OK, so my blog title says South America, but now we’re definitely in North America. However given that the predominant language remains Spanish I believe it’s perfectly reasonable to leave the title unchanged.
In the wee small hours Quest and seven leviathans pulled into Miami cruise terminal. In total they can carry 31,228 passenger beds, not taking into consideration any cabins that are able to add a third or fourth passenger, eg a convertible sofa. That’s potentially a lot of people being off-loaded and sent packing, let alone staff and crew changes, and just as many arriving to get on for the start of their vacation. So perhaps 64k - just imagine the chaos of cars, taxis, buses dealing with that?
We say goodbye to the mixture of staff and crew who are on “Goodbye Lineup” such as Cruise Director, Hotel Director, Captain, a couple of waiters. We watch with amazement some of the baggage mountains other travellers have - being away for 79 days isn’t easy!!
Despite the numbers, our driver is waiting before we emerge, although it takes us a while to work out where to find him. Our luggage is easily eaten by his Suburban, the kind of massive vehicle which would render many places in Tenerife or the UK inaccessible since it just wouldn’t fit!
We exit Dodge, the port island, briefly enter mainland Miami, and then cross another bridge onto Miami Beach and on to the Goodtime. The hotel is a bit of a mystery and it takes us a while to find the entrance, and of course we’re far too early to check in so drop bags and go exploring.
Miami Beach is city in its own right, part of the bigger region of Miami, and South Beach is the area we are staying in. The cruise port and many other islands both of the natural and man-made variety make up this region, alongside mainland Florida.
Although we’ve been to South Beach twice before pre-cruise, in both occasions it was whistle-stop with just a quick dinner on Ocean Drive before sleep and then moving on, this time we have nearly four days. We take the Art Deco Hotel walking tour from National Geographic I researched last night - with over 800 exquisite buildings in a very small area north of our hotel - it’s more a matter of deciding which ones to single out.
After a sandwich lunch in one of the dozens of restaurants on “Ocean” we finally get to unpack - as much as we can, the room is hopelessly tiny, not at all geared up to people who are travelling with a month’s baggage allowance. We head off south to a more modern area of tower-block hotels and apartments and one of many marina in the area.
We take a long walk across the same bridge we entered, passing the eight ships as we go, turn right around and walk back, by which time a couple are starting to leave. Quest had “all aboard” for 16:30 so we expected to wave her goodbye about 17:30, we now know she didn’t leave until 19:56 so it’s a good job we said our goodbyes as we walked past that last time. As she’s now got nine sea days ahead the delay is not significant. We enjoy a beer at an overpriced and rudely staffed waterside restaurant bar that has been on our list of possible dining options.
Talking of which, we’re horrified at how expensive everything is - whilst it’s quite possible this is just the “resort effect” and let’s face it we aren’t used to that kind of holiday, it seems astonishing how quickly everything adds up. We even have to pay $40 extra per day for pool access, not optional, in the hotel. Every restaurant is super-expensive, most add 20% service and 9% sales tax, on top of base prices.
After a shower and change, we wander up Ocean to find a restaurant, running the gauntlet of hosts outside each one desperate to seat new victims, oops I mean customers. Whilst dinner isn’t amazing we share calamari, then chicken parmigiana and salmon teriyaki which along with a bottle and a half of wine which came in at $170!
The main reason for being here is to people watch, as folks are the spectacle around here, all sorts, in varying states of dress or not, wandering around all evening. Photos are morally a bit tricky but believe me you’ll be pleased to be spared!!
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