Chose Regents Seven Seas Mariner because we wanted to tour Alaska and the time of year and schedule were perfect. Recently we had sailed on Oceania so wanted to give Regents a try.
Alaska is great if you want beautiful and amazing scenery and seeing landscapes you cannot see anywhere else in the world. It is pretty cool to see moose, bear, bald eagles, porpoises and whale living in the wild. We did the pre-Denali tour and our guide, Lane, did a great job pointing everything out and making sure we stuck to the schedule. He also gave great recommendations for restaurants and he does a nice job figuring out your likes and dislikes. A common theme to this review will be that I wish many of the tours were more active. I expected the hikes to be more challenging and that we would be outside of a bus a little more than we were. I wanted to spend more time in Girdwood which a great little town and the Hotel Alyska has a lot to offer. We didn’t have enough time there.
We arrived at the Mariner on sailing day at about 3:30. The lifeboat drill was at 4:00 so there was very little time to explore. The Mariner is beautiful ship with great flow. It did not look old at all and I think it recently had been refurbished. Our cabin was a Penthouse level 1. Great size for two people. Plenty of room with lots of drawers and a good size closet. Although not as big as Oceania. Suitcases had to (and fit fine) go under the bed. Room was always clean and Butler was always available if we needed anything. Refrigerators always had plenty of soda and there was wine there as well. And beer. It was very comparable to the suite on Oceania Riveria. There was Lily express maker but no cappuccino maker like on Riviera. Also the afternoon canapés were always better on the Riveria.