Ships to homeport in Dubai and Abu Dhabi for 2021/22 cruise season

MSC Opera and AIDAnova will both interport between Dubai and Abu Dhabi

Two cruise ships scheduled to homeport in Dubai for the 2021/22 winter cruise season will also offer Abu Dhabi as a homeport.

MCS Cruises’ MSC Opera and Aida Cruises’ AIDAnova will both interport between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, meaning passengers can choose either city as their port of embarkation.

Abu Dhabi welcomed more than 500,000 cruise tourists on 190 cruise calls during the 2018/19 cruise season, and the UAE capital has announced that it will reopen to cruise tourism from September 2021. 

Dubai reopened to cruises in late 2020 however, no cruise ships homeported in either city during the 2020/21 cruise season.

MSC Opera’s Arabian Gulf cruises will be the same, but with destinations visited in a different order. When sailing from Abu Dhabi, MSC Opera will visit the cruise island destination of Sir Bani Yas Island, as well as Dubai, where she will spend two nights in port, before sailing onto Muscat in Oman.

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Passengers aboard AIDAnova will have a more port-focused itinerary with more time to fully explore each destination. AIDAnova will spend one night in port in Muscat, Oman, and two nights in Dubai, before returning to Abu Dhabi to spend another night in port.