Mallorca Cruise Holiday on Gaddafi's Dream Ship?

Will Gaddafi's monstrous cruise ship soon dock in Palma?

This exciting question may well be on the minds of Mallorca holidaymakers and keen cruise tourists in the coming cruise season. In just a few weeks, from May 2013, the MSC "Preziosa" from the tour operator "MSC Cruises" will be cruising the Mediterranean, carrying thousands of cruise holidaymakers from Genoa and the enchanting Italian Riviera to nearby Naples with its beautiful beaches and remarkable palaces, on past Messina and unique Sicily, then dropping anchor in North African Tunis, before finally landing in the Spanish metropolis of Barcelona with its priceless art and cultural scene.

Cruise holidays to and from Palma with growing turnover.

Mallorca cruise tourism is booming; the number of holidaymakers and the volume of cruise ships anchoring in Palma have been rising steadily for years. The Balearic capital is a popular port of call for cruise ships on their Mediterranean voyages. Anyone who wishes can get to know Palma from its most beautiful side in a single day during their cruise stopover, for example with a private Mallorca transfer.

The MS Preziosa was originally commissioned by the former Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi from the French shipyard STX in Saint-Nazaire. The luxury cruise ship, worth 500 million euros, was originally meant to be delivered to Tripoli, the Libyan capital, but after the Arab Spring the prestige investment of Nicolas Sarkozy, a close ally of Gaddafi in "good times", was no longer completed to the dictator's lavish specifications. Instead it was bought by MSC Cruises and, after appropriate redesign of the ship, completed for luxury cruises.

Mallorca cruises & holiday trips are hugely popular.

These floating palaces for thousands of holidaymakers are a growing and booming sector within the travel industry. It was not only Gaddafi who invested in cruise ships and luxury yachts; other billionaires and multimillionaires such as Roman Abramovich have poured many millions into floating luxury hotels. The largest private yacht, the "Eclipse", or a luxury motor yacht for charter on Mallorca are the playthings of the rich, at the same time a lucrative source of income and a testament to a decadent lifestyle. This was evident, for instance, in Gaddafi's special request for an extra-large shark tank on his cruise ship, a feature that was, however, never completed. Mallorca & MSC Cruises connect many port calls in Palma from the numerous cruise ships in the MSC fleet.