Seven Seas Explorer Cruise Reviews - Reviews

This was our first cruise in 40 years. I'm writing this review a year later and we have now been on 4 cruises. this was by far our favorite.

This was our 2nd Regent cruise and we loved every minute of it. Food, service, staff were all top shelf. Our cabin was beautiful as is the whole ship.

The excellent design and amenities of this newest Regent Seven Seas ships were greatly appreciated as fulfilling the promise to be "the most luxurious cruise ship ever"...at least for a ship of this medium size: imagine a luxury yacht on steroids.  The entire ship's company seemed delighted to provide excellent service. 

We do not think the photos and videos publicity do the Regent SS Explorer justice. A phenomenal amount of thought and attention to detail has gone into achieving a magnificent, beautiful masterpiece of craftsmanship.

But saying that any organisation is as good as its staff. We feel Regent have moved into a different league with the quality, charm, presentation and efficiency of the staff on board. From the moment we arrived to the sad moment we departed, one felt a magical appealing team spirit. Nothing was too much for the passengers on board. It was fascinating to note that all the crew just wanted to always go the extra mile for the clients. Be it a cleaner or an officer, everyone was friendly, polite, courteous and couldn’t do enough for the guests on board. Most importantly, they all took pride in their appearance.

The on board entertainment was splendid. We enjoyed the shows and all the daily programs. Great thought and attention to detail on what the client wanted. Many fellow passengers felt the same. What we did like that the entertainment staff mingled on a daily basis with the passengers and were not aloof like other cruise ships. The shows were professionally presented and extremely enjoyable and entertaining. The guest entertainers were well chosen. The speakers were outstandingly good on their subjects, knowledgeable and professional presentations.

The Daily Programme sheets were extremely informative as well the port of call guides were up to date! The TV Guide and the content were excellent and very up to date DVD’s and programs.

We felt the tours were at an upper level compared with what we were used to. Why, because there were 25 to 28 people to a 50 person bus so that it wasn’t a mass “scrum” every time and the locations seemed less crowded and more selective and thought out.

The storage and space in the suites is wonderful as well as the electrical and charging facilities are second to none. My favourite in the suite is the ceiling shower. Just loved it! The suites are decorated to a five star standard and again a lot of wonderful little touches throughout the suite.

General opinion again was that the standard and quality of food on board was the best on any Regent ship if not on any cruise liner.

We have always been great fans of Compass Rose which again is well supported by La Veranda, The Café, Prime 7, Chartreuse and Sette Mari but have to say were totally blown away by Pacific Rim. We are huge followers of Asian food but have to say what we had tasted several times on board was the best we have experienced so far in the world. Absolutely brilliant and even better now we attended the cooking demonstrations.

The quality of all the bars were superb, well stocked with quality spirits, cocktails, and wine selection.

There were a lot of other lovely little physical touches throughout the ship but most of all was the quality of chandeliers, glass sculptures, furnishings and paintings and overall design.

The Regent SS Explorer is a quality product. The standard has been set and knowing Regent, this will be maintained at all times. The cruise industry has a hard act to follow. The ship is sheer majestic splendour. It is far from being “bling” or plastic like some other cruise lines.

The one aspect we will take away from this holiday is the superb standard of service and staff attitude. We feel we have met so many genuine friendly people and were totally spoilt.

Regent have set a new standard of service second to none and we look forward to continue to support the company.

This cruise has surpassed our expectations and we have already booked another Regent cruise as well looking at other options.

To summarise, one can sense a phenomenal positive atmosphere, great team work, morale and attention to detail and that can only come from a strong and very capable Regent management team

As we all know, these days, people are so quick to complain or make a habit of complaining for the sake of it, we just wanted to say we had an extremely enjoyable holiday with Regent. We were really impressed. We loved the extra small touches as well the good food, beverage, and great people.

To conclude by going all inclusive with tours, gratuities, food and drink, Wi-Fi, it works out the same price as the main players with all their extras. Only difference – superb quality and service! It saves you from constantly having your ship’s card out. What would you prefer?

The only decision we have to make now is where next with Regent?

We are well travelled having completed over forty cruises along with several land-based tours with Abercrombie & Kent. We usually cruise Celebrity. We decided to try a luxury cruise line to see if it was a truly elevated experience. We chose the October 7, 2024, 11-night Japan cruise which included a three-day pre-tour of Tokyo and business class roundtrip airfare. We were hoping for a truly luxurious experience, but we received the most disappointing cruise experience of our lives. Here are the details: First on a positive note, I found the shipboard entertainment to be quite good and our cabin was nice. The included wine was very good. Unfortunately, these positives could not overcome the negatives described below. Pre-tours of Tokyo were dreadful. The tours were designed to cram 2-3 experiences into a 4-hour tour with a bus load of about 25-30 people with little time to do anything more than get off and look around for a few minutes. Examples included a stop at an office building to view Tokyo harbor (after standing in an outside line for a long time), a stop in the Ginza shopping district for 45 minutes of "power shopping" at stores available in any large city and a visit to an urban park with less than interesting features. The "included tours" offered during the cruise themselves were no better with a bus load of 25-30 people and guides without amplification which made it difficult to hear anything. Of course, we could have arranged private tours with our own personal guide for a better experience, but then why pay the extra fare baked into the cruise price? I would describe the ship's interior and public spaces as "modern mortuary." The dark woods, dark carpeting and dated decor created a depressing backdrop. The main elevator had glass windows (that appeared cloudy) that looked out to nothing but a wall of white paint between floors (very odd for a luxury cruise ship). The dining experience was extremely disappointing. We had four specialty dining reservations and ate the remainder of our evening meals in Compass Rose (the main dining room). The food quality was inconsistent, ranging from good to awful. The buffet selections at lunch were surprisingly limited, many offerings were lukewarm, and the venue was very crowded. No luxury here. We had lunch in Prime 7 and had the worst baby back ribs we have ever had. They were the consistence of leather and tasted the same. We ordered a bottle of premium red wine at Prime 7. Unfortunately, the server poured the wine “hot" at room temperature. I would have thought that a luxury line would have a temperature-controlled wine cellar, but the server admitted he had pulled the wine from a shelf in the lobby area of the restaurant. Compass Rose was too brightly lit for our taste, not romantic at all. The server stations scattered around the room were noisy with the clang of dishes and silverware distracting from the experience. Celebrity, by contrast, has higher walls around their service areas that muffle the sound and provide a less visually "busy" experience. I expected that the higher crew to passenger ratio would be evident in higher levels of service. That was not the case. The most shocking thing was the attitude of the staff. The captain and most senior officers were mostly out of sight, only appearing at set required events. There was no effort to get to know you or your preferences from the wait staff, service was sloppy or indifferent at times, not very much smiling. I felt there was a moral problem that permeated the staff. Daily activities were limited, and the casino was never opened due to regulations. Regent does not have an app for your phone that lists daily activities and dining times which means you must consult a piece of paper delivered to your stateroom each night. I saw a lecture or two. I found the lectures not remarkably interesting covering the same information that we were getting from our tour guides. Prior to the cruise, we were invited to participate in a Breast Cancer awareness night and asked to bring pink attire. However, we were never told which night until materials were delivered to our room the night before. By that time, my wife had already worn the pink dress thinking that there was no set time. Communication was lacking. Finally, upon debarkation we were ushered off the ship at 8:15 am for a bus to the airport for a 6:00pm flight. We chose this flight as one of the options from Regent for airfare without an upcharge. If you wanted a better flight, you could pay additional money. The point is the "included" airfare is based on contracts with the carriers, many of which have odd connections or require flying at off-peak times. Take the credit from Regent to book your own flights. Do not expect the credit to cover the cost of a decent business class flight, however. Upon returning from our trip our travel agent asked for a cruise follow-up, and I relayed this information to her. She forwarded my comments to Regent. A few days later, I received an unsolicited email from Regent. Although they apologized for some of the items mentioned, they implied that WE could have taken more initiative to find out the date of the Breast Cancer event and pointing out that WE chose the flights and could have taken advantage of their tours prior to our departure time at additional cost, of course. These tours were never communicated to either me or my travel agent prior to the cruise. I would not have taken them anyway as we found their tours lacking, plus we had already done a three-day pre-tour of Tokyo. Finally, they offered us a Future Cruise Credit of $200 as a sincere apology. While we never asked for any compensation for the poor experience, it is obvious that they have no interest in us as future guests given the condescending tone of their email and the miserly FCC offer. That is fine as we will never cruise with Regent again under any circumstances. To summarize - All Hat, No Cattle.

Everything was much more than I ever expected from the moment I walked on the gangway! Cruising is and the great sea is home to me! Thank you Regents for my first experience!

We chose a 6 day inland tour combined with a 7 day cruise, all through Regent Seven Seas. Most every part of our trip was handled seamlessly. We got a real flavor for our spectacular 49th state. Our only minimally negative comment, we would have liked a better flight schedule (provided by Regent), especially on the return. Outbound was convenient even with a layover. However, nonstops were available from our starting point and would have shortened our travel day by nearly 5 hours. The return was worse with about eleven hours of wait time between two airports when again nonstop flights were available.

Our issues started during the planning process. Wes Romero, our cruise reservationist, did not take the best care of our party. For example, he got the names mixed up on our reservation and sent our reservation to our friends home. Secondly, the air travel reservations were terrible. They were rude, and it was a very laborious process to book our flights. Unfortunately, with this particular cruise line, they handle the air part too. We had all of our flight confirmed, and then a couple of weeks before the cruise, my wife revealed that our flights had changed. She learned about it through the airline, but not through Wes and Regent. The revised flight from anchorage to Seattle was too early and we would not have been able to make it. So, REGENT revise it again, and we had to go out the next day. So, unfortunately, we had to spend an extra night in Anchorage before departing on our flight the next day. Secondly, the longest leg of our flight, my wife and I were in different seats in different rows in first class. We paid for a suite on the ship which cost over $30,000 and first class flights and on the longest leg of our flight back home, we sat separately. This just seemed like icing on the cake for us.