For our honeymoon, Joe and I had the amazing opportunity to join the Regent Seven Seas Voyager on an incredible cruise through the Mediterranean. They’re currently celebrating their 25th anniversary so what would have been the trip of a lifetime anyway was just that much more extraordinary. So the question is, why haven’t I written about it yet? Well, that’s the thing. I’ve tried. About ten times. The reason you haven’t seen it yet is that, despite my best efforts, I can’t seem to get it below ten pages. From start to finish the whole trip was an amazing blur of obnoxiously good food and wine, gorgeous ports, and luxurious accommodations. Given that, I’m sure you can understand why getting a post about it down to a digestible length has been so difficult. So, I’ve resolved to try something a little different. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Slideshow of Stops + Overall Explanation of Why the Ship Was Awesome. Enjoy!

The Trip

As I mentioned above, our cruise was through the Mediterranean. We went from Monte Carlo to Barcelona, with Livorno, Civitavecchia, Sorrento, Marseilles, and Sanary Sur Mer in between. Yes, it was gorgeous. Yes, it was amazing. Yes, I want to go back right now.

Check out our slideshow of the trip!

[metaslider id=1079]

The Regent Seven Seas Voyager

Common Areas

From the moment we stepped onboard, the quality of the experience we were about to have was apparent. A welcome glass of champagne, marble and stone everywhere, beautiful details like glass elevators, and incredibly friendly and attentive staff all contributed to a pretty great first impression. AND it held up. We’ve all experienced situations where the bar was set too high in the beginning, but that was not the case here. Throughout the duration of the trip, there was always something new to discover, and we were always treated like royalty.

We also never ran out of things to do onboard. There was trivia, a theater, afternoon tea, karaoke, a cigar lounge, and (Joe’s favorite) a casino.

Suites

The rooms were our first stops on our welcome tour, and all were all varying degrees of ridiculously marvelous. The nicest of the cabins were basically small homes, complete with amenities like bars with top-shelf spirits and whirlpool tubs—sometimes on the balcony. As for the rooms a little further down on the price sheet, guests staying here were still set up just fine. Every suite on the Voyager comes furnished with a king-sized bed, walk-in closet, deep bathtub, Illy espresso, living area, and private terrace. And EVERYTHING is made with the highest-quality materials. It’s one thing to feel comfortable in your cabin, but it’s entirely another to feel like you’d be fine with never leaving. It’s definitely the latter as far as Regent’s go.

Food & Drink

Ugh! This is where I always wound up spending the most time on my other attempts at writing this post. The food was just too good! I’ve enjoyed some phenomenal food on trips and at events before, but never as many consecutively like on this cruise. Of course, everything we had off-ship was wonderful—we spent most of our time in France and Italy—but everything we ate on board was fantastic too.

The Seven Seas Voyager has three specialty restaurants and main dining hall. I don’t think I had a meal at any of them that wasn’t spectacular. I’ve listed a little more about them below:

• Compass Rose

  Compass Rose is the main restaurant where you can get “an exceptional variety of European-inspired Continental cuisine” for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We ate here our first night onboard. The hall itself was well decorated, with Versace chargers and comfortable chairs (which were very much appreciated toward the end of the meal when you were too full to think). As for the food, the menu changed every night, but the options were what you would expect to find on a luxury ship. And everything was always beautifully prepared and presented.

• Prime 7

  Prime 7 is the specialty steak, and Joe’s favorite, restaurant on board. In the two times we ate there, I’m not kidding when I say we tried everything they had. Not for lack of choices, but because everything sounded so good that we couldn’t help ourselves (we had a little help, but you should probably still judge us).

• Chartreuse

  And now for my favorite! Chartreuse is the modern French restaurant on the Voyager. Once again, everything was fantastic, but what stood out to me the most was the lemon sole, foie gras ravioli, and (my new favorite dessert) île flottante. In fact, the latter was so good that I snuck back in a few nights after we ate there to finagle another serving to have with drinks in the lounge.

• Sette Mari at La Veranda

  During the day, La Veranda is the informal buffet for lunch and dinner. At night it becomes Sette Mari, a ‘casual’ option for Italian food and wines. As this place is located at the back of the ship, you can sit outside and watch the wake. Joe and I were lucky enough to get the table directly overtop of the propellers, which gave us a perfect view when a pod of dolphins decided it wanted to tag along behind us for a little while. It was kind of awesome.

Inclusions

As you’ve probably guessed from my description of the ship, its food, and the chosen ports, tickets for a cruise on the Regent Seven Seas Voyager aren’t cheap. All the frill, however, PLUS what all is included, definitely makes it worth it if you have the scratch. When you buy a ticket with Regent, you’re not just booking a room with them, you’re also paying for free roundtrip air (business class on intercontinental flights), unlimited shore excursions, all beverages with the exception of ultra-premium spirits, specialty restaurants, airport/ship transfers, WIFI, and 24-hour room service (there’s more, but my fingers are tired). If it sounds like nearly everything is included, that’s because it is. If you added all of this up—even on a low-end cruise line—it would absolutely equal somewhere in the thousands. So you can see what I mean about it being worth it. Probably a small price to pay for what was easily the trip of a lifetime.