MSC Cruises, the Geneva based cruise shipping company,  last weekend celebrated the float out of MSC Virtuosa at Chantiers de l’Atlantique in Saint-Nazaire, France, the third major new ship building milestone the company has celebrated in the past month at the shipyard.

The float out follows the successful delivery on 31 October of MSC Grandiosa as well as the steel cutting ceremony on the same day of MSC Europa, the Company’s first of five liquified natural gas (LNG)-powered ships.

MSC Virtuosa is the second of three Meraviglia Plus class vessel the company is building at the French yard. Each ship has a gross tonnage of about 181,000.

 MSC Cruises also unveiled on the same day a ground-breaking R&D project in conjunction with Chantiers de l’Atlantique named PACBOAT that will focus on the integration of a new fuel cell technology, especially relevant for cruising, on board the LNG-powered MSC Europa.  The line said it was committed to contribute to the development of next-generation advanced environmental technology for the benefit of its own environmental stewardship journey and that of the entire cruise industry, the company said in a statement.