MS Celebration (also known as Grand Celebration) was a cruise ship originally built for Carnival Cruise Line.She was the last of three ships to be built in Carnival's Holiday-classcruise ship of cruise ships.She last sailed for Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line between 2015 and 2020.
The Grand Celebration was sold for scrap in 2020 with her sister ship, MS Holiday, precipitated in part by the COVID-19 pandemic.[1][2] A third sister ship, MS Jubilee, was last operated by HNA Tourism. Jubilee was retired and scrapped in 2017.
History
The ship was built as the Celebration in 1986 by Kockums Varv in Malmö, Sweden for Carnival Cruise Lines. Celebration began operating for Carnival on 14 March 1987.
On the morning of 10 February 1989, Celebration collided with the Cuban freighter Captain San Luis, causing the latter to break in half and sink in 13 minutes.
Three crew members of the Captain San Luis, including her captain, were reported missing and presumed dead.
The freighter was hauling cement at the time of the collision and had been experiencing electrical problems which left the ship without lights, navigational equipment, or steering.
Celebration remained on-site, rescuing 42 survivors and transferring them to Cuban vessels before continuing to Miami.[3]
She remained in their fleet for over 20 years until she was retired in April 2008. She underwent an extensive refit and re-entered service with Carnival's subsidiary, Iberocruceros, as the Grand Celebration in the summer. The refit included new hull artwork and updated interiors.
In May 2014, as a result of the discontinuation of the Iberocruceros subsidiary, Carnival transferred the ship to another of its lines, Costa Cruises, and renamed Costa Celebration in November 2014.[4] Another refurbishment and refit was performed at that time.On 21 November 2014, on the day before the ship was scheduled to depart on her inaugural voyage, it was announced that the vessel had been sold to an unnamed buyer.[5] The next day, Costa Celebration was removed from Costa's fleet and all bookings were cancelled.Passengers who had booked on Costa Celebration's future cruises were either refunded or re-booked on other ships.[6]
On 23 December 2014, it was revealed that the ship had been purchased by the newly formed Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line, who reused the name Grand Celebration and sailed out of the Port of Palm Beach in Riviera Beach, Florida, beginning in February 2015.[7][8] Bahamas Paradise was formed by former executives from the defunct Celebration Cruise Line that had operated MS Bahamas Celebration.[9]
On 6 January 2015, the Grand Celebration arrived at the Port of Palm Beach for refit into Bahamas Paradise livery. During arrival, it was noticed that her Costa Celebration name was painted over with the Grand Celebration name, but the funnel retained the Costa livery.[10]
Grand Celebration departed on 3 February 2015 on her inaugural cruise, two days later than anticipated due to last-minute repairs.[11]
The ship continued to sail for the cruise line until March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic halted the cruise line industry.In November 2020, there were reports the ship had been sold to scrap.[12] The company shortly thereafter announced the ship had been sold to a undisclosed buyer.[13][14] She left Freeport, Bahamas, on 12 November 2020 and arrived at Port Louis Anch, Mauritius, on 30 December 2020 for refueling.She was renamed Grand during refueling and her flag was changed to Saint Kitts and Nevis.The ship later set sail for Bhavnagar, India, near the Alang shipbreaking yard.The ship was beached at Alang for scrapping on 14 January 2021, which commenced on 9 March.[15][16][17]
