Ambassador Cruise Line has acquired Oceania Sirena from luxury line Oceania Cruise to enter the German market, which is the biggest in Europe with 2.8 million cruise passengers a year.
It has launched a dedicated cruise brand, Ambassador Kreuzfahrten.
The 670-guest Oceania Sirena will continue to operate under the Oceania brand till spring 2028 under the terms of a leaseback agreement.
It will then join Ambassador’s fleet and be renamed Ambella, offering adult-only cruises esigned specifically for the German market.
Homeporting in Bremerhaven and Kiel, Ambella will offer a fully German-speaking guest experience, said Ambassador. The cruise line said it believes Ambella’s ‘intimate scale, premium environment and service-led approach will create a compelling proposition for quality-conscious German couples, experienced cruisers and river-cruise customers looking to discover ocean cruising’.
Ambella is expected to operate two repositioning cruises and 11 destination-focused itineraries between May and September 2028, visiting ports across northern Europe and the Baltics alongside selected sailings to southern Europe.
Ambassador said the additional ship ‘represents the latest stage of rapid but carefully managed growth’ for the company.
It launched in the UK in 2021 with one ship Ambience, offering ex-UK cruises, later adding Ambition in 2023. In 2025, it merged with French cruise line Compagnie Française de Croisières (CFC), which brought Renaissance into its fleet, operating cruises for the French market in the summer and Caribbean fly-cruises in the winter for British, French and Dutch guests.
Earlier this month, CFC was brought under the Ambassador umbrella, which marked the latest stage in its ambition to build ‘a leading European affordable quality cruise line for the 50-plus market’, said the group.
“The integration has also brought the businesses together under a single operational and strategic framework, strengthening the Group’s financial resilience, commercial capability and infrastructure through shared expertise, greater economies of scale and closer collaboration across its teams, while creating a scalable platform for further growth across Europe,” it added.
“The launch of Ambassador Kreuzfahrten represents the next step in that strategy, creating a dedicated national proposition for the German market while building on the operating model and expertise established across Ambassador’s existing businesses.”
CEO Christian Verhounig added: “When we launched Ambassador in 2021, we identified a clear gap in the market for an affordable quality cruise experience that was authentic, welcoming and accessible.
“We set out to combine the traditions of classic cruising with the standards and expectations of today’s guests, and that philosophy remains fundamental to our success.
“Our merger with CFC gives us greater scale, financial resilience and a stronger European platform, while allowing us to retain the individual character of the markets we serve.
“Entering Germany with Ambassador Kreuzfahrten is the next stage of that growth strategy.
“Germany is Europe’s largest cruise market, but scale alone is not the reason we are entering it. We see a clear opportunity to offer German guests something distinctive: the intimacy and authenticity of a smaller ship, an exceptional adult-only experience and a product that combines tradition, service and destination discovery at an accessible price.
“Our aim is to offer one of the strongest propositions in the market, combining a high-quality ship and on-board experience with compelling value.
“For us, growth is about building a resilient European cruise business that delivers sustainable, long-term growth while remaining true to what made Ambassador successful in the first place. Ambella is the right ship, Germany is the right market and we believe this is the right time to take this exciting next step and introduce to a new generation of over-50s our famous warmest welcome at sea – because moments matter.”
