Msc Splendida- Itinerary change

[WorldTraveler151208]

I have a reservation for the Msc Splendida cruise from Trieste in July. Today, I noticed on the website that they changed the itinerary and replaced Kotor (Montenegro) with Split (Croatia). As always, I didn’t even receive a notification about this from Msc Cruises.

Does anyone have any idea what happened?  These itineraries were established quite recently, so I thought Msc took all Covid restrictions into account and I didn’t expect any changes. Did Montenegro decide not to allow cruise ships? 
I'm pretty disappointed about this.  For me and probably for many passengers, Kotor was the most interesting port of this cruise.

 

[DCGuy64]

5 hours ago, WorldTraveler151208 said:

I have a reservation for the Msc Splendida cruise from Trieste in July. Today, I noticed on the website that they changed the itinerary and replaced Kotor (Montenegro) with Split (Croatia). As always, I didn’t even receive a notification about this from Msc Cruises.

Does anyone have any idea what happened?  These itineraries were established quite recently, so I thought Msc took all Covid restrictions into account and I didn’t expect any changes. Did Montenegro decide not to allow cruise ships? 
I'm pretty disappointed about this.  For me and probably for many passengers, Kotor was the most interesting port of this cruise.

 

Really? That's interesting. My wife and I are very likely going to replace our upcoming Seaview cruise with the Splendida out of Trieste the month after yours. Just out of curiosity, and if you don't mind sharing, are you a US resident? And which site did you use? US or not? We went ahead and booked our flights yesterday to Venice in anticipation of this cruise. It's surprising, because I thought Montenegro was open to tourists. Our only concern at this point is whether MSC will change its current policy of only allowing Schengen area residents +Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia. Thanks for posting this!

[sidari]

Split is a nice port to visit, Kotor though is more picturesque and the sail out is very good. We were on Majestic Princes passing the area which is narrow and high when they played the love boat tune on the ships horn, the echo was great.

[WorldTraveler151208]

3 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

Really? That's interesting. My wife and I are very likely going to replace our upcoming Seaview cruise with the Splendida out of Trieste the month after yours. Just out of curiosity, and if you don't mind sharing, are you a US resident? And which site did you use? US or not? We went ahead and booked our flights yesterday to Venice in anticipation of this cruise. It's surprising, because I thought Montenegro was open to tourists. Our only concern at this point is whether MSC will change its current policy of only allowing Schengen area residents +Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia. Thanks for posting this!

I am not from the US, I live in Europe, so I should get to Trieste without any problems. From July they are going to introduce vaccination passport to travel freely between EU countries.
Unfortunately I have no idea if Msc is going to change the policy for other countries. Actually I have a similar problem, but the other way round. I have a reservation for a cruise from the States in September, but probably I won’t be able to come. As far as I know, at the moment there are no plans to reopen the US for European tourists.

[DCGuy64]

1 minute ago, WorldTraveler151208 said:

I am not from the US, I live in Europe, so I should get to Trieste without any problems.

Wonderful! ☺️

We shouldn't have any problems getting to Trieste, either. It's getting on the ship that's the problem, LOL. I have sent emails today to MSC in Italy and the US, so we'll see what they say. I read encouraging news regarding the EU Covid Certificate which more and more countries are adopting. And I believe MSC's current restrictions are only good through June 30, so hopefully they'll announce something after that. I do hope for your sake that the US offers reciprocity to Europeans like yourself so you can cruise from the US.

[DCGuy64]

23 minutes ago, sidari said:

Split is a nice port to visit, Kotor though is more picturesque and the sail out is very good. We were on Majestic Princes passing the area which is narrow and high when they played the love boat tune on the ships horn, the echo was great.

What's interesting is that while the US site for MSC shows Split instead of Kotor, the Italian site doesn't.

[WorldTraveler151208]

22 minutes ago, sidari said:

Split is a nice port to visit, Kotor though is more picturesque and the sail out is very good. We were on Majestic Princes passing the area which is narrow and high when they played the love boat tune on the ships horn, the echo was great.

I know Split is nice too, but I've been there before.  This time I really wanted to visit Montenegro. I can imagine the departure from Kotor must have been a unique experience. 
I still don't know what caused the change. If there are any problems with covid restrictions, In my opinion they could at least do a panoramic cruise in the gulf of Kotor without shore excursions. In this case, even watching the views from the ship would be nice. That’s what Tui Cruises is currently doing in Sweden. 

[WorldTraveler151208]

13 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

What's interesting is that while the US site for MSC shows Split instead of Kotor, the Italian site doesn't.

Yes, I also noticed they didn't update the itinerary everywhere, but I logged into my booking and it shows the itinerary with Split. 

[DCGuy64]

2 minutes ago, WorldTraveler151208 said:

Yes, I also noticed they didn't update the itinerary everywhere, but I logged into my booking and it shows the itinerary with Split. 

OK, sounds good. I've never been to either Montenegro or Croatia, although I have colleagues from both countries and they're always urging me to visit. 😄

[sidari]

The UK site still shows Kotor and Dubrovnik apart from the July sailings.

[WorldTraveler151208]

25 minutes ago, sidari said:

The UK site still shows Kotor and Dubrovnik apart from the July sailings.

Indeed, there is still the original itinerary on the Italian website too, but after logging into my booking (departure 3 July) I see the changed one. I think that’s the more reliable source. I also checked out of curiosity on the German website and unfortunately it also shows the new itinerary with Split for 3 July. 

[DCGuy64]

I’ve been keeping tabs on this cruise, and it seems only the July 3 sailing is skipping Montenegro, all of the others are going there. 

[Never too young to cruise]

On a similar theme, I noticed that the itinerary for MSC Orchestra changed in the website and I did not hear from MSC until about a month later by email. 

 

MSC informed me that the itinerary had changed, and that I could either 1. get a refund or 2. stay on the cruise and have €200 OBC as compensation.

 

Well, I took the €200 because I was content with the change anyway!

[drsel]

4 hours ago, Never too young to cruise said:

On a similar theme, I noticed that the itinerary for MSC Orchestra changed in the website and I did not hear from MSC until about a month later by email. 

 

MSC informed me that the itinerary had changed, and that I could either 1. get a refund or 2. stay on the cruise and have €200 OBC as compensation.

 

Well, I took the €200 because I was content with the change anyway!

That's very generous of MSC to give you 200 euros just for 1 missed port.

I remember when Costa missed a port in Madagascar, they did not offer anything in compensation

Edited June 20, 2021 by drsel