 Durant
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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.
Late in 2010, a brand-new Oceania ship--the Marina--will enter service. The ship will carry up to 1,238 passengers, making it nearly double the capacity of Oceania's existing vessels but still mid-size by the standards of today's 3,000- and 4,000-passenger megaships.
Transatlantic repositioning voyages between Europe and South America are also on Oceania's 2010 cruise calendar. 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 2010 European season runs from April through early November, with 34
"port-intensive" cruises to 130 destinations in Northern Europe, the Western
Mediterranean, and the Eastern Mediterranean and Greek Islands. Cruises are 10
to 36 days in length, with most in the 10- to 14-day range.
