In a time-honoured maritime tradition, a ceremony was recently held at the STX Europe shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France, during which two commemorative coins were welded to the ship’s keel to mark a significant construction milestone.

Opening the ceremony was MSC Cruises CEO, Pierfrancesco Vago, who stated: “Today I am happy to celebrate the first major step in the construction of our new ship, the third in the Fantasia class. This new vessel will reflect the qualities of her sister ships, MSC Splendida and MSC Fantasia, while enhancing them in ways that will delight even our most demanding guests. It is also the ideal moment to announce that the 12th ship in our fleet will be christened in May 2012 in Marseille, one of the most visited and best loved of MSC Cruises’ destinations.”

Beside the traditional STX coin, the MSC coin bears the company logo on one side and the coat of arms of the city of Marseille on the other.

It has become a tradition for MSC Cruises to christen each of its new cruise ships in an important port of call, selecting a different port each time. Marseille, France’s largest port and the third largest in Europe, was an obvious choice to celebrate the new ship’s arrival. France has always been a key market for MSC Cruises, which over the years has become one of the leading companies in the French tourism and leisure industry, offering more ports of call in France than any other cruise company.

During the ceremony, the ship – previously going to be named MSC Fantastica – was renamed MSC Divina, in honour of the fleet’s godmother Sophia Loren, a family friend of MSC president Gianluigi Aponte.

MSC Cruises will be calling at Malta weekly between 20 April and 19 October 2011. She will be embarking around 120 Maltese and Gozitan passengers cruising to Sicily, Italy, France, Spain and Tunisia.

Hamilton Travel of 4, St Publius Street, Floriana are the exclusive General Sales Agents of MSC Cruises in the Maltese islands. Tel. 2124 1292; website www.hamiltontravel.com.mt