A day of luxury on Regent Splendor
If you could spend $5,000 a night on a cruise vacation on board the worlds most expensive and beautiful cruise ship, what would a typical day look like? We recently spent a whole week on board the utterly fabulous Seven Seas Splendor and thought we would share with you exactly what a typical day in the lap of absolute luxury could look like. It’s indulgent, it’s tasty, it’s opulent and it’s fabulous fun. So let’s begin at the beginning!
Waking up in the indulgent Splendor suite is just as luxurious as every other aspect of your cruise on this gorgeous ship. With three sets of sliding doors out to the expansive veranda you might think that opening and closing three sets of curtains would become a daily chore, but oh no, you don’t have to worry about getting up our of your sumptuous supersized bed to open them. The simple touch of a button and they open themselves and what a glorious day it looks like it’s going to turn out to be.
With just a short walk from the bedroom to the small bar area in the living area we find the most important piece of tech in the room at this hour - the coffee machine! Of course, you can get your morning beverages pre-made delivered to your door but we like to indulge in a bit of DIY when it comes to this delicious Illy coffee. Did you know Francesco Illy founded Illy Coffee in 1933 and in 1935 he invented the very first modern espresso machine? It seems every little thing on board the Seven Seas Splendor has a story to tell - a bit like the daily morning show hosted by the Cruise Director Jude and her entertainment team. The lively chat from this cheerful lot is always a nice way to wake up.
Having watched the Daily show we take our coffee out onto the sun-soaked veranda where we stay until the door bell rings, announcing that breakfast has arrived. Our brilliant butler Richard sets it all up for us including not one but two table cloths - maybe he’s heard of our reputation for spilling things. It seems like Butlers know everything, and if they don’t know something, they’ll always find out and come back to you. It’s like Downton Abbey on the seas. Now to enjoy our delicious breakfast accompanied by mimosas and more coffee. We watch a bit of morning news and given the state of the world, instantly regret not putting Team Jude back on. Who needs to know what’s going on outside of this beautiful little bubble of escapism anyway?
Today we are docked in Visby, Sweden and we have one of Regent Seven Seas excursions booked so we get our stuff together and head out to let Richard, our butler, and Elioda, our lovely Suite Attendant, descend on our messy suite. We have a few minutes to kill before the tour commences so we head to Coffee Connection. This in-house cafe is a great venue for self serve coffees and teas where you can also fill up your complimentary insulated stainless steel water bottles that you’ll find in your suite. It’s great to see virtually all single use plastics eliminated for good on Regent’s ships. And if we weren’t so full from breakfast, we would be sorely tempted by these pastries. The coffee menu is also tempting and we find ourselves ordering a freshly ground artisan coffee from Regent’s in house barista, the third of the day!
To Helen, caffeine is not half as addictive as the puzzle table located near Coffee Connection so quickly distracting her before she falls into a puzzle rabbit hole and we miss our excursion, we head to the Constellation Theatre where we collect our tour tickets and fill up our water bottles in another of those extremely handy filling stations dotted around the ship. Our tour takes us to Visby Gallows then onto a walking tour of the fortified ancient walled town which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site full of history, story book streets, and 12th century buildings. Its nickname is ‘the town of roses and ruins’ and it’s abundantly clear why - it’s full of both.
Soon it was time to leave this lovely little town with its laid back old world feel and head back to the ship. As included excursions go, this was a fascinating introduction to one of Sweden’s quaintest destinations! Back on board the gorgeous weather warrants a lunch at the Pool Grill, one of our favourite places for al fresco dining. As well as salads, posh sandwiches and artisan pizzas, there’s always a generous selection of craft burgers and we choose the Handcrafted Matador and the vegetarian Impossible burger, with sweet potato fries. To finish we indulge in some freshly made gelato and a thick slice of the richest chocolate pound cake.
Racked with guilt over the amount of calories consumed we venture up the steps just outside the Pool Grill to the Sports Deck for a bit of outdoor activity. Despite all the effort, we’d still only burnt off probably only half that bit of cake, let alone anything else so we decide to both do a gym session in the excellent fitness centre, followed by a therapeutic half hour in the spa.
Somewhere along the way though Helen gets waylaid by a lovely dip in the warmer main pool and the extremely comfortable sun loungers. Eventually we meet up by the pool and head to the hot tub where one of the fabulous poolside team bring us a refreshing post workout vitamin beverage, which our friendly server kept topping up unprompted. Does this count towards your five a day? It has grapes in it.
All our efforts were in vain because soon it was time to indulge in a bit of afternoon tea served daily in the beautiful Meridian Lounge. Our will power had well and truly abandoned us and we over-order, especially falling victim to these deep chocolate cookies. To make matters worse (for our expanding waistlines) we make it back to our suite only to discover that Richard our Butler has delivered our daily canapés and some more champagne which we take out onto our veranda to enjoy the last of the days sunshine as we sail away from port!
As the evening approaches, it’s time to get our glad rags on and hit the town (well, the atrium area). Helen runs a bath, which is a beautifully large, deep jacuzzi style tub. Soon we’re clothed up and heading for the best place for pre-dinner cocktails - the Observation Bar! The Observation Bar is a lively pre-dinner venue and a firm favourite amongst the Regent faithful. It could be the live music? The delicious signature cocktails? The stupendous view of the ocean ahead? My money is on all of them. The drinks menu tempts us to try the Regent Seven Seas and the Navigator. Both are delicious, fruity and strong!
Before long our fellow guests are leaving The Observation Bar to head off for their dinner. The Compass Rose restaurant is the main dining room and offers open seating, but the speciality restaurants have to be reserved in advance. Our booking tonight is at Pacific Rim with our table reserved for 8.30pm. This is normally a little late for us but we’re having too much fun so we head back down to Meridian Lounge where we had Afternoon Tea earlier because we’ve heard about the quirky Gin and Tonic menu there AND the Regent Signature Orchestra were playing a funky early evening set there.
Our G&Ts finished it was time to make our way down the corridor to the mythical dragon that stands guard at the entrance to Pacific Rim. Pan-Asian cuisine is always top of our list and Pacific Rim is a fine example of what cruise lines can offer when they accept absolutely no compromise. We begin with a cold, crisp Sapporo, the oldest Japanese beer brewed since 1876 as we tuck into our amuse bouche. Next, a nice clean tasting Sauvignon Blanc accompanies our ordered appetisers, each one an absolute delight. Then we rather overstretch ourselves with the mains as we are taken aback as to how enormous they are. The Black Angus NY Strip Loin and Massaman Curry are almost too much at this point, but adding in the Canadian Lobster Tempura is just irresponsible. Oh my, the FLAVOURS though! Desserts are delectable but pass us in a blur. The Coconut Tres Leches and Chocolate Indulgence are utterly gorgeous… to look at. But we DO manage to eat them. How did we even think we were not going to gain weight on this cruise? With literally no spare room to squeeze in the Petit Fours we ask for them to be sent to our suite to have for breakfast.
Remembering the Daily TV show from earlier in the day we recalled Jude mentioning tonight’s production show, Diamond Run, with the tagline ‘Danger Loves Company’. The dragon bids us farewell, in Parceltongue or whatever dragons speak and we hastily retreat to the Constellation Theatre, for we are just in time for Diamond Run because it’ been our my minds all day as to what kind of company ‘danger’ loves. If we were being honest we weren’t quite prepared for how incredible the choreography was in this show. The dancing, the singing, the story - especially when the ninjas came on and they all had a big fight. Absolutely mind blowing. Then it all got a bit racy with the shirtless main protagonist writhing around in true James Bond style with the leading lady.
With the blood pressure setting off my Apple Watch we head off to the Splendor Lounge for a night cap, but if you think the party stops there, think again. The guests on this ship are well up for a late night. They have the energy of, well, people who haven’t played mini golf, paddle tennis, owned the weight pit and eaten their bodyweight in lobster tempura. We finally admit defeat.
It was late, and in the Baltic Sea the sun never really goes down this time of year, and it seems on Regent Seven Seas Splendor, the sun never really goes down on your day. But for us, we have just enough energy to put out our complimentary laundry and with huge smiles on our faces and maybe one too many beverages, it was lights out. Tomorrow is however another day and we aim to make it count. Again.
Thank you to our preferred travel partners Panache Cruises and Regent Seven Seas who hosted us on this week long cruise from Stockholm to Copenhagen on the Regent Splendor. Regent Seven Seas covered the cost of our cruise excluding pre and post cruise travel and air fares which were paid for by us. Neither Regent Seven Seas or Panache Cruises had any editorial control over any of our content, either before, during our after our voyage.
If you enjoyed this blog why not take a look at some of our other blogs, such as Our week in the Caribbean on board Ponant or Our week in Venice with Uniworld.
If you are interested in booking a cruise with these or any other luxury cruise lines then we would recommend contacting a connoisseur at our trusted cruise partners Panache cruises - please make sure you tell them you have been referred by Visit With Us or Rich & Helen so they can add you to our exclusive list for future benefits and incentives.
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