The year is coming to an infamous end, with the even more contagious Omicron variant that recently contributed to increased numbers worldwide. Not a good sign for the cruise industry, that had been hit hard for these past two years and now another year coming with so many positive cases and chaos to start with.

All three MSC cruise ships sailing in Brazil for the 2021/22 season will be anchored off Copacabana beach on New Year's Eve for Rio de Janeiro's spectacular fireworks. MSC Preziosa, MSC Seaside and MSC Splendida will be anchored off the coast of Rio to experience the amazing New Year’s Reveillon celebration and world famous fireworks.

Two cruise ships have reported COVID-19 cases during their latest voyages in Brazil. Costa Cruises ship Costa Diadema set to dock at the Port of Santos on Monday has detected 13 cases of Covid-19 (10 passengers and 3 crew members), reports the Brazilian news portal G1.

MSC Cruises flagship MSC Seashore arrived today in Port Miami with dozens of people who tested positive for COVID-19. In a letter the cruise line informed guests onboard that 28 people tested positive for the virus. 

At around 7.30 pm on Wednesday, December 22, “Man Overboard” alarm was sounded on board the MSC Seashore as the cruise ship was returning to Miami from a 5 Nights Caribbean & Bahamas voyage. According to our source, the person is a 15-year-old child who fell off a balcony from Deck 16 and landed onto the promenade on Deck 8. 

MSC Cruises has canceled the 7-Night Northern Europe voyages on board the MSC Magnifica through January 14, 2022. The reason for the cancellations is the latest restrictive measures by several EU countries including Germany and the UK where guests board the MSC Magnifica cruises.

MSC Seashore had the honor of being the first-ever cruise ship to dock in the new cruise port in the Dominican Republic, the Taino Bay.  The new ship, who’s started sailing in November this year, begins its voyage this season with roundtrip from the Port Miami (USA), with stops in Ocho Rios, Georgetown, Cozumel, Ocean Cay, San Juan, Charlotte Amalie, Puerto Plata (Taino Bay).

MSC Cruises announced voluntary suspension of all sailings aboard the cruise ship MSC Orchestra in South Africa with immediate effect until 8 January, 2022. The reason behind this decision is “the most recent and sudden evolution, particularly in the past week of the pandemic ashore in the country, that puts the health and safety of its guests and crew as its utmost priority.” MSC Cruises said in a press release.

MSC Cruises has opened the sale of the regular cruise season, scheduled to run between November 2022 and April 2023, off the coast of South America. The company announced its new vessel MSC Seashore and five more ships for the season: four of them with departures from Brazil, one in Argentina and Uruguay and the sixth ship will sail on its Round the World Cruise, including visits of destinations in South America.

MSC Cruises will deploy MSC Lirica to the Eastern Mediterranean for the summer 2022, homeporting at Piraeus, Greece for the first time during the entire season. MSC Lirica will offer a 7-night voyages with 28 departures from Piraeus between April 2022 and October 2023 from calling at Kusadasi, Turkey; Haifa, Israel; Limassol, Cyprus and the Greek islands of Rhodes and Santorini.