Piraeus-based Celestyal Cruises has sold its smallest, oldest cruise ship to buyers in the United Arab Emirates, according to brokers.
The new owner of the 25,600-gt, 950-berth New Dawn (ex-Celestyal Crystal, built 1980) is reportedly aiming to resell it for further trading as a cruise ship or an accommodation vessel.
No pricing details have been disclosed in the market.
Celestyal has been trying to sell the vessel since it was laid up and given its current name after being replaced in its fleet by a former Carnival Corp vessel in September 2023.
The New Dawn has had one of the most colourful careers of any cruise ship in history, having been reconstructed in 1992 on the burned-out remains of a Baltic ferry.
The rebuilt cruise ship was in service for the owner at the time, Sally Cruise, for only a couple of years before it grounded and partly sank in the Baltic.
Salvaged and rebuilt a second time, it went on to sail without incident as Leeward for Norwegian Cruise Line in the Caribbean and as Superstar Taurus for Star Cruises in Asia before returning to the Baltic as Silja Opera with Silja Line.
The Baltic again appeared an unlucky region for the ship, which suffered in quick succession an engine control room fire and two collisions.
Silja sold the ship to Celestyal’s predecessor company Louis Cruises in 2007 for use in the Mediterranean and Caribbean.
The move back into warmer waters seemed to improve the ship’s luck. Apart from one collision with a tanker in Turkey’s Sea of Marmara in 2015, it gave 16 years of dependable service to Louis.
The large-scale sell-off of ships by cruise majors during the pandemic came as a boon to smaller niche-market companies, giving them the opportunity to replace old ships with much-needed more modern tonnage.
Celestyal bought two former Carnival Corp ships, allowing them to replace the Celestyal Crystal and the 37,800-gt, 1,600-passenger Celestyal Olympia (built 1982), which, despite their ages, remained popular in the Aegean up until their retirements.
The Celestyal Olympia was sold to UAE-based interests for an accommodation role in January 2024. It spent a year docked in Ras Al Khaimah under the name Bella Fortuna before being recycled in Alang this past January.
