MSC Pushes Opening Date for Ocean Cay to Late Fall 2019
The opening date for Ocean Cay MSC Ocean Reserve, the new private island under development by MSC Cruises, has been pushed back for a second time to late fall 2019 according to tweets from the official MSC Cruises (USA) account (@MSCCruisesUSA).
Originally scheduled to open in December 2017, MSC announced in September 2016 that the opening was delayed until October 2018. in September of this year, a second delay was rumored after it was noticed that Ocean Cay had been removed from October 2018 and later itineraries.
When I first saw the rumor on the Cruise Critic roll call for our December 2018 cruise on MSC Seaside, I checked the booking on the MSC web site. It turned out that Ocean Cay was no longer listed as a port of call. I tweeted at MSC a few times at that point, but received no reply. I asked again on Twitter on October 15, and received a reply this morning. MSC confirmed the delay and revealed a new official date of October 2019 or ‘Late Fall’ 2019′.
We determined the ongoing environmental due diligence & related highly complex operation will require additional time until October 2019.
— MSC Cruises (USA) (@MSCCruisesUSA) October 16, 2017
October or ‘Late Fall’ 2019
— MSC Cruises (USA) (@MSCCruisesUSA) October 16, 2017
I went back and looked at the prior press releases on the MSC website. All of the October 2018 dates have now been changed to October 2019. Apparently history can be rewritten.
This is disappointing news as Ocean Cay looks like it will set a new bar for cruise line private islands. Of course, to do so it has to open first. We pushed back one cruise from January 2018 to December 2018 because of the first delay. I am not sure we’ll delay it again. Seaside looks like it will be an impressive addition to the Caribbean region, and it may have to suffice for what will be our first MSC cruise experience. Ocean Cay will have to wait.
If you are booked on a cruise that was scheduled to stop at Ocean Cay, will you make any changes to your booking as a result of this news? Does this affect your interest in booking with MSC? Please share in the comments.