Vintage Rolls Royce moves from Carnival Ecstasy to Celebration after 30 years

The 1934-built vintage Rolls Royce Saloon that has for three decades welcomed guests to the Rolls Royce Cafe aboard Carnival Ecstasy has been removed and will be installed aboard the upcoming Carnival Celebration instead.

The antique car was offloaded from Carnival Ecstasy while the ship was docked in Mobile, Alabama last Thursday ahead of the vessel’s departure from the Carnival Cruise Line fleet.

It will now be shipped to Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland where Carnival Celebration is under construction, and will be installed in the ship’s Gateway zone, outside the Jubilee Lounge.

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The Gateway is a two-deck zone aboard the Carnival Celebration that celebrates travel and the excitement of exploring new destinations, while its centrepiece Jubilee Lounge is a living museum and bar highlighting the evolution of Carnival Cruise Line over the last 50 years.

The bar will be home to memorabilia and original pieces from several of Carnival’s earlier vessels, such as the classic Rolls-Royce, which thousands of Carnival guests have admired and taken pictures of over the years.

It has been a part of the ship’s decor since Carnival Ecstasy debuted back in 1991 and was the outcome of an extensive search across the UK by the ship’s designer. He needed the perfect car to fit the space outside the ship’s Rolls Royce Café.

It was acquired from a small antique car dealer in the hills of Northern Wales.

Other Carnival memorabilia to be featured in the Jubilee Lounge include tabletops from Carnival Fascination’s Hollywood Boulevard, which are adorned with signed sketches representing movie classics by iconic caricaturist Al Hirschfeld.

The chairs will be replicas of the ones found on the original TSS Carnivale, which sailed for Carnival between 1975 and 1993, while the lounge will also feature original pieces from TSS Mardi Gras, Carnival Sensation and other historical vessels of the fleet.

Carnival Ecstasy is one of eight Fantasy-class cruise ships that formed the backbone of the early Carnival Cruise Line fleet. She, along with six sister ships, was among a dozen vessels ear-marked for scrapping or sale across the Carnival Corporation fleet as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Carnival Ecstasy will complete her final sailing season and will be retired in October. It’s unknown if a buyer has expressed interest in the 30-year-old ship. All five of her sister ships that were sold have since been scrapped.