MSC (Mediterranian Shipping Company), founded in 1970, is the world's second largest shipping company. In 1980, for the purpose of serving tourists, the MSC Cruises division was founded, which by that time had only three passenger ships. Today the fleet of vessels has grown significantly and has 13 units and several thousand employees. It is headed by four vessels with a total tonnage of 140 thousand tons and a length of 333.3 m with 3 502 tourist places and 1 388 crew members.
One of these days the Internet has flown by new details about creation of the newest cruise liner, the name of which is already known all over the world. Titanic 2 — this name will be in the exact copy of the passenger ship, which decided to build Australian billionaire Clive Palmer. Recently, he unveiled ship drawings at a press conference in Sydney.
The American group Carnival Corporation and the shipyard Fincantieri recently reached an agreement on the construction of a new cruise liner with a displacement of 130,000 tons for the Carnival Cruise Lines brand. Passenger ship will be called Carnival Magic. The liner will be built at the shipyard in Monfalcone and is scheduled for commissioning in the spring of 2011.
After six years of creating a unique vessel, the management of Royal Caribbean International took on October 28, 2009 its most revolutionary and the world's largest cruise liner Oasis of the Seas from the shipbuilders of STX Europe, which was signed by the relevant documents in the Finnish city Turku. From this moment, the debut flight of the liner from the marshy plains of Fort Lauderdale, Florida began on December 1, 2009.
The cruise liner NORWEGIAN JADE visited the «pearl of the Black Sea» in the city of Yalta, and on October 6, 2009 arrived in the port of Odessa. On its board more than 2,000 passengers travel. The management of the sea station reported that such sea vessels are a rarity for the Odessa harbor. The fact is that the water area of the seaport allows to take ships up to 300 meters long, and the length of the NORWEGIAN JADE liner is 294 meters.
The cruise ship Silver Spirit is the latest addition to the Silversea Cruises fleet and christened in January 2010. Her inaugural voyage will be a grand one — sailing for 91 days from Fort Lauderdale around the tip of South America, north to Los Angeles, and back through the Panama Canal to New York. She will see much of the coastal Americas in her first few months.
The MS Independence of the Seas is a Royal Caribbean Cruise Line cruise ship, which entered service in April 2008. The 15-deck ship can accommodate 4,370 passengers served by 1360 crew. She was built in the STX Europe dry dock in Turku, Finland, builder of Freedom of the Seas and Liberty of the Seas, her sister cruise ships of the Freedom Class. At 154407 gross tons, she joined Freedom of the Seas and Liberty of the Seas as the largest cruise ships and passenger vessels ever built (at the time of construction). She is 1112 feet (339 m) long, and typically cruises at 21,6 knots. The vessel operates from Southampton, England.
The cruise ship Color Magic — another ship of superlatives STX Europe (Aker Yards), an experienced builder of passenger ships, delivered in 2004 a big cruise ship with a car deck for Norwegian Cruise Ferry operator Color Line. With a 2,700 passenger capacity and 2,240 lane meters vehicle deck space the Color Fantasy is really a ship of superlatives, being the largest, widest and most expensive cruise ship with a car deck in the world.
The cruise liner Seabourn Odyssey arrived to the port of Sevastopol. The event did not make long wait for guests and residents of the city, because you do not often see such a chic ship. Many armed themselves with photos and video cameras and hurried to the sea station, where, occupying the entire territory of the pier, a passenger liner moored.
Recently, on June 15, 2009, the world's largest cruise ship Oasis of the Seas, commissioned by the Royal Caribbean International travel company, left the port of Turku, Finland for sea trials. Above the passenger ship circled an aerostat, which was to become a new attraction amidst the entertainment of a large liner, but he fell into the water. Most likely to such an «extreme» kind of entertainment will not return.