| IMO | 9585285 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 139,072 GT |
| Length | 333.33 m |
| Beam | 37.9 m |
| Passenger capacity (max) | 3959 |
| Service speed | 23.75 knots |
| Builder | STX France |
| Yard | Chantiers de l'Atlantique |
| Hull number | U32 |
| Launched | 2011 |
| Maiden voyage | 2012 |
| Class | Fantasia-class cruise ship |
| Operator | MSC Italian Cruises |
| Status | Active |
Overview
MSC Divina is a Fantasia-class cruise ship built for MSC Cruises at Saint-Nazaire in France, and the ship with which MSC established itself permanently in the North American market. She is remembered for two things above tonnage and statistics. The first is her name: she was renamed in the shipyard, from the planned MSC Fantastica, in honour of the Italian actress Sophia Loren, MSC's perennial godmother, who had told the line's chairman Gianluigi Aponte that she wished to have a ship named after her — Divina, "the divine one", being the result. The second is her maiden arrival in Venice in 2012, which was met by environmental protest about large cruise ships in the Venetian lagoon, an early episode in the argument that eventually removed big ships from Venice's historic centre.
She is the third of the four Fantasia-class ships, and, with her identical sister MSC Preziosa, slightly larger than the first two. The dataset records her launch year as 2012; she was in fact launched on 3 September 2011, completed in May 2012 and entered service that month. The prose follows the researched chronology, and the difference is logged.
Key specifications
MSC Divina measures 139,072 GT on the dataset and Bureau Veritas-derived article figures — her article's text also quotes 139,400 GT, the design figure used at announcement, a small variant worth noting. She is 333.33 metres long with a moulded beam of 37.92 metres, a height of 66.81 metres and a draught of about 8.5–8.65 metres, across 18 decks in total, 13 of them for passengers. Her passenger capacity is 3,502 at double occupancy on the article's figures, with the dataset's maximum-capacity field recording 3,959; she has 1,539 passenger cabins and a crew of 1,388. The dataset gives her speed as 23.75 knots; her article quotes 23.7 knots. She is Panama-registered.
Her propulsion is diesel-electric and unusually well documented: five Wärtsilä diesels — two 16-cylinder and three 12-cylinder units, totalling 71,400 kW — generate electricity for two fully independent electric propulsion motors, each driving its own conventional shaft and fixed propeller, with independent steering systems and four bow thrusters. The redundancy was a selling point: the ship can manoeuvre and propel herself with either half of the system inoperative.
Design and construction
The Fantasia class was MSC's first generation of genuinely large ships, designed by De Jorio Design International and built by STX Europe at the Chantiers de l'Atlantique yard at Saint-Nazaire. Divina was announced in July 2010 as a development of the first two ships, MSC Fantasia and MSC Splendida: the same main dimensions, but about 100 additional cabins, a higher passenger count, and more efficient and energy-saving mechanical and electrical systems. She was constructed between 2010 and 2012 as yard hull U32, for a cost put at $550 million.
The class introduced to MSC the "ship-within-a-ship" Yacht Club concept — a reserved enclave of suites with its own lounge, pool and butler service — which became a defining MSC product across its later fleets. Divina and Preziosa, as the enlarged second pair of the class, carried the concept in its developed form.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
The ship was ordered to be named MSC Fantastica — or, in some contemporary announcements, Fantastica as the class development name — and was renamed MSC Divina when near completion, in November 2010 on the dating of the contemporary Travel Weekly report of the name change. The renaming honoured Sophia Loren, and Loren duly christened the ship in May 2012. The article's infobox dates the christening to 19 May 2012, the day of delivery at Marseille, while its text dates a christening by Loren to 26 May 2012; what is not in doubt is the godmother, the place and the month.
She was launched on 3 September 2011, completed on 16 May 2012, and embarked on her maiden cruise on 27 May 2012, a Mediterranean voyage running to 2 June. As she entered Venice during that first season, protesters pressed Loren and the line over air pollution, wake wash and vibration damage to historic buildings — the ship thus became, within days of her debut, a symbol in Italy's long argument about cruise ships in Venice.
Career by operator
| Period | Name | Operator | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012–present | MSC Divina | MSC Cruises (dataset: MSC Italian Cruises / MSC Cruises) | Third Fantasia-class ship; delivered May 2012; maiden voyage 27 May 2012; repositioned to Miami in late 2013 as the first MSC ship to serve the North American market on a sustained basis |
Her career shape, without itinerary detail, is simple: a Mediterranean debut, then, from late 2013, a pioneering role in Miami from which MSC's entire North American operation grew, with Caribbean employment becoming her mainstay and Mediterranean seasons in the mix in later years. She hosted the Holy Ship! electronic music festival at sea in the mid-2010s — an unlikely but documented chapter for a ship named for Sophia Loren.
Onboard character
Divina's character is the early-2010s MSC formula at full size: Italian design, marble-and-mirrored public rooms, a large theatre, and the Yacht Club enclave at the top of the ship offering a private world to suite guests while the rest of the vessel operated as a high-density international resort. The De Jorio interiors for the Fantasia class favoured glamour over restraint — the aesthetic that MSC used to differentiate itself from American and German competitors. Her sheer scale for MSC at the time mattered too: at her entry into service she and Preziosa were jointly the largest ships in the fleet, a status they held until the Seaside and Meraviglia classes arrived in 2017.
Major refits and incidents
No structural refit or conversion of Divina is recorded in the sources consulted; her history is one of routine maintenance and redeployment. Two incidents are documented. On 18 June 2014 a Mexican passenger, travelling on a World Cup contest prize, went overboard after, on contemporary reports, two days of drinking; the ship stopped and searched for hours, the Brazilian maritime authority continued the search, and the passenger was not found. On 22 March 2017 Sib Hashian, drummer of the band Boston, collapsed and died of a heart attack while performing on board. Neither event reflects on the ship's safety or condition, but both belong to her documented record. In 2017 she also featured in Gianni Berengo Gardin's photographic exhibition on cruise ships' effect on Venice — cultural, rather than operational, notoriety.
Sister ships and class
The Fantasia class comprises four Saint-Nazaire-built ships: MSC Fantasia (2008), MSC Splendida (2009), MSC Divina (2012) and MSC Preziosa (2013). The first pair measure 137,936 GT; Divina and Preziosa, the modified pair, are larger at about 139,000 GT with additional cabins. Preziosa has the class's most dramatic origin — she was begun for a Libyan state shipping company, the contract was cancelled in 2011, and MSC bought the hull — which makes Divina, ordered conventionally by MSC, the straightforward template of the modified design. The class was succeeded in MSC's growth by the Seaside and Meraviglia classes, which took the line into a larger size bracket again.
Fate and where she is now
MSC Divina is in active service with MSC Cruises, as the dataset and her article agree, with no sale, rename or withdrawal on record. In line with this directory's evergreen policy, no current itinerary is stated. Her long-term place in the fleet's history is secure on two counts: she carried Sophia Loren's name into the fleet in the most literal way of any MSC ship, and she was the vessel with which MSC first committed itself, in 2013, to the North American market that has since become central to the company.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cruise_ships plus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSC_Divina