MSC never seems to be in list of Cruise Lines

[cellfree]

MSC never seems to be in the list of Cruise Lines starting up/given the okay to cruise out of Florida Ports. Any insights? At this point in time the latest updates of cancelled cruises on MSC web site is from April 15, 2021 when they cancelled through June 30, 2021.

[BermudaBound2014]

I've been following this reasonably closely also. It seems to me that MSC is just patiently waiting for the CDC/USA/Florida to get rolling before they launch from this side of the pond. Of course, this is MSC and a whole bunch of itineraries might become available tomorrow. But I agree, they are very laid back with information at this time.

[Até]

15 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

It seems to me that MSC is just patiently waiting for the CDC/USA/Florida to get rolling before they launch from this side of the pond. Of course, this is MSC and a whole bunch of itineraries might become available tomorrow.

A whole bunch of July+ itineraries have been available for months.  MSC patiently waiting until less than a month out to let these people know their plan is ridiculous.  To me, it unfortunately points towards MSC quickly doing test sailings because requiring vaccinations for July sailings at this point would cause quite a mess.

[BermudaBound2014]

2 minutes ago, Até said:

A whole bunch of July+ itineraries have been available for months.  MSC patiently waiting until less than a month out to let these people know their plan is ridiculous.  To me, it unfortunately points towards MSC quickly doing test sailings because requiring vaccinations for July sailings at this point would cause quite a mess.

 

I did not realize MSC has not yet cancelled the July sailings. That is indeed, unfortunate.  Can you tell me why you believe this means MSC is going the test sailing route? 

 

IMO, what this means is that MSC is just not sailing in July from the USA. No test cruise. No revenue generating cruise. Am I missing something?

[kelleherdl]

16 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

I did not realize MSC has not yet cancelled the July sailings. That is indeed, unfortunate.  Can you tell me why you believe this means MSC is going the test sailing route? 

 

IMO, what this means is that MSC is just not sailing in July from the USA. No test cruise. No revenue generating cruise. Am I missing something?

Unfortunately, I don’t believe you are.  Divina remains tied up in Valletta.  Armonia has not spent very much time in PortMiami at all.  I’m afraid a lot of what we like about MSC is the reason.  It may be that since  MSC is a very private Italian company without a strong US-based management team there is no prompt handling of all the CDC details without constantly referring issues to Genoa.  How many time have we all experienced being told by an MSC USA customer service agent that our issue needed to be referred to Genoa?

 

Dennis

Edited June 3, 2021 by kelleherdl

[shipgeeks]

Meraviglia has been at POM, sometimes for several days at a time.  Armonia has been there a few times.  I'm hopeful that's a good omen.

[BermudaBound2014]

13 minutes ago, shipgeeks said:

Meraviglia has been at POM, sometimes for several days at a time.  Armonia has been there a few times.  I'm hopeful that's a good omen.

 

Are they both staffed? If so, they could be coming into get their crew vaccinated. If they aren't staffed, there are lots of other reasons they come into port periodically.

[Bgwest]

i'm still awaiting official word from MSC on whether or not our June 20 and June 27 cruises will be sailing out of Kiel. 

 

Of course, there's not a chance in hell they will be sailing (we've already made alternate plans) but it's unconscionable that MSC hasn't made an official announcement by now, 17 days before sailing. 

 

Borders on criminal.

 

 

 

[Até]

32 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

Are they both staffed? If so, they could be coming into get their crew vaccinated. If they aren't staffed, there are lots of other reasons they come into port periodically.

I saw a report Meraviglia was in Miami on May 7th starting crew vaccinations.  It also stated a first group of 90 crew were boarding on May 14th.  At that rate it's going to be tough to do test cruises in time for early July.  I have not seen info on Armonia.

[saleeb]

We just booked our first msc cruise on the Orchestra for 3 July sailing from Venice. I didn't do much research on the cruise line prior to booking. Now I'm concerned at seeing some posts about the cruise line canceling or completely changing departure port without notification. It sounds like we should drive to Venice from Germany instead of flying to be on the safe side if it gets changed. How best can we be kept up to date?

[Bgwest]

1 hour ago, saleeb said:

We just booked our first msc cruise on the Orchestra for 3 July sailing from Venice. I didn't do much research on the cruise line prior to booking. Now I'm concerned at seeing some posts about the cruise line canceling or completely changing departure port without notification. It sounds like we should drive to Venice from Germany instead of flying to be on the safe side if it gets changed. How best can we be kept up to date?

I too, am interested in hearing the MSC longtimers weigh in on your question. 

 

We are pretty well newbies to MSC ourselves and thus far have been completely underwhelmed by their stony silence and complete lack of transparency. Calling their "customer service" folks is a joke. As individuals, I believe they really try and work with the information they are given. Which is nothing. 

I've had more than one of their reps tell me they get emails updating them when we the passengers/customers get that same email. 

 

Surely there are people higher up at MSC who know what's going on but I've not been able to figure out how to get to them. 

 

Eager to hear from the experts. 

[dexddd]

I've been wondering the same thing.  There has been silence on plan and dates yet July still listed.

[At Sea At Peace]

It appears to us that MSC simply isn't wasting resources, time, money, logistics, etc. with regard to US ports until the 'entire political, regulatory and social societal issues are resolved, especially now with the extent of vaccination and natural immunity % coverage really knocking the cases, hospitalizations and death back down to their lowest of levels.

 

Heck, in NH we now have more vaccine supply than demand and the governor has asked the federal administration if some of our allocation can be used for commerce related boarder citizens of CANADA.

 

We are witnessing such massive returns to mask-less crowds seated side by side at professional sporting events, concerts, restaurants etc., it just makes the case to move these same 'standards' to the cruise ships.  

 

Again, MSC appears to be 'in wait.

 

We're on, hopefully, the Seashore out of Miami the first couple of cruises in December so we hope it's all resolved by then.

[sidari]

Friends are due back onboard Meraviglia the first week of July, some crew have already boarded, with the breakdown of talks with the CDC sailings starting may be prolonged. 

[BoundForSea]

You very well see MSC wait until late October when presumably the Pandemic declaration goes away and the CDC is 100% out of cruising and the Framework is out. 

[cellfree]

Still hoping for our September cruise out of Miami to go, did cancel/rebook an August one, seems we all continue in the “same boat,” no matter what cruise line, wait and see. 

[dexddd]

13 hours ago, BoundForSea said:

You very well see MSC wait until late October when presumably the Pandemic declaration goes away and the CDC is 100% out of cruising and the Framework is out. 

What will their plan be?  Cancel week by week or a whole batch?  People have vacation time, planes, hotels planned.  Tough spot to be in for both customers and cruise lines.

[jscruise]

 

1 hour ago, dexddd said:

What will their plan be?  Cancel week by week or a whole batch?  People have vacation time, planes, hotels planned.  Tough spot to be in for both customers and cruise lines.

Agreed.  I understand what appears to be MSC deliberative nature in deciding how it wants to proceed but when customers are limited to a specific week for their vacations and may need to plan alternative options, the lack of communication from the line is disconcerting.  Looking at some of the timelines of other lines for completing test cruises and then starting revenue cruises does not inspire confidence that MSC will be able to run cruises until late summer at the earliest.