Four MSC Ships to Cruise in Europe for Winter 2021-2022

Posted on 14 December, 2020 by Spacejunkie2

MSC Cruises announced that four ships will be deployed for the winter season in Europe for 2021-2022.

The MSC Grandiosa will sail from. Genoa as well as Barcelona and Marseille. In addition to these homeport options, the ship will call in the Palermo, Civitavecchia for access to Rome, and Valletta, Malta.

The MSC Fantasia will also sail a classic seven-night itinerary with the choice of multiple embarkation ports in MSC Cruises’ most visited destinations, Barcelona, Marseille, and Genoa, as well as Italian cultural highlights, including La Spezia and Napless, before calling in Palma de Mallorca.

The MSC Magnifica will offer extended 11-night cruises with two different itineraries. The first starts in Genoa and then to Greece, calling Katakolon, Piraeus, and Rhodes before reaching Haifa in Israel where the ship remains overnight allowing a full day to discover ashore, then on to Heraklion, Civitavecchia and back to Genoa.

The second itinerary visits five countries – starting in Genoa, Barcelona in Spain then on to Casablanca in Morocco for an extended stay, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Funchal in Portugal, Malaga in Spain, and then Italy with Civitavecchia and Genoa.

The MSC Poesia will offer 5- and 10-night cruises out of Genoa before embarking on the 2022 World Cruise from Genoa on 5 January.

MSC Pausing Cruise Operations in Europe

Posted on 6 December, 2020 by Spacejunkie2

MSC Grandiosa.

MSC Cruises today said that it will temporarily pause the operation of the MSC Grandiosa later this month per a directive from the Italian government.

MSC also said it will move the planned restart of MSC Magnifica to January as a result of new travel measures introduced by the Italian government for the Christmas and New Year period.

The new rules include extensive restrictions to people’s mobility across the entire country that will severely impact the ability of future guests – Italian residents, plus those from overseas – to reach any of the ships’ embarkation ports in Italy, the company said.

The Italian government has said it will tighten the movement of its residents between regions, cities and towns in its efforts to combat the pandemic ashore between 21 December 2020 and 6 January 2021, which will also restrict the ability of holidaymakers from abroad to travel to, through and from Italy.

This has caused the cancellation of three future planned voyages of MSC Grandiosa and three sailings of MSC Magnifica.

The MSC Grandiosa will temporarily pause her current program of seven-night voyage sailings on Dec. 20 in Genoa, Italy and will resume her Western Mediterranean cruises on Jan. 10, 2021, also from Genoa.

The MSC Magnifica, which was due to re-start 10-night voyages in the West and East Mediterranean on Dec. 18 from Genoa, will now commence its sailing programme on Jan. 15, 2021, following the cancellation of three previous sailings.

P&O Cruises still planning Iona celebration in Southampton

Posted on 4 November, 2020 by Spacejunkie2

P&O Cruises is still planning a celebration for when new ship Iona arrives in Southampton to begin her maiden sailings but said it would “judge the mood of the nation” first.
President Paul Ludlow said the new ship was looking “stunning” and would be “unlike anything ever seen before for the British market”.
He said: “It’s our intention to keep her in Europe when she comes to Southampton and we will absolutely celebrate her arrival into the UK. It will be such a feel-good moment that it would be remiss of us not to. But we will have to judge the mood of the nation.
“It’s difficult to predict the future at the moment, so until things are more certain, we will hold back with details of this event.”
Speaking as he launched the line’s summer 2022 programme, Ludlow said Iona’s sister ship was still on track for delivery in December 2022 and that steel-cutting for this vessel was due to take place in Germany before the end of this year.
He said bookings for the second half of 2021 were at the “upper end of historic levels”, those for spring 2022 had “surpassed the upper end of historic levels” and that summer 2022 pre-registrations were “akin to previous years”.

Ludlow said some bookings for 2022 were by customers whose 2020 cruises had been cancelled and who were redeeming their Future Cruise Credits.
“The majority of people took FCCs over a refund when their cruises were cancelled,” he said. “And of those who took an FCC, 50% have utilised it already. So that leaves 50% who are still waiting to utilise it. There were some who had bookings for 2020 and 2021, so they have been waiting to use the 2020 FCC in 2022.”
Ludlow also said that not all bookings were by loyal guests and that the “new to cruise market hasn’t completely gone away”.
“In the first, three or four months, new to cruise volumes actually exceeded my expectations,” he said. “That’s slowed down a little bit but even so, it’s exceeded my expectations as to how many new-to-cruise people wanted to book.”
Ludlow added: “For people taking their first cruise, the consideration period is lengthy. By the time they had invested all that time, [the pandemic] has not been enough for them to say ‘it’s no longer for me’.”