Bucket List Cruise on Regent Seven Seas Explorer to Alaska
I take full advantage of the travel benefits available to me as a Travel Counsellor. Enhancing my travel knowledge of course so all for market research purposes! Many who know me well, know that Ken my husband rarely has a clue until weeks before where we’re going on holiday.
Celebrating our 25th Wedding Anniversary early July I decided it was to be a special one! We were very lucky to sail on Regent Seven Seas Explorer THE MOST LUXURIOUS SHIP EVER BUILT. This as from a conference prize back in 2016. We were blown away with the ship and said “one-day” we’d sail on her again – so this was the start of the trip.
We flew out from London to Anchorage. There are no direct flight options, so we had a change at Seattle. Unfortunately had around 8hr connection. In hindsight and if we were to do the same again, I’d include an overnight in the connecting city. 8 hrs is a long time to kill on Candy Crush and airport shopping!
After 25hrs on the move, we arrived in Anchorage to an amazing sunset and views. After a good sleep we set off a couple of hours down to Seward where we joined Explorer. Every-bit of stunning as we remembered from our time 7 years ago. We settled in for our week on board.
If you’re not familiar with the Regent Seven Seas brand (RSS) Everything onboard is included
Often when we’ve cruised, we have stayed on board in many ports to enjoy the ship, but in Alaska we wanted to enjoy the scenery and wildlife so took advantage of the free excursions which are included with RSS. We had 2 sea-days on the trip, which we were a welcome rest, and as you can see from my photos there is SO much space on board!
We went ashore in Sitka, Skagway, Juano and Ketchikan.
We were astounded as we sailed into the Hubbard Glacier. We watched from the top deck with a scientist commentating from the bridge and explaining about what we were seeing, and then left us in complete silence (which was quite eery) to watch in awe the beauty of our surroundings.
We went out on a sea-otter trip to be treat to a display by 2 Beluga whales. Hearing the history of the gold-mining industry and panning for gold ourselves. Meeting the huskies who take part in the great trans-Alaska trials. As well as the activities on the trips - the scenery is mind blowing and would never tire of seeing. The tours were both interesting and educational. It was quite astounded to see photos of how the Glaciers are disappearing over the years!
Back on-board Explore you can enjoy a plethora of dining options. We took advantage of the rooms service on the sea-days. We had breakfast delivered to the suite and enjoyed dining on the balcony. Compass Rose and La Veranda are the regular dining options on board if anything on this ship can be described as regular. I’ve added a copy of one evening’s menu so you can see what I mean!!
There are speciality restaurants Asian, French, Italian and a Steak restaurant. We managed to squeeze in 3 of the 4.
Drinks on board are something special too – from the welcome bottle of champers in the suite to a whole range of beers/wines and top shelf spirits and cocktails (and yes, I tried a few) all included so it would be rude not to?
The service on board is very special too, all crew are happy in their work. Over-joyed to serve you make you feel very special. One of the best shows of the week is the Crew show. This is where you might find a singing engineer, a dancing chef or a guitar playing cabin steward. Fabulous
As we were moving onto a 2nd week of touring around Canada, we took full advantage of the in-suite laundry service too!
I re-call a strap line a colleague used to use “It’s not what it costs you to get on – it’s what it costs you to get off”. You genuinely can leave your purse at home! We disembarked with an onboard spend of playing Bingo! (And no win add)