South Africans have fun with name of cruise ship sailing from Cape Town

The name of an MSC cruise ship sailing from Cape Town in 2024 as part of its World Cruise has caused a stir on Twitter in South Africa due to its name.

MSC Poesia will cruise from Cape Town in 2024, as part of a longer 121-day World Cruise, but her name bears unfortunate similarity to an Afrikaans obscenity.

South Africans on Twitter have been having fun with the name as a result, reports The South African.

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MSC Cruises is an Italian cruise line, and in Italian Poesia means poetry, but in Afrikaans, the word without its ‘ia’ suffix is a crude reference to the female anatomy.

Responding to a Twitter thread asking: Tell me you’re South African without telling me you’re South African, one Twitter use wrote that “The name of the MSC Poesia makes me snort-laugh.”

Others tweeted that MSC Poesia was possibly the most appropriate of names for a cruise ship visiting South Africa, and joked that she wouldn’t be at risk of being tagged by graffiti artists.

MSC Poesia will depart Genoa in January, 2024 on her 121-day World Cruise. The voyage will visit 52 different ports in 31 countries, and will be divided into three legs that can be booked separately.

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.

“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.

MSC Poesia offers several amenities including a state-of-the-art gym, basketball and tennis courts, a sushi bar, spa, sauna, steam room, a cinema and more.

There are four pools, 7 Jacuzzis, 5 restaurants, 10 bars, a two-deck theatre, casino, shopping area and a plethora of entertainment options.

She is a sister ship to MSC Orchestra, which homeports annually in South Africa out of Durban during the summer between November and March.