MSC Meraviglia
MSC Cruises · Cruise · In service · built by Chantiers de l'Atlantique
MSC Meraviglia was, at delivery in 2017, the largest ship ever built by a European cruise line, and the lead ship of the class that carried MSC into the mega-ship era.
Derived metrics
Computed by ships.fyi from the core specification, see how we calculate these.
How big is it, really?
The MSC Meraviglia's length overall, against things you already know the size of.
The 747-8 held the longest-airliner record for over a decade, until Boeing's 777-9 took it by about 19 inches (76.72 m), our sibling site aircraft.fyi measures everything that flies the same way.
One MSC Meraviglia = 1.17 Titanics · 3.0 football pitches · 13 blue whales · 4.1 Boeing 747-8s laid end to end.
Plan a sailing on MSC Meraviglia
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The numbers
| Length overall | 315.83 m |
|---|---|
| Beam | 43 m |
| Draught | 8.75 m |
| Gross tonnage | 171,598 GT |
| Passengers | 4,488 (double) / 5,642 (max) |
| Crew | ≈1,536 |
| Propulsion | Diesel-electric, 2 × ABB Azipod (38.4 MW) |
| Maximum speed | 22.7 kn |
| Entered service | 3 June 2017 |
Put the MSC Meraviglia next to something
Last verified: 2026-07-15 · Spot an error? business@luck.fyi
What makes it different
MSC Meraviglia is the ship that moved MSC up a weight class. Before her the fleet topped out around 139,000 gross tons; she arrived in 2017 at 171,598 GT, the largest ship a European cruise line had ever built, and every big MSC ship since descends from her.
The defining space is the Galleria Meraviglia, a two-deck indoor promenade running most of the ship's length beneath a 480-square-metre LED ceiling that plays sky, aurora and animation depending on the hour. It solved a real problem for a line whose ships work northern Europe as well as the Caribbean: an outdoor-feeling main street that works in bad weather.
Mechanically she is conventional and well proven, diesel-electric with two 19.2 MW ABB Azipod units, 22.7 knots flat out. Her importance is architectural rather than technical: the Meraviglia platform, stretched and then LNG-converted, produced five ships in six years and remains the backbone of the MSC fleet.
The MSC Meraviglia line
Meraviglia class
Project Vista
Who operates the MSC Meraviglia
All 1 operator of record, verified 2026-07-15. Figures marked ≈ are approximate.
MSCCMSC CruisesMediterranean summers and North American seasons; extensively refitted for the North American market.1✓→