MSC Cruises ‘Musica’ Ship Homeports for First Time in Greece

MSC Cruises on Sunday announced that it was basing a new ship – the MSC Musica – in the port of Piraeus for the summer 2023 season.

The announcement was made by MSC Cruises Sales Executive Director for New Emerging Markets Angelo Capurro during an event on board the ship in Piraeus to celebrate the ship’s summer 2023 sailing season in the East Mediterranean.

This is the second time that MSC Cruises has based one of its ships in Greece to allow its guests to embark in Piraeus and the first time that MSC Musica is homeporting in the country.

“When we first based a ship last year in Piraeus – MSC Lirica – we said that for the 2023 summer season we would increase our capacity to cater for the growth in demand from Greek holidaymakers, as well as international guests,” Capurro said, adding that the MSC Musica fulfills that objective.

The MSC Musica will operate 26 seven-night voyages between May and October from Piraeus to visit the island of Santorini; Kusadasi, Turkey; Haifa, Israel; Limassol, Cyprus and a second Greek island Mykonos before returning to the port that serves Athens. The 16-deck MSC Musica offers a distinctive cruise experience centred on elegance, comfort and hospitality with 1,275 guest cabins.

“The seven-night itinerary is very appealing for both the domestic market who can embark from their local port and for those travelling from overseas to join the ship,” he added.

MSC Cruises’ ‘Stay & Cruise’ packages launched in 2022 will be available from July to include a two night ‘Athens Experience’ in a four-star hotel in the capital city with airport transfers and those to the port of Piraeus ahead of a seven-night cruise for guests flying from abroad to join the ship.

Summer 2023 cruises: Main focus on Greece

According to MSC Cruises, the East Mediterranean Sea will play an important role in its summer 2023 sailing programme with a record seven of its vessels deployed in the region with the main focus on Greece and its islands.

MSC Sinfonia will visit Piraeus 20 times during the summer months with voyages between Greece, Croatia and Italy and five other ships in the line’s fleet – MSC Armonia, MSC Lirica, MSC Splendida, MSC Opera and MSC Divina – will call at the Greek islands of Crete, Rhodes, Kefalonia, Mykonos, Santorini, Corfu and Zakynthos throughout the season. MSC Poesia in the Autumn will also visit Piraeus.

Greece was recently highlighted by MSC Cruises’ Executive Chairman Pierfrancesco Vago when he gave a keynote speech at a conference in Thessaloniki in his capacity as the Global Chair of the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the world’s largest cruise industry trade body.

Vago revealed that the beneficial economic impact that cruise tourism brought to Greece surpassed 1 billion euros and generated more than 15,000 jobs in the country. He also explained that homeporting a ship brings the strongest economic benefits for a destination.

“Greece now has an extraordinary opportunity to strengthen its position as a cruise hub in the region,” Vago said.

Cruiseway Travel and Top Kinisis Travel are among the preferred sales agents of MSC Cruises in Greece.