US-based Travel Trade reports that MSC Cruises is selling off the MSC Rhapsody, the oldest and smallest ship in the fleet.
No surprise really. In an interview for Travel Weekly earlier this year, MSC's chief executive officer Pierfrancesco Vago told me that the clock was ticking for the 780-passenger MSC Rhapsody and 1,064-passenger MSC Melody - another of MSC's smaller ships.
There are passengers who like Rhapsody and Melody because they are smaller and more intimate, but more and more people want balconies so they will go in the end - I would guess over the next couple of years.
Travel Trade reports that Israeli-based Mano Maritime is interested in buying the Rhapsody. Ironic really, given that MSC Cruises started life when Gianlucci Aponte, owner of cargo giant Mediterranean Shipping Company, acquired the Achille Lauro, the cruiseship hijacked by Palestinian terrorists in 1985, resulting in the death of an Jewish American passenger.
But irony or not, the fact is that with two new ships with room for close to 4,000 passengers close to launch, MSC has less and less room for small, elderly ships such as the Rhapsody. Much as Carnival Corporation had no room for Swan Hellenic and Norwegian Cruise Line had no room for Orient Lines, which are both starting new lives under new owners.
Jane Archer
