Built in France for Festival Cruises in 2001, this cruise liner was originally called the
European Vision. After that company went bankrupt, MSC took it on to beef up their fleet of ships. Renamed
MSC Armonia, the 58,265-ton ship takes 1,566 passengers, double occupancy, and an international crew of 710 on cruises in Northern Europe and the Mediterranean, and from Brazil.
MSC Cruises is a subsidiary of the parent firm Mediterranean Shipping Company, based in Geneva, Switzerland, and operating one of the world's largest container fleets. The cruise side began in the late 1980s when MSC bought out Star Lauro and took on second-hand ships. After a slow start at the lower end of the cruise market, the line has continually expanded and updated its fleet that now numbers 10, with more on order.
When based anywhere but Brazil, MSC Armonia largely attracts Europeans, especially Italians, Germans, French and Spanish. Some English-speaking passengers will be aboard, more so on the North European itineraries. Many families come too in the school holiday periods, and kids programs are divided into three age groups. The largest competitor is Costa, and for the Spanish, Pullmantur. Currency is the euro.
MSC Armonia spends the warmest summer months based at Dover, southeast of London, on 10- and 11-night cruises to Norway, the Baltic and Russia. She then moves in the fall to Genoa for 11-night Western and Eastern Mediterranean cruises, the later also including a venture into the Black Sea. Then in the winter, she crosses the Atlantic to Brazil where she is marketed locally to South Americans. In 2009, the ship will spend the summer based at Venice for weekly cruises to Dubrovnik and Greek ports.
The decor is European modern, featuring attractive colors and interestingly designed furnishings, so here she has some similar connections to Costa's older ships but none whatsoever to the newer glitzy Farcus-designed ships. The public rooms include a good variety of different settings such as an intimate piano lounge, night club, casino, cigar bar, pub, and combination library and card room, lots of Internet stations, and a major two-level show lounge for big productions and cabaret acts.
The Marco Polo is the main restaurant with 610 seats and two sittings while the much smaller La Pergola is set aside for suite passengers. However, others make book a table for dinner if there is space. Breakfast and lunch are open seating. The menu is geared to Italian and European tastes, and the pastas and pizzas are freshly prepared. La Brasserie is the almost 24-hour buffet with separate stations to avoid queues, and Chez Claude is the grill for continually prepared hamburgers, fries and the like.
Two outdoor pools and two whirlpools keep passengers cool and give several foci to the outer decks. A spa and fitness center provides the usual wide range of treatments, and sports include volleyball, basketball, mini-golf and rock climbing. The cabins start out small for the standard insides and outside (140 sq ft), and they are equipped with satellite TV, radio, minibar (for a charge), safe, hair dryer and 24-hour room service. Continental breakfast arrives free of charge, while everything else on the limited room service menu incurs a charge. Of the 783 cabins, 511 are outsides and 132 have private balconies with partial partitions, so they lack privacy when the next-door neighbors are present.
Cruising aboard the MSC Armonia will be a strong cultural experience as most passengers will be Europeans with their own country's tastes and habits. Some Americans will take to this and some will definitely not, especially if they have had very little experience with European travel. Five languages are normally catered to, reflecting the passengers' nationalities, but on MSC Cruises, the announcements are kept to a minimum.
