Luxury goes to sea: Suite costs $5,000 per person a night

Published 12:00 am Sunday, January 25, 2015

Regent Seven Seas Cruises has unveiled plans for what it is calling the “most luxurious ship ever built.”

One of the key features of the Seven Seas Explorer, launching in summer of 2016, is a massive two-bedroom suite with built-in spa and eye-popping price: $5,000 per person per night.

There will be one suite in the new “Regent Suite” category.

“There’s nothing else like this in the cruise industry at all,” said Jason Montague, president and chief operating officer of Doral, Florida-based Regent Seven Seas Cruises, who referred to the 3,875-square-foot offering as “over the top.”

In addition to the in-room spa area and unlimited treatments, the suite boasts a glass-enclosed sitting area with 270-degree views.

By comparison, the largest suite Regent currently offers is the 2,002-square-foot Master Suite on the Seven Seas Mariner, which is selling for nearly $1,650 a night per person for a seven-night sailing in Alaska. The smallest suites on Seven Seas Explorer are 356 square feet.

On Regent, fares include round-trip air, all restaurants, wine and liquor, shore excursions at every port and gratuities.

Also adding to the luxury experience, the company said: Passengers will have plenty of room. Regent said that the 56,000-ton ship will carry 750 guests, giving it the highest space ratio in the cruise industry.

Cruise specialist Julie Osinski, who owns a Cruise Planners-American Express franchise and sails frequently on Regent, said she and other fans of the line have been waiting “for a long time” to see the newest offering.

“We’re looking forward to what’s supposed to be just an incredible new standard of luxury,” said Osinski, who splits her time between Coral Springs, Florida, and Bath, Maine.

Osinski said she doesn’t expect the price point of the Regent Suite to scare cruisers away.

“I think we’re going to have the opposite problem,” she said. “I’m anticipating having clients call, and what I’ll be looking for is not even the itinerary so much as trying to find time with the suite available.”

Passengers will have three restaurants to choose from: steakhouse Prime 7, main dining room Compass Rose and La Veranda, with a buffet for breakfast and lunch and fine-dining experience for dinner.

The vessel will be the first new ship since 2003 for Regent Seven Seas Cruises, which was acquired late last year by Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings. While its three other ships have gotten $150 million in upgrades since 2008, Regent has been facing demand for a new build — especially as competitors such as Seabourn have added tonnage at a much faster pace.

Montague said the decision to build a ship wasn’t driven by competition but by customer feedback.

“We follow our own march,” he said. “It was our guests who were telling us they were ready for a new build.”

The ship is under construction at the Fincantieri shipyard in Italy.

It is scheduled to launch in July 2016 with a 14-day voyage from Monte Carlo to Venice and remain in Europe for its first sailing season.

When Regent announced the ship order in 2013, the company said the contract price was about $450 million, but Montague said the final tally would be known in 2016.

“It’s going to be an interesting number at the end,” he said.

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