MSC Cruises has quietly changed what a day alongside feels like in one of the world’s busiest harbours. MSC Meraviglia has completed her first successful connection to the electrical grid at Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, drawing clean power from the city while at berth and switching off onboard engines. For guests, neighbours, and the skyline itself, the result is fresher air and softer sound.
MSC Cruises has completed its first New York shore power connection at Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, following commissioning and late-month test runs. The ship drew electricity from the city grid while alongside, allowing engines to shut down and local emissions to drop. MSC has made plug-in capability standard on new ships since 2017 and is retrofitting the fleet, with 16 of 23 vessels ready now and 17 by year's end.
This is more than an engineering milestone; it is a quality-of-life upgrade for travellers and the communities around the terminal. New York’s waterfront is dense with homes, parks and weekend markets. When a large ship connects to the grid instead of running engines for hotel load, everyone nearby feels the difference in the air and the ambience.
A shore connection is essentially a massive, carefully managed electrical handshake. Technicians synchronise voltage and frequency between the city grid and the ship’s power system, then transfer the hotel load to the pier. Once online, galleys, lighting, HVAC, lifts and cabin systems run from landside electricity. On departure, the sequence reverses smoothly, and the engines take over again without a flicker in your staterooms.
With engines shut down at berth, localised particulate and nitrogen oxide emissions fall around the pier. For guests, this means cleaner promenades and balcony time without the low mechanical thrum that often sits under a port day. For Brooklyn residents and visitors walking the waterfront, the benefits arrive as subtly as a deeper breath that smells of salt and city, not exhaust.
A working plug is a sign of operational coordination between the port and the line. That alignment tends to spill into the rest of the call, from shore-tour dispatch to transfer timing. Your day becomes about galleries, gardens and bagels rather than background vibration. It is a small but meaningful shift that makes New York feel more welcoming before you have even stepped off the gangway.
MSC’s approach has been to make the ship side ready and partner with ports as their infrastructure comes online. That is sensible, because both ends of the cable need to be prepared for the benefits to flow.
Plug-in hardware and procedures have been standard on all new MSC ships since 2017, which means every vessel launched in the last several years has arrived ready to connect. The investment includes power-management systems, high-capacity cabling and trained technical teams so that when a port lights up its equipment, the ship can simply plug in.
Beyond new deliveries, MSC has been retrofitting existing vessels. Sixteen of the line’s 23 ships are currently equipped, with a seventeenth to join by year's end. Retrofitting is not just fitting a socket; it is integrating electrical systems, testing redundancy and training crew, so the change is invisible to you as a guest and highly visible to the air around the pier.
In the Mediterranean, MSC World Europa has celebrated a year of successful plug-ins at Valletta, creating a useful template for other cities. Each mature installation becomes a playbook for commissioning, safety checks and the human choreography between shore teams and ship engineers. New York’s connection benefits directly from that global learning curve.
With MSC Meraviglia now able to plug in at Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, the feel of a city call shifts in subtle, guest-friendly ways. It is still New York, but the soundtrack on deck softens and the air on the promenade clears.
If you like early coffee with skyline views or late-afternoon reading on deck, a plugged-in ship delivers a calmer backdrop. You will notice conversations carry more easily, and the sea breeze is not competing with engine hum. For families with prams or travellers who simply enjoy an unhurried lunch outdoors, this is one of those upgrades you feel more than you see.
Ports that have worked through power integration tend to have their wider operation in sync. That often means crisper tour dispatch, cleaner timing for returns and fewer surprises at the gangway. You spend your hours at the Met, the High Line or the Brooklyn Bridge rather than watching a schedule slip.
If quiet port time is a priority, mid-ship balconies can be a sweet spot, with quick access to both indoor observation areas and open railings when a tug or ferry passes by. Forward lounges on a plugged-in ship become thinking spaces, good for journalling, photo sorting and simple city watching while the vessel sips power in near silence.
Connecting to the grid is one tool among many, yet it is the one you can literally breathe. It also signals how cruise lines and cities are learning to work together in busy urban harbours.
MSC has called out collaboration with local communities, elected officials and port partners as central to this progress. The hardware matters, but so do schedules, grid capacity and the simple agreement to make cleaner calls part of daily practice, not just headlines. When all that aligns, the plug becomes a habit.
While shore power cuts local emissions at berth, shipboard efficiency measures and evolving fuels work on the open-water side of the equation. Together, they nudge the footprint of a holiday at sea downward. For travellers, that means cleaner mornings in port and incremental gains on the miles between city calls.
Choosing itineraries that use established connections tells the market this investment is valued. It is a quiet vote for cleaner waterfronts that also happens to improve your own experience. When enough of us prefer ships and ports with plug-in capability, more harbours deliver it and more vessels arrive ready.
Before you pick dates, it helps to see which MSC itineraries call at ports with active connections, then match that detail to how you like to spend city days. Our Cruise Finder lets you filter by ship, region and call schedule, compare options side by side and save a shortlist you are excited about. Explore what is live now.
Planning from Australia or connecting from Asia, Europe or North America, the same view helps you map flight paths into New York and sketch pre or post-cruise stays in Brooklyn or Manhattan. Once you settle on two or three favourites, we can confirm space, advise on cabin positioning for quieter port hours and thread airport transfers to keep the day smooth.
This New York switch-on turns sustainability into something you can feel, from softer mornings on deck to fresher air along the pier. It sits alongside a broader fleet programme and proven performance in places like Valletta, all pointing to cleaner, calmer city calls ahead. If that sounds like your kind of holiday, start your plan with our secure enquiry form at just send a message us S.W. Black Travel, and we will align dates, ships and cabins to the way you like to travel.