Carnival Cruise Line’s oldest and smallest ship, the 2,052-passenger Carnival Ecstasy, isn’t the most stunning cruise ship at sea. Not by a long shot.
Her upper deck lacks the kind of family-fun attractions found on Carnival’s newer ships, such as sprawling water parks, ropes courses, high-stakes rides and — on Carnival’s newest ship -it Mardi Gras – even a roller coaster. . Few of its cabins offer balconies, which can make them feel claustrophobic.
At 31, he also just feels tired. Time has taken its toll.
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But despite all that, I find myself struck with sadness this week that Carnival Ecstasy is on its final voyage down the line.
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For starters, it’s a reminder that I’m getting old too. I’m old enough to remember when Carnival Ecstasy was one of the newest and most advanced cruise ships in the world. I’ve been writing about cruises for as long as I can remember writing about—and sailing on—Carnival Ecstasy when it was one of the coolest things for young people in the world.
That’s not the main reason, though, that I feel a tinge of melancholy this week when I think about the retirement of a ship that’s hitting the end of its useful life. Cruise ships are built to last about 30 years.
What Carnival Ecstasy’s withdrawal from the Carnival fleet represents to me is the latest nail in the coffin of what I like to call the era of the intimate cruise megaresort – emphasis on intimate.
Carnival Ecstasy is one of the last remaining ships on major lines like Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line that dates back to a time when megaships were big, but not that big.
Designed to carry around 2,000 vacationers compared to the 6,000+ carried by today’s largest cruise ships, they were one-size-fits-all ships that offered plenty of amenities (hence the mega-ship name) but still felt comfortable and not overcrowded with people.
Related: The Ultimate Guide to Carnival Cruise Line
On these ships, you were relaxing with a significant number of other people, of course, but not as much as you would find on modern ships.
There was a more human level of interaction on the smaller big ships of Carnival Ecstasy’s heyday that – to my chagrin – is fast disappearing. You would run into the same people more often and experience fun in more intimate spaces. You would get to know the crew more.
When it came time to disembark at a port, there would be fewer of you rushing to the same tourist spots.
When megaships weren’t so mega
Carnival Ecstasy was, notably, one of eight similar Carnival ships unveiled between 1990 and 1998 that elevated the line into the big leagues of the North American tourism business.
At the time Carnival Ecstasy debuted, Carnival had only a handful of ships—all significantly smaller and with fewer amenities. The arrival of the ship and her seven sisters in a row in the 1990s helped grow the North American cruise industry and catapulted the line into a major cruise company.
These were ships that, in a more comprehensive way than previous Carnival ships, offered multiple pool areas and table lounges, as well as large public interior areas full of bars, exhibitions, restaurants and shops.
Related: The 8 Carnival Ship Classes Explained
Along with a new series of so-called Sovereign-class ships at rival Royal Caribbean that were roughly the same size, they were the megaships of their time.
But, as mentioned above, they were a fraction of the size of today’s megaships. At 70,367 tons, Carnival Ecstasy was one of the world’s largest cruise ships when it debuted in 1991. It is now less than half the size of the world’s largest cruise ships, including Mardi Gras. Carnival’s new flight is 181,808 tons and can carry 5,282 passengers at double occupancy (6,465 with each bunk and reclining sofa filled).
Over the years, cruise ships have gotten bigger and bigger. This is partly because larger ships are more economical for the lines to operate. There are economies of scale that make them a better business proposition. But, more than that, it’s because the biggest ships are what a significant portion of the cruising public wants.
As any executive at Carnival, Royal Caribbean or Norwegian will tell you, the mantra of would-be cruisers for years has been “give me more onboard options”—more table entertainment, more bars, more restaurants, more many exhibitions. To achieve this, companies had to go bigger with ships. For many megaship-loving cruisers, bigger is better.
I will lay down the fact that, when it comes to megaships, the newer, bigger ships have a lot more to offer. For the ultimate megaship experience, it’s hard to beat a ship like Royal Caribbean’s 236,857-ton Wonder of the Seas – the world’s largest cruise ship. This is such a large ship that it has multiple main pool areas, a children’s splash zone, surfing simulators, a miniature golf course, a basketball court and even a zip line. And that’s just on her top deck. Inside the ship, you’ll find more lounges, bars, restaurants and shops than you can imagine, plus a huge casino, spa, theaters and even an ice rink.
But I still have a special fondness for the smaller megaships of yesteryear, such as the Carnival Ecstasy — and it’s not just because I miss the intimacy that many of the megaships of the 1990s (and even the 2000s) offered.
These smaller megaships are also more versatile, able to sail from smaller ports like Mobile, Alabama (home of Carnival Ecstasy until this week), that might not be able to support a larger ship. They can also enter smaller destination ports such as Havana, Cuba, which are not accessible by larger ships. If Havana were to reopen to North American-based cruise ships, only smaller ships like the Carnival Ecstasy would be able to pull into its port immediately.
The end of the era of ‘small’ megaships
Until just a few years ago, we could all “have our cake and eat it too” when it came to megaships large and small. There were more and more massive megaships going around, but many of the smaller megaships dating back to the late 1980s and 1990s were still around.
Everything has changed quite suddenly in just the last three years, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.
An industry-wide shutdown lasting more than a year and falling bookings caused many of the biggest cruise lines, including Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Holland America and Princess, to retire many of their older ships. which were also their smallest ships.
Related: Top 5 Destinations You Can Visit on a Carnival Cruise
Carnival, notably, entered the COVID-19 downturn with all eight of its small Fantasy-class ships still sailing. As of early 2020, the eight ships made up about a third of Carnival’s entire fleet. However, within months, Carnival had announced the rapid retirement of four of the eight ships, and earlier this year it retired a fifth ship in the series.
After this week’s Carnival Ecstasy sailing ends on Saturday, she will become the sixth of the original eight Fantasy-class ships to depart Carnival’s fleet.
As of next week, only two of these smaller Carnival ships will remain, the 2,130-passenger Carnival Elation and the 2,124-passenger Carnival Paradise. Both date from 1998, making them significantly younger than Carnival Ecstasy, and they are slightly larger in size.
Carnival’s sister brand Holland America scrapped four of its older, smaller ships during the COVID-19 downturn, amounting to a 29% reduction in its fleet size. Princess Cruises has removed five of its oldest and smallest ships from its fleet in the past three years.
The COVID-19 crisis also saw the retirement of two of Royal Caribbean’s smaller ships, Empress of the Seas and Majesty of the Seas.
In short, the landscape of relatively small, intimate ships among the major major lines has changed drastically over the past few years. And, to me, that’s something to lament, even if it’s a natural part of the evolution of the cruise business.
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