Armonia/US: What are the chances?

[shipgeeks]

Armonia is scheduled to sail in December; however, she is still at Naples and supposedly has not applied for CDC approval.

Cruises are still available for booking, but some have expressed doubt that they will happen.

Any information, or even opinions, would be appreciated.

[KeepSailing]

58 minutes ago, shipgeeks said:

Armonia is scheduled to sail in December; however, she is still at Naples and supposedly has not applied for CDC approval.

As respects the CDC question, technically the current Conditional Sail Orders expire on Oct 31 and nobody knows yet if they will extend them.  So, if a ship was going to arrive in US waters after that date, it at the present it would not be subject to the CSO.

 

However, I suspect it is not specifically a CDC issue but one of low occupancy that has been widely reported by other posters.  I think they will likely try to consolidate bookings into those ships that are now sailing the US / Caribbean until such time as demand / occupancy increases and supports better pricing for them.

[phissy]

MSC has Armonia, sailing the Caribbean , Starting November 1.

 

Cruises  on MSC site now for sale.  

Will be interesting .

[sidari]

Armonia will be sailing the Med in 2022 sailing to Greece, Croatia from Venice and Brindisi, so any Caribbean season will likely be short.

[shipgeeks]

She is scheduled in US from November 1, and then repositioning to Med in early March.  We had hoped to sail on her in December and January, but I get the feeling we're going to be disappointed.

[cruiseguyinorl]

1 hour ago, shipgeeks said:

She is scheduled in US from November 1, and then repositioning to Med in early March.  We had hoped to sail on her in December and January, but I get the feeling we're going to be disappointed.

 

Word inside is that the Armonia won't be coming back. However, there is talk of a ship taking her place. Magnifica anyone? 🤫 But as with all things MSC, it remains to be seen.

Bret

[kremerlorraine]

Well, they've just announced that Bellissima is extending her season out of Jeddah in the Red Sea, replacing the Magnifica which was supposed to be doing the winter cruises there. And that they are in the process of "finalising" winter 2021/22 ship deployments. We are anxiously awaiting news of our cruise on Opera from Venice to Dubai on 25 October.

[quattrohead]

Magnifica would be a nice replacement for Armonia, a little bigger and just refurbished.

My first MSC cruise was on Poesia and I was absolutely blown away by how gorgeous she was back in 2012. Mind you, the year before we were on Carnival Triumph 3 weeks before it's major engine failure and it looked and felt like hell LOL so poor comparison.

[quattrohead]

MSC Bellissima will replace MSC Magnifica, which was previously scheduled to serve in the region this winter.

From 30 October 2021 MSC Bellissima will offer 7-night cruises from Jeddah. This info is from their press release.

HOWEVER -

MSC Magnifica is still bookable on a November 1-3 trip from Italy to Croatia.

I tried to send them a message again, but the system says no booking number found. I log in, I see the booking. *****.

[Virga]

Oh no!  I'm glad I checked here first, I was about to pull the trigger on a couple of weekend cruises out of Miami in November and December.  Unfortunately, we can only take them if they're Fri-Mon out of south Florida - nothing else will work for us =(

 

What has MSC been offering recently when they cancel on you?  The ship being wide open at very, very low prices and an ocean away has me pretty concerned that cancellations are right around the corner... 

[quattrohead]

34 minutes ago, Virga said:

Oh no!  I'm glad I checked here first, I was about to pull the trigger on a couple of weekend cruises out of Miami in November and December.  Unfortunately, we can only take them if they're Fri-Mon out of south Florida - nothing else will work for us =(

 

What has MSC been offering recently when they cancel on you?  The ship being wide open at very, very low prices and an ocean away has me pretty concerned that cancellations are right around the corner... 

You should check Carnival Magic out of PC, that is what we are going on on Thursday.

[Virga]

11 minutes ago, quattrohead said:

You should check Carnival Magic out of PC, that is what we are going on on Thursday.

Unfortunately, we can only take them if they're Fri-Mon out of south Florida - nothing else will work for us =(

[Pzeichert]

As of yesterday my Dec 13 Armonia booking says NAR and the screen is a sad gray color.

[Cinerama]

No cruises available on the Armonia on the MSC website - just gives you an error message. On my TA site just two available - see below. I'm guessing all other booked cruises on the Armonia will be cancelled. They had a lot starting in November through February.