A Look at the Future of Oceania Cruises’ R-Class Ships

A Look at the Future of Oceania Cruises’ R-Class Ships

Oceania Cruises is set to undergo significant changes over the next few years with the debut of newbuilds and the retirement of its older vessels.

Having been fully repositioned into the luxury market, the Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings’ (NCLH) brand is moving on from its older R-class ships, which are being sold off, repurposed or chartered.

Cruise Industry News looks at the company’s plans for the four ships, which originally debuted between 1998 and 2001.

Sirena
Capacity: 684
Tonnage: 30,200
Year Built: 2000
Fate: Sold to undisclosed buyer
Farewell Cruise: March 24, 2028

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings announced the sale of the Sirena in late July. While a buyer was not named, the ship is expected to be delivered to its new owners after its spring 2028 deployment.

Originally launched as the R4 in 2000, the 684-passenger ship was acquired by Oceania in 2016, after spending over a decade sailing for Princess Cruises.

Nautica
Capacity: 684
Tonnage: 30,200
Year Built: 2000
Fate: To become Oceania Aurelia
Farewell Cruise: October 15, 2027

The Nautica will remain in service for Oceania Cruises after undergoing a significant refurbishment in late 2027.

According to the company, the 2000-built ship will be reimagined as the “ultimate world explorer,” embarking on longer cruises and the brand’s 180-day Around the World Voyages. Renamed Oceania Aurelia, the vessel will offer larger suites and capacity will be trimmed from 684 to under 400.

Regatta
Capacity: 684
Tonnage: 30,200
Year Built: 1998
Fate: Chartered to My Cruises
Farewell Cruise: August 17, 2026

The Regatta will leave Oceania Cruises’ fleet this year having been chartered to My Cruises’ Explorations by Norwegian brand.

The Australian tour operator will operate world cruises onboard the 30,200-ton vessel, currently holding a two-year charter agreement with Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings.

“At the conclusion of the initial term, the charter may be extended for multiple years or, alternatively, the vessel may be sold to a third-party cruise operator,” NCLH stated in its 2026 second quarter earnings presentation.

Insignia
Capacity: 684
Tonnage: 30,200
Year Built: 1999
Fate: To remain in fleet for the time being
Farewell Cruise: TBD

The Insignia is staying in the company’s fleet for the time being. The 30,200-ton ship was previously slated to be withdrawn in 2027 to become a residential cruise ship for Crescent Seas but the plan later fell through.

While no new long-term plans have been announced, Oceania’s published deployment includes departures onboard the 30,200-ton ship through November 2027.

Extending a river cruise at sea

By Tom Stieghorst 

Many of the passengers I shared a voyage with recently on the new Viking Star ocean cruise ship were past passengers on Viking’s river cruise vessels.

I was surprised to hear from more than one of them that river cruises in general are too short.

Unlike on the ocean, where one can find world cruises of more than 100 days, river cruises are limited by the length of the river they sail on and rarely span more than two weeks.

Tom Stieghorst

One woman said that to justify the trouble of packing, taking an overseas flight with all of the security and customs procedures that involves, and adjusting to jet lag in Europe, she wanted to vacation for longer than a typical river cruise allows.

This woman had enjoyed a 15-day river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest, and said she wouldn’t mind doing the reverse cruise back-to-back in order to get more mileage from her overseas trip.

Mind you, nearly one third of the passengers on my cruise from Istanbul had signed on for a full 50-night, 33-port grand ocean tour of Europe that will finish in Stockholm at the end of May.

So clearly, while there is some overlap between ocean and river cruise customers, there’s a certain contingent that prefers a longer voyage than is possible on the average river itinerary.

One solution is to combine the two, a concept that first launched last fall when Celebrity Cruises linked up with river operator Amras Cruises to create ocean-and-river cruise packages. 

Viking could take that idea to the next level by being one company that offers both types of cruises.

There is already a lot of conversation about the topic at Viking's headquarters in Los Angeles, according to Sara Conley, Viking's director of public relations and social media, who added that it is logistically more difficult than it might appear.

Ocean and river cruises do not share many home ports, so there might be land transfers involved between one ship and the other. And the schedules of the two sides of the cruise business were not designed with coordination in mind, so they don’t necessarily match up in convenient ways. 

At this point, Viking has just one ocean ship, the 930-passenger Star. Next year it expects to have another delivered, with a third to follow either late in 2016 or early 2017.

By that time Viking may have figured out a solution to offering the combo cruise that would give some passengers both a river cruise and a more extended cruise vacation in Europe.