Regent Seven Seas Cruises has launched its full schedule of 2009 voyages. The 2009 program features an unprecedented two World Cruises, new itineraries across northern Europe and an enhanced version of the sold-out "Discovery Collection" series of voyages to Africa, the Middle East, India and South America. Regent is offering a broad selection of sailings to Africa, Antarctica, Alaska, Asia, Australasia, Europe and the Mediterranean, India, the Caribbean and Mexico, the Panama Canal, South America, and Tahiti and the South Pacific in 2009. Regent in 2009 will operate the 700-guest Seven Seas Voyager and Seven Seas Mariner, the 490-guest Seven Seas Navigator, the 330-guest Paul Gauguin and the 198-guest expedition ship Minerva. Highlights of the 2009 itineraries for Regent Seven Seas include four Grand Voyages, including two 100-plus-day World Cruise journeys. These voyages feature ports of call from the Far East to the Middle East and beyond to Asia, Europe, South America, Australia and the South Pacific. On Jan. 12, Seven Seas Voyager will embark on a 116-night "Grand Circumnavigation World Cruise" to the South Pacific, Orient, Arabia, the Mediterranean and Bermuda, departing from Los Angeles. Seven Seas Mariner will embark on a 121-night "Ring of Fire World Cruise" on Jan. 26, with visits to ports in South America, French Polynesia, Australia, Southeast Asia, China, Japan, Russia and Alaska.

_base_d on the popularity of a similar grand voyage offered in 2008, Regent Seven Seas will again offer a "Discovery Collection" of cruises to Africa, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia and South America in 2009. This six-continent odyssey was offered in 2008 on Seven Seas Navigator but for 2009 will be replaced by the larger Seven Seas Voyager. Also in 2009, Seven Seas Mariner will embark on a fourth extended sailing, a 102-night "Grand Asia Pacific" voyage to Alaska, Japan, Russia, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and French Polynesia.

Regent Seven Seas has introduced a new Northern Europe itinerary for 2009 that will depart Fort Lauderdale on May 8 aboard Seven Seas Voyager. The 23-day voyage will visit New York City; Newport, R.I.; Boston; Bar Harbor, Maine; and Halifax, Nova Scotia before crossing the Atlantic to Iceland and the U.K. The voyage is further highlighted by port calls in Scotland, Ireland and the Faroe Islands before ending in Southampton, England on May 31. Seven Seas Voyager will begin the year with the 116-night World Cruise. Upon completion of the World Cruise in Fort Lauderdale on May 8, 2009, the ship will sail to Europe via New York, Iceland and the British Isles, ending in Southampton for a summer season in the Baltic. In September, Seven Seas Voyager will position to the Mediterranean, followed by the Discovery Collection of cruises in the fall.

Seven Seas Mariner will start 2009 with the 121-night World Cruise departing from Fort Lauderdale on Jan. 26 and ending in Vancouver on May 27. Seven Seas Mariner will then offer a series of seven-day Gulf of Alaska sailings, after which the ship will head west to the Pacific for its "Grand Asia Pacific" voyage. The ship will return to Los Angeles in late December and offer a Panama Canal cruise during Christmas and New Year's. Seven Seas Navigator will spend the first four months of 2009 sailing from Fort Lauderdale on Caribbean cruises. Next, Seven Seas Navigator will travel the Mediterranean from May through early November, offering several 10- and 11-night cruises as well as a complement of seven-night cruises featuring back-to-back sailing opportunities. The ship will return to Fort Lauderdale in late November and December for a series of Caribbean cruises.

Paul Gauguin will continue to sail French Polynesia from Tahiti in 2009, offering seven-night cruises in the Society Islands and a handful of 10-, 11- and 14-night voyages in the region, plus opportunities to sail to and from Brisbane, Australia, on two 16-night cruises in January. Minerva (formerly Explorer II) will offer two Antarctica voyages in 2009. Setting sail on Jan. 14-25 and Jan. 25-Feb. 8, each voyage begins with a visit to the Falkland Islands village of Port Stanley. Minerva then sails to the South Shetland Islands and Antarctic Peninsula, followed by a transit of the Drake Passage. Before returning to Ushuaia, Argentina, the ship will cruise along Cape Horn, at the confluence of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The 14-night, Jan. 25 departure adds a call at South Georgia Island, which features large colonies of king penguins, fur and elephant seals.