12 August 2010

MSC Orchestra, 15 July 2009

MSC Orchestra

IMO 9320099
Built 2007, Aker Yards Chantiers de l'Atlantique, St. Nazaire, France
Tonnage 92 409 GT
Length 293,80 m
Width 32,20 m
Draugth 7,70 m
3 013 passengers
5 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 58 000 kW
2 propellers
3 bow thrusters
1 stern thruster
Speed 22 knots

MSC Orchestra is a member of MSC Cruises' massive Musica-class, with four ships built and two more under construction. From a design point of view the Musica-class ships seem to be a further development on the MSC Lirica and MSC Opera, which in turn were based on Festival Cruises Mistral (now Iberocruceros' Grand Mistral). Personally I actually rather like Musica-class design. Like the Vista-class it's very simple, angularly geometric design without any ill-adviced attempt of adding curves to an otherwise boxy ship design (and I'm not saying that mostly decorative curvature wouldn't work on modern ships - but it does seem rather difficult to make it work well). That said, the Orchestra and her sisters would perhaps benifitted from a slightly more adventurous and maybe slightly more streamlined exterior design.

Photographs below are of the MSC Orchestra departing Tallinn Reisisadam on 15 July 2009. Click on the image(s) to view full size.

Pulling away from the cruise quay...
...and northbound from the harbour after turning, with Vision of the Seas leading the way in the background.

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