Louis Cruises
Celestyal Cruises is a subsidiary of the Cyprus-based travel and tourism group Louis plc, that was founded in 1935 as the first travel agency in Cyprus. During the 1970s the company began chartering ferries for short cruises from Cyprus, which eventually led to the purchase of the cruiseferry MV Prinsessan from the Finland-based Birka Line for $4 million in 1987. Renamed MV Princesa Marissa, the ship started making cruises from Limassol to the Greek Isles, Egypt and Israel, under the then newly-established Louis Cruise Lines brand.[20][21] By 1994 the company had acquired three more ships, all of which were used in the short cruise market from Cyprus.[20]
In the mid-1990s, Louis Cruise Lines entered the business of chartering ships to other companies, including MV Princesa Oceanica (renamed Sapphire) to the UK-based Thomson Cruises in 1996.[20] The following year the newly-acquired The Emerald was also chartered to Thomson. By 1994 the company had acquired three more ships, all of which were used in the short cruise market from Cyprus.[20] In 1999 Louis chartered the 1998-acquired SS Ausonia to First Choice Holidays, one of Thomson's competitors in the UK market. By this time the Louis fleet consisted of a total of eight ships. Also in 1999, Louis acquired a stake in the Greek operator Royal Olympic Cruises. Royal Olympic was already in difficulties by the time Louis became involved with the company, and the 11 September 2001 attacks dealt a further blow, finally leading to the collapse of Royal Olympic in 2004.
During the early 2000s Louis further modernised their fleet by acquiring Calypso in 2000 and chartering MV Nieuw Amsterdam from Holland America Line in 2003, immediately sub-chartering her to Thomson as MV Thomson Spirit. In 2004 Louis acquired MV Aquamarine from the fleet of the UK-based Sun Cruises, which had gone out of business.[20] Another former Sun Cruises ship, MV Thomson Destiny, was chartered from a Norway-based investment company and sub-chartered to Thomson Cruises.[22] The new acquisitions also made possible the sale of three of Louis' older vessels. Also in 2004, following the collapse of Royal Olympic Cruises, Louis Cruise Lines purchased two of their former ships at bargain prices and established their own Louis Hellenic Cruises brand for the Greek cruise market.[20] Further expansion came in 2006 with the purchase of MV Orient Queen and MV Sea Diamond, another former Baltic Sea cruise ferry purchased from Birka Line, while Calypso was chartered to Thomson and Aquamarine to Transocean Tours as Arielle. Additionally, Louis entered a franchise agreement with easyCruise to operate ships in the Eastern Mediterranean on their behalf in the future. Disaster struck in April 2007 when the Sea Diamond sunk off
In April 2008 Louis Cruise Lines agreed to purchase MV Norwegian Dream and MV Norwegian Majesty from Star Cruises. The agreement at the time was to charter the ships back to Star Cruises/Norwegian Cruise Line until November 2008 and December 2009, respectively.[25] However, in September 2008 Louis cancelled the purchase of the Norwegian Dream due to "technical issues relating to the vessel".[26] In May 2008 Louis Cruise Lines purchased Thomson Destiny and Thomson Spirit that had previously been operated under charter. At the same time Princesa Marissa and Serenade were sold for scrap.[22]
In 2009 the company changed its name to Louis Cruises. In 2010 Louis Cruises became a five-ship fleet after the lay up of the SS The Emerald and MS Sapphire due to the SOLAS 2010 and the selling of the MV Aquamarine in order to renew the fleet.
In 2012 a new charter agreement with Thomson Cruises provided that MS Louis Majesty would switch over and be on charter until 2017.[27] In return, the Thomson Destiny would return to the Louis fleet as Louis Olympia.[28] She would then be deployed on 3/4-day sailings out of Piraeus and Kusadasi to the Greek Islands and Turkey.[29]
The MS Sapphire was sold for scrap in May 2012, as were SS The Emerald in August 2012, and The Calypso later in the year. All three ships were laid up for two years due to SOLAS 2010. The Coral was scrapped in late 2013, and the Louis Cristal was charted to Cuba Cruises, but still operating under the Louis brand. In early 2014, Louis Cruises announced a new livery. All Louis ships would receive a Louis Cruises logo on their white hull, along with a red and blue stripe next to it. The Louis Olympia was the first ship to receive the new livery in early February 2014.
2015
Celestyal renovated some of its fleet in 2015. 43 new balconies were added to Celestyal Crystal, and 227 outside cabins, 21 junior suites, and nine suites were refurbished on Celestyal Olympia.[30][31][32] The former was used for cruises in both Cuba and Greece,[33][34][35] but the latter in Greece only.[36][37]
2016
In July, Celestyal imposed a short-term pause in calls at Turkish ports in the wake of the failed coup there.[38]
In October, it was announced that Celestyal Cruises' CEO, Kyriakos Anastassiadis, would become Chairman of Cruise Lines International Association Europe with effect from January 2017.[39]
2017
In May, Celestyal launched its redesigned website which was designed to include cruise information as well as company news and details for its value program, Celestyal Inclusive Experience.[40][41][42]
Celestyal began a partnership with Hays Travel in September to expand its customer base across the UK, making its cruises available through Hays Tour Operating Limited.[43] Celestyal also partnered with Air Canada Vacations, Transat, Hola Sun Holidays, Apple Vacations,[44] Iglu and Planet Cruise.[45]
2018
In January, Celestyal decided to pull out of Cuba after five seasons, citing the company's need to focus on the growing demand coming from its Greek operation.<[15]
In June, Chris Theophilides succeeded Kyriakos Anastasiadis as Celestyal's CEO,<[57] and in August Capt. George Koumpenas was promoted to Chief Operating Officer and Leslie Peden to Chief Commercial Officer.<[58] The company announced in December 2018 that it was targeting a 21 percent growth in guest numbers from 108,000 in 2018 to a targeted number of 130,000 guests in 2019.<[59]
2019
In April, Celestyal announced that it would be extending its 2020 season with a new winter itinerary for Celestyal Olympia, with a six-week season in the Adriatic homeporting at Venice from December 2020.<[60]
2020
In January 2020, Celestyal Cruises' president Kostakis Loizou was honoured for his significant contribution to the Greek cruise industry during the annual general assembly of the Association of Cruise Ship Owners and Maritime Agencies (EEKFN).<[61] In February Theophilides revealed that the cruise line's estimated contribution to the Greek economy for 2014-2018 had reached €102.5 million annually. He noted that €28m was in direct operating expenditure and €4.1m to Greek food and beverage suppliers.<[62]
In November, Celestyal Cruises announced it had completed a brand refresh with a new logo and strapline - Experience Life, Experience the Journey. The new-look brand would debut on its new flagship Celestyal Experience. Peter Economides, owner and founder of brand creator Felix BNI said, "We wanted to capture the Greek DNA through the Greek love of life and to express it in a modernized interpretation of the brand design."<[63]
The cruise programme was severely disrupted in 2020 and 2021 by the COVID-19 pandemic.
2021
In January 2021 Celestyal Cruises entered a new partnership with Versonix Corporation to provide its Seaware booking platform to the cruise line. It was said that Versonix was chosen due to Seaware's enhanced revenue management and customer relationship management capabilities.<[64]
Celestyal announced in October that it would return to cruising on 14 March 2022 with its offering of 3- and 4-night cruises followed by 7-night cruises in April.<[65] In November they said that Thessaloniki would be added as a homeport for its Idyllic Aegean itinerary.<[66]
Also in November, Searchlight Capital Partners bought a majority stake in Celestyal Cruises. Louis plc, Celestyal's Cypriot parent, said that Searchlight, which had an asset portfolio valued at $6bn, would immediately provide an initial tranche of €30m ($33.8) in senior debt financing to the Piraeus-based cruise company, together with a €10m revolving credit facility. The agreement also provided for additional funding of up to €30m to support development plans. Louis would spin off Celestyal into a separate limited partnership company, Celestyal Holdings, in which Searchlight would hold a 60% stake.<[67]
