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FESTOS PALACE (ΦΑΙΣΤΟΣ ΠΑΛΑΣ)

-Minoan Lines

ex-MYKONOS PALACE (ΜΥΚΟΝΟΣ ΠΑΛΑΣ), also for Minoan Lines (2018-2020)

Built in 2002 (age 22). Registered in Heraklion. Current line: Piraeus-Milos-Heraklion

 

The cruiseferry FESTOS PALACE was the last of the four ships ordered by the Greek company Minoan Lines between 2000 and 2002. She was completed in 2002 in Italy, as the EUROPA PALACE. She was deployed alongside her sister ship, namely the OLYMPIA PALACE, on the Patras-Igoumenitsa-Ancona line on the Adriatic Sea. 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, and she was deployed on the Piraeus-Chania line. In 2019, following a conversion in Malta, she became the first-ever ship in the history of the Greek coastal service to receive scrubbers. In 2020, as part of the reshuffling of the services of Minoan Lines in Crete, she was renamed FESTOS PALACE (thus becoming the second ship to ever have this name, after her fleetmate, namely the KYDON PALACE) and she was deployed on the Piraeus-Milos-Heraklion line. 

PHOTOS (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022):

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