John Heald plans a goodbye for the Ecstasy on October 10

[jam19872016]

19 hours ago, CarnivalShips480 said:

 

One of the saddest things about Ecstasy leaving the fleet is that it is in excellent condition.

I sailed the Fantasy in 2019 three weeks after it came out of dry dock. It was due for another it was so tired looking and just "busted".

 

I booked ecstasy this summer just to sail her before she was retired and I expected the same. I was very impressed how well maintained this ship still was.

 

Glad I got the chance to sail before she reached her final port of call.

[ray98]

4 hours ago, tonit964 said:

 

The YouTube couple called ParodeeJay, are on this sailing now and always do daily videos of their cruises so the first day is on there already. You can follow along that way which is what I'll be doing.

Usually the do a live from the ship the day they board but the actual daily vlogs don't post until the next week.  They are always a week behind so you probably won't see them until next week.

[toad455]

I know it's leaving the fleet because it would be required to go into drydock, but I don't see the Spirit selling well out of Mobile. They really should have kept the Ecstasy and kept her in Mobile for a few more years.

[Honolulu Blue]

Here are some local TV stations that reported on Ecstasy's last revenue cruise.  They're all around 2 minutes long.  The first two have soundbites from Mr. Heald:

 

 

 

 

[Honolulu Blue]

Blogger/vlogger Doug Parker of cruiseradio.net did a quick summary of what's going to happen to the Ecstasy after this cruise returns to Mobile, according to a Q&A session with Mr. Heald, the captain, and some other officers.  The report starts about 1 minute in.  WARNING:  Not suitable for sensitive audiences.  😪

 

TL,DW:  3 day sail to Miami, offload some equipment (slot machines, computers, etc.), then sail 17 days to Turkey (Aliaga), captain and pilot scheduled to do the dirty deed on November 8. ☠️

Edited October 12, 2022 by Honolulu Blue

[mz-s]

15 hours ago, toad455 said:

I know it's leaving the fleet because it would be required to go into drydock, but I don't see the Spirit selling well out of Mobile. They really should have kept the Ecstasy and kept her in Mobile for a few more years.

 

I wonder why they didn't put the Elation in Mobile and Spirit in JAX. I guess they feel like the balconies will do better in Mobile.

[quattrohead]

However much stuff they auction off, I bet a ton more will be nicked !!!

[CruiseAdict218]

18 hours ago, toad455 said:

I know it's leaving the fleet because it would be required to go into drydock, but I don't see the Spirit selling well out of Mobile. They really should have kept the Ecstasy and kept her in Mobile for a few more years.

Her mechanics are probably pretty worn out and would probably just be a waste to throw more money into it, 30 years old seems to be the stopping point. 
 

I don’t see why Spirit wouldn’t sell well, she only holds an extra 100 passengers give or take. 
 

 

3 hours ago, mz-s said:

 

I wonder why they didn't put the Elation in Mobile and Spirit in JAX. I guess they feel like the balconies will do better in Mobile.

Probably a test run, since Mobile moves to being a seasonal homeport for the time being. 

[toad455]

I guess whenever the Elation and Paradise are retired, the Spirit class ships will have to homeport in Mobile, Jacksonville, Baltimore and Tampa since no other classes can sail out of those ports.

[mz-s]

1 hour ago, toad455 said:

I guess whenever the Elation and Paradise are retired, the Spirit class ships will have to homeport in Mobile, Jacksonville, Baltimore and Tampa since no other classes can sail out of those ports.

 

I think the Spirit class will live on longer than Fantasy class did for this reason. They fit places others can't and they have the lucrative cabin categories that Fantasy class never could.

[tidecat]

3 hours ago, toad455 said:

I guess whenever the Elation and Paradise are retired, the Spirit class ships will have to homeport in Mobile, Jacksonville, Baltimore and Tampa since no other classes can sail out of those ports.

Mobile has no height limitations, unlike the other three ports. Whether enough tickets can get sold for a Conquest-class or larger is a fair question though, given that will be a substantial jump up in size from the Spirit class. Mobile's cruise terminal may also need expansion of a larger vessel will be based there.

 

I have a feeling by the end of the decade we will probably see two of them in Tampa, one in Jacksonville, and one in Baltimore. Luminosa is considered the fifth ship in the class now, so even if Spirit and Pride get retired around 2031/2032 Carnival could still maintain one ship on each of those three ports. It's also possible Costa Deliziosa gets moved over to Carnival, which could keep the Spirit class alive until about 2040.

[toad455]

Spirit is currently 21 years old. She likely has a solid ten years or more left. I could see the Deliziosa getting moved over in a few years or the current Atlantica or Mediterranea if Carnival China doesn't pan out(both ships are currently idle).

[cruisingguy007]

Too bad they don't take these retiring ships to as many ports as feasible (financially/logistical) so that as many folks as want to can take one last cruise. I think it would be a popular proposition. I'd sure like to sail on as many outgoing ships as possible for a last cruise. Might as well hit as many ports as possible at the end of the road.  

[tidecat]

11 hours ago, cruisingguy007 said:

Too bad they don't take these retiring ships to as many ports as feasible (financially/logistical) so that as many folks as want to can take one last cruise. I think it would be a popular proposition. I'd sure like to sail on as many outgoing ships as possible for a last cruise. Might as well hit as many ports as possible at the end of the road.  

The Passenger Vessel Services Act makes it difficult to reposition a vessel between US ports with paying passengers. Someone could get on and do a round trip as long as it involves any foreign port, but it would not be possible to say, get on in Mobile and get off in Port Canaveral without calling at a distant foreign port first; only a few ports in the Caribbean qualify as distant foreign ports. You also would run into additional costs related to redeploying crew.

 

A better solution would be to end a ship's career with a Transatlantic. Unless if you have other ships in Europe, or the entire nonessential crew is due to go on vacation afterwards, Carnival would then need to fly crew from Europe back to the US. The same would go for any supplies or equipment being transferred to other ships. Theoretically Ecstasy could hand down supplies to Celebration or Jubilee given both are under construction in Europe, but if needs are elsewhere that would be an issue.

[Honolulu Blue]

I'll split this into two posts to not be so cluttered.  First is a YouTube video from vlogger Derek of Island Time.  In this video is clips that were sent to him from a couple of the Ecstasy's Q&A sessions - one shows the Captain explaining what's going to happen to the Ecstasy (which is as Mr. Parker explained in yesterday's video, and remains unsettling for sensitive fans), and the other is about... other interesting things:

 

[Honolulu Blue]

This second post covers Mr. Heald's posts from the past few days.  He's continued to post short videos from his trip around the ship, and also made this post detailing today's memorabilia auction:

 

Some of the things I will be auctioning off tomorrow. Some very special memorabilia including the remains of the bottle used by Kathie Lee Gifford to christen the ship, one of the original wheels, plaques, assigned flag which has been flying on the bow up until this morning and so much more. All will go to Saint Jude children’s research Hospital.

 

I'm sorry I don't have time to attach the pictures he shared of the memorabilia items.  I recommend going to look at them (you'll have to scroll down a bit to find this post).  It looks like there are a bunch of "first visit to" plaques are going to be auctioned off.  I saw the Cayman Islands, among many others.  I didn't see the signage that @mz-sand @BasicSailordesired in an earlier post, but that doesn't mean any or all of them aren't on the list.

[simplelife]

Sad to see her go.

[Honolulu Blue]

Mr. Heald did a post with more details on today's memorabilia auction:

 

I will waddle down the promenade deck to the Blue Sapphire Lounge to host an auction of some of the memorabilia of the life of this ship. I will share more about this later but hopefully we will raise a lot of money for St.Jude. I was asked why we are doing this and the reason is that when the ship arrives in Turkey hoards of people will come on board and take everything, I mean everything. They have paid for the ship, they have every right to of course.

 

But when I decided to be on this voyage I asked the senior beards to please allow me to do this auction. There are some things that belong in good homes of people who have a connection to the ship and to Carnival and that’s why I am doing this.

 

I can’t sadly do this online, it will be just for the people here on the ship but I will share the totals with you and I wish you could be here.

 

In the same post, he also discussed what will happen to the Ecstasy after it leaves Mobile.  It's much the same as has been reported elsewhere, and still too much for those sensitive souls out there.

[mz-s]

1 hour ago, Honolulu Blue said:

Mr. Heald did a post with more details on today's memorabilia auction:

 

I will waddle down the promenade deck to the Blue Sapphire Lounge to host an auction of some of the memorabilia of the life of this ship. I will share more about this later but hopefully we will raise a lot of money for St.Jude. I was asked why we are doing this and the reason is that when the ship arrives in Turkey hoards of people will come on board and take everything, I mean everything. They have paid for the ship, they have every right to of course.

 

But when I decided to be on this voyage I asked the senior beards to please allow me to do this auction. There are some things that belong in good homes of people who have a connection to the ship and to Carnival and that’s why I am doing this.

 

I can’t sadly do this online, it will be just for the people here on the ship but I will share the totals with you and I wish you could be here.

 

In the same post, he also discussed what will happen to the Ecstasy after it leaves Mobile.  It's much the same as has been reported elsewhere, and still too much for those sensitive souls out there.

I saw the SC ports plaque. I’d like to have it. Oh well. Ecstasy will always be in my memories. 

[KmomChicago]

On 10/11/2022 at 5:19 PM, toad455 said:

I know it's leaving the fleet because it would be required to go into drydock, but I don't see the Spirit selling well out of Mobile. They really should have kept the Ecstasy and kept her in Mobile for a few more years.

 

Why not? If they do a good, thorough drydock on Spirit (and the rest of the class), it is only slightly larger than Fantasy class but with way more balconies and an (arguably) better layout.  We  sailed Carnival Radiance in June, and it looked brand new.  They are capable of doing decent renovations; the Sunshine treatment is not scheduled for Spirit class, but with a couple extra weeks' time over the normal drydock, they could really spruce them up and thus serve the smaller ports with something to be proud of.

[DarthGrady]

On 10/12/2022 at 2:12 PM, toad455 said:

I guess whenever the Elation and Paradise are retired, the Spirit class ships will have to homeport in Mobile, Jacksonville, Baltimore and Tampa since no other classes can sail out of those ports.

This is one of the biggest problems with all the cruise lines and their obsession with building bigger and bigger ships. What's going to happen when they inevitably have to retire the ships that will fit into these ports? Just abandon the market? I hope not, but none of the big companies seem interested in building reasonably sized ships anymore. As someone who enjoys the older/smaller ships, I hope the mindset changes soon. I'd like to see some newbuilds in the sub-100k GT range.

[toad455]

It's an issue the cruise lines won't have to face for another 10+ years whenever the Spirit-class starts to retire. Unless the ports of Jacksonville, Tampa, Baltimore & Mobile change to accommodate larger ships.

[Tradestock]

Just a guess, the Ecstasy might be fully depreciated for tax purposes (30 years).  It might be more financially advantageous for Carnival to retire/sell the older ships and continue to upgrade/up-size the fleet.  

 

Too bad the auction was not taking place during our final cruise, I would have submitted bids on a few items.

[tidecat]

7 hours ago, Tradestock said:

Just a guess, the Ecstasy might be fully depreciated for tax purposes (30 years).  It might be more financially advantageous for Carnival to retire/sell the older ships and continue to upgrade/up-size the fleet.  

 

Too bad the auction was not taking place during our final cruise, I would have submitted bids on a few items.

You wonder if one day a cruise line will have a ship stay docked after its final sailing and hold a live auction that could also allow for bidding online. It could be highly profitable.

[toad455]

So since today ends the Ecstasy's journey, I wonder if passengers are being allowed to stay on the ship slightly longer(noon) since there's no need to rush everyone off?