Regent’s Seven Seas Mariner was scheduled to sail from Miami on its 2026 World Cruise January 10th. And unlike Crystal Serenity or Silver Dawn, it actually planned to circumnavigate the globe and return to Miami five months later.
While we have never sailed on Mariner, oldest and smallest of the line’s ships, we have sailed on other Regent ships and found the food and service – if not quite as good as Crystal – first rate.
However, for us, Mariner’s 2026 World Cruise got off to a shaky start.
After sailing down through the Panama Canal, the next week consisted of stops at Central American ports on the Pacific that we have no desire to ever seeing again, followed by a string of sea days that culminated in a week in the Hawaiian Islands.
The latter might be an enticement to those who have never spent time in beautiful Hawaii, but again – been there, done that.
After Hawaii, however, things got much better. Seven Seas Mariner planned to spend more time island hopping in the South Pacific than either Serenity or Silver Dawn – including a couple of overnights in French Polynesia.
After a short visit to New Zealand (perfect; been there), the ship planned to proceed to Sydney and up the East Coast of Australia (not so good; also been there), and then cross to Indonesia for a week that included an overnight in Bali (excellent).
Seven Seas Mariner next was to spend a week sailing along the coast of Indochina and Thailand.
This part of the itinerary was extremely enticing because it included an overnight stop in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, followed by a port call three days later in Sihanoukville, Cambodia.
That would provide enough time to leave the ship in Ho Chi Minh City, fly inland to Siem Riep, Cambodia for a two-day “Bucket List” visit to the famed Angkor Wat, before flying south to reboard Seven Seas Mariner in Sihanoukville.
We loved that possibility. Angkor Wat is even higher on our “Bucket List” than India’s Taj Mahal.
Following that, Seven Seas Mariner was to make its way to Singapore for an overnight, and then up to Cochin, Mangalore and Goa, India.
But that’s where the ship, in our view, took a turn in the wrong direction. Instead of proceeding northwest toward the Middle East, Seven Seas Mariner planned to head south across the Indian Ocean toward Africa.
While we were certainly up for visits to the Maldives and Seychelles, we were not excited at the idea of sailing once again around the Cape of Good Hope and up the west coast of Africa en route back to Europe.
We’ve seen most of the ports in South Africa (don’t get us wrong; we really liked South Africa).
But there’s a reason why few ships called at ports in West Africa before the closure of the Suez Canal made that the only way to get vessels from Europe to Asia.
Unless this turned out to be the only way back from Asia to Europe by sea, no more visits to West Africa for us, thank you.
But there was one BIG final attraction to this World Cruise. After reaching Lisbon the first of June, the Seven Seas Mariner planned to conclude its long voyage by returning across the Atlantic to Miami.
Home! At last, a ship that would end our global circumnavigation by delivering us back to where we began!
So were the plusses of this five-month trip enough to offset the minuses? That was what we were pondering as we looked at another option.