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Scrapped Cruise Ships

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Review of Scrapped Cruise Ships

This is CruiseMapper's most unusual theme section, grouping scrapped cruise liners—passenger vessels (including ferries) that no longer exist. "Scrapped Cruise Ships" is not a cruise line or company name but a hub for these old-timers, on which millions of travelers spent precious vacation time and still remember their special voyages. Here, you will also find a list of now-defunct cruise lines (companies and brands that went bankrupt).

Scrapped Cruise Ships - CruiseMapper

Cruise vessels typically have a lifespan of around 30-40 years. Eventually, these old ships become either unseaworthy (especially after major accidents) or too costly to operate due to expensive drydock refits and refurbishments, making them less competitive compared to newbuild vessels. Typically, older vessels are sold to smaller companies that continue to use them in less novelty-demanding, more budget-friendly markets like India, China, Korea, Russia, Australia, South America, the Caribbean, and Southern Europe (Iberia, Mediterranean, Black Sea). Some ships are even converted into overnight cruiseferries that carry both passengers and cars.

Old cruise vessels are either scrapped (dismantled), scuttled (deliberately sunk), or decommissioned and permanently berthed, turning them into luxury dockside hotels or ship museums.

Scuttling (deliberate sinking) involves allowing seawater to flow into the ship's hull. This can be done by opening the vessel’s hatches, creating holes in the hull, or using explosives (in some cases, even bombing the vessel or shooting it with military ships). Scuttling is usually performed on abandoned or captured vessels, mainly to prevent them from becoming navigation hazards. Some ships are scuttled to become artificial reefs, creating habitats for marine life and serving scuba diving activities.

For detailed information on the shipbreaking process (technologies, largest shipbreakers, shipbreaking yards worldwide, industry policies, new regulations, pollution issues), you can read CruiseMapper's dedicated article Ship Breaking and 40+ Year-Old Cruise Ships. The world’s largest shipbreaking yards are in India (Alang), Bangladesh (Chittagong), Pakistan (Gadani), and Turkey (Aliaga). At these yards, doomed vessels are first run aground (beached at low tide) and then dismantled by underpaid workers. Once the ship is on land, yard workers strip everything useful (furniture, equipment, plastics, glass, etc.), dismantle the superstructure, and cut the hull up, recycling everything from steel plates to engines, while hazardous materials are discarded.

Shipbreaking - CruiseMapper

An example of an abandoned cruiser is MV World Discoverer, which struck a reef off Florida Islands (Solomon Islands) in 2000. All passengers and most crew were evacuated, and the vessel under its own power arrived at Roderick Bay, where it was abandoned near the beach.

Roderick Bay (MS World Discoverer) cruise ship wreckage

Due to the industry's strict regulations, highest safety standards, innovative marine design, and modern technologies, cruise vessels typically do not sink. One of the best-known exceptions is the MS Costa Concordia, which ran aground and partially sank off Giglio Island, Italy, in 2012 due to human error. The vessel was refloated (at a staggering cost of approximately EUR 225 million / USD 300 million) and dismantled in Genoa, Italy.

The most well-known examples of cruise vessels repurposed into floating (dockside moored) hotels include Cunard Line's classic ocean liners RMS Queen Mary (built in 1934, retired in 1967, now a hotel in Long Beach, CA, USA) and RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (built in 1969, retired in 2008, now a hotel in Dubai, UAE).

The idea for our scrapped cruise liners hub was suggested by Gerald Sutton. We created it following his passionate email (received on August 25, 2019) in which he wrote: "I want to say how much I love your website and thank you for sharing the life of all of these wonderful ships. I want to help if I may. I noticed that there are many ships still in the Small Cruise Lines section that are scrapped. I wanted to ask if you have room or time to add a 'Scrapped' section to your cruise ship list. This way, great ships of the past can be saved for all to see and remember, and it cleans up the active cruise ship sections. Your website has an amazing history and information about ships that thousands of people enjoyed. Your website is like a historical library for cruise ships, so a section dedicated to scrapped ships would be great."

Scrapped Cruise Ships - CruiseMapper

Directly linked to the Coronavirus crisis of 2020-2021 are the scrappings of Costa Victoria (1996-built, 25 years old), Carnival Inspiration (1996 / 24 years old), Carnival Fantasy (1990 / 30 years old), Carnival Imagination (1995 / 25 years old), Pullmantur Monarch of the Seas (1991 / 29 years old), Pullmantur Sovereign of the Seas (1987 / 33 years old), Grand Celebration (1987 / 34 years old), and Costa neoRomantica (1993 / 28 years old).

In June 2020, Pullmantur Cruises filed for bankruptcy. In July 2020, Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV UK) filed for bankruptcy.

Cruise Ships Scrapped in India (at Alang)

Below is a list of some cruise ships and classic ocean liners dismantled at Alang:

Alang Ship Breaking Yard (India)

In brackets is the vessel's year of birth and death:

Bankrupted (now DEFUNCT) Cruise Companies and Ship-Travel Brands

  • American Classic Voyages (1993-2001), owner of the brands Delta Queen Steamboat Company, American Hawaii Cruises, United States Lines. Delta Queen Steamboat Company (1890-1973) was acquired by American Classic Voyages in 1993 and was sold to Majestic America Line in 2006 (which went defunct in 2008).
  • Birka Cruises (1971-2020) was a Mariehamn (Åland, Finland)-headquartered company fully owned by Eckero Line Oy (Rederi Ab Eckero, 1995-founded, Helsinki-based cargo and passenger shipping company). Birka Cruises operated just one ship, Birka Stockholm, on the route Stockholm-Mariehamn. The company shut down due to the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Bora Bora Cruises (2001-2011), owner of the megayachts Tu Moana and Tia Moana.
  • CDF Croisières de France (2007-2017), a sister brand of Pullmantur Cruises—both owned by RCCL (Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd).
  • Celebration Cruise Line (2009-2014) owned the ship Bahamas Celebration (1981-2015, scrapped, IMO 7904891).
  • Crown Cruise Lines (1984-2001) was a luxury brand (Boca Raton, Florida-based) and a fully owned subsidiary of Grundstad Maritime Overseas Inc. Crown Cruise Line owned five ships: Viking Princess (1964/2015-scrapped as "Palm Beach Princess"), Crown Del Mar (1967/2005-sunk), Crown Monarch (1990/now Vidanta Elegant), Crown Jewel (1992/now Gemini), and Crown Dynasty (1993/now Villa Vie Odyssey).
  • Cruise & Maritime Voyages (2009-2020) owned and chartered smaller-sized and older vessels, including Columbus (1989/2021-scrapped), Marco Polo (1965), Magellan (1985), Astor (1987), Astoria (1948), and Vasco da Gama (1992). For 2021, two former P&O Australia liners were scheduled for introduction: Pacific Dawn and Pacific Aria (CMV Ida Pfeiffer).
  • Cruise North Expeditions (2005-2011) merged with Adventure Canada.
  • Cruise West (1973-2010, Seattle-based) was Alaska's largest small-ship company, with nine fully owned vessels and two chartered. Other destinations included BC, Canada, USA (Columbia and Snake Rivers), Gulf of California (Mexico), Central America, South Pacific Islands, Asia (Japan, Vietnam, China), and Far East Russia (Kuril Islands, Kamchatka). The chartered boats were operated in the Galapagos Islands, Antarctica, and Eastern Europe (Danube River).
  • Carnival Fathom Cruise Line (2015-2017) was owned by Carnival Corporation and specialized in cruises to Cuba and the Dominican Republic from the USA.
  • Festival Cruises (1992-2004) was a Greece-based brand, known in North America as "First European Cruises." The company, founded by George Poulides (1914-born Greek entrepreneur) in 1992, started operations in 1994 with three second-hand ships: The Azur (now Knyaz Vladimir/1971-built), MS Starward (Aegean Queen/1968-2018), and SS Southern Cross (Flamenco/1972-2003). In 1999-2002, Festival Cruises acquired three newbuilds (Mistral, European Vision-MSC Armonia, and European Stars-MSC Sinfonia), but in 2004 the company declared bankruptcy. All Festival-owned ships were laid up and sold at auctions.
  • Haimark Line (2014-2015) chartered MS Saint Laurent (now Victory I) for five years.
  • Iberocruceros (2007-2014), owned by Carnival Corporation, was merged with Costa Cruises in 2014.
  • Imperial Majesty Cruise Line (1999-2009) operated mini-cruises from Port Everglades to Nassau, Bahamas.
  • Jalesh Cruises India (2019-2020) operated the ship MS Karnika (formerly Pacific Jewel) for one year, from March 12, 2019, to March 12, 2020, before suspending operations due to the global health crisis. Jalesh planned to restart services on November 6, 2020, and had also planned to acquire a second ship, but those plans were canceled due to the pandemic.
  • One Ocean Expeditions (2007-2020), a Canadian brand, operated Arctic and Antarctic cruises with chartered ships (RCGS Resolute, plus two Russian icebreakers - Akademik Ioffe and Akademik Vavilov). The brand filed for bankruptcy on April 17, 2020, owing CAD 29.5 million (~USD 21.15 M / ~EUR 19.52 M). One Ocean Expeditions tried restructuring but was unable to overcome the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Orion Expedition Cruises (2004-2013), owner of the ship MV Orion (now National Geographic Orion).
  • Peter Deilmann Cruises (1968-2015) operated two fleets, ocean and river.
  • Premier Cruise Line (1983-2000), owned by The Walt Disney Company.
  • Renaissance Cruises (1989-2001), owner of six R-class ships, now in the fleets of Azamara, Oceania, and Princess brands.
  • Royal Viking Line (1972-1998) was a premium brand founded by Warren Titus (1915-2009) and headquartered in San Francisco. The brand operated three Wartsila Helsinki-built liners: Royal Viking Star (1971, shipowner Bergen Line / last-named Black Watch/2022-scrapped), Royal Viking Sky (1973, shipowner Bergen Line / last-named Boudicca/2021-scrapped), and Royal Viking Sea (1973, shipowner A. F. Klaveness & Co / last-named Albatros/2021-scrapped). The brand went out of business in 1986 when it was sold to NCL-Norwegian Caribbean Line (part of Kloster Group).
  • Swan Hellenic (1954-2017) operated Eastern Mediterranean cruises. It was sold to P&O Cruises in 1983 and was incorporated into Carnival Corporation in 2003.
  • Travel Dynamics (1959-2014) owned the ships Arethusa, Artemis, Corinthian, and Road to Mandalay.
  • Voyages to Antiquity (2010-2019) owned the ship Aegean Odyssey.
  • Voyages of Discovery (2003-2016), acquired by All Leisure Group UK in 2005 (which went bankrupt in January 2017), owned the ship MV Discovery (1971-2015, scrapped).

In June 2023, Vantage Deluxe World Travel (1983-founded, Boston-based travel agency and cruisetour company specializing in chartered voyages) started negotiations to sell its entire business, including ocean-ship charter contracts, European river shipping, global land tour operations, and customer database.

On February 20, 2024, American Queen Steamboat Company LLC (operating under the travel brand AQV/American Queen Voyages) ceased operations, citing a lack of operational capital. The company was auction-acquired by ACL/American Cruise Lines in March. In May, ACL sold three paddlewheelers for scrapping: American Countess, American Duchess, and American Queen.

Our future plans include adding more now-defunct passenger shipping companies and travel brands, all of which are associated with older and already destroyed or scrapped vessels. Over time, we may also add more ocean liners that are now shadowy names in the multi-billion cruising industry—broken up and forgotten.

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