What MSC itineraries are on your to-do/bucket list?

[no1talks]

MSC doesn't have the deepest bench when it comes to itineraries. However, there are several I'm eager to book. Of course, one cannot be certain these particular cruises will be around from one year to the next. Nonetheless, here is my list, though somewhat tongue-in-cheek. What's on your list?

 

#4 10 nights: Las Palmas, Fuerteventura, Funchal, Santa Cruz de la Palma, Arrecife, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Casablanca, Valencia.
You can never have too many stops in the Canaries and this cruise has four, with Madeira and Fuerteventura islands thrown in. That's a lot of islands, but still not enough for salad dressing. The best part of the whole trip will be stopping for lunch at Rick's Cafe in Casablanca, if it's still in business at the time. I'll be taking my dinner jacket with me to don at the restaurant and pose for a picture near the piano with one of the staff. "You played it for her, you can play it for me!"

#3 12 nights: Durban, Port Louis, La Possession, Inhaca Archipelago, Durban.
MSC doesn't do much in the Indian Ocean, but this cruise looks pretty good. Between you and me, though, my real interest is the three-day stop in Mauritius. With all that time, I'm certain to discover a waddle of dodos that has been keeping a very, very low profile for more than 300 years. 

#2 11 nights: Tokyo, Muroran, Sakata, Kanazawa, Busan, Yatsushiro, Kochi, Osaka, Tokyo.
Even though there are cruises that do a full circumnavigation of Japan, three of the four major islands would still be a fine cruise. One stop in South Korea is included for good measure, too. Do you suppose there would be any problems with US customs if I were to buy some spare parts for my K900 in Busan?

#1 14 nights: Hamburg, Bergen, Molde Fjord, Longyearbyen, Honningsvag, Hammerfest, Tromso, Leknes, Stavanger, Hamburg.
I think it would be fun being able to say I've been to a place (Longyearbyen) less than 12° south of the North Pole. Plus, cats are banned, so I won't need my allergy meds. Most ships going there are smaller, expedition-type vessels but MSC can take you there in YC style, if that's your thing.

Edited March 30 by no1talks

[perakcruiser]

3 hours ago, no1talks said:

#4 10 nights: Las Palmas, Fuerteventura, Funchal, Santa Cruz de la Palma, Arrecife, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Casablanca, Valencia.
You can never have too many stops in the Canaries and this cruise has four, with Madeira and Fuerteventura islands thrown in. That's a lot of islands, but still not enough for salad dressing. The best part of the whole trip will be stopping for lunch at Rick's Cafe in Casablanca, if it's still in business at the time. I'll be taking my dinner jacket with me to don at the restaurant and pose for a picture near the piano with one of the staff. "You played it for her, you can play it for me!"

There is a "Ricks Cafe" in Casablanca basically on every corner 😄 Fully agree, this trip is one of the best. But there is a lot of competition, so sometimes MSC is not the best choice. Check also Celebrity, who regularly beat MSC´s price on this trip. 

 

3 hours ago, no1talks said:

#1 14 nights: Hamburg, Bergen, Molde Fjord, Longyearbyen, Honningsvag, Hammerfest, Tromso, Leknes, Stavanger, Hamburg.

Yes, this is it. 

 

For me, I don´t have a full itinerary on my bucket list, but I want to visit Zakynthos (which I do this May with the Armonia) and Ocean Cay (which is a logistic nightmare from Malaysia 😄

 

And yes, Antarctica, of cause. 

[raino144]

When the kids go off to University, a 20+ night Transatlantic itinerary in Yacht Club! For me MSC is all about the ship.

[no1talks]

4 hours ago, perakcruiser said:

"Check also Celebrity, who regularly beat MSC´s price on this trip."

 

They may have better deals in the general vicinity, but the don't have an itinerary that combines Casablanca, Canaries, and Madeira.

 

4 hours ago, perakcruiser said:

"...and Ocean Cay (which is a logistic nightmare from Malaysia 😄"

 

It's also a risk with Ocean Cay's cancellation rate. After the closure and upgrades, the chances will be better, though.

 

4 hours ago, perakcruiser said:

"And yes, Antarctica, of cause."

 

This is one place in which I have no interest. Expedition cruises do not appeal to me. Drake's Passage doesn't appeal to me either. 🤢

[no1talks]

5 hours ago, raino144 said:

"Transatlantic itinerary in Yacht Club!"

 

I'm not confident MSC has enough onboard activities to support my tastes during a long stretch of ocean. I'm quite traditional and I'd want old-school options to be available. 

 

We are probably going to do a round-trip transatlantic on Queen Mary in '26 and I look forward to dance lessons, learning bridge, and other traditional ocean-crossing activities of classic cruising.

[morpheusofthesea]

10 hours ago, no1talks said:

Rick's Cafe in Casablanca

We took the cruise years ago. Asked the tour guide where was Rick’sCafe. There was no Rick’s Cafe. Every scene was shot in Burbank California. Talk about my second shock in life, my first shock was learning there was no Santa Claus.

[no1talks]

18 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

"There was no Rick’s Cafe."

 

This one has 20 years in business. Maybe it's time you return to Casablanca.

 

https://www.rickscafe.ma/

[morpheusofthesea]

27 minutes ago, no1talks said:

 

This one has 20 years in business. Maybe it's time you return to Casablanca.

 

https://www.rickscafe.ma/

Story of our lives. Went to Hawaii, bought a new Sony video recorder to film an erupting volcano. Nothing was erupting. Bought a videotape of prior eruptions. Following year Kiluwaa erupts and continues for the next 30 years. But I already scratched it off my bucket list.

[morpheusofthesea]

1 hour ago, no1talks said:

 

This one has 20 years in business. Maybe it's time you return to Casablanca.

 

https://www.rickscafe.ma/

Sitting on the tour bus in Casablanca, saying to myself what a business opportunity it would be to open a replica of Rick’sCafe for western tourists. A gold mine. But then I looked around. One would have to be really connected not to be robbed blind. Rick only had one official to ‘pay off’.

[morpheusofthesea]

My third shock was finding no 221b Baker Street.

[no1talks]

8 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

My third shock was finding no 221b Baker Street.

 

Long, long ago, not too far a drive from where I lived, there was an upscale pub of that name with the obligatory Sherlockian motif.

 

It was largely supported by its proximity to a cinema. Unfortunately, the cinema switched to a dollar-movie business model and families on a tight budget replaced the full-price movie fans.

 

221b Backer Street did not survive the change in customer traffic.

[no1talks]

19 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

"Rick only had one official to ‘pay off’."

 

"I'm shocked! Shocked to find that gambling is going on in here."

 

[morpheusofthesea]

7 minutes ago, no1talks said:

 

"I'm shocked! Shocked to find that gambling is going on in here."

 

Exactly.

[morpheusofthesea]

This is exactly the point. We all have these fairy tale places that we spend time and a great deal of money to add to our bucket lists, only to find disappointment 

[Essiesmom]

4 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

This is exactly the point. We all have these fairy tale places that we spend time and a great deal of money to add to our bucket lists, only to find disappointment 

Like the Trevi Fountain.  EM

[no1talks]

21 minutes ago, Essiesmom said:

"Like the Trevi Fountain."  EM

 

You'll never see me denigrating the Trevi. Many years ago, I had the good fortune of being cast as Oceanus in a production of Prometheus Bound. Accordingly, I have a soft spot for the old titan.

 

And no, I was not nude on stage. I was costumed in a proper chiton. 😁

 

 

[perakcruiser]

5 hours ago, no1talks said:

It's also a risk with Ocean Cay's cancellation rate. After the closure and upgrades, the chances will be better, though.

Yes, I am expecting this also. As I will most probably only go one time in my life to Florida, I better wait to minimize the risk. 

[morpheusofthesea]

1 hour ago, no1talks said:

And no, I was not nude on stage. I was costumed in a proper chiton

Too, bad, now that could have been a real sight to behold.

[Beamafar]

Would love to do the 14 night Antilles itinerary (no US ports) but, so far, MSC only offers embarkation in Guadeloupe or Martinique to us.  This entails connecting through CDG to get to either - no thanks.  We’re fully booked up to Oct 2025;  if we can find a way to book with Bridgetown as the POE then we may yet get to cross it off the list. 
 

We missed out on visiting St Petersburg (Covid-cancelled cruise 🙁) but the Baltics/Norway would also be on my list.  It’s just difficult to contemplate a holiday in a region with similar climate to our own (cold and wet - and that’s just the Summer 🤪).  We prefer the chance to see that great big yellow ball in the sky that, apparently, radiates very nice heat in some places.  

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

I've done MSC in the Persian Gulf (from Dubai), MSC in the deep southern Caribbean (from Martinique), MSC in the Red Sea (from Jeddah) and MSC in the Baltic (from Kiel). Was not aware of the Canary Island itinerary described by the OP above so will need to read-up on that.

[CruisingFox27]

I would like to redo our China, Japan and Asia repositioning cruise which missed China, Japan, Hong Kong, India and Sri Lanka due to us setting sail in Feb 2020. 

 

We're booked to redo the Suez Canal, Dubai to Le Harve, with stops in Cairo and Jordan next year, after missing those ports on our Trieste to Durban repositioning last year, but I suspect that'll be canceled and readded to the wish list. It was also supposed to be our 3rd attempt to visit Abu Dhabi, missed it on the covid Asia sailing and we missed it due to a snow storm delaying our flight for a Persian Gulf sailing a few years before. So, that's still on the list. 

 

I have South America on my wish list but have recently found a cruise/ land tour which would cover more places, so MSC may not be our cruise line of choice for that one. 

[perakcruiser]

10 hours ago, Beamafar said:

We missed out on visiting St Petersburg (Covid-cancelled cruise 🙁) but the Baltics/Norway would also be on my list.  

Oh yes, I forgot already! St Petersburg maybe had the highest priority for me, I will surely not do a Baltic cruise without. 

[morpheusofthesea]

Here is another bucket list site to watch out for, walking the Great Wall of China. A real photo opportunity. Had a member of our tour group who got his wallet pick-pocketed there. We on the other hand, spied this fantastic caricature artist set up with great caricatures of famous people he had pinned up displayed all over his stall. So DW and I had a sitting as he did his $50 caricature. (yes they took US dollars). When he finished it was the worst caricature I ever saw. I called over our tour guide to question the artist, "why our caricature looks nothing like the other great works displayed ?" Appears the real caricature artist was on vacation, we got the temp.

[Beamafar]

4 hours ago, perakcruiser said:

Oh yes, I forgot already! St Petersburg maybe had the highest priority for me, I will surely not do a Baltic cruise without. 

It’s unlikely there’ll be cruises to SP for a long time to come. 

[Beamafar]

Wish MSC would do a regular itinerary to the ABCs.  Had to book Celebrity to re-visit (something we’ve been longing to do since we visited Curaçao and Aruba on Meraviglia’s repositioning from New York to Miami).  
 

Also, would love to see them do cruises to Hawaii (another bucket list destination).  Again, had to book another cruise line to sail there (one from LA on Princess Cruises).