MSC Cruises has put a second ship back into the water as the MSC Magnifica departed Genoa, Italy Monday on a 10-night voyage in the West and East Mediterranean Sea with planned calls at the port of Livorno for visits to Florence and Pisa, Messina in Sicily, Piraeus for Athens, Katakolon for Olympia, Valletta in Malta, and Civitavecchia for Rome, before returning to Genoa.
The cruise line said that MSC Magnifica would sail six Mediterranean cruises before the end of the year, including an 8-night Christmas voyage that will depart Genoa on 18 December.
The MSC Magnifica restart follows on the successful return to sailing of the flagship MSC Grandioa, which has now completed nine 7-night voyages since resuming cruise operations in mid-August, all without seeing one single case of COVID-19 on board.
The MSC Magnifica like the MSC Grandiosa will sail according to MSC Cruises’ comprehensive health and safety protocol, that has been endorsed by external medical experts and formally approved by the relevant national and regional authorities.
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Con te partirò ????. Welcome back to the high seas, #MSCMagnifica! Thanks for sharing this magical video from Genoa, Francesco. To find out more about her full itinerary, click here: https://t.co/h0uYfCB5dB Unleash your sense of discovery. #AWorldOfDiscovery pic.twitter.com/wsqn11uLzn
— MSC Cruises South Africa (@MSCcruisesSA) October 20, 2020
The measures include universal health screening of everyone – guests and crew – which includes double buffer tests for COVID-19 before they can board a ship; elevated sanitation and cleaning measures throughout the vessel; managed social distancing; wearing of face masks in public areas and technology to aid track and trace on board; and protected “social bubble” ashore visits at each port of call. In this initial phase, the ship’s capacity has also been reduced to 70 per cent to ensure social distancing can be guaranteed on board.
MSC Magnifica last cruise ship on earth
The MSC Magnifica was dubbed the “last cruise ship on earth” earlier this year after it spent three and a half months at sea following the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis and ended up as the last ship on the globe carrying passengers after the shutdown of the industry. Incidentally, not one case was reported on the ship in this time.
The MSC Magnifica, launched in 2009, is the fourth ship in MSC’s Musica class and was built in France at a cost of $547 million. The 963 foot long Magnifica carries 3223 passengers and 1038 crew.
Earlier this month, the Costa Smeralda, the flagship of Carnival Corporation’s Italian brand Costa Cruises sailed from the port of Savona in northwest Italy to become the third ship in the Costa fleet to resume cruise operations after the Costa Deliziosa and Costa Diadema.
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