Renaissance R-class
Insignia, formerly R One at th Northsea Channel near Buitenhuizen in 2004 in Oceania livery.
The R-class consists of eight 30.277-ton ships built between 1998 and 2001 in St.-Nazaire. They are 181 meters long, 25,50 meter side and their draft is 6 meters. Some 777 passengers can enjoy 9 decks and they are looked after by 373 crewmembers. Their homeports were Majuro, Marshall Islands.
Renaissance Cruises was formed in 1989 by the Fearnley & Eger-group and started sailing with a small luxury cruiseyaught from december 1989. In rapid succession eight of these ships entered service for them and they sailed mostly to remote ports that could not be entered by the bigger cruiseships. In 1991, Fearnley & Eger was declared bancrupt and Renaissance Cruises was sold to the Italian Cameli Group.
Nautica, formerly R Five at the IJmuiden locks in 2004 in TMR colours. This was unaltered from her original Renaissance Cruises livery, only the TMR logo at the funnel replaced the Renaissance 'R'.
Blue Moon in Pullmantur Cruises livery seen in the Northsea Channel near Spaarnwoude in 2007. She was the former R Seven.
At the end of the nineties, the line had become a well-known name in the modern cruiseworld, and the company decided to built six new and bigger ships to replace the smaller yaughtlike vessels. The first of these ships entered service in august 1998 under the inventive name of 'R One'. 'R Two' followed in november, and 'R Three' sailed in the beginning of 1999. Surprisingly, this naming was continued and two more ships were ordered. The last one that entered service was 'R Eight' in february 2001. Renaissence Cruises announced that real names would be given to the ships in time.
Regatta in Oceania colours leaving Amsterdam in 2005. She started sailing as Renaissance Cruises' R Two.
This never happened, as Renaissance Cruises itself was declared bancrupt in september 2001. The ships were taken over by Cruise Invest and were chartered out to several companies since then. This big and rapid expansion could simply not be paid.
Delphin Renaissance seen between the North and South pier of IJmuiden's outer harbour. She is seen in Delphin Cruises livery in 2005. This ship is the former R Seven.
The company Oceania Cruises was formed in 2003, chartering two ships of Renaissance Cruises from that year on. These were R One that became Regatta in 2003 (after a brief period being named Insignia) and followed by Insignia (after a brief period named Regatta) that was first chartered out by CruiseInvest to the French company TMR in 2004. In 2006, after another subcharter to TMR and to Pullmantur Cruises as Blue Dream, the thirth Oceania-ship became the former R Five, now renamed Nautica. I expected that more ships would come to Oceania and there was some time news that R Three, at that time sailing for Princess Cruises as their second Pacific Princess, would come to Oceania as Marina. But this did not happen, partly because Oceania ordered their first own ships in the Oceania Class. This class is slightly bigger than the R-class, but based on the same design.
Azamara Journey in Azamara livery near Spaarnwoude in the Northsea Channel in 2008. She was built as R Six for Renaissance Cruises.
Royal Princess seen in Princess Cruises colours near Spaarnwoude at the Northsea Channel in 2008. She was the former R Eight.
Because it is very easy to loose track of all these R-class ships I will post an up-to-date history of these ships on this page also:
R One
1998-2001 R One Renaissance Cruises
2003 (2-6) Regatta (I) Oceania Cruises
2003-now Insignia (II) Oceania Cruises
R Two
1998-2001 R Two Renaissance Cruises
2003 (2-4) Insignia (I) Oceania Cruises
2003 (4-6) Insignia TMR (marketingname 'Vaisseau Renaissance')
2003-now Regatta (II) Oceania Cruises
R Three
1999-2001 R Three Renaissance Cruises
2002-now Pacific Princess (II) P&O Princess Cruises
R Four
1999-2001 R Four Renaissance Cruises
2002-2009 Tahitian Princess P&O Princess Cruises
2009-now Ocean Princess (III) Princess Cruises
R Five
2000-2001 R Five Renaissance Cruises
2003 Blue Dream Pullmantur Cruises
2004 Nautica TMR
2005 (3-11) Blue Dream Pullmantur Cruises
2005-now Nautica Oceania Cruises
R Six
2000-2001 R Six Renaissance Cruises
2003-2004 Blue Star/ Blue Dream Pullmantur Cruises
2004-2007 Blue Dream Pullmantur Cruises
2007-now Azamara Journey Azamara Cruises
R Seven
2000-2001 R Seven Renaissance Cruises
2003-2006 Delphin Renaissance Delphin Seereisen
2006-2007 Blue Moon Pullmantur Cruises
2007-now Azamara Quest Azamara Cruises
R Eight
2001 R Eight Renaissance Cruises
2003-2006 Minerva II Swan Hellenic Cruises
2006-now Royal Princess (II) P&O Princess Cruises
