MSC 2024 World Cruise to offer Cape Town departure and overnight in Saudi

MSC Cruises will be cruising from Cape Town as part of its 2024 World Cruise aboard MSC Poesia, departing Genoa in January.

The 121-day World Cruise will visit 52 ports in 31 different countries, with three separate legs that can be booked individually.

The first will be the outbound grand voyage from Genoa to Cape Town, the second will be the Cape Town to Miami trans-Atlantic, and the third will cross the Atlantic eastbound from Miami to Warnemunde in Germany.

RELATED: MSC Virtuosa makes maiden call in Saudi Arabia, 2nd MSC ship to do so

RELATED: Cape Town cruise demand has grown faster than officials can manage

All three itineraries together make up the full 121-day World Cruise, visiting four continents with more than 300 excursions on offer.

The outbound leg of the World Cruise, from Genoa to Cape Town, will sail via the Suez Canal and Red Sea, with an overnight port call in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, marking MSC Poesia’s maiden call to the country, which just recently opened up for cruise tourism.

“You’ll tour the Mediterranean, pass through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea and sail round Africa then cross the Atlantic Ocean to Brazil, the Caribbean, the US and Canada, before returning to Europe via Greenland and Iceland,” MSC Cruises says of the full itinerary.

The World Cruise has now opened for sale, and will embark in Genoa on January 5th, 2024. Civitavecchia, Marseille and Barcelona are also being offered as embarkation ports (on January 4th, 6th and 7th).

MSC Poesia will cruise through the Mediterranean, calling in France, Spain, Italy, Malta, Cyprus, an overnight in Haifa, Israel and a day visit to Cairo from Port Said/Alexandria, Egypt before transiting the Suez Canal into the Red Sea.

She’ll then call in Luxor in Egypt and Jordan to visit the iconic ancient city of Petra, before staying overnight in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, giving passengers the opportunity to explore Saudi Arabia’s many UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

MSC Poesia will then head south to Zanzibar, the Seychelles and Mauritius before reaching mainland Africa for a tour of South Africa with calls at Durban, Port Elizabeth and an overnight stay in Cape Town.

MSC Poesia will then cross the South Atlantic Ocean to South America and sail up the Amazon River in Brazil as far as Manaus. She’ll also call in Salvador de Bahia and Belém in Brazil before reaching Rio de Janeiro.

The Caribbean will be next, with visits to Saint Lucia, Barbados, Martinique, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas, including MSC Cruises’ private island, Ocean Cay, en-route to North America.

Guests will overnight in Miami and New York City and MSC Poesia will then sail north to Nova Scotia and Quebec in Canada before sailing east with calls to Greenland and Iceland before returning to mainland Europe and ending the voyage in Germany.