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MSC Cruises review: A Christmas week spent searching for Santa

Simon Calder’s Travel

They say the more the merrier at Christmas – so why not share it with almost 7,000 other people on a cruise ship?

I have always found Christmas to be a strange time of year. I’m generally a bit of a Scrooge-like character at home during this period. There is a part of me, probably the Jewish bit, that is uncomfortable with the stress about making just one day perfect.

So it has been a nice change for my wife, our two daughters and my in-laws to do a Christmas cruise over the past three years.

This year, we spent the festive period onboard MSC Cruises’ MSC World Europa, the largest ship in the Italian brand’s fleet, with capacity for 6,762 passengers.

MSC Cruises has spent much of the build-up to the season addressing how Santa makes it onto a cruise ship; MSC Preziosa even built a landing pad for his sleigh.

There was no landing pad on World Europa but there were nods towards St Nick across the ship including snowman cushions on the public seating and a life-size chocolate Santa – for display purposes only, sadly. Christmas trees were lined up across the indoor world promenade and a jolly inflatable St Nick even managed to raise a smile out of me.

The ship is the first of MSC’s World Class fleet – launched in 2022 – and will be joined by World America in 2025 and World Asia in 2026. It is powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG) as part of efforts to be more environmentally friendly.

At 1,093ft long and with 20 passenger decks, MSC World Europa is pretty spacious. A crystal chandelier hangs from its World Promenade as you enter on deck 6 but there is less of the glitz and crystal staircases that passengers may have experienced on other MSC ships, such as Virtuosa and Euribia.

Interiors have a more toned down, modern look, with soft seating and arty LED strips on white walls that effectively light up its main atrium.

The World Promenade area stretches across 341 feet, helping to ease the crowds. There are plenty of spaces for people to spill into across the ship’s 20 bars and restaurants.

Read more: The best mini cruises from the UK

MSC World Europa’s chocolate shop featured a life-sized sweet Santa

MSC World Europa’s chocolate shop featured a life-sized sweet Santa (Marc Shoffman)

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