A privately held company built from scratch, Oceania Cruises was founded in 2003 by two cruise industry veterans — Frank Del Rio, former president and CEO of now -defunct Renaissance Cruises, and Joe Watters, former president of Crystal Cruises. The Oceania team — Del Rio as president and CEO and Watters as chairman — brought complementary talents to the new cruise line. Del Rio, who knows the ships well, having previously operated them with Renaissance, had been running Oceania’s day-to-day operations until he took over as chairman; Watters, until his recent retirement, focused on developing the onboard product, designated as premium with luxury touches — an effort to set the line apart from its competitors in the premium cruise category. Oceania Cruises was launched with the 684-passenger Regatta, the former R2. Her identical sister, Insignia, the former R1, was added the following year, and a third copy, Nautica, the former R5, debuted in 2005. Oceania selected these three specific ships - of all the available Rclass ships on the market after Renaissance’s demise — because they had the most high-end suites, an important asset in attracting sophisticated travelers. In addition, Oceania got a great deal for leasing the vessels from the banks that possessed the ships after Renaissance’s collapse, thus avoiding incurring a big debt and enabling the new cruise line to provide its product at very competitive prices.
In 2006, Oceania was able to purchase the three ships for $375 million—the cost to build even one ship today. Then in early 2007, Apollo Management, a New York–based $12 billion private equity firm, acquired majority interest in Oceania Cruises for approximately $850 million. The line’s founding management team remains stakeholders in the cruise line. Soon thereafter, Oceania placed a billion-dollar order with Italy’s Fincantieri shipyard for two 1,260-passenger, 65,000-ton ships to be delivered in the fall of 2010 and summer of 2011, and an option for a third vessel to be delivered in 2012. The new midsize vessels represent a new class of ships for the line, dubbed Oceania class, and defined as upper-premium cruising. Among their many new features, the ships will have six open-seating restaurants and larger, more luxurious cabins and suites with more amenities than the present fleet. Oceania’s destination focus first centered on Europe, South America, and the Caribbean; new destinations such as North Africa have been added as the line builds its passenger base. Many itineraries have been tailored to include overnight port stays to allow passengers more-time to enjoy particular destinations, such as St. Petersburg, Russia, on the Northern Europe cruises, and Venice on Mediterranean ones. With the arrival of Nautica, Oceania was able to chart a different course, with winter and spring in the Far East and including overnight stays in such cities as Beijing, Dubai, Hong Kong, and Mumbai (Bombay), to name a few. The new ships with a cruising speed 20% faster than the present Regatta-class ships, will be able to cruise to all corners of the globe.
Copyright 2007 by Kay Showker, The Unnoficial Guide to Cruises 10th Edition, John Wiley & Sons, reproduced with permission
Unofficial Guide © 2009
.jpg_thumb.jpg "Santorini sunset")
