The night before a cruise should be one filled with excitement, but for passengers set to embark on a Mediterranean voyage with MSC Cruises, it became an evening of dread and a scramble to rearrange travel plans.
The cruise line’s 58,625-gross-ton MSC Sinfonia was scheduled to depart on a 7-night journey from Bari in Southern Italy’s Puglia region on the Adriatic Sea on Saturday, April 12, 2025.
Instead of departing on an itinerary that would sail guests to Piraeus (Athens) and Corfu, Greece, and Izmir and Istanbul, Turkey, technical issues forced the cruise line to scrap the voyage.
Alerted by text message, passengers discovered their cruise was cancelled just before 7 p.m. local time on Friday, April 11.
“IMPORTANT: MSC Sinfonia’s cruise from Bari tomorrow has been cancelled due to technical issues,” the text message began.
“Our team will reach out shortly to assist with accommodation if needed,” it continued before adding, “We apologize for the inconvenience.”
Meanwhile, guests already onboard the challenged ship during a roundtrip 7-night segment sailing from Istanbul, were visiting Corfu for a 6-hour call as passengers in Bari were getting the notification.
“I’m on the cruise now and we’re not disembarking until Athens on Monday [April 14],” shared one passenger. “We haven’t heard anything.”
Reports followed that MSC Sinfonia experienced a malfunction that was reducing the vessel’s speed, requiring the vessel to travel at a limited speed with an escort from the Italian Coast Guard to Bari, where it is currently docked.
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The trouble forced the ship to miss its Athens call, as well as its April 15 and April 16 calls in Turkey, where new passengers were also set to embark on new segments of the voyage.
It’s likely more guests were stranded in those cities waiting for the vessel, and that others onboard were forced to find an alternative way home.
Passengers on the Bari segment were told they would be receiving a 100 percent refund of the cruise fare, as well as a future cruise credit for 100 percent of the fare paid to compensate for the last-minute inconvenience.
There is a good chance others were offered the same compensation while engineers work to repair the issue while the 2,163-guest MSC Sinfonia is stuck in port.
Ship Speed Affected
The news came as the cruise line was celebrating its newest entry to the fleet, the MSC World America, which was celebrating its christening in Miami and taking guests on a preview cruise.
But it’s not the first time an MSC Cruises vessel dealt with technical issues. The much-larger 171,598-gross-ton MSC Bellissima experienced engine failure in December 2024 while in Japan, forcing it to cancel several sailings.
Typically, when a ship has to travel at reduced speeds, it is often a propulsion issue.
While engines can generate power, issues in the mechanical system can prevent the power from reaching the propellers so the ship cannot maintain cruising speeds.
The actual problem can be a number of things, from the motors to the shafts to the propellers, which is why engineers in Italy need more time to identify the actual problem.
MSC Cruises says there may not be an answer to the question of when MSC Sinfonia will resume her schedule until April 15.
Once she is up and running again, the vessel will maintain her series of 7-night itineraries from Bari, Istanbul, Izmir, and Athens through the end of the month.
It will then add additional stops like Santorini, Katakolon, and Argostoli, Greece, and also provide several 3-night sailings into summer 2025.
