MSC Orchestra

MSC Orchestra is the second Musica-class ship and, on the current schedule, the most single-minded of the twelve older MSC vessels. Chantiers de l’Atlantique launched her at Saint-Nazaire in September 2006 as hull R32, at a cost of around $360 million, and she entered service in May 2007; Sophia Loren christened her at Civitavecchia that month. She is 92,409 gross tons, 964 feet, 2,550 guests at double occupancy, identical in almost every dimension to MSC Musica.

What separates her from her sisters is not what she is. It is that she has been handed one job and does very little else.

One circuit, two bases

For years at a stretch she runs a seven-night loop between the Adriatic and the Aegean, sold simultaneously from Bari and Piraeus and split evenly between them. She calls at Corfu on very nearly every one of those weeks; Izmir, Cefalonia and Katakolon on a good share of them, and Santorini on fewer still. That is the ship: Italy to Greece and back, every week, year after year.

The interesting wrinkle is Istanbul. It is her third homeport, a modest run of seven-night departures, but look at when they run. Istanbul is on the schedule from October through April and disappears entirely from May to September, which is the inverse of what a Mediterranean itinerary normally does. In the summer months she works Bari and Piraeus only. MSC is selling the Turkish market in the off-season, when the Aegean weeks are cheaper and Istanbul is a destination in its own right rather than a stop on a hot-weather circuit.

Her opening block, a single late-summer stretch, is the exception: a Western Mediterranean seven-night loop sold from Civitavecchia, Genoa, Marseille, Tarragona and Valencia, with Livorno as a call. Then she moves east in the autumn and stays there.

A scattering of three- to ten-night one-way legs (Bari to Istanbul, Piraeus to Bari, Genoa to Valencia) connect the seasons and are sold as short cruises in their own right.

The other thing the calendar shows is that her winter is busier than her summer, appreciably more departures a month from November through March than from May through September. That is the reverse of nearly every other ship in this fleet and it is not an accident: the Aegean in February is a shoulder-price product aimed at people who want warmth without the August fare, and MSC schedules the ship accordingly. If you are looking for the cheapest week she offers, it is in January or February and it starts in Istanbul.

What she is like aboard

The Musica-class fittings: a three-deck atrium built around a waterfall, a glass staircase, a theater, a casino, a spa, a handful of specialty restaurants against the main dining rooms. 1,275 cabins on a 964-foot hull. Nothing on the top deck that a modern ship would put there: no slide, no ropes course, no gated suite complex.

She has had a hard-luck record with paint. In 2019 she made contact with sister ship MSC Poesia at Buenos Aires, with only minor damage to both. Interior cabins on this class were retrofitted with upper berths some years ago, which raises the maximum load well above the 2,550 double-occupancy figure and is worth knowing if you are booking an inside cabin in an Italian school holiday.

One thing to understand before booking any MSC ship, and this one in particular: the fare you see buys a tier, not just a cabin. Bella is the cheapest and comes with a cabin assigned by the line rather than chosen by you and the later dinner seating. Fantastica adds cabin choice, room service and priority on excursions. Aurea adds a private sun deck area, a spa package and anytime dining. On a ship this size the gap between Bella and Aurea is a meaningful difference in how the week feels, and the headline fares quoted for Orchestra are Bella fares.

Who she suits

Anyone who wants Greece on a budget and can get to Bari. The Adriatic crossing overnight, Corfu, Katakolon for Olympia, Santorini, Cefalonia, Izmir for Ephesus, that is a genuinely good week, it is her only week, and it goes for among the cheapest fares anyone sells in the Mediterranean. Boarding at Bari also puts you within a train ride of most of southern Italy, which removes an airfare.

The winter Istanbul departures are the connoisseur’s booking. A seven-night Aegean circuit in February out of Istanbul is cheap, uncrowded, and the ports are empty in a way they never are in August.

She does not suit anyone who wants variety. This is one itinerary run over and over, and the only alternative on her calendar is an opening block that does not come back. She is a poor choice for anyone who books the ship rather than the route; she is nineteen years old, she has no headline feature, and everything she offers her three sisters offer too. And the summer Aegean weeks put 2,550 people into Santorini and Mykonos alongside everybody else’s ships; if the crowding in those two ports is what you are trying to avoid, take her in the winter or take her elsewhere.