• Birmingham kids have claimed the crown as the UK’s pickiest eaters, with Newcastle and Leicester’s little ones close behind, turning family mealtimes into a full-blown negotiation process, according to new research from MSC Cruises reveals1 • 63% of parents admit they let their kids’ food preferences dictate where they travel, with 14% so worried about limited options that they’d rather cancel the holiday than face another food fallout • MSC Virtuosa offers 10 diverse onboard restaurants, ensuring even the pickiest eaters are satisfied, allowing families to enjoy stress-free vacations across global destinations
MSC Cruises’ guests are invited to extend their summer into October, November and even December, with Mediterranean destinations that still achieve up to 28 degrees Celsius (°C)
Destinations such as Valencia (Spain), Athens (Greece), Marseille (France), Izmir (Türkiye) and more still revel in up to 295 hours* of sunshine a month, even in months considered as winter
MSC Cruises to debut a ship calling to Greece and Türkiye all winter for the first time to take advantage of this sun-kissed region
New feature stars Brad Pitt and hails from director Joseph Kosinki, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment and world champion Lewis Hamilton’s Dawn Apollo Films
Cruise line logo to feature in the movie including on the team kit and on track
In the heart of MSC World America’s Family Aventura district, The Harbour will be the first of its kind in MSC Cruises’ fleet
The new area will be the go-to outdoor destination for families from morning to night featuring a range of activities and experiences including aquapark, 11-storey dry slide, thematic playground, ropes course and much more
Phuket Town (Muang Phuket) stands distinct from the tailor-made tourist settlements along the beaches as a place of tangible history and culture waiting to be appreciated on an MSC Grand Voyages cruise excursion.
Most visitors hang about just long enough to jump on a beach-bound songthaew, but you may find yourself returning for a welcome dose of real life; there’s plenty to engage you in a stroll through the small but atmospherically restored heart of the Old Town, along with many idiosyncratic cafés and art shops, several notable restaurants and some good handicraft shops.
Some of the Old Town’s most elegant buildings line the western arm of Thanon Thalang, where a dozen signboards highlight the special features worth an upward or sideways glance: pastel-coloured doors and shutters, elaborate stucco mouldings, ornate wooden doors, and the distinctively arched “five-foot walkways” that link them. MSC Grand Voyages cruises also offer excursions to the newly erected Big Buddha of Phuket, a towering 45m statue atop the aptly named Khao Nakkerd hill, which dominates many island vistas, including Kata Yai to the south-west.
Made of concrete but faced with glistening white-marble tiles, the eastward-looking Buddha boasts enormous proportions: he sits on a lotus flower that’s nearly 25m across and even his individual hair curls measure almost 1m each. Views from the base of the statue extend east over Ao Chalong to hilly Ko Lone beyond, while western panoramas take in Kata Noi. For islanders, Chalong is important as the site of WatChalong, Phuket’s loveliest and most famous temple, which enshrines the statue of revered monk Luang Pho Saem, who helped resolve a violent rebellion by migrant Chinese tin-miners in 1876.
Elsewhere in the temple compound, the Phra Mahathatchedi (pagoda) is believed to contain a relic of the Buddha.
