Cruise Itinerary

Southampton offers fast and efficient check-in areas, spacious departure lounges with seating areas, café-bars and smart washrooms. If you wish to travel by car and park for the duration of your cruise, you can pay for and reserve parking in advance directly with the relevant company. Alternatively, if being dropped off or collected by taxi or private car, they can drive right up alongside the terminal building.

Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, is a city open to the sea and carefully planned with 18th-century elegance. Its founder is said to be the legendary Ulysses, but the theory of an original Phoenician settlement is probably more realistic. Known in Portugal as Lisboa, the city was inhabited by the Romans, Visigoths and, beginning in the 8th century, the Moors. Much of the 16th century was a period of great prosperity and overseas expansion for Portugal. The city boasts a good many monuments and museums, such as the Jeronimos Monastery, Tower of Belém, the Royal Coach Museum and the Gulbenkian Museum. High above the Baixa is the Bairro Alto (upper city) with its teeming nightlife. The easiest way to connect between the two areas is via the public elevator designed by Gustave Eiffel. Cruising up the Tagus River to the ship's berth, you can already spot three of Lisbon's famous landmarks: the Monument to the Discoveries, the Tower of Belém and the Statue of Christ, which welcomes visitors from its hilltop location high above Europe's longest suspension bridge.

As you arrive in Funchal on an MSC cruise, your ship will cast anchor in a bay protected by mountains rising straight up behind the port. The name, Funchal, derives from that of the fennel plant, the funcho still used today in the traditional sweets known as rebuçados de funcho, that one can find anywhere on the island of Madeira. An excursion will take you around the town centre, to visit historic churches, from the A Sé Cathedral, with its inlaid ceiling, to the majestic Church of the Incarnation, to the church of Carmo without a vault. Another MSC excursion will take you up to the village of Monte, from where one can admire a spectacular view of the Funchal bay. You can visit its 18th century church and the tomb of the last Austrian emperor, Charles I, and stroll around the magnificent botanic gardens. But if you like heights, there’s nothing more impressive than the Cabo Girão and its 589 metre tall cliffs, amongst the highest in the world, at the foot of which lie the cultivated lands known as Fajãs do Cabo Girão. If you’re looking for an equipped beach during your MSC cruise, another excursion will take you to Machico. Founded in the 15th century, it hosts the oldest religious building on the island, the Capela dos Milagres, and the fortresses of São João Baptista and Nossa Senhora do Amparo built in the beginning of the 16th century. The more lively tourist attraction is instead in Calheta, on the south-west coast. Splendid yachts cruising across the Atlantic are moored in the port and if you want to go for a swim there are two beautiful beaches of golden sand; in spite of the modern structures Calheta dates back to the mid-15th century. This is where they make the “Aguardente”, the best white rhum, and fundamental ingredient of Madeira’s typical drink, the “Poncha” .

The aptly nicknamed “pretty island”, La Palma is one of Spain's Canary Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. Walk along the rim of the crater at Volcán San Antonio then set out to one of the viewpoints at the Caldera de Taburiente, an enormous crater-like depression at the center of Caldera del Taburiente National Park. At the highest point of La Palma sits El Roque de los Muchachos, an important observatory as the clear and cloudless skies above the island make it one of the best places in the world to see the stars.

The largest Canary Island is dominated by 12,198-foot Mount Teide. The cuisine features locally grown fruits (banana, mango, and papaya) and fresh fish. Clean, sandy beaches offer chances for windsurfing, surfing, snorkeling and diving. You’ll find everything from lush vegetation to water parks and interesting shopping.

Lanzarote is the fourth-largest island in the Canary chain. The most easterly of the Canaries, the island lies some 70 miles off the shore of North Africa. Like its neighbours, Lanzarote was shaped by a period of intense volcanic activity. The resulting landscape possesses a stark, near-lunar beauty: Over 300 now-dormant volcanoes left behind petrified lava seas and deep layers of volcanic ash. Today, visitors to these "Mountains of Fire" ride camels through the lava beds and even enjoy a volcano-broiled steak at the park's restaurant. (Subsurface temperatures still reach 800F in the park.) Despite the seemingly barren land scape, island farmers grow abundant crops of tomatoes, onions, melons, and figs in addition to Malvasia, a clear yellow wine produced from malmsey grapes. Lanzarote's rugged landscape, its warm climate, its lack of rainfall, and its beaches have proved attracted to travellers: Tourism dominates the island economy with some 2 million visitors arriving annually.

Mention Spain and the images that inevitably spring to mind are images of Andalusia - shadows falling across the bullring, the staccato rhythms of flamenco, the waft of orange blossoms from a Moorish garden. Cadiz is your gateway to this storied land and the city of Seville. Visit Seville's massive Alcazar fortress, modeled on the legendary Alhambra Palace of Granada. See the city's cathedral, a 15th-century Gothic masterwork that boasts a Moorish patio, fountain and minaret. Seville is also the legendary home of Don Juan, Bizet's Carmen and Rossini's Barber of Seville. Cadiz is one's of Europe's oldest inhabited cities, dating from 1100 B.C., and your gateway to Seville and Andalusia.

Southampton offers fast and efficient check-in areas, spacious departure lounges with seating areas, café-bars and smart washrooms. If you wish to travel by car and park for the duration of your cruise, you can pay for and reserve parking in advance directly with the relevant company. Alternatively, if being dropped off or collected by taxi or private car, they can drive right up alongside the terminal building.