Regent Seven
Seas Explorer
The Worlds Most
Luxurious Cruise Ship
By Lillian Africano
T
hough Regent Cruises’ Seven
Seas Explorer will not debut
until Summer 2016, the ship’s
top category Regent suite
had already been booked for
14 of the ship’s first 15 sailings
back in August. The $10,000-a-night
price tag apparently did not deter
fans of Regent’s brand of allinclusive luxury as they purchased a
cruise experience that was bound to
be unique and memorable.
At 54,000 gross-registered tons and
at a cost of $450 million, the
all-suite Seven Seas Explorer will be
the most expensive luxury ship ever
built. Carrying only 750 guests, the
ship will have the highest space
ratios and staff-to-guest ratios in
the cruise industry.
The aforementioned Regent Suite
(billed as the most luxurious cruise
suite ever) is bigger than many
houses, it measures 3,875 square
feet and includes a spacious balcony,
two bedrooms, an expansive living
room and a private spa retreat (the
first ever on a cruise ship), complete
with a sauna, a steam room and a
treatment room.
The Explorer’s 55 Penthouse Suites
vary in size, ranging up to 626
square feet; each has an
entertainment center that separates
the living room and bedroom, a
marble-top bar, a cozy dining area
20
and a luxurious bathroom.
The 140 Concierge Suites measure
up to 460 square feet and feature
European king-size beds that face
the furnished verandas and offer
ocean views.
The ship’s 88 Superior Suites share a
similar design.
Luxurious accommodations are
complemented by gourmet dining.
Joining Regent Seven Seas’ signature
steakhouse, Prime 7, is Chartreuse, a
new French specialty restaurant
which derives its name from the
chartreuse-colored glass panels that
decorate the room’s walls.
“A luxury cruise experience is
incomplete without gourmet dining,”
said Jason Montague, president and
chief operating officer for Regent
Seven Seas Cruises. “With our sights
set on building the world’s most
luxurious ship, we challenged our
design and culinary teams to develop
some extraordinary and exquisite
dining options for our guests aboard
Seven Seas Explorer. The team
exceeded that high mark with
Chartreuse, an extremely elegant
restaurant where the ambiance and
cuisine is sure to stir fond Parisian
memories, and help create new ones.”
Carrying out the mandate to evoke
memories of a Parisian restaurant
along the Seine or off the ChampsÉlysées, the design team at ICRAVE
created a curved panel entryway
with flooring that resembles a
rain-dappled cobblestone street.
A zinc bar top placed atop a softly
illuminated frosted glass base sits
near a backlit wine display filled with
the finest French wines and
selections from boutique vineyards
of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne
and the Rhône and Loire Valleys.
Decorative iron sculpting throughout
the bar pays a subtle homage to
Paris’s iconic Eiffel Tower; a silverleafed ceiling is interspersed with
gold-bordered black lacquered lines
to enhance the Parisian motif.
Celebrating French gastronomy, the
menu features dishes using both
classic and modern techniques and
includes such dishes as hand-cut
Charolais steak tartare in a
hazelnut-Dijon emulsion topped with
Perlita caviar d’Aquitaine; roasted
Cévennes rack of lamb with
rosemary-mint persillade and sugar
snap pea sauce; and poached
Brittany blue lobster tail glazed with
caramelized lobster roe butter on a
bed of Sologne white asparagus and
Romanesco. The dessert menu
includes a frozen Chartreuse parfait
with almond crumble and classic
savarin cake made with aged
Martinique rum and topped with
vanilla cream.