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First Look: MSC Seaside

The MSC Seaside was just delivered from Fincantieri to MSC so I thought this would be a good moment to take a first look at this prototype ship.

MSC Newbuild from Fincantieri. The rumored Project Mille

The Italian shipyard has long been pushing their Project Mille design and MSC was the first to bite. The overall concept of it was to move the center-of-gravity as low and central as possible. This is one of the most common problems facing naval architects. Project Mille (and MSC Seaside) have quite tall superstructures. They are almost full width amidships and quite narrow towards the bow and stern. Comparatively, all other cruise ships that feature a narrowing of the superstructure, narrow the middle part and keep the bow and stern sections wider.

They also moved the ships main diesel engines closer to amidships. You can tell this by the ships main funnel being placed more forward than before. Another issue with passenger ships is the presence of water so high up in the swimming pools. We’ve seen Carnival’s Vista-class move a pool down lower in the Havana area. Here on Seaside they also have a pool down low off the transome. The pools higher up on Seaside do not have several sundecks encircling them. Instead, one has a covered dome over it (this one closer to the center) and another one is just on the top-most deck (actually one deck lower than the other pool). Another feature brought down is the Spa and main buffet. The main theater was also moved back a bit from its usual position in the bow. Instead, more crew cabins were added to the forward bow area. There also is the main atrium placed down center and low in the ship, however many other ships have this feature.

Lastly, an intriguing note; with all these groundbreaking features, she still features the traditional propulsion method by means of a screw-and-shaft assembly with rudders; not azimuthing pods. Their builder, Fincantieri, has always been opposed to it for some reason. Very few ships have actually left their yards with pods.

Naval Architecture 101 out of the way, lets take a look at some of her interiors.

MSC Seaside Deck Plans

 

The theme of this ship pretty much is South Beach and Miami.
The hallways onboard.


A typical balcony cabin onbard.

A main feature down below is the main atrium.

Like all other MSC ships, there’s the trademark Swarovski crystal staircase.

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The Shine Bar off the 2nd level of the Atrium. One of the many bars that surround the atrium.

There are restaurants and the casino also down in the lower decks.

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At the stern of the ship is the South Beach Pool. Designed to look like the high rise condos along Miami beach, the superstructure shoots 90-degrees straight up.

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Moving towards the top of the ship are two pools. One under a retractable glass roof and one outdoors.

(you can scroll through the above photos to see other areas of the ship as well)

You can see how this pool differs quite a bit from the typical pool you would find on any other ship.
Also in the area are some smaller restaurants, a small buffet (remember the main one is down below), and the children’s & teen’s area.

At the very top of the ship is a zipline and waterpark.

Also to celebrate the arrival of the Seaside into it’s new homeport of Miami, the port unveiled their brand new terminal designed for Seaside.