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A little over a month ago, the MSC Opera cruise ship smashed into a dock and another smaller, cruise ship which was disembarking tourists in Venice.

Videos of the huge, out-of-control cruise ship, smashing into the dock and knocking tourists from the little ship in front of it into the water, looked like an attack-of-the-aliens science fiction movie.  But this was no low budget movie. It was exactly what many local Venetians predicted would happen given the presence of huge cruise ships sailing in the Giudecca canal next to the ancient city of Venice.

This weekend, a well forecasted storm struck Venice. As predicted by the weather services, the storm brought with it high winds and heavy rain (as well as hail) to Venice.  Despite the wind and rain, the Costa Deliziosa tried to leave port, with several tugs at its bow and stern. The Costa ship lost control as it headed into the curve of the Giudecca canal. The Costa ship was filmed narrowly avoiding crashing into Venice.

The dramatic video clip below shows the tug billowing smoke as it strains to pull the bow of the Costa Deliziosa away from the Riva dei Sette Martiri (by the Giardini where the Biennale is happening). The Deliziosa‘s siren can be heard blasting.

AIS data shows how close the Costa Deliziosa came to the the Riva dei Sette Martiri.

Costa Cruises defended itself on social media, arguing that the storm was sudden, unexpected and stronger than the forecast. Of course, all cruise lines which choose to sail into rough weather in order to stay on their schedules set by their corporate masters, make this same argument when the rough seas injure and/or terrorize their guests. Costa sent out a series of tweets via @Costa_Press (since deleted) which , the publisher of the Dream of Venice @DreamOfVenice book series, had the foresight to save:

These tweets by Costa were, in essence, all after-the-fact lies as the videos above demonstrate. Dozens of people on Twitter belittled Costa’s amateurish efforts at PR spin which just showed how little credibility the cruise line has in times of crisis.

It is long past time for Venice to establish a ban on these increasingly huge cruise ships cruising in the Giudecca Canal.

Have a thought? Please leave one below or join the discussion on our Facebook page.

Image credits: No Grandi Navi poster – @Vero_Bergoglio on Twitter; video – Repubblica.

The MSC Opera  smashed into a dock located on the Giudecca canal in Venice this morning. Tugs could not maintain control of the MSC cruise ship as it violently struck the dock and then struck the stern of the River Countess (a river cruise ship) which was docked and disembarking passengers, as shown in a number of videos taken of the accident.

You can hear the MSC Opera blasting its horn while it strikes the dock and smaller vessel. Tourists are seen initially running away from the cruise ship.  Four tourists  were reportedly injured in the incident.  People reportedly fell from the gangway to the River Countess into the water in the incident.

This is not the first time that a MSC cruise ship struck a pier in Venice. In April of 2014, the MSC cruise ship, Preziosa, collided with a large passenger walkway at the port of Venice. Newspapers in Italy, such as La Nuova, covered the damage to the pedestrian corridor (called a “finger”) at the maritime station which provide access to the upper decks of the cruise ships.

The latest incident reportedly occurred after the MSC Opera lost engine power and a line from a tug broke.

This incident will add to the debate whether gigantic cruise ships should be permitted to sail in the basin so close to the beautiful buildings of the old city.

Have a thought? Please leave a comment below or join the discussion on our Facebook page.

Screen grab and video credits: Beppe Caccia via Iain Reid Twitter page.

Update: A passenger on the MSC Opera videotaped the incident (below). Credit Adrian Lauretti (YouTube).

Yesterday, a British court ordered MSC Cruises to pay damages to Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection caused by the MSC Opera cruise ship when it crashed into the River Countess riverboat in Venice in June 2019.

In the first two paragraphs of the order of the High Court of England and Wales (which you can read here), the court explained that:

“On 2 June 2019, the ocean-going cruise liner MSC Opera, operated by the defendant demise charterer, ran into the much smaller inland cruise ship River Countess, which was berthed at the San Basilio Pier in the Giudecca Canal in Venice. The incident attracted global media attention and fuelled an existing controversy over the use of Venetian waters by large cruise ships.

Mercifully, though 28 of the smaller ship’s passengers were still on board or in the process of disembarking, River Countess just completed a six day cruise, there were only a few personal injuries, none serious. River Countess suffered substantial damage. . . ” 

At the time, there were a number of videos on Instagram and YouTube of the frightening spectacle:

Another post on Instagram contained these captions:

“A 65,000-ton cruise ship blared an urgent horn as it made a beeline toward a busy Venetian dock, sending panicked onlookers running for safety.”

Video showed the moment the 2,100-passenger MSC Opera slammed into the wharf in the San Basilio Terminal on the Giudecca Canal. “A deep thud and then the sound of shattering glass could be heard as the vessel scrapped along the quay and passersby shouted instructions to flee the rogue cruise ship.”

Travel Weekly reported:

Uniworld CEO Ellen Bettridge said that the company had filed the lawsuit after extensive conversations with MSC proved unproductive. Bettridge said that due to the “severe damage to our ship, we were forced to cancel 14 voyages, frustrating our guests and travel partners during the peak summer season.”

While MSC agreed to cover the physical losses, the company argued that under Italian law, it should not have to compensate Uniworld for loss of earnings. Uniworld had to repair the River Countess and refund and compensate 1,600 customers whose trips were canceled. It also paid compensation, hospital bills and repatriation costs for injured passengers, the law firm said.

The High Court of England and Wales said that MSC Cruise Management Limited has to pay Uniworld 2.4 million euros for physical losses along with what could be more than 7.5 million euros in “non-physical losses,” according to Devonshires, the British law firm representing Uniworld.

After the award was announced, cruise friendly members of the media posted articles trying to downplay the court decision.

Cruise shill Doug Parker a/k/a Cruise Radio falsely wrote that the MSC Opera “sustained scratches but no hull damage.”

In truth, the court actually ruled that the MSC ship suffered “substantial damage.” The damaged ship was removed to Trieste for repairs that took three months and cost over “€3 million returning to service in early September 2019 after a loss of 14 scheduled cruises.”

Stewat Chiron a/k/a Cruise Guy went to Twitter to proclaim that large cruise ships could safely operate in Venice; he criticized the comments of Uniworld CEO Ellen Bettridge who said: “For years, the city of Venice has been plagued by massive ocean cruise liners being able to dock in the historic city, causing an eyesore to its beauty. It took an incident of this nature to bring about change.”

There is no question that this incident was used by those individuals concerned with the effect of large cruise ships on Venice to protest and ask for a much-needed ban of such ships. Posters associated with the “NoGrandiNavi“movement contained images of the runaway cruise ship with its horns blaring as it smashed into the smaller vessel (photo, top).

Videos of the huge, out-of-control cruise ship, smashing into the dock and knocking tourists from the little ship in front of it into the water, looked like an attack-of-the-aliens science fiction movie.  But this was no low budget movie. It was exactly what many local Venetians predicted would happen given the presence of huge cruise ships sailing in the Giudecca canal next to the ancient city of Venice.

Have a comment or question? Leave one below or join the discussion on our Facebook page.

Video – MSC Opera – Beppe Caccia.