KNOSSOS PALACE (ΚΝΩΣΟΣ ΠΑΛΑΣ)

-Minoan Lines

Built in 2001 (age 23). Registered in Heraklion. Current line: Piraeus-Milos-Heraklion

The cruiseferry KNOSSOS PALACE was the third of the four ships ordered by the Greek company Minoan Lines between 2000 and 2002. She was completed in 2001 in Italy as the OLYMPIA PALACE. She was deployed on the Patras-Igoumenitsa-Ancona line on the Adriatic Sea, on which she was then joined by her sister ship, namely the EUROPA PALACE, in 2002. Following the arrival of the newly-built CRUISE EUROPA and CRUISE OLYMPIA in 2009 and in 2010, respectively, the OLYMPIA PALACE and the EUROPA PALACE were deployed on the Patras-Igoumenitsa-Corfu-Venice line in 2010. Following the 2011 season, Minoan Lines closed the line, leaving both sister ships without an assigned area of service. The EUROPA PALACE was sent to operate as a third ship on the Patras-Igoumenitsa-Ancona line, while the OLYMPIA PALACE was laid-up in Perama. Although the company wanted to deploy them on the Piraeus-Chania line, they were instead chartered in 2012 to the Italian company Tirrenia Di Navigazione, being renamed AMSICORA and BONARIA, respectively. Both ships were deployed on the Civitavecchia-Olbia-Arbatax line, where they remained until 2017. In 2018 both ships returned to the Grimaldi Group. While the BONARIA was sold to Grimaldi Lines and became the CRUISE BONARIA, the AMSICORA rejoined Minoan Lines, being renamed MYKONOS PALACE (she is now operating as the FESTOS PALACE), and was deployed on the Piraeus-Chania line. The CRUISE BONARIA was deployed on the Livorno-Olbia line. In 2019, following a conversion in Malta, she received scrubbers. In 2020 she was deployed on the Civitavecchia-Olbia line. Later that year she rejoined Minoan Lines, as part of the reshuffling of the company's services in Crete. She replaced the original KNOSSOS PALACE, which joined Grimaldi Lines and took the name CRUISE BONARIA for herself. The original CRUISE BONARIA became the new KNOSSOS PALACE instead, and she was inserted on the the Piraeus-Milos-Heraklion line in 2021. 

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PHOTOS (2021, 2022):