CRUISE EUROPA (ΚΡΟΥΪΖ ΕΥΡΩΠΗ)

-Minoan Lines (2009-2021)

current CRUISE EUROPA for Grimaldi Lines

Built in 2009 (age 15). Registered in Palermo. Current line: None in Greece, sold to Grimaldi Lines for service in Italy

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The gigantic cruiseferry CRUISE EUROPA was ordered, in 2008 alongside her sister ship, the CRUISE OLYMPIA, by the Italian giants Grimaldi Group, and were planned to be operated by the Greek company Minoan Lines, which owned by the former, on the Adriatic Sea. The CRUISE EUROPA was initially registered in Heraklion, although she was later reflagged to Italy during her construction. She was completed in 2009 in Italy, and she was deployed on the Patras-Igoumenitsa-Ancona line. The CRUISE OLYMPIA was completed the following year and was deployed on the same line. Both ships were the largest ferries operating for a Greek company and serving Greek ports, although the largest ferry carrying the Greek flag is the EL. VENIZELOS of ANEK Lines. In the winter of 2012 both ships were deployed on the Patras-Igoumenitsa-Ancona-Trieste line. In 2017 they were transferred back to Grimaldi Lines (although they were still operated by Minoan Lines) and were deployed on the Patras-Igoumenitsa-Ancona-Venice line. In 2019, they were deployed on the Patras-Igoumenitsa-Corfu-Ancona-Venice line. In 2020, the CRUISE EUROPA received scrubbers while undergoing a minor conversion in Malta, hence becoming the last conventional ferry of Minoan Lines to acquire them. Shortly after her return to service that year, she hit the pier of the port Patras, and had to be repaired in Turkey. She was then inserted on the Patras-Igoumenitsa-Corfu-Ancona line alongside the CRUISE OLYMPIA. In 2021 she and the CRUISE OLYMPIA began full-time operations for Grimaldi Lines, and were deployed on the Livorno-Olbia line on the Tyrrhenian Sea.

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PHOTOS (2018):