by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 9:45 AM ET, Thu October 12, 2023
MSC Cruises has revised the Eastern Mediterranean sailings for the MSC Sinfonia and MSC Musica ships in light of the war in Israel.
The MSC Sinfonia’s eight 11-night Eastern Mediterranean voyages beginning October 21, 2023 will replace Haifa, Israel with Istanbul, Turkey. Rhodes is also replaced by Piraeus, Greece (Athens), while Limassol, Cyprus will be replaced by Izmir, Turkey. Its entire port list includes Genoa, Civitavecchia (Rome), Messina, Piraeus (Athens), Izmir, Istanbul and Heraklion.
MSC Musica’s three 7-night voyages from Piraeus (Athens) sailing October 18 and October 25 will replace Haifa, Israel with Rhodes, while its November 1 sailing will replace the port with Marmaris, Turkey.
The cruise line is notifying all passengers on these itineraries of the changes.
“The safety of our passengers and crew is always our top priority and we have worked rapidly to revise the itineraries of MSC Sinfonia and MSC Musica to offer an extremely attractive alternative for the winter months,” said Gianni Onorato, CEO, MSC Cruises.
Cruise lines, tour operators and airlines have been changing itineraries and routes to avoid the area of conflict in recent days, some even going so far as canceling certain departures or itineraries.
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