Inside the Most Luxurious Cruise Ship in the World.
It includes a $10,000-per-night suite—and all the caviar, lobster, and Champagne you can possibly consume.
On board the opulent new Seven Seas Explorer this week, Frank Del Rio, president and chief executive officer of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, took a moment to talk about the subject of conspicuous consumption.
“This idea that one-percenters are the evil empire of the world is over,” Del Rio said. “It’s time to celebrate success. It’s time to celebrate wealth.
The Regent Seven Seas Explorer
The Seven Seas Explorer is a $450 million, 750-passenger, all-suite triumph of luxury. The first new ship for NCLH’s high-end Regent Seven Seas Cruises brand in 13 years. It’s designed to make a splash, as well as a profit: Extravagance was always core to the plan when it was being conceived, and subtlety was never a consideration. Del Rio’s simple goal was to create the most luxurious cruise liner ever built.
Jaw Dropping Design
On a pre-inaugural cruise in the Western Mediterranean for media, travel agents, and company insiders, I had the run of the ship for five days. The most striking feature of this Italian-built, 55,254-ton ship is how palatial it feels.
Ceilings seem to soar endlessly, the floors are done up in intricate stone patterns (sometimes with gold leaf accents), and even the guest hallways have Czech crystal and glass chandeliers. There’s an entire football field’s worth of marble onboard, half of it Carrara. The overall look is more Grand European Hotel than your typical cruise ship.
Three design firms worked on the project, but somehow their work flows seamlessly. They report that “no” was a word rarely heard from the money guys.
The Pacific Rim restaurant on board the Explorer
Asked the craziest thing he got away with, Greg Walton of design firm CallisonRTKL cited a $500,000, three-ton sculpture made from hand-cast bronze that resides outside the ship’s Pacific Rim restaurant. It’s so heavy, it required steel reinforcement.
Five-Star Accommodations
One of the suites
Up in the Explorer‘s top, $10,000-per-night Regent Suite, which occupies much of Deck 14, travel agent Bob Newman was wide-eyed and smiling so hard he could hardly talk.
“It’s fabulous,” said Newman, a vice president for Rhode Island-based Cruise Brothers. “Nothing compares to this. It’s just unique. That’s the only word I can use for it.”
Explorer has 375 suites in 10 categories, all with marble bathrooms and oversized balconies—a key differentiator from its competition. On similar ships by Silversea, a luxury cruise line, everyone gets a butler; only select suites on the Explorer get that perk. But everyone gets Veuve Cliquot or Jacquart Champagne and L’Occitane bath amenities, plush bedding, and furnishings, with the quality and perks increasing the higher the suite level.
