Carnival Carnival Cruise Line is placing two ships into long-term cold lay-up, with no timeline for their return to operation.
The move effectively cuts the Carnival Corp flagship subsidiary's capacity without removing the option of increasing it at a later date.
The vessels involved are the 70,500-gt Carnival Fascination (built 1994) and 70,400-gt Carnival Imagination (built 1995).
Carnival Cruise Line also confirmed the departure of two other ships that TradeWinds recently reported were sold for recycling.
The 70,400-gt Carnival Fantasy (built 1990) and Carnival Inspiration (built 1996) are heading to Turkey where they will be dismantled at European Union-approved shipbreaking facilities.
The four ships are part of the eight-strong Fantasy class built for Carnival in the 1990s. They are regarded as the workhorses of the fleet and have spent most of their careers operating out of secondary US cruise ports.
Balcony installation
The two vessels heading into long-term lay-up both underwent substantial upgrading during life-extension refits several years ago. The work involved installing external balconies on many cabins, as well as a complete revamp of the interior passenger accommodation.
The addition of the balconies increased the ships' earning capacities, as these cabins that have access to open air are more sought after and command a far higher price than regular cabins with windows.
As such, they are deemed to be higher-value assets than the Carnival Fantasy and Carnival Inspiration, which had yet to undergo a similar refit.
Carnival Cruise Line president Christine Duffy said the company would continue to invest in the remaining Fantasy-class ships.
Capacity cut
The removal of the four ships effectively cuts Carnival’s capacity by about 15%.
The company has undertaken a major revamp of its planned future fleet deployment as a result of these disposals, with ships redeployed in moves akin to a game of chess.
The company is also consolidating the home porting of its ships to the US mainland, and will not be replacing the Carnival Fascination in Puerto Rico and Barbados.
Similarly, European cruises scheduled for the 101,700-gt Carnival Victory (built 2000) have been scrubbed, with the ship rescheduled out of Miami once it completes a major refit in Spain.
Australia-based cruises have been put on hold until the end of October, but, with a resurgence of coronavirus cases there, this target date looks increasingly unlikely.
US sailings have been cancelled into October as well.
