MSC Cruises has cancelled new ship MSC Magnifica’s Canada/New England season for winter 2010/11, and will instead sail year-round in the Mediterranean.
MSC Poesia will sail the cruiseline’s inaugural season of autumn Eastern Seaboard cruises between New York and Quebec. The ship relocates to Fort Lauderdale in November for a winter season in the Caribbean.
MSC Poesia had been scheduled to stay year-round in the Mediterranean.
Passengers booked on MSC Magnifica for Canada/New England and Caribbean cruises can transfer their cruise to MSC Poesia for no additional charge. Likewise, customers booked to sail on MSC Poesia in the Mediterranean in winter 2010/11 can be switched to MSC Magnifica, free of charge.
An MSC spokesperson said the change is simply an operational one, which better suits the company.
MSC Magnifica will be named in Hamburg in March 2010, and will then relocate to Venice, where it will be based for the rest of the summer, sailing seven-night cruises to Bari in Italy, Katakolon in Greece, Izmir and Istanbul in Turkey, and Dubrovnik in Croatia.
MSC Poesia leaves the Baltic on September 4 2010 for its transatlantic crossing to New York, and will be calling at Copenhagen, Southampton – the first time an MSC ship has visited the south-coast port – Le Havre, Vigo, Lisbon, Ponta Delgada in the Azores and King’s Wharf in Bermuda.