Carnival’s Oldest Cruise Vessel, the “Ecstasy” Retires After 31 Years of Service

Carnival's cruise ship, the CARNIVAL ECSTASY concluded its final voyage at the port of Mobile, Alabama on October 15th after 31 years of service. The plans for retiring the vessel were announced earlier in February by Carnival.

This last cruise carried out by the CARNIVAL ECSTASY was one of the more than 2,300 cruises completed by the ship in its 31 years of service. Carnival states that the vessel has carried nearly 5.5 million passengers during its service.

The CARNIVAL ECSTASY was built by Wartsila and launched by Carnival in the early 1990s. The vessel was the second to be built in a new class of ships and was built in response to Carnival’s competitors introducing larger cruise ships that could accommodate more than 2,000 passengers. At the time, the 70,000 gross ton vessel was one of the largest ever built but is now dwarfed by the more recent and modern 150,000 to 200,000 gross ton ships in Carnival’s fleet.

Near the end of its career, the ship was reserved for shorter cruises of 5 days or less, offering a lower-priced entry-level product. The CARNIVAL ECSTASY will be replaced by the CARNIVAL SPIRIT, which is around 10 years younger. The CARNIVAL SPIRIT will take over in October 2023.

The CARNIVAL ECSTASY will be broken up into scrap at the Aliaga Ship breaking yard in Turkey. Carnival removed four of its vessels shortly after the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Three of these vessels, the CARNIVAL FANTASY, the CARNIVAL IMAGINATION, and the CARNIVAL INSPIRATION were sent to be scrapped in Turkey. The fourth was sold to a Chinese operator but also went for scrap in 2022. Earlier this year, Carnival retired yet another cruise vessel, the CARNIVAL SENSATION, which was also sold for scrap.