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A floating city has made its way to Red Hook—and it’s taller than many Brooklyn apartment buildings.
The MSC Meraviglia, a new ship by MSC Cruises, docked at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal over the weekend and will use the port as its home base for itineraries between The Bahamas, Florida, Canada, New England and Bermuda.
The ship itself is like an extra neighborhood: Accommodating over 5,700 guests (plus staff), the cruise ship is 1,036 feet long, as high as the Eiffel Tower, and has 19 decks standing at 213 feet tall. Inside, the ship hosts a 985-seat Broadway-style theater, a 6,000-square-foot gym, plus 20 bars, 12 restaurants and a handful of pools and hot tubs.
Like most cruise lines, MSC is headquartered overseas, in Geneva, Switzerland, but the local docking is still predicted to influence New York’s local economy. So far, 150 New Yorkers have been hired to facilitate terminal operations and the ship itself has 10,000 full-time-equivalent jobs to fill.
Those who want to set sail from New York can choose from multiple itineraries, ranging from 5 to 11 nights. Upcoming trips include sailings to The Bahamas and Florida, August voyages to Bermuda and a fall New England trip to Newport, Boston and Portland in the U.S and Saint John, Halifax, Charlottetown, and Sydney in Canada. Trips start at $609 per person, for a week at sea with free wifi and unlimited food and drinks. Honestly, that's a whole lot cheaper than dining in New York.
“When we chose New York as the next step in our North American expansion, we knew that MSC Meraviglia would be the perfect ship, given her versatility and offerings for a wide variety of climates," said Rubén Rodríguez, President of MSC Cruises USA. "She’s big and innovative, she offers something for everyone, and now she’s more accessible than ever for our guests in and around New York. We’re thrilled to give guests from the Northeast a direct link to our private destination—Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve—which is part of our fantastic itineraries to The Bahamas. As the year goes on, they’ll have other options like spending several days exploring Bermuda, or heading north for the breathtaking fall foliage in Canada and New England."