Although it is (only) the sixth largest cruise ship in the word, it is the largest to call in Halifax, Boston, Charlottetown and many of its other ports of call.
MSC Meraviglia turns on its own axis off pier 22 before backing in.
MSC Meraviglia has to share sixth place with its new sister ship MSC Bellisima delivered in March. However a Meraviglia plus class has been started with lead ship MSC Grandiosa now under construction. The ships will take over the "second largest" slot, edging out some Royal Caribbean ships.
MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company), the Italian owned, but Geneva based company is not just doubling its cruise fleet. Its container line is also on a growth curve. The line currently has the world's largest container ship in its fleet, the 23,756 TEU MSC Gulsun, the first ship to stow 24 containers athwartships.
Recent reports indicate that MSC may well surpass AP Moller-Maersk for the largest container shipping line as it continues to order giant ships. Maersk on the other hand has apparently drawn the line on larger ships and stated that it wishes to keep its fleet capacity at 4.2 million TEU, and is not ordering new ships. MSC is still ordering ships of 23,500+ TEU size. As they are delivered MSC stands to exceed the 4.2 million TEU fleet size within two years.
MSC does not make direct calls in Halifax, but serves Montreal and Saint John, NB, using generally older, more modestly size ships, such as the 4168 TEU MSC Brianna.
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