General Aspects You Might Want to Know About the History of Royal Olympic Cruises

The history of Royal Olympic Cruise Lines was rather volatile as well as short. If you are looking for a Greek island cruise, you can no longer make a booking for a cruise on board their fleet. This company closed down in 2004, even if the Greek Tourism Bureau slated that this cruise company is to become the “King of the Aegean Sea.” The stock is virtually worthless, even if the corporation is to remain on the stock exchange as an over the counter ROCLF.

Promising Beginnings

Based in Piraeus, this cruise company operated a mid-sized vessels fleet only for serving a market of more savvy, educated and experienced travelers. This cruise company started operating in 1995 after the merger of Epirotiki and Sun Lines. Royal Olympic`s principle was to cruise a wide variety of location-oriented sailings to the most famous sites of cultural or historic significance in a certain area.

Epirotiki

Epirotiki was the Greek Hercules of sailings. This company has been founded by Anastassios Potamianos in the 1800s. 15-passenger ships cruising transatlantic as well as throughout the Greek isles have been in service by 1926. A few mishaps within the cruise line tarnished its long-term good reputation. On vessel, Pegasus II, sunk in 1991 because of a fire in Venice. Another vessel, Oceanos, sunk near the South Africa coast 2 months later. The latter was the thorn for the demise of Epirotiki, as the captain abandoned the vessel where a lot of passengers were stranded on board. Between a lot of lawsuits, the company looked toward a merger with Carnival Cruises. Never taking place, Epirotiki has been forced to look for a sell of its assets to one of their competitors, Sun Lines.

Sun Lines

Sun Line has been founded in 1957 and soon after that, the company introduced its flagship, the Stella Solaris, and grew as a competitor of Epirotiki. Stella Solaris was launched in 1953 as a French ship. Some vessels have been built in Italy during the 1960s, as some Italian Word War II reparations took place, during which such one has been given to Sun Lines as well.

The refurbished Stella Solaris and its sister ship, the Stella Oceanis, became popular as the “blue vessels.” The two ships were named so for their distinctive hull color which matched the hues of the Aegean Sea. Sales soared, but Sun Lines still merged with the new Royal Olympic Cruise line after taking over Epirotiki`s ships as well.

Competition Becomes Fierce

The monopoly which has been held by Royal Olympic Cruise Lines became kind of transitory when an invasion of exterior cruise lines have set sail to the Greek islands. The big-players were in the search of new locations for their loyal guests and provided cheaper fees, spacious staterooms, more features and plenty of glitz.

In 2003, the title of this cruise line was then changed to Royal Olympia Cruises, but 2004, the new reorganized company filed for Chapter 11 reorganization again. As of March 2004, this cruise line subsequently failed, and all of its vessels were sold off the other cruise companies, like Thompson Corp or Louis Cruises.

Today, Olympic Voyager operates under the name Grand Voyager and has actually been chartered by Iberojet, a Spanish company. The Olympic Explorer is at present being used as a floating college.

Royal Olympic Cruises will continue to operate, but only as a booking agent for other companies which serve the Greek Islands.


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