Small Ships Face Uncertain Future : Business may be down for some lines that carry fewer passengers, but many travelers still opt for less-crowded vessels.

Even with eight ships, all built since 1989, Renaissance Cruises is hardly a household name. On a recent sailing of the 100-passenger Renaissance III in the Caribbean, many of those aboard admitted that they had had to do their homework to find this particular ship with its unusual ports of call.

“We wanted to see what a small-ship cruise was like, after making our first cruise on a big Royal Caribbean Cruise Line ship,” said Arlene Wilkins of Robstown, Tex. Her husband, Brian, credited her with doing all the research that led them to choose this ship. They enjoyed it so much, she wrote us later, that they’re thinking of booking another sailing this fall.

With experienced travelers opting for cruises aboard small ships and expedition vessels, alternative cruise lines should be facing a secure future.

But are they?

SeaQuest Cruises, a one-ship line that operates the 164-passenger expedition ship Frontier Spirit, announced recently in an ad appearing in travel trade publications that it will cease operations Sept. 1, following the conclusion of the ship’s Aug. 18 departure from Bali. Its departure, the ad says, means “one less choice” for cruise travelers.

The concern is expressed by SeaQuest that “some travel agents” are tempted to take the easy way out and tout a big, highly advertised “mega-brands” vessel already familiar to travelers rather than offer the option of a small, lesser-known line.

Others predict darkly that the cruise lines may soon go the way of the airlines after deregulation, with the giants swallowing up the smaller companies.

The past decade has seen the demise of several small-ship lines, including the eight-ship Exploration Cruise Lines, the three-ship American Cruise Lines and the two-ship Society Expeditions, all of which went into bankruptcy.

Yet during the last decade, several small cruise lines have come into existence, including Renaissance, Star Clippers, Seven Seas Cruise Line and Crown Cruise Line (now Cunard Crown).

Renaissance Cruises’ ships, all with the name Renaissance with a Roman numeral following, are nearly identical 100-to-114-passenger vessels. They cruise seasonally or year-round in many parts of the world, including the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and Aegean, the Seychelles and East Africa, Scandinavia, Russia, India, Singapore and Bali.

With 84 passengers aboard, our ship was nearly full, and even a minor engine problem that kept the vessel from reaching one of its ports of call--the island of Montserrat--did not cause any rumblings.

Besides the often unusual ports of call, the primary appeals of Renaissance are the handsome, all-outside deluxe suite-cabins with sitting areas, and an open dining policy that allows passengers to dine when, where and with whom they please.

Like most small ships, Renaissance has virtually no organized entertainment outside of a trio that plays music for dancing and a small casino with a few slot machines and a single blackjack table.

Yet all has not been smooth sailing for Renaissance Cruises. We were aboard the maiden voyage of the Renaissance I out of Singapore in January, 1990, when it was owned by the Norwegian shipping company of Fearnley & Eger. Although the company did not yet have its operational procedures firmly in place, we thought it offered a promising cruise experience.

Then a series of problems began. Renaissance II, III and IV were late being delivered from the Italian shipyard that was building them, which necessitated a revision of cruise itineraries in the spring of 1990. That in turn created a lack of confidence from passengers who had booked cruises that had to be canceled or postponed.

In the spring of 1991, parent company Fearnley & Eger declared bankruptcy, and, as a result, two Renaissance ships were impounded, one in Antigua in the Caribbean and the other chartered out to a German travel company in Europe. While the seizures were temporary (only until funds owed were paid out), the incidents created embarrassment for the line.

For sale at what trade publication TravelAge West estimated at the time to be “more than $255 million plus interest on the principal,” Renaissance was purchased in August, 1991, by a partnership of Italy’s Cameli Group, headed up by Sebastiano Cameli, and Luxury Liners, Ltd., a holding company controlled by Edward B. Rudner, president of Certified Tours and formerly one of the founders and chief officers of Alamo Rent-A-Car.

On this most recent visit, we found the basic Renaissance cruise experience that we had enjoyed previously still very much intact, with the same attention to food and service that we found on earlier sailings. But despite the ship’s handsome interior, the exterior of the vessel, as always, looked as if it needed more spit-and-polish maintenance.

The current Caribbean itinerary sails round trip from Antigua, alternating southbound and northbound programs with a collection of interesting islands. Our southbound cruise called at Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Bequia, Martinique and (on most weeks but not when we were aboard) Montserrat.

The northern route visits St. Kitts, St. Croix, Virgin Gorda, St. Maarten and St. Barts. A couple we met from England and another couple from Australia were making the full two-week trip to catch all the islands.

These seven-day Caribbean sailings are available now through Dec. 12 at $1,495 per person, double occupancy, for the cruise only, plus $250 add-on for round-trip air fare from the West Coast.

Upcoming specials also include two-week Asian sailings priced at “two for the price of a single” or $3,995 per person, double. A Dec. 5 cruise from Bombay calls at Goa, New Mangalore, Cochin, the Andaman Islands, Thailand and Malaysia on the way to Singapore, while a Jan. 2, Jan. 30 or Feb. 27, 1994, departure from Bali to Singapore visits Krakatau, Jakarta, Semarang, Surabaya, Lombok, Palopo, Ujung Pandang, Kalabahi, Larantuka and Komodo (all in Indonesia).

A reverse itinerary from Singapore to Bali sails Dec. 19, Jan. 16 and Feb. 13, while a reverse itinerary of the Bombay-Singapore journey is scheduled for March 13, 1994. Round-trip economy air fare from the West Coast is an additional $1,295 per person.

Renaissance ships are not appropriate for young children since there is nowhere for them to play apart from the adult public areas. While couples predominate the guest list, a number of single passengers aboard also seemed to enjoy themselves.

For free color brochures and more information, contact a travel agent or Renaissance Cruises at (800) 525-5350.