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I just got an e-mail about the new "Oceana" cruise line. This answers many of the questions about the rest of the "R" ships and the Renaissance web site we were all so leary about last summer. Any takers??? or are most of you skeptical like me???
Location: Wisconsin....about 100 miles south of the Frozen Tundra and 70 miles east of Camp Randall
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Re: "Oceana" cruise lines "R" u afraid??
I'm going to adopt a wait and see attitude - see what those who are brave enough to try this line have to say....if they find a niche and are good at it....who knows?
I just got an e-mail about the new "Oceana" cruise line. This answers many of the questions about the rest of the "R" ships and the Renaissance web site we were all so leary about last summer.
IIRC, Renaissance had nine (9) "R" ships in service. With this news, I can account for only six with the previous announcements that
>> The former MV R3 is the new MV Pacific Princess (split deployment between Princess Cruises and P&O Cruises/Australia),
>> The former MV R4 is now MV [i] Tahitian Princess [/i[ (Princess Cruises), and
>> The foremr MV R7 will begin sailing as MV Minerva II (Swan Hellenic Cruises) in March 2003.
This leaves two unanswered questions.
>> 1. Which three of the other six "R" ships are going to the new line?
>> 2. What is happening to the three remaining "R" ships?
We probably will find out sooner or later, but I would appreciate any additional information that you have.
Chuck... those Email messages from the ersatz "Ren" web site have nothing to do with Oceana, or Oceana's principals. Quite a different story. Also, we may yet see another of those Ren ships turn up on P&O/Princess' roster.
According to the e-mail, Frank Del rio and Joe Waters teamed up to form Oceana Cruise lines. They are leasing R's 1,2.&6. R-i will be called "Regatta" and will set sail July 5th from Barcelona to Dover. R-2 and R-6 are not yet named but will sail off-beat destinations. See Cruise Critic Newsletter, released today.
Chuck,
Our own Tim Rubacky made an announcement about this a little over a week ago. Tim is pretty busy but I am sure he will write up something comprehensive and factual very shortly for publication here at Cruisemates. Most of anything you see elsewhere is often rumor and speculation with bits of truth worked in. We may not always be the first, (sometimes we are), but we are always the most factual. <G>
Jim
Community Staff Leader
Since you seem to be up on Princess, I'll ask:
Any possibility of Princess grabbing another one if it's available FAST to make up for the Diamond delay?. I realise the capacity is not even close but?... 7 day Mexican Riviera fall 2003...maybe even in time for Alaska 2003.
I am very interested in this new line, with the ex-President of Crystal as a partner, maybe this is the answer to the problems that have become obvious at Crystal since he left.
As far as I am concerned, since he left Crystal appears to have multiple personality problems, it cannot make up its mind if it is Crystal, or pseudo-RCCC,pseudo-Princess,or just pseudo-something-for -everyone. It also cannot sort out its left hand from its right hand ,even in the same mailing you can get two totally different sets of information,even the staff do not know which information is correct.!
Certainly the quality of staff at the front desk has gone down, on a recent cruise on Symphony, the drain in my bathroom kept back flowing allowing OTHER PEOPLES WASTE WATER to back flow over my floor. Over a period of two days I made two reports to the front desk, nothing happeneded, on the third time I was told, by the front desk,"it is 10.30, no one is on duty , we will leave a note for the day staff!!!!"
It was only when I pulled on my robe, and went down into the Plaza, and got rather loud and nasty that they finally agreed to "inform the Maint Officer - even though he is off -duty"!!
Even after a so called repair, it still happened yet a fourth time. I have never known Crystal to be so inattentive to a complaint in the past.
Any possibility of Princess grabbing another one if it's available FAST to make up for the Diamond delay?.
If Princess can snag another of those vessels with less restrictive terms than the lease-purchase agreement for MV Tahetian Princess and the new MV Pacific Princess (which require both of these vessels to remain in the Pacific through 2004), I expect that Princess would deploy such vessels on itineraries with ports of call that cannot accommodate the larger "panamax" and "post-panamax" newbuilds. The more likely probably would include a combination of northern European and Mediterranean/Black Sea itineraries, probably including the Greek Isles, in the spring, summer, and early fall and longer cruises to smaller islands (Galapagos, etc.) in the winter. Bermuda also would be a possible summer destination.
I am not the least bit worried and I had the most work when Ren went under because of the 200 pax I had booked....I always loved the ships and this is brand new management and will be run very differently..with Joe Watters and Frank Delrio, I can see only a win-win situation..The ships they will have are the R1..Regatta , R2 Nautica and the R5 not yet named..Jazzseacruz.com has a lot of infor on the web site...
Janice Fishbein
"Oceana" cruise lines "R" u afraid???
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