Celebration Cruise Line

Celebration Cruise Line was a small cruise line that operated two-day voyages out of Port of Palm Beach to Grand Bahama Island. The company was founded in late 2008, and began operations on March 9, 2009. The company moved the ship's operations from Port Everglades to the Port of Palm Beach in March 2010.

Celebration Cruise Line
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryTransportation
FateReplaced by Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line
Founded2008
Defunct2015
HeadquartersRiviera Beach, Florida, United States
Area served
The Bahamas
ProductsCruises
ParentCelebration Cruise Holdings
WebsiteBahamaShips.com

History

The cruise line began operation in March 2009 with the Bahamas Celebration, which was formerly a cruise ferry, built in 1981 and converted to a cruise ship in 2008. The cruise line replaced Imperial Majesty Cruise Line.

In 2010, Celebration Cruise Line announced it would be moving to the Port of Palm Beach due to being overshadowed by larger cruise lines at Port Everglades. The Port of Palm Beach has a passenger terminal that was built to accommodate smaller cruise ships. In 2010, they stopped sailing to Nassau, Bahamas. Their two-night cruises then departed every other day at 6:00 pm. to Freeport, Bahamas.

On October 31, 2014, the Bahamas Celebration struck an unknown object while departing from Freeport, creating a small hole in the ship's hull and resulting in the vessel listing 10 degrees to port. All passengers and crew were unharmed.[1]

Celebration Cruise Line ceased operations following the grounding incident.[2] Former Celebration Cruise Line executives formed Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line and purchased the Grand Celebration to take over the route formerly operated by the Bahamas Celebration.[3][4]

Former fleet
ShipBuiltEntered Service for Celebration Cruise LineTonnageFlagNotesImage
Bahamas Celebration19812009–201435,483 GT BahamasOn October 31, 2014, Bahamas Celebration struck an unknown object while departing from Freeport, opening up a small hole in the port side. The ship was able to return to the port and all passengers and crew were able to disembark and no injuries were reported. As of 3 November 2014, the hole had been patched, but the ship was still listing by about 10 percent and salvage crews were trying to assess the damage.[5][6][7] In December 2014 it was announced that the ship could not be repaired and would be replaced by the MS Grand Celebration, which would be operated by the newly formed Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line.

References
  1. "Bahamas Celebration Cruise Ship 'Won't Sail For First Two Weeks Of November'". The Tribune, Freeport. 4 November 2014.
  2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-12-27. Retrieved 2014-12-27.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. "Grand Celebration ship could launch in February - Protecting Your Pocket".
  4. South Florida Sun-Sentinel (24 December 2014). "Port of Palm Beach to get new cruise ship in February". Sun-Sentinel.com.
  5. "UPDATED: Bahamas Celebration cruise ship runs aground: 'No danger of it sinking'". Tribune242.com. 1 November 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  6. "Bahamas Celebration cruise ship 'won't sail for first two weeks of November'". Tribune242.com. 3 November 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  7. "New vessel to resume Celebration cruise service". Retrieved 17 December 2014.
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