South Pacific 2015 – Dinner With Friends Part 3

On my previous cruise we arranged, with the help of the Head Sommelier and the Maître D’s, what we believe was the first Progressive Dinner on-board a Regent Vessel, it was a lot of fun, so we decided to arrange another one. The problem this time was that we were not able to convince any of the crew to assist us nor that this would be a good idea, so we took matters into our own hands.

We decided to sneak our progressive dinner in on the same night as the Captain’s Farewell as most people would be having dinner in Compass Rose and we had a booking in Signatures that night.

We started our dinner in Sette Mari for our appetizers and soup courses. To start the dinner off right we went with the Val D’oca Prosecco D.O.C Brut, a refreshing and balanced sparkling, followed by a Paripaso Cabinet Sauvignon, good colour, a muted nose with some blackberry and spice aromas, it did not have the tannins or structure I prefer.

Sunset from Sette Mari’s balcony.

I took the opportunity, as Sette Mari was quiet, to take a few shots of the buffet, on this Cruise I did not take advantage of the great buffet, but I did enjoy the Minestrone!!!

As there would be a crowd, we skipped Compass Rose and headed to Signatures for sorbet and our mains, with a side serve of French (Freedom) Fries, which made a number of the other people dining in the restaurants wish that they had asked for some as well.

This time I had the lamb, which I enjoyed immensely. The wine we had with the main was a 2012 Cellier Du Rhône Châteauneuf-du-Pape, which I enjoyed, which paired nicely with the lamb once it opened up. Definitely a food wine.

As this was to be our last dinner in Signatures on this Cruise the Signatures Chef, Ricky Buisan, and Signatures Maître D’Hotel, Marius Aricescu, visited our table so that we could thank them both for the great meals we had throughout the Cruise. Ricky must be a bit shy as he had to be coerced to come out of the kitchen.

From Signatures we headed to Prime 7 for dessert and port, a nice way to finish of another great night on board. A progressive dinner is something I recommend, it is not hard to do, just a little planning, ie book a table in the restaurant you want to have your main course and chat to the Maître D’s of the other restaurants to let them know what you doing. To make it even more fun, I recommend that you add your own wines or wines from the Connoisseur’s Wine List, which is what we did on the previous cruise and I will make sure happens next time.