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Oceania Cruises
ABOVE: Oceania's Regatta. INSET BELOW: Stern view, an outside balcony stateroom, and the Library with its English country-house decor.
Transatlantic repositioning cruises are also on Oceania's 2009 cruise calendar, including two crossings from Barcelona to Miami and cruises from Barcelona or Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro. Cruise line's Web site:Cruise review:Oceania Regatta: Dover to Barcelona
Top photo copyright © Oceania Cruises. Used by permission.
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Oceania
Cruises is the brainchild of Joe Watters and Frank Del Rio, two top
executives from Crystal Cruises and the late Renaissance Cruises. Their idea was
to create a boutique or "upper premium" cruise line with midsize ships that
would offer five-star cuisine and service at fares below those of the luxury
lines. 
Oceania's
first ship, Regatta, entered service in 2002; its sister ship,
Insignia, followed in 2003. A third Regatta-class
vessel, Nautica, joined the fleet in 2005. All three ships are relatively
intimate by today's megaship standards, carrying a maximum of 684 passengers and
a crew of 400 each. Accomodations range from inside cabins to one-bedroom
owner's suites, and 73 percent of the outside cabins have private balconies. 
The
company's 2009 European season runs from April through mid-November, with 56
"port-intensive" cruises to 80 destinations in Northern Europe, the
Western Mediterranean, and the Eastern Mediterranean and Greek Islands. Cruises
range from 10 to 30 days in length.
