We arrived in Miami mid-afternoon. We stayed at the Clinton Hotel right in South Beach. We were literally a couple of blocks from the beach, everything was within walking distance. We enjoyed the hotel and location. We immediately changed and went to the beach. Beach was nice, very windy though. Laid out for probably an hour or two. So nice not to keep close track of time on vacation! Some days I had to ask myself what day it even was! HA, love it!
Well we happened to arrive in Miami just in time… unbeknownst to us, for the Gay Pride Parade. What an eye opener that was! We basically sat on a patio on Ocean Drive and just took it all in. I saw one guy literally only wearing his underwear and a rainbow cape. We saw cross dressers galore! Lots of PDA. Pretty good people watching! Aaron kept telling me to stop staring, pointing and gasping at people. I was trying to be mindful and respectful of this but gosh darn it what can I say, we’re Iowans and I don’t normally see that much individualism displayed in one day!
That evening we enjoyed a yummy dinner at Spiga. After dinner, we notice there was a street party that was quite lively and was pretty obvious a continuation of the gay pride events. So we were intrigued and decided to walk thru it. That was craziness! Even saw some fireworks taking place over the beach. At this point, we stopped for a drink at a patio further down on Ocean Dr and that’s when I realized that South Beach is very expensive. Drinks are outrageously priced. Food is very expensive. Just a note that if you ever go there, be prepared for this as I knew it was more expensive but was not fully aware of how expensive it really is. I don’t think we could have afforded more than our 24 hour stint in South Beach!
We did make friends that evening with the table next to us, they were a fun group. Aaron started ordering shots and I knew it was downhill from there… We were having a lot of fun and I didn’t want to go back to the hotel either but I finally talked some sense into him that it was time to call it a night. For a Sunday night, South Beach was quite the party!
That next morning we decided not to go back to the beach and just sleep in. We didn’t have to board our cruise until that afternoon so we walked back to Ocean Dr for breakfast. As we were enjoying breakfast, I notice a girl with a really cool beach towel. After we packed up and checked out of our hotel, I was on a mission to find this beach towel. Can I just mention, I have a trooper for a husband! While I was fanatic on finding this beach towel, he lugged almost 100 pounds of luggage behind him while we walked all over South Beach for an hour looking for where I can purchase these towels and he never complained once or said let’s just give up. Because, let’s be honest, what guy really cares about being on a mission to find beach towels?!? What a trooper, one of the many reasons I love him. I did find the towels by the way!
Time to board the ship! We used Royal Caribbean and were on the Majesty of the Seas. Boarding the ship was a piece of cake, very smooth process. The ship itself was nice and well taken care of. It’s an older ship but has been remodeled. Our stateroom was better than I was expecting. Yes it was small but I was pleasantly surprised by how nice and clean it was.
Our stateroom attendant was wonderful! The staff on this ship was the best; everyone was so friendly and helpful. Not one person passes you without a smile and a greeting. I was impressed with the service, top notch!
We headed right up to the pool deck once we got settled in our room. The pool also surpassed my expectations. Very nice pool area and set up well. Of course we got right to the drinks and the sun! Before we knew it, the boat was leaving the dock and Miami was a view from the distance.
Our scheduled dinner time was not until 9 pm, which I was leery about having dinner this late but now looking back, I wouldn’t have done it differently. There is plenty to eat to hold you over and I don’t think we could have ever made the 6 pm dinner in time. Dinner was not what I expected. I thought it was going to be buffet style but it was a semi formal ‘order off the menu’ dinner each night. The menu changed slightly each evening, always lots of choices, even for me who can be a picky eater. You sit at the same table, with the same group each night. Our table was great; we liked everyone at our table. They were all couples that were close to age as us. We hung out with them after dinner most nights even and got to know them fairly well.
I think this is a good stopping point for now! Wheew, blogging is time consuming sometimes. Stay tuned for Day 3, our first day in the Bahamas!
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