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When we last left you we had flown to DFW from our home city as we started our journey.
We went to the Admirals Club, a place where we have spent a lot of time and then walked to our flight to Ft. Lauderdale, which was 30 minutes late due to cold weather in other parts of the world. Before we were seated I met about six people who were on the same Regent cruise. Half of First Class was going to South America with us! Some were going all the way around the horn!
The flight attendant told us that it is raining and bitterly cold in Ft. Lauderdale with the weather at the coldest since 1918. From the frying pan into the fire sort of. Who’d guess that? At home it was going to be 50 degrees today and tomorrow. Hopefully, we’ll have a miraculous weather change before we embark tomorrow.
Well, we ended up arriving into Ft. Lauderdale at about 5 pm which was about two hours late due to the weather in Dallas and Southern Florida. We were supposed to attend the Circle South America party being thrown by Regent for the 220 or so people who are going to be on the complete 65 day trip and it was starting shortly.
We met some more cruise friends on the shuttle to the hotel, Martha and Johnnie from Palm Springs. After a fairly long ride from the airport in the rain we went to the large conference room where the gala pre-cruise event was to be. There were a couple hundred people dressed pretty formally. We had already missed the talk from the Regent President and they were in the process of being served dinner. Since we were under-dressed (although at check-in they said it had been changed from formal to informal) we decided to go to Michael Mina’s Bourbon Steak restaurant instead (on-property at the hotel).
We stayed at the Turnberry for 5 days this past May and ate at Bourbon Steak almost every night, sitting next to James Caan at the bar a couple nights (we call him Jimmy now!). We got to know the Manager John Riccardo and the Sommelier Matthew Turner quite well. They welcomed us back last night and we had a GREAT dinner with GREAT wines. They were:
Chateau De Sancerre – 2006 Du Connetable Sancerre
We ordered this to go with the seafood platter (oysters, crab legs, claws, shrimp). I was expecting a very dry Sancerre (French Sauvignon Blanc) but instead this was very rich, almost buttery wine that was fantastic. Matthew scored on this one!
Jean Jouis Chave – 2004 Hermitage
We had a Hermitage at home a couple weeks ago. These are expensive and fairly rare wines with a very unique taste. Matt is having a tasting next week and he had some of this wine open so he gave us each a glass to pair with our salad. Another winner! (A bottle is $900 on the wine list). We then tried a Catena Zaapata – 2005 Nicasia Vineyard Malbec. This great wine is from Chile. Very smooth and rich. It went very well with our filet.
At Mina’s they have great fries, three different flavors and three different sauces that are provided as complimentary appetizers. They are a meal all to themselves. In the end, although I was disappointed that we missed the big gala dinner and even forgot to take a picture of it, Margaret made the right call on going to Mina’s. It was a truly First Class experience.
We then went back to our room which was pretty much the same room we had the last time we stayed here. It is strange to see FL with such cold weather and we are hoping it warms up a bit tomorrow for the big departure day.
Dale
jthor2054 - My 65 days of stalking began with great success tonight. Already my $249 tuition to Great Impostor Academy has been fully recouped, as they fell for my impersonation of Matthew Turner without a hint of suspicion. The fake Ecuadoran accent almost tripped me up, but I bemoaned a recent bout of laryngitis — and they bought it. They did not even suspect as I substituted the Chateau de Cheapeau vintage 2009 for the pretentious Hermitage. I of course later enjoyed the decanted latter in the flashlit ambiance of my station wagon, which I am using to follow these chumps until I stow away on shipboard. The beginning of a great adventure!
Dale - Since I’m reading this backward I can only repeat what I said before. Ok, ok, ok, M and I will start going back to our former writing styles and see if we can create a bit more drama in our story. Once I get the technology down and can keep up with the flow of pictures I will give it a try. But, all that being said again, you are a wild and crazy guy. Keep it coming. Maybe we can have a blog within a blog with you keeping the background, alternate universe story line going behind our somewhat “boring” existence???