Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
SHIP IS MAKING WAVES
Seven Seas Explorer is sailing from SoFla.
Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ newest ship — Seven Seas Explorer — is now sailing from PortMiami.
Its South Florida arrival marks the North America debut of the 750-passenger, all-suite ship, which Regent is touting as the most luxurious cruise ship ever built.
The luxury liner offers 375 suites with the largest verandas in the cruise industry, according to Regent. Each suite is furnished with European king-sized beds and oversized bathrooms accented with marble and decorative tile. It also has three specialty restaurants: French gourmet Chartreuse; Pan Asian eatery Pacific Rim and Prime 7, the line’s signature steakhouse.
Seven Seas Explorer, which entered service in July, arrived in Miami Friday following its inaugural sailing season in the Mediterranean.
On Sunday, it began its Caribbean inaugural season from PortMiami with a 14-night Serene Islands voyage, followed by a 10-night Caribbean Dawn round trip on Dec. 18, Regent said in a news release.
The new ship will later ring in the New Year with a 16-night Grand Canal Crossing from Miami to Los Angeles with stops throughout the Caribbean and Central America. It will return to Miami for a series of 10-night cruises starting on Feb. 4 to ports of call in the Caribbean, Mexico and Belize. Two of these cruises are set to dock at Harvest Caye, the newlyopened resort-style cruise port destination in southern Belize, developed by parent company Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings.
Seven Seas Explorer “will expand PortMiami’s economic contribution, adding more job opportunities to our local economy,” said Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez, in a statement.
The Regent vessel is the fourth new cruise ship to begin sailing from a South Florida seaport during the peak 2016-17 cruise season running October through April.
The others are Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Vista, which arrived at PortMiami on Nov. 27, and Royal Caribbean International’s Harmony of the Seas and Holland America Line’s ms Koningsdam, which arrived early November at Port Everglades.