There are cruise ships that disappear from service and, a few years later, hardly anyone remembers them. Then there are ships that develop a following, the kind where former passengers still talk about them years after their last cruise and get a little teary-eyed whenever an old photo turns up online.
Three of those ships are currently sitting in Greece, looking a lot different than they did during their glory days.
The former Royal Caribbean Majesty of the Seas, P&O Cruises Oceana and Holland America Line Veendam are the three remaining cruise ships in the SeaJets fleet, all acquired during the pandemic when cruise lines were strapped for cash and began selling off some of their oldest vessels. Most old ships were scrapped, but these three are laid up, their future in question. Majesty is now known as Majesty of the Oceans, Oceana became Queen of the Oceans and Veendam is Aegean Majesty. For the past several years, they’ve essentially been waiting for someone to decide whether they’re worth saving.
At first glance, the answer might seem obvious. These are old ships, they’ve been sitting around for years as cruise lines launch massive fuel-efficient new vessels. Send them to the scrapyard and move on.
But cruise ships don’t come with an expiration date stamped on the hull, and there are plenty of examples proving that an old ship can still have life left in it. The question isn’t simply how old these three ships are. It’s whether someone is willing to spend enough money to make them viable again.
And at least one of them may have found someone willing to try.
Three Ships From a Different Era of Cruising
Majesty of the Seas entered service in 1992 as the third ship in Royal Caribbean’s Sovereign class. At the time, these were some of the largest and most impressive cruise ships in the world. Today, at roughly 74,000 gross tons, Majesty would look almost tiny tied up next to one of Royal Caribbean’s newest ships.
That’s also part of her appeal.
Majesty came from an era when a cruise ship was still a cruise ship rather than a collection of neighborhoods, attractions and restaurants that happened to float. Thousands of Royal Caribbean passengers sailed her during her long career, particularly during the years when she was a fixture on shorter cruises from Florida.
She’s also the last one left.
Both Sovereign of the Seas (the first ship I ever sailed on!) and Monarch of the Seas were scrapped in 2020, leaving the former Majesty as the sole surviving member of a class that helped transform Royal Caribbean into the company it is today.
Sitting elsewhere in Greece is Queen of the Oceans, the ship most cruisers remember as Oceana.
She began life in 2000 as Ocean Princess before transferring to P&O Cruises in 2002. Oceana would go on to spend nearly two decades with P&O, developing the kind of loyal following that older, mid-sized ships tend to attract. When the pandemic arrived, P&O sold her and SeaJets picked her up.
At 26 years old, she’s actually the youngster of this group.
Then there’s Veendam, and this one is a little more personal for me.
I sailed Holland America Line’s Veendam in April 2014. She was already an old-school ship even then. At around 55,000 gross tons and carrying roughly 1,350 passengers, she was traditional, especially compared to the much larger ships that were already becoming the norm.
There wasn’t a water park, a roller coaster or a dozen restaurants that required reservations. You unpacked, figured out the ship in about 20 minutes and went cruising.
Veendam left Holland America in 2020 and became Aegean Majesty after being sold to SeaJets. She has now spent nearly six years out of service.
And that brings up an interesting question: how old is too old for a cruise ship?
How Long Is a Cruise Ship Supposed to Last?
You’ll often hear that the lifespan of a cruise ship is around 25 to 30 years, but that’s not really the whole story.
Twenty-five or 30 years is often around the point where a ship becomes less attractive to the major cruise line that originally owned it. From there, it may be sold to another company and continue sailing for another five, ten or even 15 years. Today’s modern cruise ships can remain in service for 40 years or longer if they’re properly maintained.
The hull doesn’t suddenly turn into a rust on its 30th birthday.
What does happen is that keeping an older ship competitive becomes increasingly expensive.
Engines and generators that were state-of-the-art in the 1990s aren’t nearly as fuel efficient as modern ones. Fuel is one of a cruise line’s largest operating expenses, so even a relatively small difference in efficiency becomes a very big number when multiplied across 365 days.
Older machinery also requires increasing amounts of maintenance, and eventually major components need to be rebuilt or replaced. Parts can become difficult to source, electrical and plumbing systems age, steel requires more attention and an older ship may need expensive upgrades just to keep pace with changing environmental and safety regulations.
There’s also the revenue side of the equation.
A newer cruise ship generally has more balcony cabins, more specialty restaurants, larger casinos, more bars and more opportunities to generate money after passengers get onboard. An older ship designed around a main dining room, buffet and a few lounges simply doesn’t have the same revenue-generating potential.
Eventually the people in corporate who live for spreadsheets take a look at what it will cost to keep an older ship going, compares that with what the ship can earn, and decides the numbers don’t work anymore.
That’s usually what sends a ship toward retirement, not simply its age.
Just Look at Margaritaville at Sea Paradise
If you want proof that an old cruise ship isn’t necessarily a dead cruise ship, look no further than up the road from me here at the Port of Palm Beach.
Margaritaville at Sea Paradise entered service in 1991 as Costa Classica, making her one of the oldest ships still sailing at 35 years old as of 2026. She’s older than Majesty of the Seas, older than Veendam and nine years older than Oceana, yet she’s still carrying paying passengers from Florida.
After leaving Costa, the ship found another life with Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line and eventually became the first Margaritaville at Sea ship. Rather than treating her age as an automatic death sentence, her operators found a niche where the ship made sense: shorter cruises from the Port of Palm Beach on a smaller vessel that didn’t need to compete directly with the latest mega-ships from Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Port Canaveral.
Paradise probably isn’t going to sail forever, but she’s a perfect example of why it’s not fair to look at a 30-year-old cruise ship and automatically assume the next stop is the scrapyard.
The difference is that Paradise has been operating and maintained.
These three ships in Greece haven’t.
The Problem for Majesty, Oceana and Veendam
Sitting idle for years is hard on any kind of vessel.
A cruise ship is an incredibly complicated collection of machinery, electronics, plumbing, ventilation systems, fire protection equipment, kitchens, elevators and hotel systems. Keeping all of that operational while the ship is sailing is one thing. Bringing everything back after years of inactivity can be something entirely different.
You don’t simply tow one of these ships into a shipyard, scrape off the rust, put new carpet in the cabins and start selling cruises.
Before Majesty, Oceana or Veendam could carry passengers again, somebody would need to determine exactly what condition the hull, engines, generators and other major systems are in. From there comes the question that ultimately matters: how much is it going to cost?
For Majesty and Oceana, we simply don’t know whether anyone is willing to write that check.
For Veendam, there may finally be an answer.
Could Veendam Make a Come Back?
Reports surfaced recently that Villa Vie Residences is planning to acquire the former Veendam and transform her into its second residential cruise ship, expected to enter service as Legacy in 2029.
That would be quite amazing.
Veendam is now 30 years old and has been sitting in Greece since SeaJets acquired her in 2020 and there has been plenty of speculation about what condition she’s in underneath all that rust.
Some of it makes her sound like she’s one sneeze away from falling apart.
We know that shortly after SeaJets acquired the ship, she broke away from her moorings during heavy weather in November 2020 and grounded in shallow water. She was refloated, and the salvage company involved reported no structural or environmental damage.
Beyond that, most of the discussion about whether her engines are ruined, her interiors are beyond repair or the entire ship is a mechanical write-off is just that: discussion.
She may be in terrible condition. She may be in considerably better condition mechanically than she looks cosmetically.
If Villa Vie actually buys her, we’ll find out.
The company would have several years to take Veendam through a major shipyard conversion, which would presumably include rebuilding much of the hotel side along with whatever mechanical work is necessary to return her to service.
Considering people would be purchasing residences rather than booking a seven-night cruise, this wouldn’t exactly be a quick refurbishment with some new carpeting and a refreshed buffet.
It would be a resurrection.
If Veendam really does become Villa Vie Legacy, one of these three ships may get another chance at life. That still leaves Majesty and Oceana sitting in Greece waiting for someone to come along with a plan and, more importantly, a very large checkbook.
Of the two, Oceana’s age would seem to work in her favor. At 26, she’s younger than many ships still operating today.
Majesty is a tougher proposition at 34, but Margaritaville at Sea Paradise proves that 34 or 35 doesn’t automatically mean finished.
The real difference is what condition they’ve been kept in and what it would cost to bring them back.
There’s also the matter of finding the right job for them. Nobody is going to buy Majesty and try to compete head-to-head with Icon of the Seas. That makes no sense. But could she work for a smaller cruise company, a residential operation or another niche operator that actually wants a 2,000-passenger ship instead of something carrying 6,000?
Possibly.
That’s how old ships survive.
They don’t usually continue doing exactly what they did when they were new. They move down the cruise industry food chain, find a new market, get converted for another purpose or land with an operator whose business model makes their size and age an advantage rather than a liability.
They just need somebody willing to give them another life.
