History
George Poulides founded Festival Cruises in 1992. The company begun operations in 1994 after purchasing MS The Azur from Chandris Cruises. The following year the company acquired MS Starward from Norwegian Cruise Line, renaming her MS Bolero. A third second-hand ship followed in 1997, when MS Southern Cross was acquired from Premier Cruise Line and renamed MS Flamenco for service with Festival.
Festival Cruises acquired their first newbuilt ship in 1999, when MS Mistral was delivered from Chantiers de l'Atlantique in France. In 2000 Festival Cruises announced that the company would be merged into Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), with the Festival Cruises brand being maintained under P&O ownership. The merger plan was abandoned later that year due to low value of cruise line shares at the time. Two additional newbuilt ships based on an enlarged version of the Mistral design were delivered in 2001 and 2002 as MS European Vision and MS European Stars, respectively. Following delivery of the new ships the Bolero and Flamenco were chartered to other opeators. Festival Cruises had an option for two more ships of the enlarged Mistral design, but the company decided not to use the option. Two more Mistral class ships were however built for MSC Cruises as MSC Lirica and MSC Opera.
Festival Cruises went bankrupt in early 2004, with all the company's ships were laid up and subsequently auctioned to other operators; European Stars and European Vision were sold to MSC Cruises, Mistral to a French investor group who chartered her to Iberojet, The Azur to Mano Maritime, Bolero to Orient Queen Shipping and Flamenco to Cruise Elysia.
Read more about this topic: Festival Cruises
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation, because as a result of what happened in this week, the world is bigger, infinitely.”
—Richard M. Nixon (1913–1995)
“Modern Western thought will pass into history and be incorporated in it, will have its influence and its place, just as our body will pass into the composition of grass, of sheep, of cutlets, and of men. We do not like that kind of immortality, but what is to be done about it?”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)
“Free from public debt, at peace with all the world, and with no complicated interests to consult in our intercourse with foreign powers, the present may be hailed as the epoch in our history the most favorable for the settlement of those principles in our domestic policy which shall be best calculated to give stability to our Republic and secure the blessings of freedom to our citizens.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)