Carnival Corporation is to remove a further two ships from its fleet as it cuts costs in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the company said July 29, as another of its ships, the Carnival Fantasy arrived in Turkey where it is to be scrapped.
The announcement comes less than three weeks after Carnival announced that it was downsizing its fleet by 13 ships, one of which later transpired to be the Carnival Fantasy.
“We have made a decision to remove a further two ships from our fleet. These decisions are intended to align the fleet with the expected phased restart of guest cruise operations while also generating cost savings,” Carnival said in a statement, without naming the ships.
“On July 23, 2020, senior management of the Company evaluated these two ships for impairment and concluded their carrying values are no longer recoverable when compared to their estimated remaining future cash flows.”
After the original July 10 announcement, Chief Executive Officer Arnold Donald said Carnival Corporation would emerge “a leaner, more efficient company” after the coronavirus crisis.
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Carnival Fantasy beached at Turkish scrapyard
As the announcement was made, the Carnival Fantasy was beached in Aliaga Turkey where it will be scrapped along with the Carnival Inspiration which is currently in the Meditteranean on its way to Aliaga.
After arriving in #Aliaga yesterday @CarnivalCruise #CarnivalFantasy made her final short voyage to the beach today. @carnivalukents @CarnivalPLC @CarnivalCLBlog #cruise #cruisenews video courtesy of @suustundecom with a quick edit from me! pic.twitter.com/ExsmhYxc9G
— Andrew McAlpine (@CruiseshipP) July 29, 2020
A few days after Carnival Corp. announcement that it would be reducing its fleet by 13 ships, reports emerged that the Carnival Fantasy and Carnival Inspiration were both docked in Willemstad, Curacao, where heavy equipment was being unloaded from the ships ahead of their being scrapped.
On Wednesday, the Carnival Fantasy reached its final destination.
The Carnival Fantasy, which launched in 1990, is the oldest ship in the Carnival fleet. With a capacity of 2,056, the Fantasy Class flagship was last in dry dock in 2019 and underwent a major refurbishment in 2016.
The Carnival Fantasy sailed out of Mobile, Alabama and was due to be replaced there by the Carnival Fascination in January 2022. No new port had been announced for the Carnival Fantasy.
The Carnival Inspiration, also part of Carnival’s Fantasy Class fleet, made its maiden voyage in 1996, and like the Carnival Fantasy was built in Finland. The 2,054 passenger ship, sailing out of Long Beach, California made short duration trips to Mexico. The ship was refurbished in November, 2018.
In the scrapyard with the world’s first mega-ship, Sovereign of the Seas
The Turkish website NauticaGoods posted images of the Carnival Fantasy alongside the MS Sovereign, the former Royal Caribbean Sovereign of the Seas and once the world’s largest cruise ship, and the MS Monarch, two of three ships being scrapped that belonged to bankrupt Spanish cruise line Pullmantur – a joint venture with Royal Caribbean.
Constructed at a cost of some $200 million at the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in St. Nazaire, France, the Sovereign of the Seas was described at the time as the world’s first mega ship and was the first Royal Caribbean ship to be given the “of the Seas” suffix now ubiquitously associated with the company.
The Monarch too started out as part of the Royal Caribbean Fleet, when she was known as Monarch of the Seas, while the third of the Pullmantur fleet to be scrapped, the MS Horizon previously belonged to Royal Caribbean subsidiary Celebrity Cruises and was known as the Celebrity Horizon.
The Monarch of the Seas was also built at the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard. She was the first major cruise ship in the world to be captained by a woman, the Swede, Karin Stahre-Janson who later commanded two other Royal Caribbean ships, Serenade of the Seas and Majesty of the Seas.
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