MSC Cruises Postpones Restart of ‘Magnifica’ Sailings

MSC Cruises has announced that it will postpone the restart of cruises with its Magnifica ship until September 26.

The company said that it had seen cancellations and a softening in demand following the introduction of additional testing measures for residents of Italy having traveled to Greece.

MSC Cruises had originally planned to resume operations in August with Magnifica’s itinerary including three Greek ports – Corfu, Katakolo and Piraeus. However, the company decided to delay the restart of the ship’s itineraries by four weeks. As a result, MSC Magnifica cruise departures from August 29 to September 19 have been canceled. The first cruise will depart from Bari, Italy, with an unchanged itinerary on September 26.

“MSC Cruises believes that reservations will start to pick up again in the coming weeks due to the appeal of the itinerary,” the announcement said.

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

Guests affected by the canceled cruises will either be transferred onto another cruise – in particular on MSC Grandiosa, which is currently sailing in the West Mediterranean – or receive a Future Cruise Credit (FCC) where they have the opportunity to transfer the full amount paid for their canceled cruise to a future cruise of their choice – on any ship, for any itinerary – through to the end of 2021.

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

Cruiseway Travel and Top Kinisis Travel are among the preferred sales agents of MSC Cruises in Greece.