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Two Norwegian partners Fearly & Egar founded Renaissance Cruises in 1989. They started out by ordering eight small yacht like cruise ships weighing between 2,800 and 4,280 tons. Fearly & Egar were saved from bankruptcy in 1991 when they were taken over by the Italian Cameli Group and the US company Luxury Cruises. These new owners soon began selling off the smaller ships and ordered eight nearly identical 30,277-ton R class cruise ships. The first of the R class ships R One entered service in 1998 with the last of the class R Eight being completed three years later. Renaissance Cruises were declared bankrupt in 2001, this leading to all eight ships being offered for charter.

P&O/Princess Cruises have since acquired R Three and R Four. These ships are operated in the South Pacific areas of French Polynesia and Australia under the names Pacific Princess and Tahitian Princess. P&Os English based Swan Hellenic agreed to charter R Eight in 2003 for seven years under the name Minerva 11 and the Spanish company Pullmantur has chartered R Six under the name Bleu Dream and R Seven under the name Blue Moon. Oceania Cruises have acquired R One and R Two to be operated as as their Insignia and Regatta.

This class of cruise ship has 9 passenger decks, 1 pool, 5 bars, casino, fitness center, 329 outside cabins with 232 having balconies, 20 inside cabins, can carry 696 passengers and a crew of 370.

Tahitian Princess is operated on 10 night cruises throughout Tahiti from Papeete, and 11 night cruises between Tahiti & Hawaii.

Pacific Princess is operated on various cruises throughout the Pacific islands, South East Asia & Australia.

View the websites for prices and itinerary of these ships at www.princess.com for Pacific Princess and Tahitian Princess, www.swanhellenic.com for Minerva 11 and (www.oceaniacruises.com) for Insignia and Regatta.