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September 17, 2022

Here we are on board Seven Seas Explorer, a new story to discover the experience aboard a Regent cruise.

This was my first Regent cruise and it was delightful.  I’ll touch on what really impressed and some areas of opportunity as the review progresses.  Suffice to say I would absolutely return to Regent and certainly hope to in the future.

June 2022 – 7 Nights Rome to Athens

Rome; Amalfi; Catania; Corfu; Gythion; Santorini; Kusadasi; Athens

My background

I started cruising in the latter 70’s as a pre-teen. My grandmother got me hooked on cruising from my very first cruise on the Italian Line Leonardo Da Vinci. What a ship! Fast forward some 44 years and this Regent voyage was my 135th cruise.  I’ve sailed on everything from Carnival to Silversea, and most lines in-between. My luxury line experience includes Royal Viking (back in the day), Seabourn, Silversea, and now Regent.  I’ve also enjoyed many premium cruise experiences on lines like Oceania, Azamara, Windstar, Cunard (Grills), and Disney. In addition I’ve been lucky enough to experience the “ship within a ship” luxury concepts such as the Yacht Club with MSC and the Haven with NCL. It’s surprising just how nice those experiences can be, but I don’t think they can top a full-ship luxury experience like Regent offers. At the end of the day you are still sharing a ship with thousands of fellow passengers instead of hundreds. Although it’s probably obvious I love cruising, it’s the ships themselves that are my passion. Ships are a hobby and have been since I was a child. I collect ship memorabilia and although I’m fascinated by ocean liner history, I’m equally intrigued by the cruise industry today, how its evolved and where it’s heading. Prototype ships really catch my attention, and I enjoy nothing more than sailing on a first-in-class ship.

I have to be honest and mention the initial marketing of Seven Seas Explorer was somewhat off-putting to me. Touted as the “most luxurious ship ever built” before she even made her debut seemed pretentious and frankly presumptuous to me. Like most new ships I reviewed the interiors, studied the deck plans, and watched some videos. I concluded she was a bit over the top, and perhaps someone else’s idea of ultra-luxury but not necessarily mine. Maybe trying a bit too hard?  That was my initial perception anyway having never set foot on her. Needless to say perceptions can be proven wrong and that was certainly the case where Seven Seas Explorer was concerned. I found the ship absolutely delightful with beautiful original works of art, top notch fittings & finishes, and just the right balance of bling to bring it all together. Surprising I found the ship very comfortable & inviting, and not at all stuffy. The atmosphere onboard was casual elegance even if the surroundings were in some cases opulent.  More on the ship in a bit.

This adventure started with two nights in Rome and thankfully we had an anti-climatic journey from our home in Fort Lauderdale to Italy.  Flights were jammed packed as were the airports.  People are traveling in droves after these last years of virtually no travel during Covid.  We made all our hotel and air arrangements independently and did not take advantage of the Regent air or hotel program.  We took a taxi from Fiumicino airport to our hotel in Rome which was called the River Palace.  To our relief we only had to wait maybe an hour for our room to be ready and we instantly crashed for a few hours.  The River Palace was a modest hotel very near the Piazza del Popolo and therefore within walking distance to most major attractions of the city.  Having already been to Rome several times we had no tours booked and generally avoided the tourist attractions.  This was more of a shopping & eating excursion and I confess we ate very well!   One observation is how crowded the city was.  We generally avoid the Mediterranean/Europe in summer and this trip only reinforced that notion.  We will stick to either the Spring or Fall for future European vacations.

Embarkation day

My favorite day of days arrived.  Embarkation day! Even after 135 cruises I still get excited embarking on a ship, especially one I’ve never sailed before and even more thrilling trying out a new cruise line. We opted for the cruise line transfer from Rome to the port of Civitavecchia, as it’s about a two hour journey. We met up with the transfer at the Westin Excelsior which is the pre-cruise hotel that Regent uses. We had our documents and negative COVID tests in hand. We brought with us two proctored COVID tests which I’ve used for other cruises so I was familiar with them. BinaxNOW by Abbott. We each took turns testing in our hotel room using the hotel’s wifi service, and thankfully both of us were negative. The entire process takes about 30 minutes each and the verified results are emailed directly to you, which you can then show to the embarkation staff. It works brilliantly.  Embarkation was a little cumbersome but this can be attributed to COVID procedures. The terminal was one of the older terminals (without a/c) but the fans were circulating to cool things off. In fact we embarked on a Silversea cruise from this same terminal. I think the smaller ships must use it. The embarkation process entails providing COVID results, then clearing a security screening, then actually checking-in and boarding the ship. You can opt for a COVID test right at the terminal for a $99 per test fee which is a little steep. FYI Regent will no longer require a negative COVID test at embarkation as of August 1st, unless it’s required by the country of embarkation. Boarding the ship was via the ships gangway, so no modern jet-bridge at this terminal. I have to confess the Silversea embarkation process from this same terminal was superior, but it was several years ago pre-COVID so it’s not a fair comparison. Anyway on that sailing they actually checked us in on the ship in the main lounge with a glass of champagne.

That’s all for today, we are looking forward to seeing you next week to continue telling you the story of our experience with Regent on board Seven Seas Explorer. (part 2)

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Ernie Roller

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