Back in the almost real world, breakfast doesn’t come with quite the same refinement as onboard. There’s a “to go” breakfast joint where one can get a coffee in a disposable cup and a croissant in a polythene bag and take it out to the patio (yes, you have to carry it yourself!) Four items, $30!! We check out the pool area for later.
Our morning stays local, we wander to the beach and find the hotel’s private area, and enjoy a lazy morning reading, writing and catching up on the Archers (I’m mid January and was in floods, I didn’t know about Jennifer!)
After lunch we return, change and go back to the marina to pick up Mizner's Dream, a beautifully maintained polished teak panel boat that could be straight from the Venetian Lagoon, to take us around Biscayne Bay, the waterway that makes up the area between Miami and Miami Beach. We start by passing Fisher Island, allegedly one of the most expensive real estate in the US (according to Forbes, it’s the fifth - just type 33109 into Google maps to find it) but that’s only half the story - there’s no bridge so ferry is the only way to come and go, and the minimum maintenance fee is $10,000 per month.
Moving on we sail past the southern side of Dodge Island, the man-made port are, this side devoted to fright. From then it’s into the mouth of the Miami River. This is the freshwater drain from the Everglades, and gives the city and region it’s name. As we sail into the mouth, the nearly completed thin building on the right is Aston Martin tower where you can still get one of the top penthouses for $59m, the majority are already sold - another Google to explore!
Moving on we pass under the bridge we walked yesterday, past the end of the cruise terminal, and we see some more towers - the middle one with a simple exoskeleton, built by Zaha Hadid just before she suddenly died (on this site) which has the Beckham’s penthouse on the top floor.
Then we sail back alongside the numerous islands that make up the Venetian Islands, all man-made, with house after house belonging to the rich and famous. Antonio Banderas (the plot next door is for sale - $23m,) Ricky Martin, Al Capone (you can’t see beyond the boat house to the main residence,) Hugh Hefner, the Beckham’s party place, the man who invented Viagra - all photographed in that order - and then Madonna, Naomi Campbell … the list is endless but sometimes I don’t recognise the names.
Back on slightly less expensive land, we decide to take a cool in our pool. This is not so easy since it’s about 33 degrees, but at least the effect of getting wet helps. It’s amusing to go from (despite everything) still being just about the youngest customers on the ship, to being very definitely the oldest in this hotel by a very large margin! We pay $47 for two cocktails and make them last a very long time. As we come out of the alligator wallpapered lift we bump into an hotel receptionist going round with an ice-cream cart - perfect timing!
For dinner we go a little further up Ocean to Caffe Milano, enjoy bruschetta and coconut shrimp / carbonara and mushroom truffle risotto. The Charles Krug merlot is new to us and perfect for our choices. Afterwards we just have to walk up the strip, past tomorrow’s dinner venue and on, for more colourful views.
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