Guests on MSC Preziosa received a notice from the captain on Tuesday, November 3. The ship would not be going to Le Havre on Thursday. It would spend an extra night in Zeebrugge, Belgium, and sail straight on to Southampton, skipping France on the day French unions have called a nationwide strike.
For guests already aboard, that means a lost port day in France and a second day in Zeebrugge. For anyone booked to start or end their cruise in Le Havre on November 5, it raises a harder question that MSC Cruises has not yet answered in public: where to meet the ship.
What MSC told guests
The notice to guests, signed by Captain Francesco Iacono and dated November 3, cites the “planned nationwide strike and protest action in France on Thursday, 5 November.” According to Cruise Hive, it says the call was cancelled “in the interest of providing a safe and comfortable guest experience.” TheTravel, which saw a copy a guest shared on Facebook, reported the same reason and said it had asked MSC Cruises for comment.
Under the revised plan, MSC Preziosa stays alongside in Zeebrugge, where it arrived at 7 a.m. on November 4. It now leaves at 6 p.m. on November 5, 24 hours later than scheduled. The Le Havre call, originally set for 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., is cancelled.
Shore excursions booked through MSC for Le Havre will be refunded automatically to guests’ onboard accounts, both outlets reported, and the Shore Excursions Desk is selling extra tours for the second Zeebrugge day. Tours and tickets booked independently are a matter for the company that sold them.
Why Le Havre is affected
The November 5 strike has been called by an intersyndicale, a coalition of France’s main labor unions, over wages, the cost of living, public services and the government’s budget plans. Port workers’ unions have said they will take part. Cruise Hive, citing Le Parisien, reported that the unions behind an earlier port strike on October 30 represent about 14,000 port workers, including 7,500 dockworkers.
HAROPA Port, which runs Le Havre, issued a notice on November 4 warning that union action would disrupt its container terminals and mobile port structures from 6 a.m. on November 5 to 6 a.m. on November 6, TheTravel reported. The CGT union has also called a 24-hour strike in France’s port towing sector from 8 a.m. on November 6, which it expects to severely disrupt nautical operations.
Le Havre has lost cruise calls to French industrial action and unrest twice in the past three weeks. MSC Virtuosa skipped the port on October 30 during a dockworkers’ strike, and P&O Cruises sent Iona to La Coruña instead of Le Havre on October 18.
The route MSC Preziosa is sailing
MSC Preziosa is running back-to-back Northern Europe cruises with several places to board, which is why one cancelled call touches more than one booking. In the Cruises.To schedule, the current sailing left Amsterdam and runs through Zeebrugge and Le Havre to Southampton, Hamburg, Zeebrugge again and Rotterdam. A seven-night cruise was due to begin in Le Havre on November 5, and others start in Southampton on November 6 and Hamburg on November 8.
Southampton is next, with arrival at 7 a.m. on Friday, November 6, followed by Hamburg at 7 a.m. on Sunday, November 8. MSC has announced no changes to those calls. On Wednesday, the ship’s live AIS position on Cruises.To placed it at its Zeebrugge berth at 0.0 knots.
If you were due to board or leave in Le Havre
MSC Cruises has not said publicly how guests booked to embark in Le Havre on November 5 will join the ship, or how guests due to disembark there will get home. TheTravel reported that those guests have been left to sort out revised travel plans. Before setting out for Le Havre, contact MSC Cruises or the travel agent who made the booking and get the new boarding arrangement in writing.
The strike is expected to hit transport across France as well as the port, so trains, buses and roads toward Normandy may be disrupted on November 5. If you booked flights, trains or hotels separately from MSC, check their change and cancellation terms and any travel insurance policy before you change anything. The MSC Preziosa page shows where the ship is and its next scheduled calls.
What is still unknown
MSC has not published a plan for guests whose cruise was due to start or end in Le Havre, and has not said whether any of them will be moved to Zeebrugge or Southampton. How many people are affected has not been reported. How widely the strike is observed at Le Havre on November 5 is not yet known, and MSC has announced no other changes to MSC Preziosa’s calls.