ceilidh1

Oh I was there today! I didn’t eat there but walked past and it was hopping!

Cold? Im from Canada. Miami is positively tropical island!

South Beach Duck Tours - official was a little bummed at them as I originally booked on the 11am tour, which I got bumped from to 1pm. Then I got bumped to 3pm. That meant I had to change my 5pm booking for the Paradox museum. Then I hung around in south beach all day as traffic was too bad to go back and forth. Luckily, I loved south beach so it worked out well. The duck tour was really good - the guide was awesome and I learned a lot about the area (far more than from big bus). I highly recommend if you’re looking for something to do in south beach!

The Big Bus tour was decent - about 90 minutes for the full loop, but traffic was brutal so if you’re thinking of using it as a post cruise thing just keep in mind that the times may not be exact (or even close). I took the first bus from Bayside and it never filled up. There was only one ship in today so that might have been a factor. The tour has a recording and they supply earphones for it. It was interesting but didn’t always line up exactly - today, for instance, only one ship in and the narration told you to look at how busy the port is with ships! 🤣

I had planned on going for sushi for dinner but I was so tired that I grabbed a sub from Publix (which was actually amazing) and just brought it back to my room! Sorry, no food porn today. I forgot to eat lunch, too! On my return to the hotel, I found my keycard didn’t work. Now I had this whole thing when I checked in last night as I originally only booked 2 nights pre cruise but then added last night as a separate reservation (by the time I decided to do the third night, to cancel and rebook at the going rate would have cost me $200 as the rate had increased so much). Anyways, when I checked in we confirmed the two reservations were linked, I would stay in the same room, and I would be charged for all three nights at the end. Well, that didn’t happen as I was locked out of my room and had to go through all this again with a different front desk guy. Sigh

Ugh. These upside down pics drive me insane! If anyone wants to fix them, be my guest!

What a busy day I had! I spent the day over in n the South Beach area - did the full loop of the big bus tour, walked ocean drive, walked mid beach, did the duck tour, tried to do Artechouse but it was closed for some reason, then took the local bus back downtown. I walked a lot today and was out from 8am to 7pm and had an amazing day!

Spent the morning in South Beach

More from the hotel

I slept like a baby last night! The metro rail is right outside my room and I can definitely hear the train go by every few minutes but it didn’t impact my sleep at all! Came down to check out the breakfast this morning. Not a huge choice and what’s there is cold but they do have my favourite make your own waffles. Sadly, no toppings other than maple syrup!

Oh I found the liquor…

I thought it was our Tribe!

All you Americans are gonna laugh at this but in all my years as a British/American/Canadian I have never set foot in a Publix store. Tonight that changed! Let me tell ya, if this was my local grocery store I would be one happy lady! I stocked up on some “essentials” and when I got to the cashier I asked if I could get some bags. He looked confused and asked if I wanted to buy reusable ones. I told him that as someone from Vancouver Canada, firstly we can’t get plastic bags. At all. Banned. Second, we have to ask and pay for paper bags - 25cents each. Third, if you f do not do that you have to carry all your cra home without a bag. His reply? “Oh honey. You’re in America now. We automatically bag your stuff unless you tell us not to.” God bless America!

@sid_9169 this one is for you! Donkey Punch Surf Taco So Cal Special It must have been a sign …at So Cal Catina a guy was wearing a shirt that said The Tribe. Of course, I had to talk to him just in case it was THE TRIBE. Turns out it was a local baseball team in Cleveland but it did lead to other conversations with Miami locals. I asked for a recommendation for happy hour/dinner tomorrow. They looked confused and said they always ended up right here! lol!

I was an idiot when I was younger and I’m surprised nothing bad happened. I shudder when I think back to just how reckless I was. That changed when I had kids cause I’m all they have so I’ve gotta stick around for a bit longer! 🤣 Seems I forgot that for a little while tonight

I didn’t think anything of it initially as when we were here last year there was a guy walking the line asking where folks were going, etc but he actually was part of the taxi crew and just getting people to the right drivers. It was only after he helpfully wheeled my bag toward his (very nice) non cab that I realized my mistake. As I was sitting in the comfy SUV it struck me that he could literally take me somewhere and murder me and no one would know. I’m the most sensible person in the world when I travel with my kids. Seems when I’m alone I’m an idiot - I revert to being a dumb teen!

Glass number two. I’ve definitely had better Hilton socials - this one had red or white wine and Stella. I love Stella, but I can’t drink it as fast as wine 🤣 For food there is a soup, veggies, salad, cheese, and crackers. The others I’ve been to had hot food, too. This hotel only offers the social on Wednesday nights so I guess I gotta pay for the other nights! Lol.

So tomorrow I had a duck tour booked using my go city pass. I booked it 2 months ago. A couple weeks back I got a notification that the booking was cancelled and I was booked on the 1pm tour (originally 11am). No biggie. Today I just got another notification that the 1pm is canceled and the only one available is 3pm. I already had something else scheduled for then so I’m a little annoyed. Seems like you get bumped for a “paying “ customer if you have the pass???

I gotta say, I just made a total rookie mistake! I came out of the airport and there was a huge line for cabs. I don’t have data to connect to Uber and the wifi outside was spotty. As I walked to the back of the long line, a guy came up and asked where I was headed so I told him and he said “oh, I can take you. My ride canceled.” I never do this normally but I just wanted to be at the hotel so I was like sure!!!! Mistake number one was not even verifying he was a cabbie (he wasn’t). Mistake number 2 was not asking the price before I agreed. Lol. Needless to say, I hot ripped off. What should have been a $40 trip was a $60 trip but he had a lovely car and I didn’t have to wait in the taxi line for half an hour! Instead I’m enjoying a free glass of wine!

The room is huge!

Made it to the hotel in time for their social! Free wine? Don’t mind if I do!

We finally left an hour an 20 minutes late but managed to make up some time so touched down in Miami 40 minutes late. Now waiting on bag coming out and going to hop in a cab to Brickell as I’m too tired for the train

They usually do that at the bag drop but this time you had to go through an agent at air Canada AND an agent at bag drop. So kiosk, agent, agent…

It was all going so well…we were meant to take off 40 minutes ago but instead we are still on the ground waiting to be de-iced. Apparently, when it’s foggy they have less de-icing crew. Not sure how those two things correlate but that’s what they said. We are next in line supposedly and they just assured us we would be on our way in 10 minutes…