Interview with Captain Bossi of MSC Cruises MSC Preziosa

My interview with Captain Bossi of MSC Cruises MSC Preziosa

Captain Bossi MSC Preziosa

This article shares things I learnt about MSC Cruises, and their ship the MSC Preziosa, based on an interview I did with Captain Bossi while on the Maiden Voyage. If you prefer to listen than to read then listen to my audio podcast (links below), where you can also hear me interview the Hotel Manager (Raffaele Cinque) and Head Butler (Thierry Fnu) from the MSC Preziosa.

Captain Bossi is quite a character. Passionate and friendly, he has captained cruise ships since 1981, and been with MSC for over a decade. He has been responsible for leading the last 5 MSC cruise ships for their maiden voyages.

This is what I learnt about the process of bringing a cruise ship, like the MSC Preziosa, into service, what he feels makes MSC different and his favourite ports and places to visit.

The Captain’s role in preparing the ship for the launch and Maiden Voyage.

Captain Bossi joined the ship 2 months before launch. He explained that there are 2 key stages before the official maiden voyage when launching a new ship:

First he took the new MSC Preziosa on sea trials to check the ship. Sea Trials that he classed as remarkable, as he found the ship to have very low vibration and one of the fastest emergency stops for a ship of this size.
The next stage, before the official Maiden voyage, was to take an almost full ship on a trial voyage to run the ship and crew through the process of embarking, transporting, entertaining and disembarking passengers. In the case of the MSC Preziosa they took mostly French guests associated with building the ship on a voyage that included stops in Genoa, Lisbon, Cadiz, and Casablanca.

Role of the Captain on-board a cruise ship.

He describes the role of Captain as being a leader that sets an example for all the crew to follow. He sees the technical side of the job, like ensuring the smooth and safe running of the ship, as important and essential – but he sees the role to ensure that every crew member treats and makes passengers feel valued, and not just a “number”.

Most common questions a Captain gets asked.

The 3 main things Captain Bossi gets asked about:

About the complexity of running a cruise ship, and how he manages to ensure smooth operations.
Safety. This has become even more of a concern and thing passengers ask about after incidents in Europe with ships like the Costa Concordia and issues with ships like the Carnival Triumph.
Environmental issues. This is something he finds passengers are very interested in, and ask a lot about how a cruise ship and cruise lines ensures it is environmentally positive as it can be.

Best ports he has visited
Venice and Rio

Captain Bossi is a great character and I saw him around the ship on many occasions talking to passengers, helping to show them how to get where they wanted to go and even helping people carry push chairs up and down stairs. He seemed to be much liked by the crew and showed by example the need to focus on passengers.

Listen to the interview below, or by subscribing to Tips for Travellers Podcast on iTunes

See, listen to and watch all of my MSC Preziosa content at tipsfortravellers.com/MSC

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