MSC Lirica has become the first cruise ship to make Abu Dhabi its home port. The ship has already arrived in the city from where it will embark on a range of cruises during the upcoming winter months.

MSC Cruises has also announced that from 2012/13 the even bigger MSC Opera will start using Abu Dhabi as a home base as well.

The 59,000-ton MSC Lirica and her crew and passengers were warmly welcomed with a spectacular fireworks display when she arrived at the temporary cruise terminal at Mina Zayed on a cruise from Genoa in Italy.

The ship almost immediately embarked on her first cruise. In total there will be 19 eight and nine-day itineraries to choose from during the 2011/12 winter season. Most of these cruises will call at exotic ports such as Al Fujairah, Muscat, Khasab and Dubai.

At the welcoming ceremony Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan said that Lirica was a pioneer of the Abu Dhabi cruise industry.

He continued “We hope she has set a course that many others will follow. Many of the guests MSC Lirica has brought here – and many more she will in the future – will see the UAE capital for the first time. We hope it will not be their last.”

The CEO of MSC Cruises, Pierfrancesco Vago, responded by saying that he was proud of what they had achieved so far, but that it was only the beginning of great things to come for the UAE cruise industry.