The World of the Mega Ships!

This weekend saw MSC christen the brand new ship the MSC Bellissima in Southampton, and from what I can gather it was quite a successful weekend although the weather did cause a bit of chaos and they had to move quite a bit of the celebrations back from the port side back on to the ship and they had been unable to have the fireworks but a naming of a new ship is always a special occasion. The Excitement that comes with it. I remember watching the Queen name the Britannia back in 2015, although where those 4 years have gone, I cannot tell you.

One of the things I really like about MSC is that all the ships have the same Godmother – Sophia Loren. I think there is so much hype about who names the ship – that we end up seeing some weird choices for Godmothers, stick with Tradition like MSC do, or get the Queen or someone with some relation to the industry- Why should a singer or dancer name a ship?

Some one at the weekend said to me, do you think they are going to reach a limit where there are to many ships over the people travelling, and I am inclined to agree. Is there really the demand for all these big ships. Yes cruise lines are adding on new ships and taking away the older ones but the older ones are that such of the PO Oriana, Holland America Prinsendam, Saga Pearl 11 and the Saga Sapphire. So much smaller vessel.

Recently Royal Caribbean have announced that they have signed an agreement for a sixth Oasis Class ship to be delivered by the Autumn of 2023, at the moment they have Oasis, Allure, Harmony and Symphony of the Seas, there is a 5 vessel due out in 2021 and then this new 6^th one in 2023.

These ships are the biggest in the world carrying over 5000 guests and costing over 1.2 Billion dollars!

That’s not to mention the Quantum Class Ship coming out later this year and the new ICON class in 2022 and 2024 so that is 5 new ship just for Royal Caribbean.

Then looking at MSC, we have the Bellissima just come out and then the MSC Grandiosa later this year, then next year we have the MSC Virtuosa, then the MSC Seashore in 2021 and then from 2022 we have the new WORLD Class ships from 2022, 2024, 2025 and 2026. All of these ships again are over 160,000 gross tons.

That is just two cruise lines, so not mentioning the 6 Leonardo Class Ships that NCL are bringing out, the new IONA and her Sister, the new Cunard ship, Princess’s new ships and so one and so forth.

Cruising has really evolved but have the cruise lines taken it too far with to many ships, or will more people start cruising to fill the availability of ships?