Holiday, the first ship of the Holiday class, docked in Pascagoula, Mississippi. | |
Class overview | |
---|---|
Operators |
|
Preceded by | Tropicale (Historical) |
Succeeded by | Fantasy class |
Built | 1985–1987 |
In service |
|
Completed | 3 |
Scrapped | 3 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Cruise ship |
Tonnage | 46,052 GT-47,262 GT |
Length | 727–733 ft (222–223 m) |
Decks | 10 |
Speed | 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) |
Capacity | 1,452–1,486 passengers |
Crew | 660–670 |
The Holiday class was the first class of newbuilds for Carnival Cruise Line after their first newbuild, Tropicale, which was completed in 1982. The first ship in the class, the 46,052 gross-ton vessel Holiday, was completed in 1985. A second and slightly larger sister ship, Jubilee, was built in 1986 at 47,262 gross tons. The third and final ship, Celebration, was identical to Jubilee and completed in 1987. All were the biggest ships for Carnival until the Fantasy class was built.
Carnival retired Jubilee in 2004 and transferred the ship to P&O Cruises Australia where it became Pacific Sun. In late 2005, Carnival took Holiday out of service to aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina for one year. Holiday then returned to service in late 2006 to resume cruising. Celebration was retired from Carnival's fleet in April 2008 to be used for a new sister company Iberocruceros as Grand Celebration. Carnival Cruise Lines retired Holiday in November 2009 and she began operating for Iberocruceros as Grand Holiday in May 2010.
In July 2012, P&O sold Pacific Sun to Chinese interests as Henna. Iberocruceros announced that Grand Celebration would be transferred to Costa Cruises in November 2014 as Costa Celebration. Also, in the same month, Costa Cruises announced that it would absorb Ibero Cruises in its entirety by the end of the year. Grand Celebration would still be transferred to the main fleet of Costa as Costa Celebration, and Grand Holiday would either be transferred or sold off. Ibero's docking slots in Barcelona, Spain, would be devoted solely to Costa's newest ship, Costa Diadema. [1] [2]
In November 2014 it was announced Grand Holiday would join Cruise & Maritime Voyages. In March 2015, after a refurbishment in Greece, she entered service as Magellan and operated a range of Northern Europe and worldwide itineraries sailing from London Tilbury, Newcastle upon Tyne and Dundee, United Kingdom. [3] Also, in November 2014, it was announced Costa Celebration had been sold to an unnamed buyer. The vessel completed its last cruise for the Spanish company Iberocruceros and entered drydock in Marseille, France, to be rebranded under Costa livery. [4] The buyer was announced as Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line. The ship has returned to its old name as Grand Celebration and since February 2015 began sailing out of the Port of Palm Beach in Riviera Beach, Florida for cruises to Freeport, Bahamas. [5]
In November 2015, HNA shut down its cruise ship operation after three years of losing money, due to newer vessels being deployed to the region. Since Henna's last cruise with HNA, she was laid up and put for sale for 35 million USD. With there being no interested buyers, the ship arrived in Alang, India, under the name Hen to be broken up in April 2017. [6]
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had greatly affected the cruise industry as cruise lines worldwide were forced to suspend sailing operations. The continued economic losses from suspended operations have resulted in some of the cruise lines either filing for bankruptcy or selling some of their ships to shed operating costs and lower their mounting debt. This had caused the demise of the two remaining Holiday class vessels. In November 2020, Bahamas Paradise Cruise line sold Grand Celebration for scrap. The ship was renamed Grand. It arrived in Alang, India and was beached for scrapping on January 14, 2021. [7] Soon after Grand Celebration was beached for scrapping, Seajets sold Magellan for scrap after acquiring it from Cruise & Maritime Voyages following their bankruptcy. Magellan was renamed Mages and was beached in Alang, India for scrapping on January 30, 2021. [8] [9]
Ship | Year Built | Years In Operation | Tonnage | Operational History | Image |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Holiday | 1985 | 1985–2020 | 46,052 GT | Operated for Carnival Cruise Lines from 1985 until 2009. Later operated as Grand Holiday for Iberocruceros from 2010 until 2014. It last operated as Magellan with Cruise & Maritime Voyages from 2015 until 2020. Purchased by Seajets in October 2020 following the bankruptcy of CMV but never operated any cruises. It was scrapped in Alang, India as Mages in 2021. | |
Jubilee | 1986 | 1986–2015 | 47,262 GT | Operated for Carnival Cruise Lines from 1986 until 2004. Later operated as Pacific Sun for P&O Australia from 2004 until 2012. Last operated as Henna for HNA Tourism from 2012 until 2015. Withdrawn from service in 2015 and was scrapped in Alang, India as the Hen in 2017. | |
Celebration | 1987 | 1987–2020 | 47,262 GT | Operated for Carnival Cruise Lines from 1987 until 2008. Later operated as Grand Celebration for Iberocruceros from 2008 until 2014. It later became the Costa Celebration for Costa Cruises in late 2014 but was never put into service. It last operated as Grand Celebration for Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line from 2015 until 2020. It was scrapped in Alang, India as Grand in 2021. |
Carnival Cruise Line is an international cruise line with headquarters in Doral, Florida. The company is a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc. Its logo is a funnel shaped like a whale's tail, with a red, white, and blue color scheme. This trademark funnel design is built onto the line's ships. Carnival is ranked first on the list of largest cruise lines based on passengers carried annually.
Carnival Corporation & plc is a British-American cruise operator with a combined fleet of over ninety vessels across nine cruise line brands and one joint venture with China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC). A dual-listed company, Carnival is composed of two companies – Panama-incorporated, US-headquartered Carnival Corporation, and UK-based Carnival plc – which function as one entity. Carnival Corporation is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, whereas Carnival plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange with an ADR listing on the NYSE. Carnival is listed in both the S&P 500 and FTSE 250 indices.
Carnival Fascination, originally Fascination, was a Fantasy-class cruise ship built at Helsinki, Finland in 1994. For most of her service with Carnival Cruise Lines she operated out of San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 2017 Carnival Fascination was chartered to the US Government to assist with hurricane relief work in the Virgin Islands. During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic the ship was withdrawn from service and in November that year sold for conversion to a hotel ship for Century Harmony Cruise Ltd, that renamed her Century Harmony. However, in October 2021 she was sold for scrapping, arriving at Gadani, Pakistan as Y Harmony in February 2022.
MS Bahamas Celebration was a midsize cruise ship formerly operated by Celebration Cruise Line. Between March 2009 and October 2014, she operated two- and three-day cruises from Port Everglades to the Bahamas. In March 2010 she started operating two-day cruises from the Port of Palm Beach.
Carnival Ecstasy was a Fantasy-class cruise ship operated by Carnival Cruise Line. Built by Kværner Masa-Yards at its Helsinki New Shipyard in Helsinki, Finland, she was floated out on January 6, 1991, and christened by television hostess, entertainer and long time Carnival spokesperson Kathie Lee Gifford. Her inaugural voyage began on April 2, 1991. During 2007, in common with all of her Fantasy-class sisters, she had the prefix Carnival added to her name. With the departure of the Carnival Fantasy in 2020, the Carnival Ecstasy became the oldest ship in the fleet until her retirement in October 2022. She was replaced by Carnival Spirit out of Mobile, Alabama in October 2023.
MS Holiday was a Holiday-class cruise ship, which was formerly owned by Carnival Cruise Line as the Holiday and Ibero Cruises as the Grand Holiday. She last sailed for Cruise & Maritime Voyages from Spring 2015 to 2020 as the Magellan until Cruise & Maritime Voyages ceased operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She was then sold at auction and was scrapped at Alang, India in early 2021.
Costa Crociere S.p.A., operating as Costa Cruises, is an Italian cruise line founded in 1948 and organized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc since 2000. Based in Genoa, Italy, the cruise line primarily caters to the Italian cruise market, but the company's 10 ships, which all sail under the Italian flag, provide itineraries sailing to countries globally.
Margaritaville at Sea Paradise is a cruise ship owned by Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line and operating for Margaritaville at Sea. The ship was built in 1991 in Italy for Costa Cruises as Costa Classica. In 2000, a planned lengthening and refit was cancelled at the last moment. She was renamed Costa neoClassica in 2014, then left Costa fleet in 2018 when sold to Bahamas Paradise as Grand Classica. Since May 2022, the ship has been sailing as Margaritaville at Sea Paradise, after the cruise line announced a partnership with Margaritaville Resorts & Hotels.
The MS Costa Marina was a cruise ship, last owned by Polaris Shipping and operated by Harmony Cruises. She was built in 1969 by the Wärtsilä Turku Shipyard in Turku, Finland as the container ship Axel Johnson for the Sweden-based Rederi AB Nordstjernan and operated on their Johnson Line services. In 1986 she was sold to Regency Cruises with the intention of being converted into a cruise ship under the name Regent Sun, but she was laid up instead. In 1987 she was sold to and renamed Italia but continued laid up. In 1988 the ship was acquired by Costa Cruises, renamed Costa Marina and rebuilt into a cruise ship at the T. Mariotti shipyard in Genoa, Italy. She entered service as the Costa Marina in 1990. From 2002 she was marketed more towards German passengers.
Empress of Britain was a transatlantic ocean liner built by Fairfield Shipbuilding at Govan on the Clyde in Scotland in 1955-1956 for Canadian Pacific Steamships (CP). This ship — the third of three CP vessels to be named Empress of Britain — regularly traversed the trans-Atlantic route between Canada and Europe until 1964, completing 123 voyages under the Canadian Pacific flag.
The MS Jubilee was a cruise ship that was originally built for Carnival Cruise Line. She was the second of three ships to be built for Carnival's Holiday class. She was last owned by the Chinese company HNA Cruise Company, Limited, for service in the West Pacific region. The ship was retired and scrapped in 2017.
MS Tropicale was a cruise ship that entered service in 1982, and was one of the pioneering cruise ships in the modernization of the cruise industry. She was Carnival Cruises Line's first newly built ship, initially operating mainly in the Mexican Riviera and the Caribbean.
P&O Cruises Australia is a British-American owned cruise line with operational headquarters as part of Carnival Australia, based in Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia.
Ibero Cruises was a British-American and Spanish owned cruise line based in Madrid, Spain. The cruise line was aimed at the Spanish and Portuguese speaking markets. Iberocruceros operated voyages from Europe, the Mediterranean, and South America.
Margaritaville at Sea is a cruise line that operates two-day voyages out of West Palm Beach, Florida to Grand Bahama Island. The company was originally founded as Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line in late 2014, and began operating its first cruises in February 2015 with the now retired Grand Celebration. In May of 2022 the company was rebranded to Margaritaville at Sea following a partnership between Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line and Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville brand. Their sole ship the Grand Classica was refurbished and renamed the Margaritaville at Sea Paradise. Before the cruise line's rebranding, Margaritaville at Sea was previously a small chain of Margaritaville style restaurants and bars that were included or later added to the newer Norwegian Cruise Line ships starting in 2015 with the Norwegian Escape. The partnership with Norwegian Cruise Line ended in late 2019. The restaurants were later unbranded and converted into other dining venues.
The Celebration was a cruise ship originally built for Carnival Cruise Line. She was the last of three ships to be built in Carnival's Holiday Class of cruise ships. She last sailed for Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line between 2015 and 2020.
The Vista class is a class of cruise ships built by Fincantieri in Italy. The ships are operated by the Carnival Cruise Line, Costa Crociere, and Adora Cruises divisions of Carnival Corporation & plc.
Carnival Panorama is a Vista-class cruise ship operated by Carnival Cruise Line. After Carnival finalized the ship's order with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri in December 2016, the vessel had her keel laid in January 2018. She was formally delivered in October 2019 as the last Vista-class vessel and as the flagship of the fleet; she has served in the latter role until the Mardi Gras debuted in 2021. Measuring 133,868 GT and 323 m long, she is the largest of Carnival's three Vista-class vessels. Since her debut in December 2019, she has been homeported at the Port of Long Beach and sails week-long itineraries to the Mexican Riviera.
Adora Cruises Limited is a Chinese-American cruise line that was scheduled to begin operation in 2020, but was delayed due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Costa Firenze is a Vista-class cruise ship operated by Costa Cruises. She was constructed at Fincantieri's shipyard in Marghera, and entered service in 2021 as a sister ship to Costa Venezia, which was transferred to Carnival Cruise Line and renamed Carnival Venezia under the Costa by Carnival concept. This ship will follow suit in 2024 under the name Carnival Firenze.