The delivery took place on Thursday (20 July) at the Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy, where the construction of the 63,900 GT ship began on 10 June 2021.
 
The vessel’s maiden journey will depart on 1 August from Copenhagen in Denmark for a seven-night sailing to Reykjavik in Iceland with visits to Lerwick, the Shetland Islands and Kirkwall, Orkney.

The line said it took the decision two weeks ago not to accept delivery of the ship as the certificate for certain fire insulation materials was no longer valid, even though this meant cancelling the maiden voyage.

"This was the responsible decision to take as the safety of our guests and crew is our number one priority. Since then, we have been working tirelessly with Fincantieri to carry out the necessary work and tests on the materials," a spokesperson continued.

Pierfrancesco Vago, executive chair of the cruise division of the MSC Group, said: "Today is a historic day, and represents a decisive step in our growth path, because it marks the entry of the MSC Group into the luxury travel sector."
 
The luxury ship will spend several weeks in Northern Europe, offering a range of different itineraries and will then cross the Atlantic Sea via Greenland to spend the autumn in North America, the winter in the Caribbean and spring on the US West Coast and Hawaii before returning to Europe in summer 2024.
 
Explora II, meanwhile, is currently being built at Fincantieri’s shipyard in Genoa Sestri Ponente, Italy and will come into service in August 2024.