Barcelona to Rome on the Regent Seven Seas Mariner

We’ve just returned from the most magnificent 12 night cruise through the western Mediterranean from Barcelona to Rome. Do we recommend it? ABSOLUTELY! Regent Seven Seas Cruises is a luxury journey like no other. If you want every single detail taken care of (and included) – this is for you. Join me on the Regent Mariner to see what we did, including our 11 ports of call and excursions.

While we have cruised before on Regent and thoroughly enjoyed it, we’ve never cruised the Mediterranean. Pete and I were so excited to cruise and experience an area of the world while in the luxury accommodations of a Regent suite. Let’s be honest, cruising with Regent is like a 5 star hotel on water! Our exact itinerary can be found HERE. Ports of call for this exact itinerary included Alicante, Granda, Ibiza, Palma de Mallorca and Menorca, Spain; Provence and Saint-Tropez, France; Monte Carlo, Monaco; Portofino, Tuscany and Sardinia, Italy. I hope you were following along on Instagram as I chronicled our daily experiences HERE. There are several Instagram posts that help explain the journey and ports of all. Click HERE and HERE to see more.

Regent Seven Seas Cruises has special offers all the time so I highly encourage you to sign up HERE so that you can be notified of their specials. Also, this will be the easiest way to book your cruise. They have so many amazing routes and are already accepting bookings for 2025 and 2026!

Why Regent Seven Seas Cruises?

The ship! We were booked into a Concierge Suite – D (room 1043 on the 10th deck) and it was perfect. Every suite onboard a Regent Cruise has a verandah so you are guaranteed beautiful views! With only 350 suites and a maximum of 700 guests on the Regent Mariner, the ship never feels full. There are 459 crew members on board to tend to your every need. The Captain of the Splendor is Abhi Singh and he has been with Regent since 2013 and has been Captain of the Mariner since 2022. He started his sailing career at the age of 19. He is an absolute delight and enjoys being out and about mingling with the passengers. Amenities included free unlimited WiFi, valet laundry service, minibar set up with our selections in addition to all excursions, meals, premium alcohol and gratuities being included. Did I mention that our suite had a walk-in closet?

The ship has a beautiful spa, pool, gorgeous restaurants and numerous lounges. There is a casino, theater and a lovely boutique. We never ran out of things to do while onboard. The best part is that everything on a Regent Cruise is included. Excursions, dining, alcohol, activities, roundtrip transfers, and gratuities. It’s all taken care of in your booking price. They offer numerous specials so I encourage you to get on their list by clicking HERE.

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Endless dining options

A Regent Cruise is different from other cruise lines I have experienced in that there is no early or late dining seating or assigned seating. All restaurants operate just like that – a restaurant with reservations or walk up seating. While reservations are encouraged at their specialty restaurants for dinner – Chartreuse and Prime 7, we simply went to dinner when we felt like it. We either had room service in our robes and enjoyed breakfast on our veranda or popped in for a quick coffee and light bite at Coffee Connection in the morning. Pete and I enjoyed lunch at La Veranda or the Pool Grill when we returned to the ship after an excursion. Compass Rose is also another great option for fine dining. We often found ourselves returning for the Italian menu at Sette Mari, where you can dine outside overlooking the sea. If you time it right, you can dine during sunset!  There are ample bars and lounges to enjoy cocktails, snacks and activities. We found the food, wait staff and service to be exceptional on the entire ship!

Regent has a Elegant Casual dress code for dinner which means no jeans or shorts after 6 PM. We love this as it means no slob kabobs milling about. Our cruise had a special treat – we had a Grand Deck BBQ party one night (while we were in port in Monaco). This is a special treat and doesn’t happen often. It’s an outdoor grill out on deck 11. On this night the dress code is Relaxed Casual. The crew loves hosting this party and it was so fun! Dinner and dancing under the stars!

TANYA’S TIP:  You can make one advance reservation at both Chartreuse and Prime 7 before you set sail (via the Regent dashboard once your cruise is booked). Once on board, ask the maitre d’ if they have any additional reservation times. We were able to dine at both restaurants twice during our 12 night cruise. Prime 7 is where you will find the Popcorn Sundae dessert. My favorite!

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Ports of Call and Excursions

I was a bit overwhelmed when I started selecting our excursions online through my Regent dashboard. Once you are booked on your cruise, you will have a profile online to make selections which helps personalize your trip. On our 12 night trip, I had over 100 excursion options (10-15 per port of call)! Pete and I love to learn about new destinations so we signed up for outings at every stop. Regent Cruise partners with local expert guides to give you the best experience. I also loved that there were ample selections of walking and driving tours. This helps when deciding how much activity you want. For the most part, our excursions were around 4-5 hours which gave us a good overview of the town/city we were in. We also loved getting off the ship to walk and enjoy the spectacular weather we were having. It was in the mid 80’s and sunny during our trip in late August/early September.

If excursions is not your thing, there was always a shuttle bus to take you to town for you to enjoy the destination on your own. In one instance, Pete and I did an excursion in the morning and then went in to town in the afternoon to do some more exploring. In Saint-Tropez we just enjoyed the day on our own which involved lots of shopping and a leisurely lunch at the Dior Cafe. We highly recommend this (get reservations)!

Here are the exact excursions we signed up for. We felt like each one was perfect for our destination and interest level. Most of these cities and towns offer UNESCO World Heritage sites. Typically, a “highlights” tour will involve the castle and cathedral/church of the town/city and other noteworthy stops. There is often free time built in to the excursion which allows for shopping, dining and more exploring.

• Alicante, Spain: Highlights of Alicante
• Granada, Spain: A Glimpse of Granada
• Ibiza, Spain: Ibiza Beach Break (we signed up for this excursion but decided to take the shuttle to town and explored on our own. We had a lovely tapas style lunch by the sea.)
• Palma de Mallorca, Spain: Palm City Highlights
• Mahon, Menorca, Spain: Fornells, Mahon and Wine Tasting (Truth talk: this was our least favorite excursion; the ‘Highlights of Menorca’ excursion was fully booked)
• Saint-Tropez, France: We did the Saint-Tropez walking tour and then stayed in town to shop and have lunch on our own. Best of both worlds. HIghly recommend!
• Provence, France: Aix-En-Provence Cheese and Wine. Note: You are docking in Marseilles so its a 45 minute bus ride to Aix-En-Provence. We loved it!
• Monte Carlo, Monaco: Monaco HIghlights (Monte Carlo was easily one of our favorite days – BEAUTIFUL port!)
• Portofino, Italy: Cruising the Italian Riviera (you get to see Portofino and other towns from the sea as well as stop and explore)
• Tuscany, Italy: Florence & Pisa – small group. This was a 10 hour day but well worth it! There is so much to see in Tuscany! Note: You are docking in Livorno and then driving to Florence – 1 hour.
• Sardinia, Italy: Sardinian Wines & Spirits
• TANYA’S TIP: If there is a SMALL GROUP option, grab it. For an additional price ($39 per person) you will enjoy the excursion in an intimate environment (about 10 people).

Note: The All Aboard time is always noted in your daily Passages newsletter and announced numerous times over the intercom. It’s always 30 minutes before departure. For example: All aboard at 7:30 PM; Departure at 8:00 PM. Each port varies and sometimes you are there until late at night. Just be aware before you leave the ship for your excursion.

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Regent Ships & Voyages

Regent Seven Seas Cruises offers endless options on destinations around the world. You can book a cruise in 2025, 2026 and into 2027 and there are over 500 destinations. When we talked with other guests onboard the Mariner, one thing was clear. These are repeat guests and they have already booked their cruise for the next few years. Many of the guests enjoy cruises for longer periods of time – 21 and 28 nights was not unheard of. One couple we met were continuing on the next cruise and staying on board – Rome to Malta.

While the Mariner is one of the older ships in the fleet, it’s still special. It will go into dry dock later in 2025 for a overhaul. I find that Regent is constantly making updates and improvements to their ships. They have six beautiful ships in their fleet – Grandeur, Splendor, Explorer, Voyager, Mariner and Navigator. All of them are unique, small and luxurious! We pick our Regent cruise based on the itinerary and dates of the voyage. Any cruise you pick will be excellent! We loved our Baltic Sea experience in June 2023 on the Regent Splendor. And we got to experience the newest ship Grandeur during its Christening Cruise in December 2023.

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Who is on Regent Seven Seas Cruises?

Amazing people – by this I mean the guests and the crew. The guests are lovely, highly educated, enjoy luxury and want a great experience where every detail has been thought of and take care of. They are seasoned travelers and have done it all. We loved meeting people from the US, England, Australia and more. Most of the guests we met had already been on several Regent Seven Seas Cruises and were excited to be back. Many are retired and cruise for longer periods of time and/or several times a year.

We found the crew to be charming. They automatically know your every need. This isn’t their first rodeo. In fact, when we asked various crew members how long they had been working in the cruise industry, the average was 5 years. And most of them had done all of their cruise work on Regent ships. They are loyal! A huge thank you to Captain Abhi Singh, General Manager Vladimir Cavic and Cruise Director Andy Heath for an amazing journey and setting the tone for a successful voyage.

I truly feel like we did it all and had a great time. Yes, we go hard and hit every port! You don’t have to. In fact, there are guests who stay on board and enjoy the ship the entire time. They relax by the pool and enjoy the endless activities on board. That’s how individualized your cruise can be. We highly recommend a Regent Seven Seas Cruise and can’t wait to go again!

xoxo –  Tanya (and Pete)

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This post was done in partnership with Regent Seven Seas Cruises. All opinions are my own.