Cruises from Italy to Resume

Cruise lines MSC and Costa Cruises have both announced plans to restart their cruises from Italy in January after the Italian Government’s requested pause during the holiday season. News of the plans to restart operations in Italy came as the lines marketing to North America once again announced delays in their resumption plans.

MSC plans resume cruises with its ship the MSC Grandiosa, which will start sailing from 24 January. She is scheduled to operate weekly cruises until 21 March from Genoa with stops in Civitavecchia, Naples, Palermo, and Malta.

Guests will be allowed board the ship in any of the Italian ports, but are required to test negative for COVID-19 before boarding the cruise. In addition, each passenger will have a second test during the cruise.

MSC Cruises plans to resume more cruises on 14 February with itineraries visiting Italy, Greece and Malta.

Costa Cruises, which also suspended sailing on 20 December, announced changes to its cruise program. Costa has canceled cruises through 31 January, citing uncertainty regarding COVID-19 restrictions in the coming weeks as the reason for cancellations.

Costa had resumed sailing in September with the Costa Deliziosa and the Costa Diadema both sailing from Italy.

The cruise line now plans to offer cruises aboard its smaller cruise ship the Costa Deliziosa. She has a capacity of 2,862 passengers and will allow for greater itinerary flexibility to respond to any changes in the local COVID-19 scenario.

As for North American cruise operations, several cruise lines have cancelled and suspended operations until March.

Norwegian Cruise Line canceled March cruises aboard three of its ships from Miami and Port Canaveral. Carnival Cruise Line has canceled all cruises through the end of March and into April for select ports.

Holland America canceled all cruises through April will delay some until May and June. Princess Cruises has extended its cancelations until the middle of May.

Despite these cancellations, several ships have returned to U.S. ports for provisioning stops and to begin the process to meet the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s requirements to resume cruising.