The next best buyer would be the scrappers.”Ĭruise journalist Peter Knego took this photo back in 2005 of the onetime RMS Windsor Castle partially demolished at Alang ship breaking yard in India. “I would say that would be very unlikely. “I don’t know that many cruise lines in the world are looking to buy ships right now,” Bill Miller, a prolific cruise ship historian, tells CNN Travel. “This is rare but does happen,” says maritime history author Chris Frame, who points to the famous QE2 ocean liner, which sailed the seas from 1969-2008 and later opened as a floating hotel in Dubai in 2018.īut if there’s little demand for ship buying, vessels will be sold for scrap – a fate that could become more common in the wake of the pandemic. Some ships are repurposed and become tourist attractions. Rebranded and perhaps refurbished, the ship would then continue operations for many more years. If a major company decided a ship was no longer needed, it would likely sell the vessel on to a smaller corporation.
Prior to 2020, the cruise industry was booming and ships could have a seafaring life spanning decades. When the cruise industry tentatively restarts, it’ll likely be on a smaller scale – and vessels that were once star players could end up bowing out early.īut what happens when a cruise company decides to retire a ship? Last month, cruise giant Carnival Corporation announced plans to remove at least six cruise ships from its fleet, with 23-year-old Costa Victoria earmarked for demolition. Hundreds of cruise ships usually traverse the world’s waters, but right now – with the cruise industry on an indefinite hold due to the coronavirus pandemic – they’re mostly laid up at sea with no passengers.
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