Festival Cruises

George Poulides founded Festival Cruises in 1992. The company begun operations in 1994 after purchasing Azur from Chandris Cruises.^[2] The following year the company acquired Starward from Norwegian Cruise Line, renaming her Bolero.^[5] A third second-hand ship followed in 1997, when Southern Cross was acquired from CTC Lines and renamed Flamenco for service with Festival.^[6]

Festival Cruises acquired their first newbuilt ship in 1999, when Mistral was delivered from Chantiers de l'Atlantique in France. In 2000 Festival Cruises announced that the company would be merged into 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 European Vision and European Stars, respectively.^[2] Following delivery of the new ships the Bolero and Flamenco were chartered to other operators.^[5][6] 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.^[7]

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,^[2][4] Mistral to a French investor group who chartered her to Iberojet,^[2][8] The Azur to Mano Maritime,^[9] Bolero to Abou Merhi Lines and Flamenco to Cruise Elysia.^[2]