On September 24th, the former Celebrity Cruises/Pullmantur cruise ship The Zenith (last renamed SINGA) arrived at Alang Shipyard (India) for scrapping.
The 30-year-old vessel, currently moored off Alang's coast, is to be scrapped in the coming months. The boat follows the sistership Horizon, which arrived at Aliaga scrapyard (Turkey) nearly a month ago, also for scrapping. Both vessels were owned by RCG-Royal Caribbean Group and operated by RCG's subsidiaries Celebrity Cruises and Pullmantur (RCG's Spanish brand).
The 1400-passenger ship Zenith was constructed as a sistership to the first newbuild of Celebrity Cruises - MV Horizon. The vessel was ordered in 1989 by Chandris Group (Greek shipowner) for Celebrity. The Inaugural Cruise (maiden voyage) was in 1992 from NYC New York to the Caribbean. In 2006, Celebrity's Zenith was homeported in Bayonne NJ (NYC). Also in 2006, RCCL/RCG acquired Pullmantur and in 2007 transferred The Zenith to Pullmantur. In 2014, the vessel was transferred to CDF (Pullmantur's brand in France), and in 2017 - back to Pullmantur.
In January 2020, Zenith left Pullmantur's fleet and all scheduled for 2020 voyages were transferred to Monarch. Zenith was bareboat chartered to Peace Boat (1983-founded, an NGO/non-government organization based in Shinjuku /Tokyo Japan).
The Zenith ship's AIS transponder went silent for the first time on July 27, 2020, at 6:17 UTC. As of June 2022, the AIS showed The Zenith docked at Port Lavrion Greece. In July the vessel was sold and renamed "TSM Singapore". The AIS on August 11, 2022 (at 11:14 UTC) showed the boat docked at Port Duqm (Oman) and en route to Haiphong (Vietnam). On September 24, 2022, the 30-year-old ship (once again renamed/SINGA) arrived and remained off India's Alang Ship Breaking Yard awaiting beaching and dismantling. The AIS' last transmission was on September 28 (at 12:30 UTC).
Celebrity Zenith and Horizon marked the start of Celebrity Cruises becoming a global cruise industry giant. But although Pullmantur Cruises was popular at the beginning, the last years before the COVID crisis showed a decline in profitability.