Royal Caribbean’s Second-Generation Innovator Departs for Scrap

Another of the last survivors from the second generation of the modern cruise ship era and a pioneer for Royal Caribbean Cruise Line has quietly slipped away on her final voyage. Introduced in 1982 as the Song of America (37,500 gross tons), she was one of the largest cruise ships in the world and an innovator that would see 40 years of service first in the American market, later in Europe, and finally in the Greek Islands.

She had been retired in 2023 by her last owner, Greece’s Celesytal Cruises which had operated her for 11 years with her final name of Celestyal Olympia. She was sold in early 2024 to a flag of convivence company which renamed her Bella Fortuna and shortly after she departed for an anchorage off the UAE flying the flag of Liberia. It is often a way stop on a one-way trip to be recycled while getting the ships outside the European Union and the restrictions on licensed scrappers.

As of the first of the year, the cruise ship’s name was shortened to Fortu and her flag moved to Comoros. She departed the UAE on January 22 with her status listed in the databases as “to be broken up.” She is bound it appears to beaches of India’s infamous Alang.

When she was introduced in 1982, Royal Caribbean boasted that she was state-of-the-a…