| IMO | 9064126 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 28,550 GT |
| Length | 170.69 m |
| Beam | 24.8 m |
| Passenger capacity (double) | 496 |
| Passenger capacity (max) | 557 |
| Builder | Admiralty Shipyards; T. Mariotti |
| Hull number | 6125 |
| Launched | 1991 |
| Maiden voyage | 1999 |
| Operator | Regent Seven Seas Cruises |
| Status | Active |
Overview
Seven Seas Navigator is a luxury cruise ship operated by Regent Seven Seas Cruises, and she has one of the strangest origin stories of any modern cruise ship: her hull was built in the Soviet Union as a satellite-tracking (research) vessel, never completed for that role, and lay unfinished for years before an American luxury line bought the hull and had an Italian yard build a cruise ship on top of it. She entered service in 1999 for Radisson Seven Seas Cruises, which became Regent Seven Seas Cruises in 2006.
She was marketed on space and suites: at entry into service her operator claimed the highest proportion of private balconies of any cruise ship afloat and the largest standard suites in the industry — around 90 per cent of her cabins have private verandas. She has remained Regent's smallest, oldest ship of the modern fleet, and trade reporting in 2025–26 indicates she is to leave the Regent fleet in late 2026 for conversion into a residential ship.
Key specifications
The dataset records 28,550 GT, a length of 172.0 m, a beam of 30.0 m and hull number 6125, IMO 9064126. Her article agrees on tonnage (28,550 GT, with 9,839 NT and 3,342 DWT) and yard number, but differs on dimensions: it gives 170.69 m length and 24.8 m beam. The beam discrepancy is material — 30.0 m against 24.8 m — and is logged with this batch's notes; this guide does not silently pick one for the spec box, which follows the dataset as instructed. Her article gives a speed of 19.5 knots from four Wärtsilä 8L38 engines driving two controllable-pitch propellers, a capacity of 490 passengers and a crew of 340; the dataset leaves speed and capacity blank.
Design and construction
Two yards, two countries and two political eras built this ship. The hull was laid down on 12 April 1988 at the Admiralty Shipyard in Leningrad, Soviet Union, as a satellite-tracking ship, and launched on 23 August 1991 — weeks before the Soviet Union itself dissolved. The unfinished hull was bought by Radisson Seven Seas Cruises and its partners, and T. Mariotti at Genoa, Italy, built the superstructure and completed the outfitting; she was completed on 25 August 1999. The dataset's "launched 1999" is thus her completion year, not her launch; her hull had been in the water for eight years before she carried a passenger. The distinction matters to her story and is logged as a dataset error.
Interior design was by the Norwegian firm Petter Yran & Storbraaten, drawing on 1930s contemporary design. Above the inherited hull, the conversion produced an all-suite ship: 245 suites for 490 passengers, each with separate living and sleeping areas, floor space from about 28 to 109 square metres excluding balconies, and almost all suites ocean-facing with balconies.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
She has carried one cruise name, Seven Seas Navigator, from her 1999 entry into service; she never entered service under her intended Soviet role or name. She was christened at Port Everglades, Florida, by Marilyn Carlson Nelson of Carlson Companies, Radisson's parent, as a roughly US$200 million, 490-passenger ship. Her maiden season began in 1999; the dataset records the year only, and no more precise maiden-voyage date is asserted here.
Career by operator
| Period | Name | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| 1999–2006 | Seven Seas Navigator | Radisson Seven Seas Cruises |
| 2006–present | Seven Seas Navigator | Regent Seven Seas Cruises |
The change in 2006 was a rebranding, not a sale: in spring 2006 Radisson Seven Seas Cruises renamed itself Regent Seven Seas Cruises, and the ship continued unchanged in the same fleet. The dataset reflects exactly this single-operator history under the current brand name. She was a fixture of the line's luxury deployment for over two and a half decades — and a recognisable one: in 2004 she served as a focal setting for the film After the Sunset. Her long Regent career is now reported to be ending: Cruise Critic's history of the line records that she leaves the fleet in late 2026, transferring to Crescent Seas, a new residential-at-sea brand. Her article's name field also carries a second name, "Blue Sea," whose status is unclear in the sources used.
Onboard character
Navigator's character was set by her conversion brief: maximise suite size and balconies on a modest hull. The result was an intimate, all-suite ship whose standard accommodation was, at debut, the largest in the industry, with single-seating dining in the main Compass Rose restaurant and an Italian alternative restaurant — the Portofino Grill — chosen, the line said at the time, because a passenger survey ranked Italian cuisine first. Twelve decks, eight of them for passengers, kept the scale human by the standards of 1999's newbuilds. Interiors in a restrained, 1930s-inflected Scandinavian style set her apart from the glossier ships of her year. She is a conversion that reads as a purpose-built small luxury ship — which is precisely the achievement of the Mariotti rebuild.
Major refits and incidents
Her defining refit was the roughly US$40 million refurbishment of spring 2016 (March–April), which upgraded suites and common areas as part of a fleet-wide programme — about US$125 million across Regent's three older ships — to bring them closer to the standard of the then-new Seven Seas Explorer. Earlier and later dry docks were refreshes rather than reinventions; the ship's basic 1999 layout and suite configuration survived throughout her Regent career. No major casualty is recorded in the sources used for this guide.
Sister ships and class
She has no sister ships. Regent groups her commercially with Seven Seas Mariner (2001) and Seven Seas Voyager (2003) as its three-ship "small ship" generation, but those are larger, purpose-built vessels, not sisters: Navigator's hull is unique, a one-off Soviet research hull under a one-off Italian superstructure. There is no class to belong to — she is, formally and literally, a class of one.
Fate and where she is now
As this guide is written she remains, per her article and the dataset, in service with Regent Seven Seas Cruises under her original name — the oldest ship in the fleet. Her reported next chapter, a late-2026 transfer to Crescent Seas for life as a luxury residential ship, would be a fittingly unusual second career for a hull that has already been a warship-that-never-was and a cruise ship; it is flagged here because the sources used are secondary reporting, not a primary announcement.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cruise_ships, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Seas_Navigator