MSC Cruises has detailed plans for its first-ever Alaska season, offering seven-night sailings from Seattle from May to September 2026.
In addition to these Alaskan itineraries, MSC will include two unique repositioning cruises between Miami and Seattle, allowing cruisers to experience both coasts and sail the Panama Canal.
Popular ports of call include Juneau, Tracy Arm Fjord, Icy Strait Point, and Ketchikan, Alaska. Sailings will also visit Victoria in British Columbia, Canada.
These cruises will take place on MSC Poesia. Measuring slightly over 105 feet wide, the relatively narrow vessel is ideal for navigating tight channels and sailing close to the region’s glaciers.
As the ship travels from Miami to the cruise line’s fifth US home port in Seattle, passengers can enjoy a rare transit through the historic Panama Canal.
MSC Poesia Repositioning Cruises
The 2008-built cruise ship will also visit up to 10 sought-after destinations on the West Coast such as Costa Rica’s Puntarenas province, Cartagena in Colombia, and Cabo San Lucas in Mexico.
The first Miami-to-Seattle repositioning cruise is scheduled for April 23, 2026, followed by the Seattle-to-Miami voyage on September 28, 2026.
Lynn Torrent, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer for MSC Cruises USA, noted a growing demand for northern routes.
“We look forward to welcoming guests aboard MSC Poesia, which will spend the summer cruising Alaska and move to Miami for the winter, offering opportunities for travelers to enjoy the coveted experience of transiting the Panama Canal when the ship moves between the east and west coast.”
MSC Poesia is among the cruise line’s older ships. It was also one of two vessels to embark on MSC Cruises’ first 117-day world cruise in 2023.
In the 2024 cruise season, Seattle hosted approximately 1.7 million cruise passenger movements, translating to over 800,000 unique cruise travelers.
With around 275 sailings between April and October, in the 2024 season marked Seattle’s 25th year of hosting Alaska cruises.
The port is expected to go to shore power starting in 2027, requiring all cruise vessels to plug into the electrical grid while at the dock.
