What happens when cruise ships retire? (an article)

[mnocket]

Interesting article........ https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/cruise-ships-retire/index.html 

 

excerpt: 

When cruise ships are idle, they can either be in what's called a "hot layup" or a "cold layup."

Hot is the short term solution.

"In other words, the ship would be kept ready to get back into service fairly quickly," explains Miller.

Cold layup is when the ship is largely shut down and is intended to be so for months or a year, with only a reduced crew on board.

"Those that are in cold lay up are vulnerable," says Miller. "Because if in six months the market isn't strong enough, they may reconsider and say, 'well okay, we're not going to bring this ship back after all, we're going to sell it for scrap.'"

[wheezedr]

Funny, I thought most of them moved to condominiums in Florida.

[ldubs]

Not too far from me there used to be rows on rows of mothballed WWII ships.  I think both liberty ships and fighting ships.  I remember at low tide they were sitting on the mud bottom.   I guess they finally deteriorated to the point they were towed away for scrap.  They are just about all gone now.   

[chengkp75]

7 hours ago, ldubs said:

Not too far from me there used to be rows on rows of mothballed WWII ships.  I think both liberty ships and fighting ships.  I remember at low tide they were sitting on the mud bottom.   I guess they finally deteriorated to the point they were towed away for scrap.  They are just about all gone now.   

It's not so much that they deteriorated, but that obtaining spare parts for equipment that hasn't been produced in 30 years became an issue when the ships were broken out for service during Vietnam, and later, the number of mariners experienced in operating and maintaining the archaic equipment became an issue.  The Victory ships that used to make up the US Ready Reserve Fleet have long since been scrapped, as you say, but they have been replaced, in smaller numbers by "newer" ships, many of which I sailed on in the 70's.  Even keeping these ships running, as was seen during the Gulf Wars, is problematic.  But, these ships are not placed into high quality "cold lay up" modes, since they need to be able to be called out quickly if needed.

[chengkp75]

On 7/10/2020 at 11:50 AM, mnocket said:

Interesting article........ https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/cruise-ships-retire/index.html 

 

excerpt: 

When cruise ships are idle, they can either be in what's called a "hot layup" or a "cold layup."

Hot is the short term solution.

"In other words, the ship would be kept ready to get back into service fairly quickly," explains Miller.

Cold layup is when the ship is largely shut down and is intended to be so for months or a year, with only a reduced crew on board.

"Those that are in cold lay up are vulnerable," says Miller. "Because if in six months the market isn't strong enough, they may reconsider and say, 'well okay, we're not going to bring this ship back after all, we're going to sell it for scrap.'"

Just like another article discussed on another thread, I find it interesting that the "experts" quoted on ship maintenance and conditions during medium and long term lay ups are "cruise historians" and "cruise industry writers".

[Toofarfromthesea]

When ships retire they should do like the rest of us - relax and take a cruise.

[ontheweb]

19 minutes ago, Toofarfromthesea said:

When ships retire they should do like the rest of us - relax and take a cruise.

I'm sure they would like to, but there is that pesky problem of cruises keep getting canceled.

[Philob]

14 hours ago, ldubs said:

Not too far from me there used to be rows on rows of mothballed WWII ships.  I think both liberty ships and fighting ships.  I remember at low tide they were sitting on the mud bottom.   I guess they finally deteriorated to the point they were towed away for scrap.  They are just about all gone now.   

I think those were the ones in Suisun Bay.   There was a big brew-hah about moving those due to lead paint flaking off while being towed or some where in such bad shape it was afraid they'll breakup while still within SF Bay.  Howard Hughes's Glomar Explorer "spy" ship was anchored there for a bunch of years. 

[ldubs]

5 hours ago, Philob said:

I think those were the ones in Suisun Bay.   There was a big brew-hah about moving those due to lead paint flaking off while being towed or some where in such bad shape it was afraid they'll breakup while still within SF Bay.  Howard Hughes's Glomar Explorer "spy" ship was anchored there for a bunch of years. 

 

Those are the ones.  I used to be back and forth through that area on my boat.  Used to be decent sturgeon fishing, though I haven't been on that water for over 30 years now.  I remember the Glomar Explorer.  It was anchored kind of off by itself.