Not long after welcoming the first passengers to the new MSC cruise terminal in Miami, Florida, MSC Cruises is celebrating another milestone with its new facilities on the other side of the world.
Indeed, the new MSC cruise terminal in Barcelona, Spain, disembarked its first guests – who were sailing onboard MSC Fantasia – on the morning of Saturday, February 15, 2025.
The flagship of the Fantasia-class vessels is currently operating multiple Mediterranean itineraries at once of varying lengths – which means not all of the up to 4,363 guests onboard were due to disembark that day.
The guests who were going home via Europe’s largest cruise port included those on a 4-night one-way getaway sailing from Naples, Italy, to Barcelona, which embarked on February 11, 2025.
Additionally, a 5-night one-way sailing that embarked from Genoa, Italy, on February 10, 2025, concluded on the same morning.
With some guests staying onboard, this was a good opportunity for port employees to put the state-of-the-art facilities to test as a portion of the guests disembarked and another set embarked on what will be a new 7-night, round-trip sailing to the Mediterranean.
Although the new terminal isn’t officially open yet, the milestone was still celebrated with a toast – which was led by Sandra Yunta, Director of the MSC Barcelona Cruise Terminal, and Gianluca Suprani, SVP of Global Port Development and Shore Activities.
The facilities, which were developed by Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura (RBTA), have been described as a cutting-edge architectural masterpiece – designed to enhance the guest experience while in port.
The terminal will be formally inaugurated in the next few months, with more details coming soon.
Once it is officially up and running, it will serve both MSC cruise ships and vessels from Explora Journeys – which is a luxury brand that is owned by the MSC Group.
Committing to a Future in Barcelona
When MSC Cruises obtained permission to build and operate a new terminal at the busy Barcelona cruise port, the brand had one goal in mind: Consolidate and strengthen its presence in Barcelona as an important gateway to the Western Mediterranean.
“Barcelona is not only an important homeport for the cruises division, but also for the entire Group and its shipping business,” Pierfrancesco Vago, MSC Cruises’ Executive Chairman, said when the project was confirmed in 2021.
“As such, the new terminal is a further proof of MSC Group’s longstanding commitment to the city of Barcelona and the entire Catalonia region,” Vago continued.
As the largest cruise line in Europe, Mediterranean itineraries are among the most popular for the brand – although they do also sail to other destinations, such as the Caribbean.
In recent years, MSC has also increased its presence in Spain in other ways – such as by scheduling 500 ship calls in 2023 and introducing mini cruises based out of Barcelona in 2024.
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As the new terminal was designed, the cruise line kept both sustainability and the desire to enhance its homeport operations in Barcelona top of mind.
“Perhaps most importantly, the new terminal will allow us to operate expanded homeport operations, resulting in added direct and indirect economic benefit for the city and the overall region,” Vago added.
“Finally, the new terminal allows us to further demonstrate our commitment to environmental sustainability as it will feature both shore power facilities as well as LNG bunkering operations,” he concluded.
As big supporters of shore power, which is a more environmentally friendly way to power ships while docked, MSC’s leadership team has plans in the works to expand shore power capability at ports throughout Europe and the US by the end of 2026.
Barcelona was identified as one of 15 ports where local grid connection could be established, and with this goal in mind, the new terminal has been built to include both shore power facilities and LNG bunkering operations – which is another greener fuel alternative.
Currently, 67% of the MSC fleet is equipped with shore power capability – with all new builds, such as the upcoming MSC World America, joining the fleet with this ability.
