Magnifica for sale

[JP82]

https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/2010/cruise-ship--2-550-3-223-passengers-3697069/

 

Im not an expert on the older ships.... Is that her?

[JPMoore]

Based on the year of launch, magrodome pool on the sun deck and other interior photos it certainly looks like it is Magnifica! 

 

What a dramatic turn of events - from stretching to sale.

[JP82]

My thoughts exactly.... I wonder when we can expect an announcement.

[cruiseguyinorl]

A blue screen in one of the lounge pictures says MSC Magnifica. Guess she won't be doing Alaska summer of '22. 🙁

Bret

[davidgv]

Wow - this isn't looking good - we sailed on Magnifica before the 'stretch' - she was a lovely ship - so sad to see her go!

 

[Até]

Definitely Magnifica.  Several cruise lines have currently scheduled ships posted on the site, I figure MSC is just exploring options.  I seriously doubt anyone is going to offer anything close to their questionable asking price.  Either way it s going to have serious effects on those willing to book the world cruise and contemplating MSC's vulnerability to bankruptcy.

[Stockjock]

I recently got my GTY assignment for my cruise in Fall of 2021 (Aft cabin - good assignment), surprised they put her up for sale.

[Stockjock]

MSC Magnifica was purchased for $547,000,000 USD in 2010.  Even though it was refurbished.  It's hard to imagine that they could get anything close to their current asking price of $822,570,000 after 10 years of use.

[cruiser man 60]

I think you will find this is a FAKE news story!

[WorldTraveler151208]

Anyway, why would they want to sell the Magnifica and not one of the older Armonia Class ships? The old ones are the least profitable. I don't believe it's true.

[deliver42]

The ship is only 10 years old, so it makes no sense to sell her before their older ships.

[sidari]

😂😂😂 Fake news methinks.

[Nunagoras]

While on one hand I hope those to be fake news, because I suppose those businesses, if done, won't to be by the way of a public website publication, on the more realistic hand me thinks that all the Lirica and Musica class of ships are in serious risk of being sold out from the MSC's fleet, more or less like what it is happening with pretty much every other ships of same age and size on the other big groups. They are the 8 oldest ones in the fleet. I believe the Lirica class ones to be redeployed on the MSC group for their ferry, marine hospital  or even cargo transportation businesses. The Musica class might to be extremely large ships for what they need at that front, or the modifications they would need for that extremely expensive...

 

That said, it wouldn't surprise me too much to see the Magnifica as being the first of them all to be sold out. Once on board her 2 years ago, in an informal conversation with one of the engineering officers working there, he told me that while the inside and the decor of the ship was made as a Musica class of ships for marketing purposes, technically speaking, the ship is really a single one of her own class in just every aspect that can matter, meaning that it has little to no parts it shares with her other Musica class sisters... If that is true, and chances are that it is, technically speaking this ship might to be a little "nightmare" to maintain and thus the less profitable of them all...

 

Future will tell; but it is not nice to see those images. I hope the cruise lines start to tell something about those sites, because if they are fake news sites... They should to be noted as that to the general public...

 

Have a nice day!...

[blordos]

MSC is bringing out Meraviglia+ class and World class ships in a few year. They need to recup the money from older ships to funds these new ships.

[Stockjock]

It seems they have a broker, contract info and such, so it would seem like a pretty elaborate effort to actually go through the trouble to list the boat with a broker if it was not true. I cannot say 100%, but that doesn’t seem very logical to me. It could be that they will get more money for this boat potentially in the smaller boats, plus the smaller boats can reach certain ports that the newer ones cannot, but time will tell. The only thing I do know is they’re not gonna get their asking price.

[Nunagoras]

Negotiation cruise ship prices are, largely, like negotiation plane prices: Subject to huge discounts among many other counterparts to the ship builder or owner... I believe they will only sell to someone that agrees to not do direct competition to them and possibly agrees to work together with them at various fronts, from renting back the ship for a few years to come to make a local very niche market cruise line with their supervision, audit and consultation... Hence the very high "general public" clean selling price...

[8420PR]

There have been plenty of cruise ships advertised on that website that were not sold.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/search/?&q=yachtworld&page=1&search_and_or=or&sortby=relevancy

 

e.g. Celebrity Millennium, lots of carnival ships etc.    I just don't think the website is credible.  

 

However, at some point older ships have to be sold or decommissioned.   If demand and/or prices do not come back to pre-COVID levels we will see ships sold or decommisioned earlier than planned, starting withe the older or less profitable ones.

[eroller]

Cruise lines often place certain ships for sale with no intention of actually selling them for a variety of reasons, such as determining value.  This is not unique to MSC.  

[Nunagoras]

Yes @eroller, that is true. They sometimes do that, especially when the current leasings are nearly at their end of life. Being 10 Years old, the Magnifica probably fits that criteria... Like in the airline industry, sometimes a cruise line will need to find a new lessor for their leased cruise ships... But the current times are not regular times... Time will tell. At certain point for MSC all the Lirica class vessels and possibly all the Musica class ones will be sent out of their fleet. that movement follows their competitors movements. It's no entire surprise...

 

Have a nice day!

[eroller]

50 minutes ago, Nunagoras said:

Yes @eroller, that is true. They sometimes do that, especially when the current leasings are nearly at their end of life. Being 10 Years old, the Magnifica probably fits that criteria... Like in the airline industry, sometimes a cruise line will need to find a new lessor for their leased cruise ships... But the current times are not regular times... Time will tell. At certain point for MSC all the Lirica class vessels and possibly all the Musica class ones will be sent out of their fleet. that movement follows their competitors movements. It's no entire surprise...

 

Have a nice day!

 

 

Thanks for the reply.  Sounds spot on.  I agree these are not normal times so anything is possible, but I see the Lirica Class going first.  

[JP82]

An alternative argument, is that Lirica class gives them a frame to accommodate smaller more intimate cruises (although possibly intimate isn't the ideal way forward now) and then they have the mega ships of Meravvilgia and Seaside class. Plus then the smaller but still large Fantasia Class. 

 

Maybe it's harder to find a value proposition for the Magnifica sized ships in the line up now, and the potential upcoming downturn for the industry?

 

I mean let's be honest, there's a lot of different conclusions the pen pushers could have been making over the last months.

[BermudaBound2014]

I believe every cruise line will  be forced to sell ships and restructure. 

 

The first 5 cruise ships I sailed on were with companies that went bankrupt (Regency, Commodore, Dolphin). It has happened before and it will likely happen again. CMV has already went defunk and there are two other small lines (names escape me at the moment) who have filed.

 

When I read this title to this thread I actually felt it was encouraging news in that MSC is being proactive. Carnival just sold 2 ships. Hal sold 4 ships. CCL has a total of 13 on sale. The writing is on the wall, yet there are still die-hard members of the optimistic club who believe cruise ships will be running by January of 2021. Time will tell. I hope I'm wrong. I want some of what they are smoking. 

 

I have no idea whether or not MSC is planning to sell Magnifica specifically; but I do believe every cruise line (including MSC) is looking at ways to increase cash and reduce liability. 

 

PS: Rumor mill is chattering away that the CDC is about to extend it's no sail order through the end of October.  Possible announcement tomorrow. 

[Stockjock]

FWIW, I e-mailed the ship's broker to ask if the listing was legitimate, since several had called it "fake news".  Within 10 minutes, the listing had been deleted.

So who knows if it was legit or why it was listed and subsequently removed.

[Stockjock]

Here's the reply I received from the broker listed on the Magnifica ad.

Hi Brad,

Thanks for your inquiry.  Your friend used a poor choice of words "FAKE."  MSC is not selling the ship and it was posted by mistake.  As soon as MSC informed us about it, we removed it from the internet.  It was not done intentionally.

Regards,
Ken Caine

[JP82]

How odd. How does one create and post a listing for a major cruise lines ship by mistake?