Ambassador Cruise Line buys Oceania Sirena, to rename it Ambella

Ambassador Cruise Line has acquired the cruise ship Oceania Sirena from Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, operator of Oceania Cruises, both trade outlets announced on September 23, 2026. The ship will be renamed Ambella and will become the first vessel of the company's new German brand, Ambassador Kreuzfahrten.

The ship will continue operating for Oceania Cruises until spring 2028 under a leaseback agreement, before joining Ambassador's fleet. Cruise Critic describes the vessel as a 684-passenger ship, while Seatrade Cruise puts it at 670 passengers. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings had announced the sale of the Sirena in July 2026 without revealing the buyer's identity at the time.

Starting in summer 2028, Ambella will sail from the German ports of Bremerhaven and Kiel. Its inaugural season, running from May to September 2028, will feature 11 itineraries across Northern Europe, the Baltic and Southern Europe, plus two repositioning voyages. Ambassador Kreuzfahrten will reveal further details of its 2028 program in November 2026.

The ship will also be chartered to the Institute for Shipboard Education to host the floating university program Semester at Sea. Cruise Critic states this will take place in fall 2028 and spring 2029, while Seatrade Cruise specifies that the vessel will host the program for about eight months a year, from September 2028 to April 2029, under an agreement initially planned for a ten-year term.

The Sirena was built in 1999 and originally sailed for Renaissance Cruises under the name R Four, before joining the Princess Cruises fleet in 2002, where it remained until 2014. That year it was refurbished and relaunched in 2016 as Oceania Sirena. Cruise Mapper adds that during its time with Princess Cruises the ship operated as Tahitian Princess and later as Ocean Princess.

Ambassador Cruise Line, founded in 2021, began operations with the Ambience in April 2022 and added the Ambition in 2023. In January 2025 the company merged with French operator Compagnie Française de Croisières (CFC), bringing the ship Renaissance into the fleet; that French operation was later renamed Ambassador Croisières and continues to sail from Dunkerque and Marseille for the French market.