation's Vista class as built by Fincantieri in Italy — Carnival Vista, Horizon, Panorama and the Italian-built ships later transferred as Carnival Venezia and Firenze are her design relatives — adapted under the CSSC–Carnival–Fincantieri cooperation for construction at Waigaoqiao and for the Chinese market. She is classed, in Baird Maritime's account, by both Lloyd's Register and China Classification Society.
Keel was laid on 10 November 2020 and she was floated out / launched on 17 December 2021, the dataset's launch year. Completion followed on 4 November 2023, when she was delivered in Shanghai. Construction reporting emphasised the supply-chain achievement — interiors, hotel systems and safety systems at a scale Chinese yards had not previously integrated — and the technical work on power, cabin environment and vibration and noise that a first-of-type in a new building country requires.
Public spaces total about 40,000 square metres in builder descriptions, with 26 restaurants and bars, a water park, a duty-free shopping area and a theatre of about 1,000 seats in secondary vessel reviews — figures quoted here as builder-era design description, not as a current amenity inventory.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
Her name joins the operator's brand, Adora, to "Magic City" — a long-standing nickname for Shanghai, her building city and homeport — rendered in Chinese as Aida Modu. She was launched on 17 December 2021 and, after trials through 2023, made her maiden commercial voyage on 1 January 2024 from Shanghai's Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal, carrying more than 3,000 passengers on a seven-day, six-night sailing in contemporary reporting. The maiden date is one of the few in this directory that is also a national-industry press event: delivery coverage in November 2023 announced the 1 January date in advance, and it was met.
Career by operator
| Period | Name | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| 2024–present | Adora Magic City | Adora Cruises |
Single name, single operator, and a short career so far. Adora Cruises was formerly CSSC Carnival Cruise Shipping; the ship is its flagship and its first newbuild, operating alongside the transferred Mediterranea. Chinese state reporting in spring 2024 credited her with 34 voyages and nearly 150,000 passengers in her first months — a measure of how quickly she moved from symbol to working ship.
Onboard character
Era-defining character is cultural translation. Builder and operator descriptions stress interiors integrating Eastern and Western aesthetics: artworks and murals along the main hall, theatre and public venues themed on the ancient Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road, alongside the Vista class's standard contemporary resort architecture — multi-deck atrium, water park, sports and family areas, and a broad spread of restaurants and bars scaled for more than 5,000 guests.
She is, in other words, a European-designed mega-ship type re-skinned and re-programmed for a domestic Chinese audience by the country that built her — the design statement is the provenance itself.
Major refits and incidents
No refit is recorded; she is a new ship. One incident in her early service was widely reported: in June 2024 a passenger went overboard during a voyage, triggering an extended search involving the ship, Shanghai Maritime Search and Rescue Center, Chinese maritime authorities and other vessels, as maritime law requires; the Jeju call on that sailing was cancelled, passengers received onboard credit and port-fee refunds in contemporary reporting, and the missing passenger was not recovered in the reports used here.
Sister ships and class
Vista class, per the dataset. Her design sisters are the Fincantieri-built Vista-class ships of Carnival Cruise Line and Costa-derived transfers noted above; she is the only Vista-class ship built in China. A second, larger Adora newbuild — about 141,000 GT with 2,144 cabins in Chinese state reporting — entered final assembly at Waigaoqiao in April 2024, making her the first of a Chinese-built series rather than a one-off, though the second ship is a development, not a strict sister.
Fate and where she is now
Active with Adora Cruises, per the dataset and Wikipedia ("In service"). As China's first large home-built cruise ship and her operator's flagship, her foreseeable fate is a long domestic and regional career; she is also, permanently, a museum-grade industrial milestone whether or not she is ever preserved — the hull that proved a Chinese yard could deliver a 136,000 GT cruise ship.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adora_Magic_City