After successfully evading pirates in November of 2008, the Nautica made her way to Singapore as scheduled. Oceania Cruises most frequent visitor to Southeast Asia is seen below, passing Sentosa island, on her departure in late December. At 30,277 tons, the French built Nautica is considered a small ship.

 

 

The Nautica (ex-R Five, ex-Blue Dream) suffers a design flaw that is all too common in smaller cruise ships - the lack of a forward observation area that is unobstructed. As you will notice in the photograph below, the passengers on the Sun Deck (deck 11) are all congregating on the starboard side after the protective, blue tinted glass ends. Certainly an annoyance for passengers wishing to take photographs while underway.

 

  

Baring the forward observation limitation, Renaissance Cruises seems to have gotten most other design details correct. All 7 of the original R Class ships are successfully deployed around the world in exactly the niche itineraries for which they were designed. Had Renaissance built a stronger business plan and weathered September 11th better, they might be the dominant player in the small ship premium market.

 

 

Consistently ranked as one of the best value for quality cruise lines, Oceania is definitely in our "aspire to" list for future cruises. To see more images of the Nautica in Singapore, visit our gallery here.