MSC Grandiosa has become the first ship from the MSC Cruises fleet to welcome guests back on board and to implement the cruise line’s enhanced health and safety protocols. 

The ship left the Italian port of Genoa yesterday (Sunday 16 August) on a seven-night itinerary, operating at 70 per cent capacity with roughly 2,500 passengers on board and with new health and safety protocols in place.

These include, but are not limited to, universal Covid-19 testing for all guests and crew prior to embarkation; an antigen Covid-19 swab test for every guest prior to boarding; protected ashore visits at each destination only with an MSC Cruises excursion, and the introduction of a Covid Protection Plan for guests. 

MSC Cruises’ CEO, Gianni Onorato, commented: “It is a real pleasure for me to be here and sail on board the first of our ships to return to service and to be able to welcome back our guests.

“Our main goal during these last months has been to put in place the right measures that will protect the health and safety of our guests, crew and the communities we visit.

“But at the same time, we have worked to ensure that we are able to provide our guests with a cruise holiday that they can enjoy and still experience all of the elements that they know and love from entertainment and activities on board through to protected ashore visits.”

Following the embarkation of the new guests today in Civitavecchia, more guests will also embark in the ports of Naples and Palermo and then the ship will call at Valetta in Malta, before returning to Genoa on Sunday. 

The two MSC Cruises ships operating in the Med this season – the second being MSC Magnifica in the East Mediterranean – will initially only welcome guests who are residents in Schengen countries.

MSC Magnifica will set sail on 29 August on a seven-night eastern Mediterranean sailing, with ports of call including Bari, on Italy’s southern coast, Trieste and the Greek ports of Corfu, Katakolon and Piraeus (Athens).

For more information, visit msccruises.co.uk.