Did your family hail from Siracusa? Are you a descendant of the Vikings who founded Waterford? Unlock the secrets of your DNA and retrace your ancestry aboard a Spotlight Voyage. Choose from two sailings, one in the fall of 2025 to the Mediterranean and the other to Northern Europe in the summer of 2026. Both voyages sail aboard the all-suite, all-balcony Seven Seas Voyager®.
If you’re new to luxury cruising, you may be unfamiliar with our fully immersive enrichment experiences, which we call Spotlight Voyages. These special sailings allow you to take a deep dive into a specific topic, such as food and wine, nature or current affairs.
Among our Spotlight Voyages are the Spotlight on Heritage with Ancestry® sailings, hosted by the expert family historians at AncestryProGenealogists®, the professional services division of Ancestry®. In addition to attending fascinating lectures and cocktail receptions, these Spotlight Voyages offer a powerful blend of luxury travel and personal discovery. Discover your roots through expert genealogy consultations, ancestral home visits, and enriching shore excursions on one of our two Spotlight on Heritage voyages.
For a new perspective, this 14-night voyage brings you to the canals of Venice in the fall. Then, it continues along Croatia’s storied coastline in Rijeka. Cruise the Adriatic en route to Montenegro’s dramatic Bay of Kotor before discovering historic Brindisi, and the Greek treasures of Corfu and Argostoli. You’ll arrive at Sicily’s vibrant Messina and Siracusa, then call on Malta’s fortified capital of Valletta. After a day at sea, explore Palermo’s blend of Arab and Norman influences, soak up the coastal charm of Amalfi and Positano, and venture into Naples before concluding your unforgettable adventure in Rome’s port of Civitavecchia.
This voyage showcases Northern Europe’s most storied destinations, beginning and ending in London (Southampton). Spend two days exploring the medieval and modern contrasts of Antwerp before sailing to the coastal charm of Dunkerque and then to picturesque Honfleur near Paris. Continuing on, your journey brings you to the Channel Island of Guernsey, known for its dramatic sea cliffs, followed by two stops in Ireland to experience Cork’s maritime history and Waterford’s Viking heritage. A day at sea cruising the Celtic waters offers a chance to relax and reflect on your discoveries before returning to Southampton, completing this unique Spotlight Voyage.
Enhance your Spotlight Voyage with these optional add-ons that deepen your connection to your family’s past. These heritage travel add-ons are thoughtfully designed to help you explore, preserve, and celebrate your personal history with the guidance of expert genealogists and interviewers.
You can participate in a one-on-one oral history interview with a professional interviewer, allowing you to capture and share personal stories and memories with loved ones. These one-hour sessions, offered by AncestryProGenealogists®, let you choose a topic or person of significance, creating a lasting keepsake from your journey. As a keepsake from your experience, you will receive an electronic audio file of the recorded oral history interview, with information on how we could also help you create a basic or designed transcript of the conversation that can be shared in written form.
Interviewer Erika Manternach guides you through your memories to create a keepsake recording. You can choose the topic for the discussion — one that can reasonably be covered in about 50 minutes. Interviews can be conducted with one or two people at a time.
Suggested topics include:
Multiple sessions can be booked if you have several stories to share, and these interviews also make thoughtful gifts for travel companions. Each session is $250 and must be scheduled in advance.
When you choose the optional Ancestral Home Visit excursion, you will be guided by an expert genealogist to walk in your ancestors’ footsteps in your ancestral home town. You could visit your ancestor’s house in a village near Palermo, a church in Rijeka where your great-great-grandparents were married or the location where your family set off on their journey across the Atlantic from Naples. Learn about their occupations and local traditions, understand what life was like for them, talk to local residents, and perhaps even meet living relatives!
The price for adding an optional half-day private shore excursion to your reservation starts at $2,000 (including the cost of transportation for your party arranged by our Destination Services team). Full-day visits are also available. Pre-visit genealogy research to find out more details about your family can be arranged.
Spend a half hour with one of our experts to learn more about your family, ancestors, and DNA. Find out how to interpret your AncestryDNA results and get the most out of the test. Explore records online with your genealogist or get tips about research you can do when you’re back home. Learn about the professional research, writing, and heritage travel services available from Ancestry.
Availability for these exclusive add-ons is limited, so if you're already booked on one of the two Spotlight on Heritage with Ancestry® voyages, we encourage you to reach out to progentravel@ancestry.com and mention you're a guest of Regent Seven Seas Cruises®. Consultations may be scheduled in advance or during the voyage, and we'll do our best to accommodate all interested guests.
Regent Seven Seas Cruises® has consistently delivered ultra-luxury travel experiences with the very best value for over thirty years. Aboard The World’s Most Luxurious Fleet®, enjoy unrivaled onboard space, unforgettable shoreside excursions, incomparable culinary experiences, and exceptional Heartfelt Hospitality™.