Miami Madness

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Thursday 5th December 2013

Landed in Miami on a nearly empty American Airlines 757 from Cancun; and hung around the airport waiting for Max to arrive from San Francisco 2 hours later. We had put one of our bags in storage at the airport five days earlier and managed to retrieve it and pay the small daily fee hassle free. Other friends were also on the same flight as Max, so with everyone and bags in tow we jumped on the free shuttle to our chosen La Quinta Inn and Suites airport hotel. After dumping the bags at the hotel the hunger pangs set in and we ambled over to a 24 hour Irish pub/hamburger restaurant right next door called Bennigans, serving Indian and Mexican and closing at 2am – go figure!

Friday 6^th December

Dianne arrived early this morning so we popped down on the shuttle as welcoming committee before heading back to the hotel for breakfast. Not being able to check into our South Beach hotel until the afternoon we all decided to fill our morning with some retail therapy. After stowing our luggage into the locker at the hotel we caught the shuttle to Dolphin Mall located just 5 miles west of the airport - handy! After spending the morning succumbing to the crowds in this massive 240 store labyrinth of retail roulette we escaped to our comfy digs for the next few days -The Blue Moon Hotel on South Beach; part of Marriott's Autograph collection group of hotels. It is typically art deco in style, as are most hotels in the area and we found the rooms to be very nice although small. It was in a fantastic location on Collins Avenue with everything close at hand. We later found out that accommodation was at a premium due to Miami Beach hosting Art Basal an international art festival; so we were lucky we had booked well in advance. We were catching up with other New Zealand friends flying in from various destinations so had arranged to meet them all at the News Café on South Beach - made famous as the hangout for Versace before he was shot outside his house just down the road. After a couple of hours of imbibing and catching up we moved to Deco Grill on Ocean Drive for dinner. It is one of the many beach side restaurants sandwiched along the boulevard and this one was perfect for a group dinner as we were able to secure a large square table on the terrace accommodating 14 of us. The evening was made complete with some surprise table-side entertainment in the form of a very entertaining magician! We finished off the night briefly exploring the strip and nightlife.

Saturday 7^th December

We awoke to another glorious day in Miami and spent the morning exploring the streets of South Beach and the Lincoln Road pedestrian mall before stopping for lunch at a great fresh sandwich joint Cafe Delmar on Washington Avenue. Very large wraps and sandwiches and very delicious. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering along the beach and ended up down at South Pointe Park basking in the warmth of the setting sun as we watched the procession of cruise ships departing port and heading off on their Caribbean adventures. We bid farewell to the Epic especially as she had been our home for a couple of weeks last month. It was a different view looking up and waving at the passengers rather than looking down and waving at those on land. After an interesting walk through the marina and a shopping stop at Best Buy, we caught up with friends at a great restaurant called ‘A Fish Called Avalon’ on Ocean Drive. It was a lovely restaurant and was special as we were celebrating another friend’s birthday. Our sidewalk table did however need to be swapped out for an indoor table shortly after sitting down, as the storm clouds opened and the rain came down on our al fresco table. As we are to board the ship tomorrow we called into a local supermarket on the way back to the hotel sourcing ‘crucial’ supplies for the cruise.

Sunday 8^th December

This morning Shaun and Dianne took a 4 hour tour out to Gator Park located in the Everglades, through Half Price Tours. We started off with an airboat ride that wove through thick mangroves and high grasses, spotting alligators lurking in the shadows, turtles basking in the sun and tiny baby gators frolicking in the shallows. Our guide Ty was straight out of the bayou - complete with mullet and he drove the airboat like he stole it - wrestling and drifting the airboat through high speed turns. This was more fun than a roller coaster and we couldn’t wipe the smiles off our faces! Back on shore we watched a wildlife show with gator wrestling and feasted on some fried gator tail before heading back into civilization. Jennie took the opportunity to catch up on all the family laundry while we were away and hung out at the local laundromat on Washington Ave, eating through quarters to complete the wash and dry cycles required. We arrived back around 1.30pm at the hotel before calling for a cab to get us all to the cruise terminal. This turned into a bit of a mission for the concierge to find a taxi van to fit the 4 of us and all of our luggage! He was last seen running down the road, around the corner and onto the main drag to find us our taxi van! He came through, albeit a bit breathless and perspiring and we were on our way. Arriving at the terminal around 3pm we had no lines and were straight onto the Norwegian Star – our home for the next two weeks.

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