BY JOHN HONEYWELL

Look out Britain, we’re coming to get you. He didn’t say it in so many words, but that was the message this week from MSC Cruises’ chief executive, Gianni Onorato.

Speaking in Monfalcone, Italy, at the traditional coin ceremony for the innovative MSC Seaside, he said: “We have big plans to grow in the UK. We have a new office and new management. Growth in the last few years has been rapid, and now, with the right ship sailing from Southampton, we will grow more.”

From later this year, MSC Splendida will be sailing weekly from the port, and by 2018 MSC will have a full programme of northern European cruises to Norway, the Baltic, and France on itineraries of 7, 10 and 11 nights.

Mr Onorato added that fly cruises from Abu Dhabi and Dubai were popular among UK customers, and that the number of cabins allocated to the UK for MSC Orchestra’s Caribbean cruises from Barbados had more than doubled.

It’s unlikely that we will see MSC Seaside sailing from the UK, however. Billed as “the ship that follows the sun”, it will be based year-round in Miami – along with MSC Divina – when it enters service in December 2017.

The 5,179-passenger vessel has more open deck space per passenger than ships of a comparable size, and has been designed – by a Fincantieri team led by Maurizio Cergol – to bring passengers closer to the sea.

MSC has a firm order for a second Seaside-class ship to be delivered in 2018, and an option for a third.

But they are just part of a $9 billion investment that will see 11 ships added to the fleet by 2026.

“We have more ships on order, further into the future, than any other single cruise brand,” said Onorato. The company’s recently-announced eco-friendly World Class vessels will carry more than 7,000 passengers each – more than the current record holders in Royal Caribbean’s Oasis class.

msccruises.co.uk