As the fleet of this Spanish subsidiary of Carnival Corp is reduced to a single ship, the future of Iberocruceros seems uncertain. Carnival’s involvement dates back to 2007, when it acquired 75 per cent of the cruise business of Iberojet, part of the Spanish travel group Orizonia Corporation.
At that time the company was operating Grand Mistral and Grand Voyager, but during the following year the fleet was expanded with the transfer from the Carnival Cruise Lines fleet of Celebration, which was renamed Grand Celebration. Iberocruceros, as the company was by then named, was placed under the management of Costa Crociere and, in 2009, the remaining 25 per cent of the operation was acquired.
In 2010 another Carnival cast-off, Holiday, renamed Grand Holiday, joined the fleet, bringing the number of ships up to four. However, this state of affairs was short-lived as, by the end of 2011, Grand Voyager was chartered to Costa as Costa Voyager, followed later by a transfer of ownership.
Then, in 2013, Grand Mistral was also transferred to Costa as Costa neoRiviera. Now it is the turn of Grand Celebration, which moves to Costa later this year, leaving just Grand Holiday dedicated to the Spanish Market.
