Regent Claims It’s the BEST Cruise Line – Here’s What I Found!
Regent Seven Seas Cruises Claims It’s the BEST Cruise Line – Here’s What I Found!
Days before heading off on Regent Seven Seas Cruises newest ship, the Grandeur, the line launched new advertising promising that “nobody does it better”. In in they also claimed to have the “world’s most luxurious fleet”, and that no cruise line beats them on destination experiences, hospitality, luxury spaces, and dining.
Having been on Regent Seven Seas Cruises before, while I found them great, I didn’t think they beat every line, so this latest trip turned into the perfect opportunity to really test out if Regent Seven Seas Cruises now does do cruising better than everybody else.
Welcome aboard, I am Gary Bembridge, and this is what I found. And as always to offer an unbiased review I booked and paid for this trip myself like every single cruise I go on. First, a quick reminder of who and what Regent Seven Seas Cruises is.
What is Regent Seven Seas?
They’re an ultra-luxury line owned by Norwegian Cruise Line group, and their main competition is Silversea, Seabourn, and Crystal. They have six ships in service. I’ve been on three of them, and a new larger class of ship called Prestige is coming in 2026.
I’m going to look at what they did well, did the same as others, what they did not do well, and finally whether I found they do cruising better than everybody else these days.
What Regent Does Very Well?
Without a shadow of a doubt, the one thing that they do well are the ships and decor.
Ships & Decor
All look and feel luxurious, with high quality furnishings, fixtures, artwork and even the towels and toiletries they use.
They are a great design and layout. All existing ships, except for Navigator, have a similar layout. Grandeur is the most spectacular of all.
I thought it’d be helpful to share with you the layout and main venues on Grandeur to show why I think their ships are great. I’ll start at the top of the ship and work down.
On Deck 12, is the sports deck, with crazy golf, deck games, paddleboard court, and seating for the upper level of the pool deck.
Deck 11 has many key public areas. In the front of the ship is the Constellation Lounge overlooking the bow. There’s a large, well-stocked library, card room, Connoisseur Club for smoking and cigars, and one of their signatures, The Culinary Arts Kitchen where they run cookery classes.
Also on this deck is the pool, pool bar and Grill, and La Veranda, which is the buffet restaurant, which turns into a specialty restaurant at night. I dive more into the good and bad about dining later.
On deck 10, are two of the speciality restaurants, Prime 7 and Chartreuse.
The next set of public areas are right down on deck five. Here is the upper level of the Constellation Theatre, a large open area with Concierge, Reception, Excursions, Future Cruise Sales, and Perspectives Photography Studio where you can book personal photo shoots.
Also on this deck is Coffee Connections for coffees and snacks, an area to do puzzles, and the Meridian Lounge where afternoon tea and some entertainment is run.
At the rear of the ship is the Serene Spa, with the gym above that on level six. There’s also a fantastic rear spa deck, open to all but few know about which is reached via the changing rooms, which have sauna, steam and cold rooms.
On deck four are the final public areas with the main part of the Constellation Theatre, fancy shops, decent sized casino, plush Grandeur Lounge which hosts evening live music and dancing, and the large Compass Rose, which is the main dining room.
Like other ultra-luxury lines, there are guest laundry rooms on several decks.
There are a range of cabins which all have modern and stylish décor. I like them a lot. On this trip I had booked for the first time a Penthouse, though usually book a standard Veranda or Concierge suite. I also got to view a Grand Suite that some people I met on the trip were staying in, which was huge and enormous.
The ships are stunning and among the best in cruising for sure. I want to move on what I think that Regent does the same as other ultra-luxury lines.
What Regent Seven Seas Cruises Does Same As Others?
Dining
While dining on board is excellent, I’m not sure that it is better the other ultra-luxury lines.
Let me talk about what the options are, all of which are included within the fare.
The main dining room is the Compass Rose, open for breakfast and dinner.
Theoretically, you don’t have your own table, but I found if one wants a regular table and go roughly the same time every day, the Maître ‘D made it happen if requested. We did and had the same table, or one next to it for every meal.
The menus are a decent size, comparable with the other ultra-luxury lines and the food was good but not different or elevated compared to the other lines.
The dinner menu had a large standard item section which stayed the same, daily changing options and spa options, with vegetarian options too. Good and tasty overall. We liked Compass Rose and ate here a lot.
I’ll talk later about where I think dining falls of what I consider the “gold standard” in luxury dining.
The next main venue is La Veranda, the breakfast and lunch buffet restaurant. It has varied lunch themes like Mexican, Italian, seafood and so on, with orders taken for daily pasta dishes or items like hamburgers. A decent choice for size of ship, and good quality.
As the tables have tablecloths on and are fully laid out with cutlery and glasses, it looks and feels more luxurious than many.
In the evening, this venue becomes Sette Mari, a Regent signature. It is a waiter-served Italian restaurant, you don’t have to make a reservation for this, and it has a great and expansive menu.
On other Regent cruises it was so popular that I needed to get there before it opened if I wanted to get a seat or go much later. On this trip it wasn’t that busy, so I went there several times.
Close by La Veranda is the outdoor Pool Grill, the place at lunch for great burgers and hot dogs, with a healthy option breakfast. It was not open in the evenings. Meaning there is no informal and casual dining venue for dinner, which I missed. But the competition doesn’t have one either.
There are three included speciality restaurants.
You can get one booking in each of them during a cruise, although high end cabins do not have that limit. You can ask during the cruise to make more bookings, which seemed very possible.
There is Prime 7, which like many cruise lines have, is a steakhouse. It’s a nice venue, very classic steakhouse menu, and it’s pretty good but not sure anything sets it aside from others.
Next is a French restaurant, Chartreuse. I’m not a big fan of French food, I liked the venue, menu was decent, but it wasn’t one of my favourites. But others seemed to enjoy it. The best part for me was the large Petite Fours trolley at the end of the meal!
The third and my favourite is Pacific Rim. This is an Asian fusion restaurant, with a stunning venue, and diverse and tasty food from the region. This is the most impressive of all for me.
One thing I see as a weak point across all restaurants is their desserts. They are overall average, which is surprising as they do one of the best afternoon teas at sea.
Offered daily in the Meridian Lounge, many days it has a different theme, like cupcakes, and as we were on a Christmas cruise a seasonal themed one. This they do better than others I feel.
Like those other lines, included within the fare is room service, with a good standard menu and ability to order anything off any menus of any open restaurant at ordering time.
Unlike Silversea and Seabourn, caviar is not offered as standard on Regent. Every Sunday, there is a caviar breakfast, and an added charge caviar and champagne event was held once in the trip.
Butlers
Another thing which they do different to some of the other ultra-luxury lines is you only get a butler in the highest-grade cabins, unlike Silversea and Crystal.
Daily Program
Another thing Regent basically does the same other ultra-luxury lines, in my opinion, is the day program and activities.
It is light, which is true for other ultra-luxury lines because of the fewer passengers on board and limited entertainment crew. Here it was a Cruise Director, Assistant Cruise Director, Social Hostess and the Theatre singers and dancers running activities.
The program included hosted shuffleboard, Baggo, golf putting competitions, a daily trivia, crossword, puzzles, bingo, art scavenger hunt and the like where in most passengers could collect points to redeem for merchandise.
They had bridge classes run by experts, no added charge fitness classes, and the added charge and always sold-out Culinary Classes. They also had three Enrichment Speakers, which I will come back to later as I have some issues on what Regent do here.
Let me talk entertainment. Some good and bad in here too.
Being part of the Norwegian Cruise Line group, I always expect Regent to have great entertainment as it’s one thing Norwegian do well.
I have to say I do see some improvement from past trips, with more on the way meaning I do think they edge above the competition.
The shows on Grandeur, and those announced and rolling out on the other ships, are more themed with storytelling, with way more contemporary music at last and a large, especially for the ship size, cast of four singers, eight dancers, and 7-piece band that also play evening music sets in the lounges.
The shows on Grandeur included “Ignite The Night”, “Marauders’ Ball”, “Pasion – One night in Buenos Aires”, “Icons” and “Broadway Unplugged”
Additional live music in the lounges was from a singing duo and a pianist.
A weaker area was the guest entertainers. Usual bookings from the standard cruise entertainer circuit found on other lines in any category.
Regent Seven Seas have some crew-based entertainment like the “Krew Kapers” Talent Show, and on longer cruises like the one I was on, a Pool Deck Country Fair where departments host stalls with challenges for guests to collect raffle tickets.
While overall the entertainment is like the other lines, they have edged up when it comes to the production shows.
Solo
They cater for solo travellers well, and like lines like Silversea with a Social Hostess hosted daily meet up with the option of going to dinner together. But like the others, limited solo deals.
Fares and Inclusions
Fare levels and inclusions are also broadly the same, with some things to note.
They are closest to Silversea though, with at the time of recording, two key fares. Their “all-inclusive fare” like Silversea’s “Port-to-Port” and the “ultimate all-inclusive” fares like Silversea’s Door-to-Door one.
On both fares, included are shore excursions (in theory as many as you can do in a day), food, drinks including fine wines and spirits, basic Starlink Wi-Fi, with hefty upgrade fee to get streaming Wi-Fi, laundry is included (which I love), and gratuities. If booked in a Concierge suite or above, a one-night pre-cruise hotel is included.
The “ultimate all-inclusive” fare includes round trip flights with Economy as standard these days, transfers between the airport and the ship, and to and from home and the airport.
There are some issues with those inclusions that I need to talk about, making this a good time to share what I feel they don’t entirely get right, and where I netted out on if I think all things considered they do things better than the others as they claim.
What Regent Seven Seas Cruises Do Less Well?
Many of the points I’m going to raise are similar ones from my past trips, meaning these things haven’t really changed.
Dining Experience
I said the menus and food were good, but do they offer the best dining in cruising?
For me, the gold standard in premium and luxury dining is in Cunard Queens Grill. Here you have your own table for all meals, but anytime dining, and the same three waiting staff who get to know you phenomenally well.
It’s all silver service and meals don’t come fully plated with vegetables served separately at the table. Some dishes are prepared table side, like Dover Sole or Crepe Suzette. And you can order off menu.
But the dining experience in the Compass Rose is like any regular cruise ship main dining room experience. As I mentioned, you don’t necessarily have your own table, and so it is hit and miss, often with a line at the entrance to get allocated a table, the waiting staff cannot get to know you as you keep shifting tables and look after many tables and are busy and it’s all a bit frantic.
Excursions
The second area that is a bit weak are excursions.
As excursions are included within the fare, I think brings some negatives. The included ones are fine but not always the best option in a port in my experience. This was true on past trips and very much so on this one.
This Grandeur cruise was a Panama Canal transit from Miami to Los Angeles. Most of the ports are the same as a group cruise I am running on Holland America next year. So, a premium not ultra-luxury category cruise line.
However, the excursions available to purchase on that are way more varied and significantly better than most of the excursions included on this Regent trip.
I assume to work within budget, the Regent included tours a bit basic and limited. I feel they’re squeezing the quality of excursions, and to do better tours requires going for paid-for ones or making own plans.
Let me give you an example. In Acapulco we had did the included day in a resort, but the resort was not high-end as the ship and line is, and the food was poor. In Costa Rica, we did one of those tramway tours. But compared to other ones on other lines where I’ve paid for, it was lacking like had no guide on the tramway explaining what we were seeing.
When I went to Japan, I found I had to use more paid-for tours to see the best of the places.
Enrichment
Another area, which I do think is an issue, but one that is easily to address is enrichment.
On this cruise were three speakers, who were knowledgeable and accomplished speakers. There was one talking about their lifetime of underwater exploration, another on psychology, and one on language.
However, for me it missed. In their new promise, they say destination exploration and immersion will be top notch. Excursions are not and nor is enrichment on this.
We were passing through a region rich in history, sometimes chaotic and dramatic, incredible geography with rainforests, varied cultures, unfamiliar and less visited ports for many, and of course one of the most significant engineering feats ever, the Panama Canal. That’s what I want to learn about. But did not.
Even the one talk on the Panama Canal had to be done by a speaker when it obviously was not his area of expertise. It was not nearly as good as others I have had other lines.
There were no port talks to give us understanding of the history, sights nor practical things like where are we would be docking , the facilities there and tips for self-exploring, like where the nearest ATM, pharmacy or shops were.
My other Regent trips were the same, so this was not an exception.
I think one of the best things they could do is revamp the enrichment program and link it much more to the excursions and the destination.
Are Regent Seven Seas Cruises Better Then?
So, bearing in mind everything I have spoken about, what did I think coming away?
I had a great time, and I love cruising on Regent Seven Seas. All the ships I’ve been on have been fantastic, with Grandeur being the most spectacular. The quality of the ship, dining, crew, and service is excellent.
However, is it better than everybody else?
I’m not sure that it necessarily is. Within this category, Silversea and Crystal are a close match for me and hard to say one is better than the other.
There is something about Regent that makes them a very strong contender, and I do still lean a little bit more to Regent overall.
However, if I am looking at an itinerary that I want to do and the best timing and ports were on Silversea or Crystal, I would go on those. But if Regent really addressed the issue of enrichment and excursions, they would edge them ahead.
If you want to find out what I think about and why I rate Silversea so highly, join me over in this article where I dive into the good and the bad of Silversea. See you over there.
