Retired

An overview of ships retired since 1985 (it seems we are the only non-commercial website with this info…).

Irrevocably, cruise ships reach the end of their life. Fortunately, the cruise industry sees very few accidents or disasters.  Sun Vista, catching fire in the Malacca Strait in 1999, Explorer hitting an iceberg in the Antarctic Ocean in 2007 and Costa Concordia, striking a submerged rock on the coast of Italy in 2012 were examples hereof.

There comes a time when vessels are not economically viable anymore. Mostly this is because of a mix of dated machinery, being surpassed by competing newer ships with more (spectacular) facilities or lacking environmental friendly features like scrubbers, special waste disposal systems and so forth. Upgrades will at some point not be financially justifiable. 

Cruise ships of the first generation operating in the sixties and seventies, some of these being converted former liners pressed into cruise service formed the first wave of ships being retired from service in  the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.

Some vessels were in need of an upgrade as a result of the new SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) rules, for example the new set implemented in 2010  prohibiting the use of combustible materials inside a cruise ship. However, adding sprinklers, removing wood paneling etc. proved too costly for these older vessels.

Another reason responsible for taking ships out of service and even forcing cruise lines into bankruptcy is political instability in certain regions, like around 2004 in the Mediterranean resulting in booking levels plummeting. Cruise lines like Royal Olympic Cruises and Festival Cruises did not survive this difficult period.

In 2008 the worldwide economic recession caused exactly the same problems on a worldwide scale.

The COVID-19 pandemic made the entire cruise industry come to a complete halt starting in 2019. It lasted until the second half of 2021 when a cautious restart took place. The pandemic led to cruise lines going bankrupt or needing to restructure, in some cases by sending older less efficient ships to the scrapyard. Some of these had still been economically viable to operate because of the strong growth of the cruising seen in the last years (to almost 30 million in 2019). Shipyards have been turning out new vessels at a staggering pace and older ships were kept in service to fill the gap until they would come online. But now, with their ships laid up because of the pandemic, sending older and less efficient tonnage to the scrapyard brought in some much needed cash.

Below an overview is presented of cruise ships taken out of service, scrapped or having been the victim of an incident (fire, sinking).