The first thing I saw that caught my eye was this...
We arrived at the hotel and were greeted by such grandeur! This hotel was immaculate!
The valet took our car and the bellmen insisted on taking our bags. We were escorted to 1 of several check in desks and without hesitation or without asking us first we were brought a nice cold glass of juice which was delicious!
We went through the standard rigamarole of showing IDs and presenting a credit card and then the young lady who checked us in escorted us to the elevators and thanked us again for staying and for being Preferred Guests, which means we are members of their rewards program.
We got up to the 40th floor and our jaws dropped. We've stayed at our share of hotel rooms but this room was different than the others. See the video below for a tour of the room.
The view from our room humbled me ever so quickly. I'm amazed at the life I get to lead now and I'm so humbled and grateful for this opportunity. Check out the view.
We looked around and gawked at all of the things in the room and then the doorbell rang. It was the bellman bringing our bags and he let us know if we needed anything to dial "0". We thanked him and he left.
We looked at the view and just talked and the doorbell rang again. This time we had no idea who it could be. Well, it was our personal butler bringing us fruit, his business card, and explaining all of the things he would for us complimentary. With his permission I took a short video of part of his explanation.
Our butler left and then we were off to see "Avengers: Infinity War". Much to our surprise and partial chagrin the theater was filled with teenagers. We chose a time based on the amount of teenagers we thought would be there. Mike didn't want them talking throughout the movie and for the most part they didn't. The movie was really good. I know I'll be posting this blog before many of you have gotten a chance to see so I won't go into detail. I will say this one was filled with much more death than I had anticipated and in true Marvel fashion there was an extra scene at the end of the credits. Many of our fellow movie goers knew that because at the conclusion of the movie they did not leave.
We returned back to our hotel and were greeted with bedroom slippers beside the bed, the laundry services tray on the bed, and a massage coupon. Again, we were impressed.
We decided to eat on the property to be able to gain more Starwoods Points. Their restaurant The Terrace had a salmon vs. tuna buffet with grilled meat being offered too. The food was delicious and the service again was impeccable. I am not a beef eater because of what it does to my body but I sacrificed because it looked so good and I'm glad I did. The salmon was great and the dessert area was even better! I love chocolate and they had brownies and chocolate cake that I devoured along with some vanilla ice cream.
#DontJudge
I plan on working out extra this week and doing a week of salads! So, put away your judgement face. We ate until our heart's content and retired back to our room for the night.
All in all, night 1 was amazing and I can't wait to see what Day 2/Night 2 has in store.
We woke up Friday morning and decided to hit breakfast since it was included in our rate. We didn't want to over indulge since we would be enjoying the brunch later on in the day. There were so many breakfast options. The one thing that surprised me was seeing this...
Yep! Pork was being offered. Now, I'm not a big pork eater but I do love bacon with my pancakes so I had to get me 1 strip! Mike ordered a made to eat omelette and it looked wonderful. I'm not a fan to eggs so I stuck to the foods I really like.
We ate and talked and decided to rest up before our brunch reservation.
Before I talk about brunch let me first say that I had heard that the brunch at St. Regis is a 1 of a kind. I wasn't actually sure what to expect and I was pleasantly surprised and overwhelmed by what I saw. Let me walk you through then I want you to enjoy the video I created.
I walked up and gave them the name our reservation was under. I was escorted to the waiting area which was filled with beverages (alcoholic and non alcoholic) and cheese. We walked through the dessert room to get there though. That is not an overstatement or mistake, yes, a dessert room. Anyway, I was told about all of the many complimentary beverages and asked to just hang out until the hostess came to escort to my table. I walked around in awe with a drink in my hand. After a few minutes I was escorted to my table and the hostess explained all of the many stations/areas.
- Starter Station
- Live Pasta Station
- Tuscan Italian Station
- Beef Station
- Pork Station
- Hot Buffet Station
- Cold Seafood Station
- Cheese Fondue Station
- Grilled Station
- BBQ Station
- Grilled Fresh Seafood Station
- Pastry/Bread Station
Now, I bet you're wondering if the stations were stocked with food or was it just a small amount of food. The stations were filled with so many options! You'll see from the video. I did not know where to start so I walked around looking at what I wanted to try and just got 1 piece of bread to enjoy while I decided. After the bread I went for salt crusted salmon and jasmine rice. Both were so delicious! After that I tried to explore as many stations as I could. As I was enjoying my food, one of the chefs came around offering grilled chicken. It was so juicy and good!
Not long after he went by, another chef and a host came around offering 3 types of pasta: pesto lasagna, pasta carbonara, and another pasta I did not hear the name of. I tried each and I loved the pasta carbonara the most. I'm not a huge fan of pesto but it was good. Mike tried the 3rd kind and he said it was ok but his favorite was also pasta carbonara.
Shortly after they went by 1 of the bar tenders came around offering drinks even though our waiter had been bringing me various drinks to try. The bar tender made me a Mai Tai which was quite good.
We continued to eat, talk, and enjoy and then a chef came around asking us if we wanted to try chocolate. The chef was actually cutting the chocolate off of this huge round cylinder of chocolate. I love chocolate so I agreed to try it!
After enjoying the chocolate and drinks we were invited outside for the cutting of the champagne bottle. That was rather neat to see.
We went back in and tried to finish our drinks and what we had on our plates and then we decided to head back to our hotel room and relax from all of the food we just devoured.
We decided to go to the pool and get a view of the city at night and it did not disappoint.
I'm not a swimmer and I have never have been too keen on the water but Mike loves the water!
We returned back to our room and were greeted by this.
Now what you've been waiting for the video of the brunch! Please enjoy.
If you ever come to Abu Dhabi I would like to recommend staying at the St. Regis and enjoying their Friday brunch. We have had an amazing staycation! And it's not over. We were told that the Saturday breakfast won't end until 3:00pm! So, it is our plan to walk over to the beach and then come back and enjoy the breakfast.
We didn't make it to the beach because the sleep monster wouldn't let us up but breakfast was great! We enjoyed it and then we checked out and headed home.
We had a wonderful Staycation and cannot wait until the next one!
