MSC GRANDIOSA MAKES FIRST CALL TO ROTTERDAM

A special ‘All-Stars of the Sea’ event will be held on board the stunning 6,334-guest ship tonight as MSC Cruises recognises the efforts and achievements of Dutch and Belgian travel agents, tour operators and travel agency proprietors.

MSC Grandiosa was delivered on 31 October at the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France and is heavily equipped with a comprehensive range of leading-edge environmental technologies and other solutions as with this ship MSC Cruises marks another significant step in its journey towards zero-emissions operations.

The newest flagship, to be christened in Hamburg, Germany on 9 November, features a state-of-the-art selective catalytic reduction system which helps reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 80 per cent through advanced active emissions control technology. Nitrogen oxide from the engine operations is conducted through a catalyst – a high-density device made from noble metals – and converts them into nitrogen and water, both harmless compounds.

MSC Grandiosa will also be fitted with shore-to-ship power which connects cruise ships while at berth to a port’s local power grid to further reduce the ship’s air emissions while in port to zero.  This is a feature that has come as standard across all MSC Cruises new builds since 2017.

These new features add to other effective environmental technologies deployed on the ship and across the Company’s fleet to minimise and continuously reduce environmental impact, including: cutting-edge hybrid Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems (EGCS) that remove up to 97 per cent of sulphur oxide from ship emissions; advanced waste management and wastewater treatment systems; ballast water treatment systems; latest-technology systems for the prevention of oil discharges from machinery spaces and various state-of-the-art energy-efficiency improvements – from heat recovery systems to LED lighting.

Currently, MSC Grandiosa and 10 other ships in MSC Cruises’ fleet of 17 ships are equipped for cleaner emissions with hybrid (closed-loop) EGCS.  The line’s six other ships will be retrofitted with the technology by the end of 2023 and until then will rely on the use of low sulphur fuels to always fully comply with the strictest existing as well as new maritime regulations.

MSC Grandiosa will be deployed in the Western Mediterranean for the next 12 months before MSC Grandiosa is deployed to South America for winter 2020.