The ship that put Royal Caribbean Cruise Line firmly in the big league four decades ago is heading to an Indian recycling yard after a long and varied career.
The company was a minor cruise operator with three small vessels until it built the 37,800-gt, 1,575-passenger Song of America in 1982.
A vessel of this size is considered small nowadays, but back then in the nascent days of the industry, it was big enough to be in the top 10 list of the world’s largest cruise ships, and building such a ship was considered a big gamble.
The Song of America proved a big hit with Royal Caribbean’s passengers and a financial cash cow. Its success spurred the company into ordering a seemingly endless slew of ever bigger ships, culminating in the Icon-class vessels of 250,000 gt that it is putting into service today.
The Song of America was soon outclassed by subsequent newbuildings and in 1998 was sold to UK-based package holiday giant Airtours for its Sun Cruises division.
Louis Cruises was its next owner. The Cypriot operator acquired it in 2004 and immediately chartered it to Thomson Cruises of the UK.
By 2014, the ship was operating as Celestyal Olympia in the fleet of Louis’ Greek subsidiary Celestyal Cruises.
Time was called on its cruising career in late 2023. Celestyal, under private equity ownership, upgraded its fleet with newer ships and the Celestyal Olympia was sold to Voyage Shipping, a Marshall Islands-registered entity with an address care of Royal Marine Shipmanagement of Singapore.
The ship was renamed Bella Fortuna and in early 2024 dispatched to Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, where it sat alongside a pier for the better part of a year.
According to brokers, Voyage Shipping was seeking a trading buyer keen on using the ship for cruising or accommodation purposes.
S&P Global’s International Ships Register shows that this month the ship was finally sold to Marine Line, another Marshall Islands firm with an address care of a Singapore-based ship manager that specialises in last voyage deliveries.
Its status was changed to “to be broken up”.
With its name shorted to Fortu, the former Royal Caribbean flagship departed Ras Al Khaimah on 22 January. AIS tracking data revealed that by Thursday it was approaching the Gulf of Khambhat, where the Indian ship recycling centre of Alang is located.
