MS Regatta was built for 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]

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 tonnage (GT) 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]

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]

The interiors of Regatta are decorated in art deco style similar to the ocean liners of the 1920s and 1930s with polished dark wood and warm colours,^[3][6] 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.^[6]

Regatta has ten decks.

Following her delivery to Renaissance Cruises in November 1998, R Two was placed on cruise traffic in the Mediterranean. Renaissance Cruises went bankrupt on September 25, 2001, following September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and, on October 7, 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][7][8] 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][9][10][11][12]}

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][13] Between April 19 and June 14, 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 June 15, 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]

Regatta was scheduled to undergo a significant renovation in September 2019 as a part of the company's $100 million OceaniaNEXT program.^[14]

• Official website
• Photos and Video of Regatta Cruise ship in Yalta, Ukraine