Data from Cruise Industry News’ 2026 Cruise Ship Secondhand Market Report shows that seven cruise ships were withdrawn from service in 2025.

The number represents a significant increase compared to the previous year, when only three ships left the market permanently.

Five vessels were scrapped in 2025, including the former Celestyal Olympia, which was the largest ship retired that year.

Originally built for Royal Caribbean, the 37,773-ton ship entered service as the Song of America in the early 1980s.

Before being beached for scrapping in February 2025, the vessel spent more than a decade sailing for Celestyal Cruises in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The company parted ways with the ship in 2024, selling it to undisclosed buyers, who later sent it to a scrapyard in India.

Other vessels dismantled in 2025 included the former Celestyal Crystal and two smaller ships: the American Empress and the Ocean Atlantic.

While the Empress spent most of its career cruising on U.S. rivers and domestic waters, the Ocean Atlantic was built as a Soviet cruise ferry before being converted into an expedition ship.

The year also marked the end of the line for the Astoria, a former ocean liner that started service in the 1940s.

Removed from the fleet of Cruise & Maritime Voyages in 2020, the 492-passenger ship spent five years in layup before being auctioned and sold to Belgian recycling specialist Galloo Gent in June 2025.

Two former coastal vessels also left the cruise market in 2025 and were converted for other types of maritime service.

The 2026 Cruise Ship Secondhand Market Report includes a complete market overview, with a detailed list of transactions and in-depth content.

Also included is a Retirement Data section with year-by-year tables covering ship withdrawals and retirements since 1977.