Details of Carnival Corporation's Cruise Ship Sales Emerge

Details of Carnival Corporation’s cruise ship sales are continuing to emerge as the company works to complete the sale of a total of 18 cruise ships. The company announced plans to reduce its fleet by nearly 20 percent in the number of ships and capacity by 12 percent as it works to accelerate the departure of older ships.

Details have been released on four additional cruise ship sales with two apparently going for further trading and one sold for scrap. In addition, one more cruise ship has been delivered to its buyer. A total of ten have been delivered with seven more identified as being sold but not yet delivered to their new owners.

In the latest round of announcements, Princess Cruises confirmed the sale of two of its 1990s-vintage cruise ships, the 77,000 gross ton Sun Princess and Sea Princess, each of which has accommodations for approximately 2,000 passengers. Both ships are currently laid up in Port Klang, Malaysia after having been recently deployed sailing from Australia and other parts of Asia. A third ship of the same class, the Oceana which had operated in the British market for P&O Cruises was one of the first ships sold this summer. The company, so far, retains one ship of the class that was operating in Australia as the Pacific Explorer.

One of the two Princess Cruise ships, the Sun Princess, will reportedly be operated by the Japanese NGO Peace Boat when it resumes its world cruises. Peace Boat had previously operated two older cruise ships which it is believed to be replacing with the single larger ship from Princess Cruises. The buyer for the other Princess cruise ship has not been announced.

Carnival Cruise Line, which had already sold two ifs 1990s vintage cruise ship to the recyclers, announced that it was retiring two additional cruise ships from the same class of ships. While it did not specify the details of the sale, one of the ships the Carnival Imagination, was beached in Turkey next to her two sister ships. Carnival also said it was retiring another ship, the Carnival Fascination, but that one so far is laid up in Cadiz, Spain.

Facebook message from a Holland America employee after the delivery of the Amsterdam to Fred. Olsen in Scotland

 

Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines also took delivery on the second of the two ships it acquired from Holland America, the Amsterdam, which was renamed Bolette. She arrived in Rosyth, Scotland two weeks after the first delivery, and is now at Babcock’s Rosyth facilities. Two of Fred. Olsen’s older cruise ships are currently being stripped to supply the new ships and are expected to be sold to the breakers shortly. 

The fate of two cruise ships that P&O Cruises Australia had previously sold to Cruise and Maritime Voyages for delivery in 2021 remains uncertain after CMV went into administration. Carnival repositioned those two ships from lay up in the Far East to Cyprus in the Mediterranean a few weeks ago. 

One cruise ship remains to be identified under the Carnival's plan to sell ships. However, Carnival Corporation has twice increased the number of ships to be sold since starting the ship disposal program in June.