COVID CRISIS CRUISE SHIP CASUALTIES
The Covid-19 pandemic of 2020-21 had a devastating effect on the cruise industry. In addition to the demise of CMV, Pullmantur and Jalesh, the long-term lay-up of virtually all cruise ships had dire financial and operational consequences for surviving operators. The result has been the sale and scrappage of older fleet members, making it effectively boom time for the breakers.
The sight of iconic Royal Caribbean’s Viking Crowns and Carnival’s red-winged funnels at the shipbreakers and recycling graveyards in Aliaga epitomises the current situation. So it is appropriate to look back at the careers of these significant vessels, which will no longer grace global waters, being destined for the beaches of Aliaga on the eastern Aegean coast, north of Izmir, Turkey. Their shortened careers are the result of cost-cutting, necessary to enable cruise companies
