The first cruise ships to set sail this year are beginning to resemble exclusive night clubs that don’t have you on their VIP lists.
Royal Caribbean, which has been sailing one ship out of Singapore for residents of Singapore only has just announced it’s planning to inaugurate its newest ship, Odyssey of the Seas, with cruises open only to Israelis starting in May.
And in what will be a sobering shift for North Americans, MSC Cruises is moving MSC Seaside–a ship that had been based in Miami since it was christened there in 2017–to Italy. There, it will be offering spring cruises from Genoa that are only open to residents of the European Schengen zone. The Seaside will join the MSC Grandiosa, which has carried more than 40,000 passengers—limited mostly to Italians–since it resumed service in Italy in August.