MSC Poesia Alaska 2026 Upgrades

As Alaska’s newest cruise line, MSC is making waves by adding our state to their portfolio, however they’re not quite giving us their best. 

Instead of Dvinia or one of the Seas(Seascape/Seashore/Seaside), we’re getting a smaller class of ship – the Musica class MSC Poesia.    Delivered in 2009, she’s not the oldest ship to hit our waters – and she’s decent sized – 2,500 to 3,400 guests.   But what she lacks is some standard offerings that Americans have expected from MSC.

MSC is going to be sending Poesia into a ‘light’ dry dock where they’ll transform 100-ish cabins into 63 Yacht Club cabins, with larger bathrooms, better beds, and amenities.   They’re coming at the expense of the Aurea Balcony Suite cabins on Deck 15 and Premium Deluxe Balconies on Decks 11 – 14. 

The image above shows MSC Poesia and her current configuration for Decks 11 – 15.    Green cabins are  Premium Balcony (BL2), Pink are Deluxe Interior (IR2), and Orange are Premium Suite Aurea (SL1) – which are no longer offered on the Alaska sailings.

Yacht Club cabins are then taking up TWO regular sized cabins, and we believe they’ll be adding in larger bathtubs, better beds, and upgraded seating areas (chair, table, sofa) and just using the current layout (basicly removing everything from an adjoining cabin and making it part of a suite, like a “junior suite” at a hotel).

The ship won’t have the secluded & private “ship within a ship” concept, which is why we’re calling this “Yacht Club Lite”.   Based on what we’re seeing in Magnifica, it looks like the Top Exclusive Sundeck gets some upgrades and is only for Yacht Club, but the cabins are now spread throughout the ship.  The Yacht Club lounge & restaurant appears to be on a regular deck, replacing part of a restaurant or lounge – we can’t quite tell yet as the deck plans don’t reflect the changes yet.

Yacht Club guests will have butler & concierge services, as well as the standard perks of special lines for embarkation, elevator access, premium drinks & wifi, and enhanced services all around.

The ship is going into dry dock in March, so sadly we won’t get much in terms of photos or layouts until then, so the best we can do is look at the Magnifica, which is presently in dry dock for the same upgrades.