Regent Seven Seas Cruises

Summary

Typical Per Diems: $750+

Navigator sails the Caribbean from Fort Lauderdale (winter, spring); Alaska from Vancouver & Seward (summer); and New England/Canada from New York & Montreal (fall).

Navigator has well-laid-out cabins and public rooms, and if you've been on the Silversea ships, you'll notice a similar layout (especially in the Star Lounge and Galileo Lounge), as the interiors were all designed by the same architects and built at the same yard, Italy's Mariotti. While Navigator's interior is very attractive, outside she looks a little bit top-heavy, a consequence of her odd provenance: Her hull was originally built to be a Russian spy ship. When Regent purchased the uncompleted vessel, they redesigned her superstructure with additional decks.

In early 2010, Navigator underwent a $35-million refurbishment program. While the usual range of furniture and carpeting changes were made, the line also changed her Italian restaurant to a great steakhouse, redid the casual spot to be very similar to La Veranda which is on Mariner and Voyager, and seriously upgraded the pool grill menu.

Cabins

Navigator is an all-suite, all-outside-cabin ship, so there's not a bad room in the house. Each elegant suite is done up in shades of deep gold, beige, and burnt orange, with caramel-toned wood furniture and a swath of butterscotch suede just above the beds. Nearly 90% of them have private balconies, with only suites on the two lowest passenger decks having bay windows instead. Of these, the only ones with obstructed views are those on the port side of Deck 6 looking out onto the promenade. And for those who do not want balconies, the ship's design creates a trade-off for more inside space. The standard suites are a roomy 301 square feet; the 18 top suites range from 448 to 1,067 square feet, plus 47- to 200-square-foot balconies. Every suite has a sitting area with a couch, terry robes, a pair of chairs, desk, vanity table and stool (with an outlet above for a hair dryer or curling iron), flatscreen TV with DVD player (and movies available from an onboard library), minibar stocked with two complimentary bottles of wine or spirits, private safe, and wide walk-in closet with a tall built-in dresser. The marble bathrooms that come standard in all suites are absolutely huge, with a separate shower stall, a long tub, and lots of counter space. Along with those on Seven Seas Voyager and Silversea's Silver Whisper, they're the best bathrooms at sea today. Butler service comes to those in categories C and above; these rooms also get a docking station for iPods and constantly replenished fine champagne.

Four suites are wheelchair accessible.

Dining Options

There are three restaurants: the redecorated Compass Rose (the main dining room); La Veranda for casual dining, day or night; and the newly added Prime 7 (similar to Voyager and Navigator). Compass Rose, a pleasant, wide-open room done in warm caramel-colored woods, has open seating at all meals. La Veranda, quite casual and buffet-style for breakfast and lunch, is a much more nicely decorated space than the old Portofino restaurant and provides a Mediterranean-inspired menu for dinner (part buffet, part waiter service). Adjacent to La Veranda is now the 52-seat Prime C, which may just be the best steakhouse at sea, along with the two on the line's other ships. One of our favorites is the Alaskan king crab legs (a lot of them per meal) and the tender filet mignon for main courses; for appetizers, it's the three-steak tartare and jumbo lump crab cake. Good luck having room for dessert. There's also an enhanced casual barbecue grill on the Pool Deck for burgers, panini, fries, salads, coffees, and desserts (ice and milk shakes!) at lunchtime. A Coffee Corner is part of Navigator Lounge on Deck 6, with complimentary deluxe coffees available (from a machine) 24 hours a day.

Public Areas

Full of autumn hues and deep blues, Navigator's attractive decor is a marriage of classic and modern design, with contemporary wooden furniture, chairs upholstered in buttery leather, walls covered in suede, and touches of stainless steel, along with silk brocade draperies, dark-wood paneling, burled veneer, and marble. The ship has lots of intimate spaces, so you'll never feel overwhelmed the way you sometimes do on larger ships.

Most of the public rooms are on Decks 6 and 7, just aft of the three-story atrium and main elevator bank (whose exposed wiring and mechanics could have been better disguised). The well-stocked library has nine new Dell touch-screen computers with e-mail and Internet access, while Wi-Fi hot spots enable laptop users to surf from virtually any area of the ship. The cozy Navigator Lounge, paneled in mahogany and cherrywood, is a popular place for a variety of coffee items during the day and for pre-dinner cocktails, which means it can get tight in there during rush hour. Next door is the Connoisseur Club cigar lounge, a somewhat cold and often underutilized wood-paneled room with umber leather chairs. Down the hall is the roomier Stars Lounge, with a long, curved, black-granite bar and clusters of oversize ocean-blue armchairs around a small dance floor. A live music duo croons pop numbers here nightly. The attractive dark-paneled casino with its striking mural is bound to attract your eye, even if you don't gamble.

Galileo's Lounge, surrounded by windows on three sides and featuring a new burgundy, gold, and lavender color scheme, is our favorite spot in the evening, when a pianist is on hand and the golden room glows magically under soft light. On warm nights, the doors to the outside deck are thrown open and dancers spill out from the small dance floor, creating a truly romantic, dreamy scene. By day, Galileo's is a quiet venue for continental breakfast, high tea, seminars, and meetings, and is also a perfect perch from which to view the seascape via new and very comfy deck furniture.

The stage of the twinkling, two-story Seven Seas Lounge is large enough for the kind of sizable, Vegas-style song-and-dance revues typical of much larger ships -- a rarity in the luxe market. While sightlines are good from the tiered rows of banquettes on the first level, views from the sides of the balcony are severely obstructed.

As part of the refurbishment in 2010, the forwardly placed Vista Lounge has been replaced with fitness facilities.

Pool, Fitness & Spa Facilities

The oceanview gym is bright and roomy for a ship of this size, and a separate aerobics room has impressively grueling classes, such as circuit training and step. A pair of golf nets and two Ping-Pong tables are available for guest use, but they're situated high on Deck 12 in an ash-plagued nook just behind the smokestacks, and are accessible only by a hard-to-find set of interior crew stairs. The whole area looks like an afterthought. At the pool area, a wide set of stairs joins a balcony with deck chairs to the large pool and pair of hot tubs on the deck below. The ship's spa/salon is now run by the famed Canyon Ranch SpaClub.