Carnival Sensation being scrapped

[shof515]

This is the only source so far:

https://www.tradewindsnews.com/cruise-and-ferry/carnival-sensation-poised-for-swansong-voyage-to-turkish-beach/2-1-1168316?fbclid=IwAR1BqU9CWTR1ccqbARqjzvcUJi3NFfbWbJ3QzEHNjFVrK4RMQqy2dhpaKt4

 

Sensation is being sent to the ship breakers just like the other ships that left the fleet 

[tidecat]

Fascination actually arrived in Pakistan for scrapping a few days ago.

 

At $350/long ton (not the same as a Gross Ton), Sensation is being sold for only about $7 Million.

 

The disposal of Ecstasy seems rather odd, given that she will sail until October. Maybe no room at the beach in Aliaga?

[brilliantseas]

1 hour ago, tidecat said:

Fascination actually arrived in Pakistan for scrapping a few days ago.

 

At $350/long ton (not the same as a Gross Ton), Sensation is being sold for only about $7 Million.

 

The disposal of Ecstasy seems rather odd, given that she will sail until October. Maybe no room at the beach in Aliaga?

 

The summer season is a high revenue and high occupancy season. So long as she at least breaks even, there is no reason not to sail the Ecstasy on the Mobile itineraries. It is better than refunding all of those deposits. 

 

The timing likely has more to do with the pre-inaugural ramp up of Celebration than anything else. They'll dispurse the non-essential crew from the Ecstasy across the fleet and begin to crew up hotel/guest services positions on Celebration in October ahead of the November inaugural. 

[BlerkOne]

A while ago Carnival stated Sensation would not restart. Until a ship is actually delivered to the breakers, it isn't a done deal.

[tidecat]

1 hour ago, brilliantseas said:

 

The summer season is a high revenue and high occupancy season. So long as she at least breaks even, there is no reason not to sail the Ecstasy on the Mobile itineraries. It is better than refunding all of those deposits. 

 

The timing likely has more to do with the pre-inaugural ramp up of Celebration than anything else. They'll dispurse the non-essential crew from the Ecstasy across the fleet and begin to crew up hotel/guest services positions on Celebration in October ahead of the November inaugural. 

Not to mention Costa Magica is supposed to be Sunshined by October

[CruiseAdict218]

2 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

A while ago Carnival stated Sensation would not restart. Until a ship is actually delivered to the breakers, it isn't a done deal.

Sensation was expected to return to service until they announced she’d be delayed. Then came out she would be retired soon after that. 
 

Since they already announced it would be retired, it’s pretty much a done deal. Carnival most likely doesn’t want to create any competition with them. 

[Painter4me]

Sensation was my very first cruise so many years ago.

[Oceansaway17]

well right now she is in Miami and you can view her on PTZtv.  Wondering it crew are being unloaded.  The Ecstasy is right in front of Sensation so both in port today

[DarthGrady]

I knew it would happen eventually, but still sad that her time has come. Sensation was my first CCL ship back in '99. Wish I could've gotten one more cruise in. 

 

I'll miss her 80's era purple metal facades, giant plastic hands guarding the piano bar and the moving sculpture that once proudly stood in all its weird glory in her atrium. Farewell Sensation! 

[elcuchio24]

RIP little ships. The consumers apatite has passed you buy...

[brilliantseas]

I saw both Sensation and Ecstasy docked behind Sunrise this morning. They appear as if they were both prepped for service before deciding to scrap Sensation. Very little hull rust, unlike Fascination. I'll be sad to see them go. 

[mz-s]

6 minutes ago, brilliantseas said:

I saw both Sensation and Ecstasy docked behind Sunrise this morning. They appear as if they were both prepped for service before deciding to scrap Sensation. Very little hull rust, unlike Fascination. I'll be sad to see them go. 

 

Ecstasy is going into service soon for a few months. Seems silly to go through all that but I'm sure Carnival has their reasons.

[Z0nker]

1 hour ago, elcuchio24 said:

RIP little ships. The consumers apatite has passed you buy...

In particular, I think it's the lack of balcony cabins on the Fantasy Class that led to their demise.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

3 hours ago, DarthGrady said:

I knew it would happen eventually, but still sad that her time has come. Sensation was my first CCL ship back in '99. Wish I could've gotten one more cruise in. 

 

I'll miss her 80's era purple metal facades, giant plastic hands guarding the piano bar and the moving sculpture that once proudly stood in all its weird glory in her atrium. Farewell Sensation! 

Right there with you - the Sensation was my first (adult) ship experience. When they remodeled the Owner's Suites we were lucky enough to obtain two of the Murano glass lamps out of S1. So, we'll always have a little bit of the Sensation. 🙂

 

Tom

[tidecat]

3 hours ago, mz-s said:

 

Ecstasy is going into service soon for a few months. Seems silly to go through all that but I'm sure Carnival has their reasons.

It's even stranger since Ecstasy's last dry dock was October 2019, therefore she would be due again in October 2022. Sensation's last dry dock was January 2020, so Sensation should have been able to stay in service until January 2023.

[jsglow]

6 hours ago, elcuchio24 said:

RIP little ships. The consumers apatite has passed you buy...

Little isn't the problem.  It's the lack of balcs/features on a 'mass market' cruise ship.  There are plenty of very small ships catering to a different market and at a different price point.

[Jasonsterling]

On 2/16/2022 at 4:06 PM, Painter4me said:

Sensation was my very first cruise so many years ago.

Mine too and that's what makes it sad but honestly it's not as though I've made an effort to sail her in the last fifteen years, lol. I think it's too bad she can't go on sailing a while in the second market but that's the way it falls. Carnival has a lot of berths coming up with Mardi Gras class ships and the space just isn't needed or worth maintaining. At least her parts will be recycled into who knows how many places and in how many ways and in that way she'll carry on. 

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

16 hours ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

Right there with you - the Sensation was my first (adult) ship experience. When they remodeled the Owner's Suites we were lucky enough to obtain two of the Murano glass lamps out of S1. So, we'll always have a little bit of the Sensation. 🙂

 

Tom

Ah - I found my old (nearly 16 years ago) photo of the lamps along with their current resting place 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have museum wax underneath them now, as cats can't be trusted !!  🙂

 

 

Tom

[mz-s]

Incredible, how did you obtain the lamps? Was it just a "right place at right time" thing or was there an auction or something?

I really would have loved to have something out of the Cat's Lounge on Fantasy before she was scrapped.

[Pyxie]

17 hours ago, brilliantseas said:

I saw both Sensation and Ecstasy docked behind Sunrise this morning. They appear as if they were both prepped for service before deciding to scrap Sensation. Very little hull rust, unlike Fascination. I'll be sad to see them go. 

 

The Sensation was supposed to begin service from Mobile on March 5. I am booked on that cruise which has now been changed to the Ecstasy. So, yes, the Sensation was prepped for service until they decided to scrap her.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

25 minutes ago, mz-s said:

Incredible, how did you obtain the lamps? Was it just a "right place at right time" thing or was there an auction or something?

I really would have loved to have something out of the Cat's Lounge on Fantasy before she was scrapped.

 

We had sailed in the Owner's Suite on 2-3 different Fantasy class ships (probably 10 times), back when you had to go through Reservations Administration at Carnival. We had a point of contact there and, when the Sensation was about to head into dry dock, we were talking on the phone and I can't recall if we made the request, or she suggested it - but a few weeks later we had instructions to head to Port Canaveral and go to the gate where the trucks come in to restock the ships. They had a box there with our name on it. They were packed so well, you could have probably dropped it from 10 feet and been OK!

 

Oh the Glory (errr... the Sensational) days !!  😄

 

We took the lamps to a local lighting place, and had them converted for US voltage.

 

Tom

[bstel]

12 hours ago, jsglow said:

Little isn't the problem.  It's the lack of balcs/features on a 'mass market' cruise ship.  There are plenty of very small ships catering to a different market and at a different price point.

Little is a problem, but the ships lifeboats up high prevents having balconies, hence whey the balconies that were added are built around the lifeboats.  If you compare the Fantasy to Spirit class is it odd that the tonnage went up on the Spirit but the passenger count didn't go up.  Spirit class has a ton of balconies though

 

Fantasy Class, 70K tonnes, and 1000-1100 rooms

Spirit Class, 85K tonnes, 1062 rooms.

 

This high space ratio on the Spirit will be their downfall unless Carnival figures out a way to stuff more rooms on those ships. since these ships breakeven points are way higher than the mega ships.

 

And once the Spirit and Fantasy class goes, say bye bye to Baltimore and Jacksonville.

[London-Calling]

 

Above are some images in a slide-show.

[London-Calling]

Wrong slide show, see:

 

 

[mz-s]

3 hours ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

We had sailed in the Owner's Suite on 2-3 different Fantasy class ships (probably 10 times), back when you had to go through Reservations Administration at Carnival. We had a point of contact there and, when the Sensation was about to head into dry dock, we were talking on the phone and I can't recall if we made the request, or she suggested it - but a few weeks later we had instructions to head to Port Canaveral and go to the gate where the trucks come in to restock the ships. They had a box there with our name on it. They were packed so well, you could have probably dropped it from 10 feet and been OK!

 

Oh the Glory (errr... the Sensational) days !!  😄

 

We took the lamps to a local lighting place, and had them converted for US voltage.

 

Tom

 

Wonderful story, thanks for sharing!

 

2 hours ago, bstel said:

Little is a problem, but the ships lifeboats up high prevents having balconies, hence whey the balconies that were added are built around the lifeboats.  If you compare the Fantasy to Spirit class is it odd that the tonnage went up on the Spirit but the passenger count didn't go up.  Spirit class has a ton of balconies though

 

Fantasy Class, 70K tonnes, and 1000-1100 rooms

Spirit Class, 85K tonnes, 1062 rooms.

 

This high space ratio on the Spirit will be their downfall unless Carnival figures out a way to stuff more rooms on those ships. since these ships breakeven points are way higher than the mega ships.

 

And once the Spirit and Fantasy class goes, say bye bye to Baltimore and Jacksonville.

 

I think the number of balconies on Spirit class makes them much more viable over the long term than Fantasy class. Their break even point may be higher than a mega ship, but it can't be much higher considering it requires fewer crew and has a huge number of lucrative stateroom categories. Besides, Baltimore, Jacksonville, and Tampa are important homeports for Carnival and they need a ship there.

 

Even with the fewer balconies on Fantasy class, had COVID not happened I think we'd still have most of them with us. Fantasy may be gone by now any way, but most of the others would still be with us. They were paid off long ago and so were basically printing money for CCL.