Regatta, here for the first time last Saturday, is one of a class of eight sister ships, an ambitious project that ran into financial difficulties before they were all completed and bankrupted their owners, Renaissance Cruises Inc.
Formed in 1989, the company then placed orders with two Italian shipyards for eight vessels, four 100-berth, 4077gt sisters, and four 114-berth, 4280gt units.
They entered service from 1990 to 1992 and, until sold, operated under the Liberian flag with not very inspiring names - Renaissance One to Eight.
In hindsight, its next order, a rather more ambitious one for eight sister ships, was awarded to the Chantiers de l'Atlantique yard at St Nazaire.
These vessels, all of 30,277gt and designed to carry 702 passengers, were delivered between June 1998, and February 2001. And once again, their names R One through to R Eight, were not very impressive or appealing.
While earlier members of the class did trade for their owners, by the time the last of them was delivered, Renaissance was already in financial trouble. It finally ceased operations when declared bankrupt in 2001.
By then the ships were in lay-up, a situation that continued until they were sold in 2002-03.
Princess Cruises bought R Three and R Four in 2002 and renamed them Pacific Princess and Tahitian Princess.
The other six were acquired, at auction for $US700 million ($NZ846 million), by CruiseInvest LLC, a Marshall Islands company set up by French investors in 2001.
Two of the sisters were chartered in 2003 and another in 2005 by Oceania Cruises, a company founded in 2002. The trio passed to Oceania when it acquired the CruiseInvest stake in the ships in November 2006, three months before Oceania itself was taken over by Apollo Management.
Regatta, which was refurbished last year and has 684 berths, entered service in November 1998, as R Two. The ship was renamed Insignia when first chartered by Oceania in October 2002. Then in April 2003, when it was chartered to the French travel agency TRM for three months, Oceania operated no vessels.
On June 15, 2003, Oceania re-commenced operations with Insignia, which it renamed Regatta, and R One (delivered in June 1998) was given the sister ship's former name Insignia. R Five, delivered in January 2000, joined them as Nautica in November 2005. They are registered at Majuro in the Marshall Islands.
Also flying the same flag is the newest and largest unit of the fleet, the 66,084gt, 1260-berth Marina. This vessel commenced its maiden voyage on January 22, 2011, and will be joined by sister ship Riviera in April. The contract for their construction was awarded to Fincantieris Sestri Ponente yard at Genoa in June 2007.
Regatta is now the fourth of this class to have visited this harbour. First to appear, on March 6, 2005, on its only visit, was Delphin Renaissance.
The former R Seven has been serving as Azamara Quest since 2006.
Four days later, Pacific Princess, the second visitor of this name to call here, made the first of seven calls up to April 2007. And Nautica berthed on six occasions between January 2008 and January 2010.
Of the rest of the class, R Six has been trading as Azamara Journey from 2007. R Eight carried the name Minerva II from 2003-06, then Royal Princess until last year when it was renamed Adonia in the Princess Cruises fleet.
In another change in this fleet during 2009, Tahitian Princess, ex R Four, had its name changed to Ocean Princess.