MSC Places Two New Ship Orders

MSC Cruises has announced that it has placed an order for two new ships from Aker Yards at St. Nazaire, France.

The announcement was made at a press conference today in Milan, attended by Pierfrancesco Vago, CEO of MSC Cruises worldwide, and Domenico Pellegrino, general manager of MSC Cruises, as well as Jacques Hardelay, general manager of Aker Yards France.

The new ships are due for delivery in 2011 and 2012 will be named MSC Meraviglia and MSC Favolosa, respectively. They will be the fifth and sixth sister ships in the Musica class. Both 2,550-passenger ships will weigh in at 93,000 tons and have 1,275 staterooms.

MSC Meraviglia and MSC Favolosa will bump the fleet total to 14 ships. The two ships will complete the development plan that MSC has put forth, which includes an investment of more than $7.7 billion between 2003 and 2009.

MSC will take delivery of MSC Fantasia this December and MSC Splendida in June 2009. MSC Magnifica is slated for delivery in 2010.