Regent Seven Seas – The Luxury Cruise Experience

I have recently come back from my first cruise with Regent Seven Seas on board the Mariner. WOW what an experience!!

I embarked in Livorno for a 3 night sailing, a little taster really I certainly could have stayed longer!! Embarkation was speedy and after departing Manchester at 8am I was on board at the pool deck by lunch time.

We had a concierge cabin on deck 10, really spacious with a walk in wardrobe bathroom with bath tub and shower over & L’Octaine amenities, we even had our own Illy coffee machine

Here we were in for our first treat, burger & fries with champagne on the side!! One thing I found on Regent is there is something for everyone, even the fussiest of eaters & drinkers.

As you can see from the photo of my colleague portions were huge, even to the Cosmo in the wine glass!!

The weather was great in Livorno so next stop the pool for a little sunbathing. There were always plenty of staff around to serve drinks and we never waited long. As the title suggests Regent offer the most inclusive luxury experience. I had done a little research before boarding and expected to pay for any top shelf spirits the included spirits were sufficient, champagne, a huge choice of wines & beers, bottled water, speciality coffees and each spirit had a minimum of 3 to chose from being a vodka drinker I was especially impressed to see Grey Goose & Belvedere vodka included and not forgetting every cocktail you could imagine, they made a mean Mojito at the pool bar!!

Tonight we headed to Prime 7 the speciality steak restaurant, again all included in your cruise fare there is no extra cover charge and you can even book to dine in here before you arrive. Being married to a chef I find myself a bit of a foodie and have to try as much as possible as Chris always wants to hear all about it when I get home. This is where I wish Chris could have joined me on board the food was fantastic, my favorite was Prime 7, I loved La Veranda for lunch, Compass Rose the main dining room was also great but not my favorite again though the staff never disappointed. In Compass Rose I didn’t fancy any of the desserts but asked for Cheesecake that wasn’t on the menu and out it came!! Nothing was ever too much trouble.

Next stop was Monte Carlo, we decided to do our own thing and took the tender over for a wander. There are optional shore excursions included in every port FREE of CHARGE, this All Inclusive gets better & better!!  There is a good choice of inclusive excursions in every port there are a minimum of 4 free excursions to chose from and then a few alternatives that are payable.

It was such a warm day in Monte Carlo once back on  board I went off to find the Ice Cream!! So much choice, in a cone or a tub, 1 scoop or 2 and every sprinkle or sauce you could imagine to put on top!!! So I decided on a 2 scoop cone with rocky road & peanut Ice cream then I noticed the smoothie menu on the side, well it would be rude not to try it right?!

We were in for a treat to end the day in Monte Carlo with a pool party up on deck. It was so fantastic it deserves its own blog!! You will need to pop by next week to hear all about it and see a video!!

On arrival into Marseille we were up nice and early to see us get into port, so early we were in the gym at 7am, I was most impressed by the drinks in the gym fridge with Bottled water, Vitamin water and energy drinks. We did have an ulterior motive for going to the gym, we had room service breakfast being delivered to the cabin at 9am. You will see from the picture above there was plenty to chose from. This wasn’t the first time we had ordered room service, once at 3am for pizza & fries and again 1am on our departure morning!! All in the name of research!!

We met our group in the Mariner lounge for pre dinner drinks and canapes before heading to Compass Rose for our last supper or so we thought, don’t forget we ordered room service at 1am!!

On our last morning we arrived into Barcelona nice and early and headed to La Veranda for breakfast, again so much choice, continental, cooked, pastries every egg you could think of I decided on bagel with smoked salmon & cream cheese.

Disembarkation was smooth and once outside the terminal our driver was waiting for us with our names on a card. We pre booked our transfer with the supplier we use for our tailor made holidays and were very impressed.

Overall I loved Regent for me the only disappointment is that there are no kids facilities but that’s only because I have a toddler. I might just just have to find a babysitter for a week and take my husband!! I did think the age range might have been higher but I was very surprised and found a good mix on board with families with older children in their early 20′s so a nice mix of people to chat to.

I would also like to mention Luxury cruising maybe isn’t as expensive as you think. We have some fantastic prices on the Mariner departing this summer take this one,

6th September 2014
Seven Seas Mariner
7 Nights
Barcelona, Port-Vendres, Marseille,Antibes, Florence/Pisa, Rome, Portofino, Monte Carlo
Prices From – £2299 per person