MSC Orchestra sailed to Walvis Bay, Namibia, where she made her maiden cruise call of the season as part of her first ever series of roundtrip Cape Town cruises.
Carrying 2,550 passengers, MSC Orchestra was welcomed by more than 50 local travel agents who went aboard for a ship tour and presentation about the company’s future plans for the region.
MSC Orchestra is cruising from Durban and Cape Town for the 2019/2020 cruise season
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Crests were also exchanged between the ship’s Master, Captain Nicola Gravante and Lucas Kufana, Port Captain, Namport.
The maiden port call came as MSC Orchestra made a five-night cruise from Cape Town to Namibia, a cruise that ended Friday with unusually strong winds in Cape Town.
The Mother City has experienced strong winds since Friday, which are expected to persist until the end of the weekend. Windspeeds are expected to be reach between 30 and 40km/h, with gusts as strong as 60 to 70km/h, according to News24.
The strong wind is being caused by a pressure gradient between a low and high pressure systems along the coast.
Despite the strong winds, MSC Orchestra was able to make port in the city on Friday, avoiding the problems faced by MSC Musica during the previous cruise season when strong winds kept her at anchor outside the port for two days.
MSC Orchestra will homeport in South Africa until March, 2020
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After doing a turnaround in Cape Town Friday, MSC Orchestra departed the same evening on a 4-night cruise back to Walvis Bay.
After this roundtrip Cape Town cruise to Namibia, MSC Orchestra will depart Cape Town bound for Durban to complete the rest of her South African cruise season.
Orchestra will operate from Durban for most of the summer season before returning in April to Venice via the Suez Canal as part of a 25-night grand voyage.
MSC will up capacity in South Africa for the 2020-2021 season, sending two ships to the country.
MSC Opera will homeport in Cape Town and MSC Musica will cruise roundtrip from Durban for the season.
MSC Cruises, through Kwazulu Cruise Terminal in November, started construction of a new multi-user cruise terminal in the port of Durban which is expected to be operational in January 2021.
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