KOH CHANGS ABANDONDED CRUISE SHIP AND LAGOON RESORT

Table Of Content

• Pullmantur's ship Zenith arrives at Alang shipyard (India) for scrapping
• Stranded Mauritian cruise workers finally begin journey home
• Carnival Cruise Line
• Empress of the Seas
• See More in Travel (or: Destinations & Sights)
• For the QE2, a new lease of life as a 'royal experience' is on the horizon, but not all retired ships are so lucky
• Is it safe to explore abandoned cruise ships?

What was once the ‘cannot be missed’ activity onboard each day, midnight buffets had extravagant displays of food, fondue, ice carvings, chocolate and more. These wooden horses were also named and cruisers came up with some sort of back story about their horse that was shared to the audience before the race. Often times, these stories about each wooden horse would be humorous biographies imagined by the owner.

Pullmantur's ship Zenith arrives at Alang shipyard (India) for scrapping

Designated as a national monument, the ship has spent the last 20 years slowly rusting at a pier on the Delaware River in Philadelphia. Its current owners, the SS United States Conservancy Group, still hope to preserve the ship as a viable attraction, but the threat of the breakers yard constantly looms. With two thirds of the ship's construction underwritten by the American government, the United States was designated as a Cold War troop ship and hospital ship in time of war, although never used as such.

Stranded Mauritian cruise workers finally begin journey home

Due to pandemic-related issues, she then sat abandoned along the coast of Wales for nearly three years. Today, the MS World Discoverer remains abandoned and lying in shallow waters. It remains beached close to shore in front of a dense jungle backdrop, adding to its mysterious and otherworldly appearance.

Carnival Cruise Line

Stranded Norwegian Cruise Lines passengers missed ship 'by more than an hour,' company claims - New York Post

Stranded Norwegian Cruise Lines passengers missed ship 'by more than an hour,' company claims.

Posted: Wed, 03 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Where they live on, however, also like people, is in the memories of their glory years. Costa Atlantica was, notably, the first modern cruise ship to be purpose-built for Costa. It's a sister ship to the four Spirit Class vessels operated by Carnival, a sister brand. Olsen's overall capacity by about 30%, making it one of the few lines that actually has grown considerably in size on a passenger capacity basis during the recent cruise industry shutdown.

Empress of the Seas

For the last eight years the QE2 has been moored at Port Rashid in Dubai, the ship's future clouded by uncertainty and rumours of Chinese scrap merchants. A third was a queen, consumed by fire, which sank to the bottom of Hong Kong Harbour. Industry expert Ross Klein told Business Insider's Mark Matousek that COVID-19 has been the most disruptive thing to hit the industry since the 1985 murder of a passenger on the Achille Lauro. Called Nordic Empress when it originally debuted in 1990, Empress of the Seas also was 30 years old, which is old for a Royal Caribbean ship. Measuring about 61,000 tons, Rotterdam was slightly bigger than Maasdam and Veendam. If you've recently lost your favorite vessel to the shipbreakers and you're feeling nostalgic, you can ease the blow in a few ways.

See More in Travel (or: Destinations & Sights)

The ship is the largest ever ocean liner built in the US and still holds the blue ribbon for the fastest ocean line crossing the Atlantic. The Queen Elizabeth 2, or QE2 for short, is a retired British cruise ship that carried out countless transatlantic voyages during her heyday. While it was considered one of the world’s most luxurious and impressive cruise ships when it was first launched in 1969, it was eventually retired in 2008. During that time, she was even requisitioned by the British army to serve as a troop carrier during the Falklands War.

In a blast from the past, the early days of cruising allowed passengers to sunbathe topless. While the practice is still somewhat common in Europe, even North American sailings permitted topless sunbathing for many decades. By removing a section of the railing, guests were able to make the ocean their driving range.

Notably, Royal Caribbean already had removed Empress of the Seas from its fleet once before, in 2008, when it transferred the vessel to the Royal Caribbean-affiliated Spanish line Pullmantur. But Royal Caribbean brought Empress of the Seas back to its fleet in 2016 to operate sailings to Cuba, which only can be done by smaller ships due to limitations at Cuban ports. Cruises from the U.S. to Cuba have since ceased due to changing government policy. Olsen Cruises also acquired the 1,380-passenger Amsterdam from Holland America, renaming it Bolette. Olsen vessels (Boudicca and Black Watch) and will take over their itineraries once the line resumes sailings. The COVID-19 pandemic prompted Holland America's managers to cut back the line's fleet sharply.

In fact, trees and other types of plant life have even begun growing directly along the surface of the abandoned ship’s decks. I may not be too old at the ripe age of 27, but I even remember some activities on cruise ships that have since been phased out. During this old tradition, passengers onboard a cruise ship could get onstage and perform pretty much anything they were brave enough to demonstrate to an audience. This could include singing, dancing, magic, comedy, or anything that a passenger felt was their talent. Today’s era of family-friendly cruising has eliminated this activity for good reasons, although some European cruise lines still allow topless sunbathing. This abandoned activity hasn't been seen on a cruise ship in many years, much to the dismay of longtime cruisers.

With a bucket of balls and a club, people were somehow harnessed to the ship so they couldn’t fall from the top deck where the railing was removed. Similar to skeet shooting, cruisers could pay a couple dollars to shoot golf balls off the back of the cruise ship. Also known as trap shooting, guests were once able to skeet shoot on a cruise ship. This involved taking a loaded shotgun to the back of a cruise ship and shooting at clay pigeons. Carnival Cruise Line was one of the first big names in the cruising industry with its first ship, Carnival Mardi Gras - a name that was recently recycled for one of Carnival’s newest ships.

More cruise lines entered the market throughout the 1990s and established themselves as the biggest cruise competitors. Each decade since 1970 experienced passenger volume that was double from the decade prior, which is a testament to how popular cruising has become. In 1988, Royal Caribbean was one of the first cruise lines to build a 'mega ship' with Sovereign of the Seas, which could hold a record-breaking 2,850 passengers. When visiting Koh Chang in November 2019 we decided to stay in the Bang Bao Bay area which is the less touristy part of Koh Chang. It’s also ideal for a trip to the abandoned cruise liner as you can simply walk there (20 – 30 minutes on foot).

You might be surprised to know that the largest scrap yard for ships in the world located in Alang, India recycles around 50 percent of decommissioned cruise ships. Cruise ships either use their own power to go or they’re towed, which is a bit more difficult. While cruise ships can be sold to other cruise lines and repurposed that way, given the current climate with the pandemic, ships may skip that route and go straight to the scrapyard.

"The power requirements will be significantly lower than when operating at sea with passengers, both because they won't be using the power for propulsion or for the wider passenger comfort and 'hotel' services." The ships do need to dock every so often to refuel and stock up on supplies for the reduced crew on board. The Cruise Lines International Association said how often they refuel depends on the ship and the type of fuel used. While they are designed to be able to run for two weeks, they "can last much longer". The highlight of our visit to the Grand Laguna Resort was, of course, the abandoned Galaxy Gruise Ship which some also simply call “The Ghost Ship of Koh Chang”. Looking at this massive iron ship, searching window by window you almost wait for some eyes staring back at you.

This is CruiseMapper's most unusual theme-section that groups scrapped cruise liners - passenger vessels (including ferries) that exist no more. Mapper's "Scrapped Cruise Ships" is not a cruise line/company or brand name, but just a hub for all these old-timers on which millions of travelers have spent so precious vacation times and still remember their special voyages. Here you will also find a list of now-DEFUNCT cruise lines (companies and brands that went bankrupt). With any luck, the cruise industry will continue to evolve and find new and more efficient ways to recover and dispose of abandoned cruise ships so they do not threaten the marine environments that help make taking a cruise so magical. While abandoned cruise ships can almost act as artificial reef sanctuaries for marine life in the short term, they can also pose serious environmental risks if they deteriorate for too long.