MS Regatta
History | |
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Name: | |
Owner: |
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Operator: |
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Port of registry: |
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Builder: | Chantiers de l'Atlantique, St. Nazaire, France |
Cost: | £150 million[3] |
Yard number: | I31[1] |
Acquired: | November 1998[1] |
In service: | 1998[1] |
Identification: |
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Status: | In service |
General characteristics [1] | |
Class & type: |
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Tonnage: | |
Length: | 180.96 m (593.7 ft) |
Beam: | 25.46 m (83.5 ft) |
Draught: | 5.95 m (19.5 ft) |
Decks: | 9 (passenger accessible)[3] |
Installed power: |
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Propulsion: | 2 propellers[3] |
Speed: | 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
Capacity: |
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Crew: | 386[3] |
MS Regatta was built by Renaissance cruises as an R class cruise ship, she is owned and operated by Oceania Cruises where she is part of their Regatta Class. [3] She was built in 1998 by the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard in St. Nazaire, France for Renaissance Cruises as R Two. Between 2002 and 2003 she sailed as Insignia before receiving her current name.[1]
Contents
Concept and construction
Renaissance Cruises had begun operations in 1989, with a series of eight small luxury cruise ships constructed during the course of the next three years.[2] In the mid-90s the company placed an order for eight identical 30,277 gross ton vessels with Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard in France. The first ship in the series, MS R One, was delivered in June 1998,[5] followed by R Two in November of the same year.[1]
Service history
Following her delivery to Renaissance Cruises in November 1998, R Two was placed on cruise traffic in the Mediterranean. Renaissance Cruises went bankrupt on 25 September 2001, following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, and, on 7 October 2001, the R Two was arrested in Gibraltar and subsequently laid up. Six of her sisters were also laid up in Gibraltar,[1][2] with only MS R Three and MS R Four absent as they were in the Pacific Ocean at the time of the collapse of Renaissance.[2][6][7] In December 2001, R Two and the other former Renaissance ships laid up in Gibraltar were sold to Cruiseinvest, and subsequently moved to Marseille, France for further layup.[1][2][5][8][9][10][11]
In October 2002, R Two was renamed Insignia, given a $10 million refit and chartered to Oceania Cruises, a new company founded by Frank Del Rio (the former vice president of Renaissance Cruises) and Joe Watters (the former CEO of Crystal Cruises).[1][2][12] Between 19 April and 14 June 2003, Insignia was chartered to the French travel agency TMR, who marketed the ship under the name Vaisseau Renaissance (her registered name remained unchanged).[1] On 15 June 2003, the ship returned to Oceania Cruises service, but was renamed Regatta, as the name Insignia had been passed to her sister R One that had also been chartered by Oceania.[1][2][5]
Design
Exterior design
R Two was built to a somewhat boxy, functional exterior appearance with a large square funnel. In Renaissance Cruises service her hull was painted dark blue, but in Oceania service this was changed to white with a thin blue stripe separating the hull from the superstructure.[3]
Interior design
The interiors of Regatta are decorated in art deco style similar to the ocean liners of the 1920s and 30s with polished dark wood and warm colours,[3][13] described by Douglas Ward, author of the Complete Guide to Cruising and Cruise Ships, as being "stunning and elegant".[3] The ship retains most of her interior decorations from her days with Renaissance Cruises, although the lido area on deck 9 was entirely refurbished before she entered service for Oceania Cruises, while smaller changes were carried out in the cabins and restaurants.[13]
Decks
The decks plans provided by Oceania Cruises only include the lay-outs of passenger accessible decks.
- Engine room and laundry fwd
- various offices
- Outside cabins[14]
- Reception, outside and inside cabins[15]
- Boutique, casino, bars, main dining room, lounge[16]
- Suites, outside and inside cabins[17]
- Suites, outside and inside cabins[18]
- Bridge, suites, outside and inside cabins[19]
- Card room, gym, spa, internet center, swimming pool, beauty salon, cafeteria, bar, sundeck[20]
- Bar/lounge, library, grill restaurant, Italian restaurant, sundeck[21]
- Sundeck[22]
References
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- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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