The biggest cruise company in the entire world, Carnival Corporation recently announced that they would be getting rid of 13 cruise ships across all of the brands that they own.
We’ve already seen cruise ships go for P&O Cruises, for Saga, for Costa, and more recently, Carnival has announced that they’re getting rid of three cruise ships owned by Carnival Cruise Line.
Carnival has said that they’re aggressively shedding assets while deferring new ship deliveries which is hardly a surprise when Carnival lost $4.4 billion just in the second quarter of 2020.
Carnival Fantasy and Carnival Inspiration
The first cruise ships on our list are Carnival Fantasy, Carnival Inspiration who are actually already in the shipyard in Turkey being dismantled for scrap metal.
All of the valuable things from the ships were actually stripped out before they did go to Turkey.
Now they’re joined in the scrapyard by two ex-Royal Caribbean ships, Monarch of the Seas and Sovereign of the Seas, who were both owned previously by Pullmantur, Pullmantur has gone bankrupt and we will talk more about them later in the article.
Carnival Fantasy – History
Carnival Fantasy joined the fleet way back in 1990 and she was the oldest cruise ship that Carnival had.
She had big refits in 2016 and 2019. And in 2019, she was actually involved in a rescue, where they saved 23 people who were floating in the Gulf of Mexico.
She’s a very well loved ship and it is sad to see her go.
Carnival Inspiration and Imagination – History
In 1996, Carnival Inspiration came along and she was the little sister of Carnival Fantasy.
In 1995, it was time for Carnival Imagination to join the fleet. Sadly she is following her sister’s footsteps and she’ll also be scrapped in Turkey very soon.
Carnival Fascination
Carnival Fascination has also been sold by Carnival and sent to the scrapyard to join her sisters.
Carnival’s Fantasy Class
There were actually eight of these cruise ships in Carnival’s Fantasy class fleet.
They were the last cruise ships that were built mostly without balconies because back in the 1990s, it wasn’t really the thing for cruise ships to be mostly balconies like it is today.
Interestingly, these were the last cruise ships to be built with the lifeboats only on the top deck. You just don’t see that on modern cruise ships anymore. So it’s quite sad to lose this piece of shipbuilding history.
They definitely do have an older design though and passengers are more and more looking for balconies, balconies at the moment are the most common booked stateroom category and for cruise ships to not have balconies, it’s not really ideal.
Remaining Fantasy Class Ships for Carnival
These four cruise ships being scrapped leaves us with Ecstasy, Sensation, Elation, and Paradise, still in the Fantasy class.
If you are somebody who loves the Fantasy class cruise ships, for now, you’ve still got some options.
Because of the age of these cruise ships, they have been through a lot of refits, a really big one took place between 2006 and 2010 and it was called the Evolutions of Fun.
During these huge refits, they added things that we’re very used to on Carnival ships today, they added the aquaponics, they added the big TV screens by the pool and they implemented a bit of freestyle, my time dining, which we’re very used to today but back in the 1990s that was very, very new and exciting.
MS Sovereign, MS Monarch and MS Horizon – Pullmantur
Following the bankruptcy of Spanish owned cruise line, Pullmantur, the Monarch, and the Sovereign have already gone to the scrap yard.
It does look at the moment as if the MS Horizon will also be following in their footsteps.
The cruise ships Monarch and Sovereign were originally built for Royal Caribbean and Horizon was built for Celebrity, I think you can tell with the Royal Caribbean ships if you look at them that they are ex-Royal Caribbean.
They’ve got a few Royal Caribbean features that really stand out to me, such as the bar around the funnel, they have these big atriums and big main dining rooms, they’re very, very early Royal Caribbean.
Pullmantur Ship History
When Pullmantur did go bust, Royal Caribbean took control of all of the assets because Royal Caribbean were part owners of Pullmantur.
What Royal Caribbean has done is they’ve pretty much taken these ships back and sent them to the scrapyard.
The MS Sovereign was built as Sovereign of the Seas way back in 1988. In 1990, Monarch joined, and then later in 1991, they were joined by Horizon.
It is a massive shame to send these cruise ships straight to the scrapyard, but I do understand why Royal Caribbean has made that decision.
If you were to look at these cruise ships and compare them to the newer Royal Caribbean ships, comparing symphony the scenes to Monarch of the Seas, it’s not going to work.
I have actually been on a cruise on an ex-Royal Caribbean cruise ship from the 1980s and although it was fantastic it’s very, very different from cruising on a modern cruise ship.
Everything is kind of just a bit higgledy-piggledy, it’s a bit up and down, things were a bit creaky.
I mean if they have one going spare, I’ll happily take one off their hands but it’s very different from a modern cruise ship.
You’ll find a super simple cruise line sold ships summary here, check it out if you’re wondering which cruise lines have sold ships:
Costa NeoRomantica
The Costa neoRomantica has been sold to Celestyal Cruises. She was the oldest cruise ship in the Costa Cruises fleet and will be a very welcome addition for Celestyal Cruises.
Who are Celestyal Cruises?
Celestyal is a brilliant little Greek cruise line, who I was lucky enough to cruise on last year.
At the moment, they’ve got two cruise ships in their fleet, Olympia and Crystal, both of which were built in the 1980s.
So although this Costa cruise ship isn’t really that new, compared to the other cruise ships in the Costa fleet, it really is an upgrade for them.
The Costa neoRomantica has been renamed to the Celestyal Experience, which I think is a really good name.
Fred Olsen – Black Watch and Boudicca For Sale
Next up, we have Black Watch and Boudicca who were being sold by Fred Olsen.
Fred Olson are a British cruise line and they’ve actually just bought two new cruise ships from Holland America.
Black Watch and Boudicca are both pretty old cruise ships. I haven’t cruised with Fred Olsen and that is mostly to do with the fact that I’m not really interested in cruise ships from the 1970s. So personally, I’m very interested in their move to modernize their fleet.
Black Watch Ship History
Black Watch entered service in 1972 and in that time she’s had loads of different names and she’s cruised for loads of different cruise lines. She actually cruised for Norwegian cruise line as Westward and she’s been with Fred Olson since about 1996.
Boudicca Ship History
Boudicca was built in 1973.
She was Sunward for Norwegian cruise line and Golden Princess for Princess Cruises, not to be confused with the current Golden Princess, who actually cruised on a couple of years ago, amazing ship but the name has been reused.
Where are Black Watch and Boudicca Going?
Black Watch and Boudicca are going to Turkey to become accommodation vessels.
Holland America – Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Veendam and Maasdam
Next, we have cruise ships going from Holland America, we’ve got the Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Veendam, and Maasdam. I am not a fan of these -dam names, they are very tricky to say!
Holland America is selling four cruise ships and they’re selling them off in two pairs, so Amsterdam & Rotterdam have got new lives with Fred Olsen, who we mentioned earlier and Maasdam & Veendam are going to Seajets.
When Amsterdam and Rotterdam moved to Fred Olsen, they’re going to be renamed Bolette and Borealis.
The four cruise ships that Holland America is selling, were all built between 1993 and 2000, not to be confused with older cruise ships with the same name. Holland America likes to reuse their names, just to make it very, very confusing!
Cruise and Maritime Voyages – All Ships for Sale
In July of 2020, Cruise and Maritime Voyages (CMV), who are a British cruise line, went into administration.
What that means is that all of the assets of the cruise line go to an administrator and they use those assets to pay off the debts.
What this means, in this case, is that all of the cruise ships owned by Cruise and Maritime Voyages are currently up for auction.
Cruise and Maritime Fleet History
If you do have a few million dollars ready to spend on a cruise ship, you can buy any of the Cruise and Maritime fleet.
The ships in the Cruise and Maritime fleet were built between 1965 and 1993, so it’s quite an old fleet and most of the ships are pretty small.
Marco Polo is the oldest in the fleet, she was built in 1965 and Vasco da Gama is the newest.
CMV’s New Ships
CMV did buy two cruise ships from P&O Australia in 2019, but they never actually entered service. The ships were the Pacific Dawn and Pacific Aria, have been renamed to Amy Johnson and Ida Pfeiffer.
It’s unclear at the moment what is going to happen to all of these cruise ships, they are up for auction and they are up for auction separately.
So maybe if we club together, we could get one of the super, small, old cruise ships, maybe, if anyone’s got a spare million dollars, let me know!!
There’s More!
These aren’t the only cruise ships to be sold and scrapped in 2020, to learn more about the ships that are not mentioned in this article, check out our article below from last month.
These aren’t the only cruise ships to be sold and scrapped in 2020, to learn more about the ships that are not mentioned in this article, check out our article below from last month.
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