It's all systems go for Oceania Cruises, as the keel is laid for new ship Marina at Fincantieri's Sestri Ponente shipyard near Genoa, Italy.
The Oceania-class ship, the cruiseline's first new build, will hold 1,252 passengers - almost twice as many as the three other vessels in Oceania's fleet - in 626 cabins, of which 96% will have teak balconies. The ship will have six open dining restaurants. It launches next year.
At the keel-laying ceremony, Oceania's founder Frank Del Rio, now chairman and CEO of Prestige Cruise Holdings, Oceania's parent company, welded a US silver dollar and a pre-Castro silver Cuban peso into the keel of the new ship to ensure its good fortune. A steel block was then lowered into the dock.
Only another 54 to go and they will have a ship.
Del Rio is on the left, with Bob Binder, Oceania's president, on the right.
Jane Archer
