MSC Cruises, the Geneva based cruise shipping company, said it has decided MSC Grandiosa’s current itinerary and revised that of MSC Magnifica to include both eastern and western Mediterranean, while prosed seven night cruises this month and early in October have been cancelled.

MSC Grandiosa’s sailings on the present itinerary will be extended through to the end of the year, including the ship’s Christmas cruise to depart from Genoa, Italy on 20 December. MSC Grandiosa is offering seven-night cruises with embarkation in the Italian ports of Genoa, Civitavecchia, Naples and Palermo, plus a calling at Valletta, Malta.

MSC Magnifica’s new programme covers both the west and east Mediterranean and will see the ship homeport in Genoa with calls at Livorno for Florence and Pisa, Messina in Sicily, Valletta in Malta, Piraeus for Athens and Katakolon for Olympia in Greece and Civitavecchia for Rome, before returning to Genoa.

As a result of its new itinerary, MSC Magnifica’s four proposed seven-night cruises from Bari, Italy between 26 September to 24 October have been cancelled.

The 10 night itinerary is designed for guests who prefer longer voyages that offer more destinations to visit and more time at sea - thanks to the popularity of protected excursions the cruise line introduced last month under its new health and safety protocol, MSC Cruises said.

“The longer sailing is also expected to appeal to guests flying from Schengen countries because of strong pan-European air links to both Rome and Genoa – which are, together with Messina, two of the ship’s three embarkation ports, as well as ‘proximity cruising’ which is proving to be popular with MSC Cruises’ guests who live both in Italy and in neighbouring countries,” the company said in a statement.