Carnival Cruise Line's Carnival Ecstasy cruise ship to be “recycled”

The cruise ship, built back in 1991, is Carnival Cruise Line's oldest ship and one of the last Fantasy-class series ships, an 8-ship series that was pivotal for the expansion of the global cruise industry. Carnival Ecstasy had 70.367 tons and a 2.052 guests cap, which was quite impressive for that period of time.

It also served the North American tourism sector for more than three decades before Carnival Cruise decided to cut high costs due to the recent pandemic. Carnival Ecstasy is ship number 6 to exit the company’s fleet.

Featuring countless balcony cabins and a cosy, friendlier size, Ecstasy, on the other hand, had fewer amenities when compared to its Carnival sister ships. However, despite an earlier version of a cruise vessel, it used to be one of the most productive ships in the company’s business history, accounting for 2.300 voyages departing from Miami, Port Canaveral, Jacksonville, Galveston, Long Beach, California, New Orleans, Charleston and Mobile, as well as more than 5.5 million passengers carried during its service.

Following the “recycling” of Ecstasy, Carnival Cruise now accounts for a fleet of 23 ships, while the 24th – the Carnival Celebration - is currently being constructed.

As time finally took its toll on Ecstasy, customers started to demand bigger vessels, more onboard options, more facilities, so the company had to adjust and build the mega-ships today, which also translated into more business opportunities. However, the smaller vessels were more versatile, could be supported by almost any harbour, reach more destinations and were preferred by travellers in search for more intimacy.

With the retirement of Ecstasy, only two small Carnival ships will still be available for cruising enthusiasts, the Carnival Elation and the Carnival Paradise, which are bigger than Ecstasy and slightly younger, as they were constructed in 1998.

Carnival Cruise Line is not the only industry player to be forced to reduce operations due to the recent pandemic. The big cruise lines have underwent drastic transformations over the last years, so big companies like Royal Caribbean, Holland America and Princess also had to end service for many of their oldest, smaller ships, evolve and tailor their services as demanded by customers, as part of the natural evolution of any cruise line.

And, as we say ‘goodbye’ to old vessels and a warm ‘welcome’ to the modern, state of the art mega-ships, the cruising story goes on to deeper waters and millions of passengers in search of sailing in luxury and style.

 

Source: thepointsguy.com