In March 2014, MSC Crociere ordered two cruise ships from the “Vista” project, the MSC Meraviglia and the MSC Bellissima , from STX France (now Chantiers de l'Atlantique ) , with options for two further newbuildings agreed. As a result, two larger ships in the so-called Meraviglia -Plus class were commissioned in February 2016 . They will be around 6,000 GT larger and 16 meters longer than the first two ships of this series.
Construction of the ship began on November 16, 2017 and the name MSC Grandiosa was announced. A 125 meter long fuselage section was built with two further sections at the Crist shipyard in Gdynia and transferred to Saint-Nazaire in May / June 2018. When the keel of the MSC Grandiosa was laid on June 14, 2018, construction of the fourth ship began and its name MSC Virtuosa was announced.
At the beginning of January 2019, the MSC Grandiosa was pulled out of the building dock with tugs and maneuvered to the equipment quay. The ship was delivered on October 31, 2019. The ship was christened on November 9, 2019 in the port of Hamburg by Sophia Loren .
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