Tag Archives: cruise postponed

MSC Forced to Delay MSC Magnifica Program

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MSC Magnifica on the Firth of Forth

MSC Cruises announced today it will postpone the restart of MSC Magnifica until September 26, 2020 despite just having completed a first successful cruise with the MSC Grandiosa.

MSC cited the recent introduction of additional testing measures for residents of Italy having traveled to Greece.

“We are seeing cancellations and a softening in demand since the ship’s itinerary includes as many as three ports in that country. This has led to the decision to delay the restart of the ship by four weeks,” the company said.

MSC added that it believes that reservations will start to pick up again in the coming weeks due to the appeal of the itinerary.

MSC Magnifica’s sales are open to residents of the Schengen area, at the same time in this early phase of restart the majority of guests are expected to be Italian nationals and residents.

As a result, MSC Magnifica cruise departures from August 29 to September 19 have been cancelled. The first cruise will depart from Bari, Italy with an unchanged itinerary on September 26.

The MSC Grandiosa is currently offering seven-night cruises with embarkation in the Italian ports of Genoa, Civitavecchia, Naples and Palermo and also calling at Valletta, Malta.

Empress of the Seas return postponed for another month

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oyal Caribbean International has canceled seven additional cruises scheduled on Empress of the Seas to do more work on the ship in drydock.

Previously, Royal had canceled six short cruises from Miami on the Empress, which is migrating back to Royal after sailing for sister brand Pullmantur.

Departure dates on the newly canceled cruises are April 25 and 30, and May 5, 9, 14, 19 and 23.

In a statement, Royal said that as work progressed in drydock, it discovered the need for more significant infrastructure and physical improvements across galleys and provisioning areas.

“We decided that instead of simply repairing the five galleys, we would completely rebuild them, starting from scratch with entirely new infrastructure and all new equipment at a cost of $10 million,” the statement said.

Royal is providing refunds plus 50% future cruise credits to those booked on the April 25 and 30 cruises, and refunds plus 100% credits for anyone on the original six canceled sailings who was rebooked on a newly canceled sailing.

Guests can also rebook on several other Royal ship at favorable terms.