Monarch

From Monarch of the Seas to Monarch

Introduced in 1991, the cruise ship was initially named Monarch of the Seas. In its early years, it mainly sailed seven-night Caribbean itineraries; later, it also moved to other regions and offered shorter trips to the Bahamas, among others.

In December 1998, the ship ran aground while departing the Caribbean island of St. Maarten. Passengers and crew were evacuated. According to a contemporary account, repairs took more than three months. The incident marked an interruption in the ship’s early history, not the end of its service.

The next clearly documented phase under a new name began in 2013: Monarch of the Seas became Monarch, and the ship sailed for Pullmantur. In March 2020, cruise operations were suspended during the pandemic. This was initially a pause in operations, not yet the end of the ship’s story.

End of Cruise Service

In the summer of 2020, Monarch made its way to Aliaga, Turkey. A report dated July 22 describes how the ship was run aground there for scrapping, bringing its career as a cruise ship to an end. According to the report, complete dismantling was expected to take several more months. The name Monarch in this profile refers to that former career, not to current cruise operations.