MSC Cruises will put the largest chocolate shop at sea aboard MSC World Asia when the ship enters service in December.
The 300 square metre Venchi venue on Deck 6 combines a chocolate boutique, a café and a gelateria, with seating for more than 60 guests. It is the first Venchi store on a World Class ship and the biggest in the MSC fleet.
Guests will be able to watch chocolatiers work, then step into a “chocolate lab” to design their own bars from ingredients including Piedmont hazelnut and Venchi’s chocolate caviar.
The bit you can act on without booking a cruise
MSC and Venchi have created a gelato flavour to mark the partnership, and it is not staying at sea.
Crunchy Waves lands in selected Venchi stores in the UK, US, France and Italy from 1 to 31 August. Britain has Venchi boutiques in London and a handful of other cities, so this one is genuinely reachable.
It is built in three layers: a vanilla base, crunchy hazelnut biscuit and salted toffee inspired by the Italian Bacio di Dama, and a blue spirulina top meant to evoke the Mediterranean.
A sand-and-sea effect in a cone, in other words. It reaches MSC’s Seaside Class ships in August and World Asia in December.
The ship behind the chocolate shop
World Asia is the third of MSC’s World Class ships, after World Europa and World America, and she is not small.
She measures 215,863 gross tons and 333 metres, carries up to 6,758 guests and 2,142 crew, and was built by Chantiers de l’Atlantique at Saint-Nazaire. Of her 2,582 cabins, 65% have balconies.
She runs on LNG, with shore power connectivity so she can switch off her engines alongside, and propulsion pods designed to cut underwater noise.
The ship is organised into seven districts, among them the Galleria that houses Venchi, a Family Aventura zone, and an MSC Yacht Club of 144 suites operating as a ship within a ship.
There are seven pools, one under a retractable roof, 13 whirlpools, and the Cliffhanger — a swing ride cantilevered more than 50 metres above the sea.
Named for Asia, built for Europe — with a pub
For a ship called World Asia, the design tells a European story. She spends her first season on seven-night Mediterranean sailings from Barcelona, Marseille, Genoa, Civitavecchia, Naples, Messina and Valletta.
The Asian influence is in the styling and in the Kaito sushi and teppanyaki restaurants, alongside an American steakhouse, a Latin American taqueria and more than 40 bars, lounges and restaurants in total.
And, tellingly, MSC’s British pub — with a full microbrewery producing MSC’s own beers on board.
A brewery on a Mediterranean ship named after Asia is a fair signal of who MSC expects to fill it.
The bottom line
This is a fly-cruise for British readers. There is no Southampton departure, so the flight is part of the price and part of the decision.
MSC quotes seven nights from Marseille on 30 January 2027 at £559 per person cruise-only, or £1,275 per person including flights from Manchester to Barcelona for a 7-night sailing embarking 16 April 2027.
The gap between those two numbers is the honest part. A cruise-only fare on a brand-new flagship at £559 is striking; add flights, transfers and a night either side and the real cost roughly doubles.
Bookings are open now for departures from 4 December. And if you only want to know what the chocolate tastes like, that answer arrives in British Venchi stores on 1 August, for the price of a gelato.
