Embarking on its maiden voyage in April 2008, the MSC Poesia is a 2,550-passenger ship that the German cruising giant uses for sailings to the Caribbean out of Miami during the winter season and Alaska out of Seattle during the summer months.
In an average year, the midsize cruise ship completes somewhere between 50 and 60 sailings. But at the start of November, one was called off before it could begin. The U.S. Coast Guard detained it at PortMiami when inspectors found a number of “deficiencies with systems” aboard the ship, Cruise Law News reported.
The mechanical issues could not be resolved promptly, and on Nov. 3, MSC ended up canceling what was supposed to be an 11-day sailing around the Western Caribbean and Central America.
“Deficiencies with systems onboard”: Coast Guard on detained MSC Poesia ship
“The Coast Guard cannot currently comment on the specifics of an ongoing Port State Control Examination, but we have identified deficiencies with systems on board the vessel that we are addressing with MSC,” Capt. Frank Florio of the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Miami said in a statement.
Passengers were forced to disembark and then re-enter the ship after it was evaluated by the Coast Guard. Without the sailing, MSC let passengers stay onboard the ship docked in Miami until the morning of Nov. 5 as they worked out alternative travel plans.
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The Coast Guard conducts regular checks of all foreign-registered commercial ships arriving at and departing from U.S. ports to assess compliance with safety and environmental standards. As a branch of the U.S. military, it has the authority to stop a cruise ship deemed noncompliant.
While MSC confirmed that it will give travelers a full refund on the canceled cruise and a 100% credit for a future one with MSC, travelers who did not book their flights home as part of a package with the cruise line have been left to change their travel arrangements on their own.
The MSC Poesia was supposed to sail out of PortMiami on Nov. 1.Image source: Daniel Kline/ComeCruiseWith.com
MSC offers refund and cruise credit over canceled Poesia sailing
MSC also offered to reimburse any change fees that passengers may have had to pay to adjust their return ticket.
“We recognize how disappointing and frustrating this news is for our guests, and we sincerely apologize for the disruption to their holiday,” MSC said in a statement on the cancellation, which was shared with passengers in their cabins.
“ Despite our efforts to address the matter, we were unable to resolve it in time for the sailing to proceed. Guests will receive a full refund of their cruise fare, and we are providing support to assist with their journey home.”
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The next sailing on the MSC Poesia’s itinerary is a much longer 21-day cruise around the Eastern Caribbean departing on Nov. 12. As of Nov. 6, no announcement about whether that will take place as scheduled has been made.
Some watchdogs and cruisers with scheduled trips observed that the sailing is no longer showing up as available for booking on the MSC website.
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