It’s been a long hiatus since I’ve posted, these past 4 years it has been one of the most trying and very painful 4 years of my life as well as for many around the world.
Time has wiped out much of what we once knew, we have lost friends and family dear to us, and the cruise industry as a whole has changed forever. 38 vessels were sold to shipbreaking yards since the pandemic began, representing the largest exodus of cruise ships in history. 18 in 2022 alone
Meanwhile, a few smaller cruise lines have either downsized or collapsed entirely. Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line sold one of its two ships for scrap and rebranded to 2 ships Margaritaville at Sea. Pullmantur, a Spanish brand jointly owned by Royal Caribbean Group that folded in 2020, scrapped its three ships, two former Royal Caribbean vessels and one from Celebrity Cruises.
Cruise & Maritime Voyages scrapped most of it’s fleet after it went bust in 2020.
On February 21, 2024, Hornblower Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, also filing proceedings under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act in Canada shortly after. Hornblower announced that it would be suspending all future operations for its American Queen Voyages brand and placed it up for sale as the company plans to focus on its other subsidiaries. Hornblower would later be sold to Strategic Value Partners that same day.
Now it’s fleet of fleet sits awaiting a uncertain future while thousands of it’s employees are now jobless.
Here in New York city, I witnessed when the last cruise ship to leave New York the Norwegian Escape departed for a destination unknown at the start of the 2020 pandemic in 2020, then the slow return of cruise shipping to New York with the arrival of Oasis of the Seas in 2021. In 2022 and 2023 we saw shipping traffic return to normal however with new visitors as trends have changed, we saw the arrival of new and expedition vessels as well as old and new visitors.
This is a new era we are entering, one which will be prosperous and where we will see new trends and new innovations.
I shall continue my mission.