''MSC Sinfonia'' is a

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "s ...

owned and operated by the

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

-based

MSC Cruises MSC Cruises ( it, MSC Crociere) is an Italian global cruise line registered in Switzerland and based in Geneva, with operations offices in Naples, Genoa and Venice. It was founded in 1989 in Naples, Italy, as part of the Mediterranean Shipping C ...

. She was built in 2002 by

Chantiers de l'Atlantique Chantiers de l'Atlantique is a shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France. It is one of the world's largest shipyards, constructing a wide range of commercial, naval, and passenger ships. It is located near Nantes, at the mouth of the Loire river and ...

Saint-Nazaire Saint-Nazaire (; ; Gallo: ''Saint-Nazère/Saint-Nazaer'') is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France, in traditional Brittany. The town has a major harbour on the right bank of the Loire estuary, near the Atlantic Ocean ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

for the now-defunct

Festival Cruises Festival Cruises (known as First European Cruises in North America) was a Greece-based cruise line that operated between 1994 and 2004. It was founded in 1992 by the Greek entrepreneur George Poulides using second-hand ships. The company acquir ...

as MS ''European Stars''. She was the last ship built for Festival Cruises.

Concept and construction

''European Stars'' was the second in a pair of two sister ships ordered by

from

(the first sister being ). The contract price for the ship was $245 million, and her yard number was X31. Both new ships were built on the same platform as , built by the same shipyard for Festival Cruises in 1999, but with an added midsection providing more passenger spaces, and one additional deck of cabins with private balconies. Newbuilding X31 was launched in Saint-Nazaire on 4 March 2001. Following fitting out, she was delivered to Festival Cruises on 18 April 2002 and officially christened ''European Stars'' the following day in Saint-Nazaire.

Service history

''European Stars'' entered service for Festival Cruises on 25 April 2002 on a cruise from

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. Her career with Festival proved short, however, as the company went bankrupt in January 2004 and the ''European Stars'' was subsequently impounded and laid up in Barcelona on 19 January 2004. The ship remained laid up for several months, until she was sold to

in July 2004 for

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

220 million and renamed ''MSC Sinfonia'' (her sister ''European Vision'' also joined the MSC fleet, as ). The ''MSC Sinfonia'' entered service with her new owners in March 2005.

Design

Exterior design

The ''European Stars'' and her sister ''European Vision'' shared a similar box-like exterior appearance as the ''Mistral'', but with a longer and higher hull, which was said to have improved the ship's external appearance compared to the ''Mistral''. As ''European Vision'' the ship had an all-white hull and superstructure, with blue and yellow decorative stripes painted on the hull, and a blue funnel with the yellow F logo of Festival Cruises. As ''MSC Sinfonia'' she retained the blue funnel colour but now with the white compass logo of MSC Cruises. Initially her hull was all-white without decorations, but on 2008-04-15 MSC made known their intention to paint their compass logo on the sides of all their ships during 2008.

Renaissance program

A section was added to the ship during a 10-week refit beginning on 20 January 2015. The new section consists of 193 extra cabins and weighs 2400 tonnes. The work took place at the

Fincantieri Fincantieri S.p.A. () is an Italian shipbuilding company based in Trieste, Italy. Already the largest shipbuilder in Europe, after the acquisition of Vard in 2013, Fincantieri group doubled in size to become the fourth largest in the world (2014 ...

shipyard in

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. The midsection was prebuilt, before being floated to the shipyard.

Interior design

The interior decorations of the ''MSC Sinfonia'' are described as European Moderne by cruise review author Douglas Ward, with

minimalist In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...

furniture that is in places impractical. The public spaces include two main

dining room A dining room is a room (architecture), room for eating, consuming food. In modern times it is usually adjacent to the kitchen for convenience in serving, although in medieval times it was often on an entirely different floor level. Historically ...

s, a self-serve

buffet A buffet can be either a sideboard (a flat-topped piece of furniture with cupboards and drawers, used for storing crockery, glasses, and table linen) or a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners serve ...

cafeteria A cafeteria, sometimes called a canteen outside the U.S., is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school ...

, two-deck high showlounge, a

discothèque A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

, several bars, a

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

and a

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

. The

lido deck In British English, a lido ( , ) is a public outdoor swimming pool and surrounding facilities, or part of a beach where people can swim, lie in the sun, or participate in water sports. On a cruise ship or ocean liner, the lido deck feature ...

includes two outdoors swimming pool, two

thalassotherapy Thalassotherapy (from the Greek word ''thalassa'', meaning "sea") is the use of seawater as a form of therapy. Note: Thalasso therapy is a sub-definition under the listing for Thalasso. It also includes the systematic use of sea products and shore ...

jacuzzi Jacuzzi Brands LLC (; ), through its subsidiaries, is a global manufacturer and distributor of branded baths, hot tubs, pools, saunas and, formerly, aircraft. Founded in 1915 by the Italian family of the same name, Jacuzzi is a federally regist ...

s and the Doremi spray park for children.

Decks and facilities

The ship has eleven decks with passenger-accessible facilities most of which are named after musical composers.

References

External links

Official websiteCruise Critic review
{{Mistral class

Sinfonia Sinfonia (; plural ''sinfonie'') is the Italian word for symphony, from the Latin ''symphonia'', in turn derived from Ancient Greek συμφωνία ''symphōnia'' (agreement or concord of sound), from the prefix σύν (together) and ϕωνή (sou ...

Ships built in France 2001 ships