MSC Cruises will bring the new MSC Meraviglia to North
America permanently in late 2019 to be one of three ships doing Caribbean
cruises from Miami.
"The ship that will be christened in Le Havre in a few
months will be coming here and will be staying here year-round," said
Roberto Fusaro, president of MSC North America.
MSC executive chairman Pierfrancesco Vago said in January
that one of the line's Meraviglia-class ships would be positioned in Miami for
the 2019-20 winter season but hadn't said which one.
The MSC Meraviglia is the first in a class that will include
two more ships, plus a lengthened version. It will have Cirque du Soleil shows
in a customized $20 million theater and will also be the first MSC ship to
feature MSC for Me, the digital concierge MSC recently announced. MSC
Meraviglia is scheduled to launch in June with cruises in Europe.
MSC currently sails the MSC Divina year-round from Miami and
is scheduled to employ the new MSC Seaside from Miami starting in November
2017. Fusaro said the plan after the winter season in 2018-19 is to send the MSC
Divina back to Europe for the summer, while keeping the MSC Seaside and MSC
Meraviglia in Miami year-round.
At a news conference at the Seatrade Cruise Global
conference, MSC Cruises president Gianni Onorato reiterated the line's pledge
to use travel agents and said it plans to continue paying commission on such
things as spa treatments, shore excursions and air as it grows capacity in
North America. "We have a commitment to be the easiest company to do
business with and the most profitable for our trading partners," Onorato
said.
This article has been updated to reflect that the the MSC Meraviglia will be coming to Miami for the winter 2019-20 winter season, not the 2018-19 season as it previously stated.