What do cruise companies do with old ships?

About half of all cruise ships go to a scrapyard in Alang, India. About 30% are sent to scrap yards in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and other scrap yards in India. The rest go to scrap yards in China and Turkey.



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What Happens to Old Cruise Ships? As ships age, cruise lines have several choices, which include extensively refurbishing and relocating vessels to smaller, less popular regions; transferring or selling them to other lines; or sending them to a cruise ship junkyard for scrapping.

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Larger cruise companies sold their older ships to smaller cruise lines. The smaller companies would refurbish them, change their names, and continue to book cruises full of passengers, significantly extending the ships' lifespans. However, when the pandemic hit, the cruise industry took a substantial hit.

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The wastewater that the cruise ship uses is heavily treated. It is either discharged into the water in designated areas of the ocean or released onshore into the local water treatment system.

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U.S. law requires cruise ships to treat waste within about 3.5 miles of shore—but beyond that, there are no restrictions on dumping polluted sewage and graywater. Researchers have estimated that over a billion gallons of sludge made from excrement and food scraps are released into the ocean every year by cruise lines.

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Do Cruise Ships Dump Sewage? Yes. To get into a few more specifics than above, the U.S. allows cruise ships to dump treated waste into the ocean if they are within three and a half miles from shore. Beyond that point, there are no restrictions for dumping untreated, raw sewage in U.S. ocean waters.

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On average, a healthy, well-built cruise ship can last for around 30 years, including regular services and design refreshes. But some cruise ships last for much longer. We take a look a the oldest cruise ships still sailing the seas and chart some of the different stages in their lifespan.

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The amount of experience, the level of education, the grades they received, location, and company all can determine the year's salary. In general, a cruise ship captain salary ranges between $54,000 and more than $100,000. This may seem like a low pay scale considering the responsibilities that come with the job.

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The cruise ships are actually run aground on the beach during the scrapping process. The workers take on the hazardous task of breaking up the ship's structure and cutting the hull's steel plate. The ship is meticulously broken down, starting from the ship's bow and working back to its stern.

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Corrections & Clarifications: In a previous version of this article, the name of the Swedish city of Gothenburg? was misspelled. The MV Astoria is the oldest cruise ship currently sailing, and Cruise and Maritime Voyages embraces the story of its vintage vessel.

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Traditionally, the leftover food on a cruise ship is ground by food pulpers, then pulverized in a paste or slurry to be stored until the ship reaches land. Once the waste arrives on land, it is transported to a facility for processing. These facilities could be a landfill or an anaerobic digestion plant.

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When a toilet is flushed on a cruise ship, the sewage travels to the onboard treatment plant. Here the waste is filtered before it enters an aeration chamber. The aeration chamber cleans the waste. It is then sterilized using UV light and released into the ocean when clean enough to do so.

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Lower cost One of the biggest perks of sailing on an older ship are the lower cruise fares available. You can find fantastic cruise deals on older ships, especially if you're flexible with what time of the year you sail.

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High Paying Ship Captain Jobs
  • Tugboat Captain. Salary range: $77,500-$118,000 per year. ...
  • Marine Superintendent. Salary range: $36,000-$109,000 per year. ...
  • Port Captain. Salary range: $62,000-$100,000 per year. ...
  • Captain. Salary range: $51,500-$90,000 per year. ...
  • Boat Pilot. Salary range: $76,500-$87,000 per year. ...
  • Vessel Master.


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Generally, the highest-paying jobs on cruise ships are held by officers, department heads, and those working on commission. However, many other variables affect earning potential, such as cruise line, ship size, clientele, tips awarded, and prior job experience.

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How much does a Cruise Ship Worker make? As of Sep 27, 2023, the average annual pay for a Cruise Ship Worker in the United States is $49,005 a year. Just in case you need a simple salary calculator, that works out to be approximately $23.56 an hour. This is the equivalent of $942/week or $4,083/month.

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Over the past 100 years since the RMS Titanic sank in 1912, only 18 cruise ships and some ocean liners have been publicly known to have sunk. And, over the past 50 years, only four cruise ships have sunk while navigating on a cruise.

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The truth is, yes, you can totally live on a cruise ship. The idea of living on a cruise ship for a year or two is very appealing to some, especially remote workers or people in retirement. You don't have to take care of your own dwelling, there are plenty of things to do on board, and you get to travel the world.

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Yes, there are morgues on most of the world's largest cruise ships. The larger the ship, the larger the morgue's capacity. Vessels are also required to carry body bags.

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Yes, cruise ships have brigs, which is the nautical term for a jail on a vessel, including a cruise ship. The term comes from the word brigantine, which is a type of two-masted sailing ship formerly used to house criminals.

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Most cruise ship water is desalinated sea water. The process usually involves steam evaporation -- essentially turning saltwater into distilled water. That water is then mineralized for flavor and chlorinated for extra safety. Other ships are fitted with a reverse-osmosis system for filtering and/or desalination.

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