''Carnival Ecstasy'' (formerly ''Ecstasy'') was a operated by
Carnival Cruise Line
Carnival Cruise Line is an international cruise line with headquarters in Doral, Florida. The company is a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc. Its logo is a funnel (ship), funnel shaped like a whale's tail, with a red, white, and blue colo ...
. Built by
Kværner Masa-Yards at its
Helsinki New Shipyard
Hietalahti shipyard (also known as Helsinki New Shipyard, fi, Helsingin uusi telakka) is a shipyard in Hietalahti, in downtown Helsinki, Finland. Since 2019, it has been operated by a company named Helsinki Shipyard.
History
The shipyard, fi ...
in
Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...
, Finland, she was
floated out on January 6, 1991, and christened by
television host
A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces, hosts television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. Nowadays, it is common for people who garner ...
ess, entertainer and long time Carnival spokesperson
Kathie Lee Gifford
Kathryn Lee Gifford (née Epstein; born August 16, 1953) is an American television presenter, singer, songwriter, actress and author. From 1985 to 2000, she and Regis Philbin hosted the talk show ''Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee''. Gifford is a ...
. Her inaugural voyage began on April 2, 1991. During 2007, in common with all of her ''Fantasy''-class sisters, she had the prefix ''Carnival'' added to her name. With the departure of the ''Carnival Fantasy '' as of 2020, the ''Carnival Ecstasy'' became the oldest ship in the fleet. It was soon after announced by Carnival Cruise Line that the Ecstasy would leave the fleet, with her final passenger voyage on Oct 10, 2022. She will be replaced by the Carnival Spirit out of Mobile Alabama sometime in Oct 2023. Following the final passenger voyage the ship was sold for scrap and was beached at the scrapyard in Aliağa, Turkey on November 8th.
Areas of operation
Throughout her service ''Carnival Ecstasy'' has cruised from ports in the United States to Baja Mexico, the Bahamas and the Caribbean.
After
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...
, the ship spent six months in
serving as quarters for evacuees and relief workers.
Starting in May 2019, the ship cruised from
Jacksonville, FL
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...
's
JAXPORT Cruise Terminal The JAXPORT Cruise Terminal () is a "temporary" cruise ship terminal in Jacksonville, Florida. The facility located at the northwest corner of the ''Dames Point Marine Terminal'', beside the Dames Point Bridge.
It was completed in six months durin ...
to visit the
Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...
and
Eastern Caribbean
The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS; French: ''Organisation des États de la Caraïbe orientale'', OECO) is an inter-governmental organisation dedicated to economic harmonisation and integration, protection of human and legal ri ...
.
In February 2022 Carnival announced that due to uncertain times in the Australian cruise industry, Spirit would re-home from Sydney to Jacksonville, Florida. Carnival Ecstasy would move from Jacksonville to Mobile, Alabama. Carnival Sensation, which was slated to head to Mobile has been delayed.
Accidents and incidents
Fire
On the afternoon of July 20, 1998, ''Ecstasy'' departed the Port of Miami, Florida, en route to Key West, Florida, with 2,565 passengers and 916 crew members aboard. A fire started in the main laundry room and spread through the ventilation system to the aft mooring deck, where mooring lines ignited. As ''Ecstasy'' was attempting to reach an anchorage north of the Miami sea buoy, the vessel lost power and began to drift. The master then radioed the U.S. Coast Guard for assistance. Six tugboats responded to help fight the fire and tow ''Ecstasy''. The fire was brought under control by onboard firefighters and was extinguished about 9:09 PM. Fourteen crew members and eight passengers suffered minor injuries. One passenger required medical treatment as a result of a pre-existing condition and was categorized as a serious injury victim because of the length of her hospital stay. Losses from the fire and associated damages exceeded $17 million.
The
National Transportation Safety Board
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incid ...
determined that the probable cause of fire aboard ''Ecstasy'' was the unauthorized welding by crew members in the main laundry that ignited a large accumulation of lint in the ventilation system and the failure of Carnival Cruise Lines to maintain the laundry exhaust ducts in a fire-safe condition. Contributing to the extensive fire damage on the ship was the lack of an
automatic fire suppression
Automatic fire suppression systems control and extinguish fires without human intervention. Examples of automatic systems include fire sprinkler system, gaseous fire suppression, and condensed aerosol fire suppression. When fires are extinguished ...
system on the aft mooring deck and the lack of an automatic means of mitigating the spread of smoke and fire through the ventilation ducts. Passengers received a full refund and were offered a complimentary cruise for the inconvenience.
Suicide
On July 1, 2007,
David Ritcheson, the victim of the
April 22, 2006 Harris County, Texas assault incident
The 2006 Harris County, Texas hate crime assault was the beating, torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for informati ...
, jumped off the deck of ''Carnival Ecstasy'' and died.
Refits
![Carnival Ecstasy in Cozumel 6 Aug 2005](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Carnival_Ecstasy_in_Cozumel_6_Aug_2005.jpg)
As part of the Evolutions of Fun upgrade program, in mid-2007 the ''Ecstasy'' was renamed the ''Carnival Ecstasy'' to match with the rest of the Carnival branded ship names in the fleet. Continuing with the upgrade program, in the fall of 2009 the ship was given a 28 day dry dock and a major multi-million-dollar refit. During the refit, 98 ocean view cabins were converted into balcony cabins along the mid and aft sections of the ship, some of the suites located on the Upper deck received extended balconies, the kid's wading pool area on the lower aft area of the ship was removed and converted into an adults-only Serenity area with sun loungers and two hot tubs, the aft pool was removed and converted into the Carnival WaterWorks water park with waterslides and fountains which also replaced the original waterslide at the main pool and the original kids wading pool, the main pool area was refurbished and given a resort-style appearance, a younger teens area Circle "C" was added, and various interior renovations and enhancements were made. In January, 2017, the ship underwent a two week dry docking, at the Grand Bahama Shipyard in
Freeport, Bahamas
Freeport is a city, district and free trade zone on the island of Grand Bahama of the northwest Bahamas. In 1955, Wallace Groves, a Virginian financier with lumber interests in Grand Bahama, was granted of pineyard with substantial areas of swa ...
. The ship underwent a further 14 day dry dock in October, 2019, adding more venues and providing maintenance. The work was done again at
Freeport, Bahamas
Freeport is a city, district and free trade zone on the island of Grand Bahama of the northwest Bahamas. In 1955, Wallace Groves, a Virginian financier with lumber interests in Grand Bahama, was granted of pineyard with substantial areas of swa ...
.
Final season and scrapping
In February 2022, it was announced that Carnival would retire ''Carnival Ecstasy'' as well as ''
Carnival Sensation
''Carnival Sensation'', initially named ''Sensation'', was a cruise ship operated by Carnival Cruise Line. She was built in 1993 in Finland and cruised from Florida, USA to ports in the Bahamas and the Caribbean until the COVID-19 pandemic stoppe ...
'' from the fleet. ''Sensation'' would not return to service, whereas ''Ecstasy'' will return to service in Mobile, Alabama from March until October 2022 and then would be retired after that point. This made ''Carnival Ecstasy'' the only ship from the now six retired ''Fantasy''-class ships to offer guests a farewell cruise season. During her first voyage since March 2020, she suffered lifeboat issues in March 2022. The final voyage took place October 10-15, 2022 from Mobile, with port calls in
Cozumel
Cozumel (; yua, Kùutsmil) is an island and municipality in the Caribbean Sea off the eastern coast of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, opposite Playa del Carmen. It is separated from the mainland by the Cozumel Channel and is close to the Yucatán ...
and
Progreso and ended in Mobile on 15 October. The iconic 1934 Rolls-Royce Saloon aboard ''Carnival Ecstasy'' was relocated to the Gateway aboard ''
Carnival Celebration
''Carnival Celebration'' is the current flagship of Carnival Cruise Line. She is Carnival's second vessel of the fleet's Excel class, a subclass of Carnival Corporation & plc's Excellence-class cruise ship, Excellence class. At , she is the lar ...
'', which launched three weeks after ''Carnival Ecstasy's'' final voyage. In her 31 years of service, the ship carried nearly 5.5 million guests.
In November 2022 the ship arrived at the
Aliağa
Aliağa is a town and a district of Izmir Province in the Aegean Region of Turkey. The town is situated at about north of Izmir. Aliağa has a large port, mainly for oil and bulk cargo. Its economic activity is based on tourism, shipbreaking, ...
scrapyards in
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
to be demolished.
References
Notes
Bibliography
*
External links
Former official website
{{1998 shipwrecks
Ships built in Helsinki
Ecstasy
Ecstasy
1991 ships
Maritime incidents in 1998