Piraeus-based Celestyal Cruises has taken advantage of Carnival Corp’s cruiseship sell-off to add a third ship to its fleet.

The company, which specialises in cultural cruises to the Greek islands using small to medium-size ships, revealed on Thursday that it had purchased the 56,800-gt Costa neoRomantica (built 1993) for an undisclosed sum.

The ship, which has the capacity to carry 1,800 passengers, is currently idle in Manila. Details of the its delivery and deployment will be announced at a later date, Celestyal said.

TradeWinds understands that the ship will augment rather than replace Celestyal’s existing ships, the 37,800-gt Celestyal Olympia (built 1982) and 25,600-gt Celestyal Crystal (built 1980).

The company said the existing 2021 and 2022 cruise schedules for these two ships would be carried out as scheduled. Their cruises scheduled for 2020 have been scrubbed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Deluxe cruiseship

The Costa neoRomantica was rebuilt into a deluxe category cruiseship in 2012. Photo: Jonathan Boonzaier

The Costa neoRomatica is something of a coup for Celestyal. In 2012 the ship was completely rebuilt into a deluxe category cruiseship for Costa’s new, upmarket brand.

The idea that proved short-lived. When the plug was pulled, the ship was sent to operate in the Asian cruise market.

Chris Theophilides, Celestyal’s chief executive, said that while Covid-19 had brought a temporary pause to cruise operations, the company still had an optimistic view about the future and would continue with its strategic plan to invest and grow its business.

“I’m delighted with the addition of this mid-size cruise vessel to our fleet. She is ideally suited to our business model and is very well appointed following her significant transformation in 2012. I’m confident that she will prove to be a very popular choice amongst our valued guests and will allow us to continue providing truly unique experiences to our valued guests for years to come,” Theophilides said.

The Costa neoRomantica is the eighth of 13 cruiseships that Carnival Corp recently indicated that it would sell in the immediate future.

On Wednesday Norway’s Fred Olsen Cruises revealed that it had acquired two ships from Carnival Corp’s Holland America brand.

Three other cruiseships that have been sold are believed to have gone for further trading, while another two have been sold for scrap.