MSC Cruises will host 2,500 agents on board MSC Bellissima when it is named in the UK next spring, Travel Weekly reports.

The ship will dock in Southampton for three days on 1 to 3 March, with the naming ceremony taking place on 2 March.

MSC Cruises last christened a ship in the UK with the launch of MSC Poesia in Dover in 2008.

With capacity for 4,500 passengers and with a gross tonnage of 171,600, MSC Bellissima will be the largest ship to be named in the UK.