dr martini

Sunday - Night Zero

 We took a random cab from Miami International after grabbing our bags and I have to say, that was a mistake and I know better.  We’ve been in plenty of cabs before and are used to the rambling and chatting, the not so fresh or new vehicle, the terrible driving, helping the cabbie navigate through the concrete jungle etc but this guy has to win some kind of award for being the most big city cab experience of all time.  We survived and I will be arranging an Uber black or something a bit more polished for the rest of our trip.  Waved at Oasis as we passed by, we would see her sail away later on in the day.

 
After a pretty good amount of research combined with talking to friends and family who live in south Florida and are in the Miami area often we decided on the Hilton Bentley South Beach which is in the south point neighborhood, all the way at the bottom tip of the island.  There are hundreds of places to stay in south Florida, many certainly cheaper or closer to the airport/seaport but after being here I can say this is a new favorite.  I booked the cheapest room I could with Hilton Honors points (95,000) and had planned on tipping some cash to our check in agent upon arrival to see if any upgrades were available.  This is a lot cheaper than paying the full price ahead of time online and I just trust the staff’s opinion more than some pictures online.  A good photographer and web marketing can make things very deceiving. 
Anyway, I’ve used this trick a lot on other trips to Vegas, Key West, Chicago etc. Just slid $40 cash along with my credit card and driver’s license at checkin and asked our clerk if any rooms with a nice view were available.  She said she would work on it and call me back in the meantime the pool and other amenities were available to us.  Our $35 resort fee at the hotel came with two beach chairs, bottles of water and towels.  We changed into some proper attire we had previously put in a packing cube for the day so we didn’t have to dig through our whole bag in the middle of the lobby, grabbed a couple rum and cokes at the pool bar and headed to the beach.

This will do nicely, thank you.
 
 
Quite the mix of a crowd on the beach on a Sunday, but it made for good people watching and seeing the parade of ships sail away did not get old.  While watching, the front desk called and told me she had a few options, a tenth floor room with a great view of the city and the bay but no balcony and a ninth floor room on the corner that didn’t have a straight view out at the beach, but had a balcony and a view to the south.  Needless to say, I chose the room with the balcony and we were not disappointed.  





This is a two room suite on the corner with a full kitchen, bathroom with separate shower, tub, toilet and bidet.  The fridge came pre stocked with a selection of wine and beers, the kitchen had all of the necessary cups, plates and silverware one would need to do some basic cooking, but we were just cleaning up to head out for dinner.  When in Rome, do as the Romans and in this case being in South Point meant only one restaurant would do, and that’s the original Joe’s Stone Crab.

 We had no reservation but only waited at the bar for 15 minutes or so before being seated and had an amazing meal.  Bread, constant touches from a variety of staff filling water, cleaning the table, topping off wine, sweeping crumbs, keeping pace of service (we chose a family style large platter of stone crab claws with fried tomatoes and hashbrowns as sides.  This was how I remember the main dining room as a teenager on my first Royal cruises two decades ago but that’s a whole other story.

 
I’m honestly a bit sad we don’t have a whole week to spend here on Miami Beach and in this hotel room but Freedom will be in town to pick us soon, as I type this the other ships are making their way into port.  We checked in on the Royal app the first day we were able to and secured a 10:30am checkin time.  I never understand why people would ever try to fly in the day of or not get to the ship early, but then again we don’t get to cruise often and I am well aware we are overdoing it a bit this time around, but it’s precisely because we don’t get to travel as much now with the kiddos in our lives that I wanted to splurge and make this trip special.  Anyway, time to get packed back up.  We’ll grab a small bite to eat and some coffee and head to the port soon.  Cheers!

 
 
 
 

Sunday - Night Zero

 We took a random cab from Miami International after grabbing our bags and I have to say, that was a mistake and I know better.  We’ve been in plenty of cabs before and are used to the rambling and chatting, the not so fresh or new vehicle, the terrible driving, helping the cabbie navigate through the concrete jungle etc but this guy has to win some kind of award for being the most big city cab experience of all time.  We survived and I will be arranging an Uber black or something a bit more polished for the rest of our trip.  Waved at Oasis as we passed by, we would see her sail away later on in the day.

 
After a pretty good amount of research combined with talking to friends and family who live in south Florida and are in the Miami area often we decided on the Hilton Bentley South Beach which is in the south point neighborhood, all the way at the bottom tip of the island.  There are hundreds of places to stay in south Florida, many certainly cheaper or closer to the airport/seaport but after being here I can say this is a new favorite.  I booked the cheapest room I could with Hilton Honors points (95,000) and had planned on tipping some cash to our check in agent upon arrival to see if any upgrades were available.  This is a lot cheaper than paying the full price ahead of time online and I just trust the staff’s opinion more than some pictures online.  A good photographer and web marketing can make things very deceiving. 
Anyway, I’ve used this trick a lot on other trips to Vegas, Key West, Chicago etc. Just slid $40 cash along with my credit card and driver’s license at checkin and asked our clerk if any rooms with a nice view were available.  She said she would work on it and call me back in the meantime the pool and other amenities were available to us.  Our $35 resort fee at the hotel came with two beach chairs, bottles of water and towels.  We changed into some proper attire we had previously put in a packing cube for the day so we didn’t have to dig through our whole bag in the middle of the lobby, grabbed a couple rum and cokes at the pool bar and headed to the beach.

This will do nicely, thank you.
 
 
Quite the mix of a crowd on the beach on a Sunday, but it made for good people watching and seeing the parade of ships sail away did not get old.  While watching, the front desk called and told me she had a few options, a tenth floor room with a great view of the city and the bay but no balcony and a ninth floor room on the corner that didn’t have a straight view out at the beach, but had a balcony and a view to the south.  Needless to say, I chose the room with the balcony and we were not disappointed.  





This is a two room suite on the corner with a full kitchen, bathroom with separate shower, tub, toilet and bidet.  The fridge came pre stocked with a selection of wine and beers, the kitchen had all of the necessary cups, plates and silverware one would need to do some basic cooking, but we were just cleaning up to head out for dinner.  When in Rome, do as the Romans and in this case being in South Point meant only one restaurant would do, and that’s the original Joe’s Stone Crab.

 We had no reservation but only waited at the bar for 15 minutes or so before being seated and had an amazing meal.  Bread, constant touches from a variety of staff filling water, cleaning the table, topping off wine, sweeping crumbs, keeping pace of service (we chose a family style large platter of stone crab claws with fried tomatoes and hashbrowns as sides.  This was how I remember the main dining room as a teenager on my first Royal cruises two decades ago but that’s a whole other story.

 
I’m honestly a bit sad we don’t have a whole week to spend here on Miami Beach and in this hotel room but Freedom will be in town to pick us soon, as I type this the other ships are making their way into port.  We checked in on the Royal app the first day we were able to and secured a 10:30am checkin time.  I never understand why people would ever try to fly in the day of or not get to the ship early, but then again we don’t get to cruise often and I am well aware we are overdoing it a bit this time around, but it’s precisely because we don’t get to travel as much now with the kiddos in our lives that I wanted to splurge and make this trip special.  Anyway, time to get packed back up.  We’ll grab a small bite to eat and some coffee and head to the port soon.  Cheers!

 
 
 
 

Sunday - Night Zero

 We took a random cab from Miami International after grabbing our bags and I have to say, that was a mistake and I know better.  We’ve been in plenty of cabs before and are used to the rambling and chatting, the not so fresh or new vehicle, the terrible driving, helping the cabbie navigate through the concrete jungle etc but this guy has to win some kind of award for being the most big city cab experience of all time.  We survived and I will be arranging an Uber black or something a bit more polished for the rest of our trip.  Waved at Oasis as we passed by, we would see her sail away later on in the day.

 
After a pretty good amount of research combined with talking to friends and family who live in south Florida and are in the Miami area often we decided on the Hilton Bentley South Beach which is in the south point neighborhood, all the way at the bottom tip of the island.  There are hundreds of places to stay in south Florida, many certainly cheaper or closer to the airport/seaport but after being here I can say this is a new favorite.  I booked the cheapest room I could with Hilton Honors points (95,000) and had planned on tipping some cash to our check in agent upon arrival to see if any upgrades were available.  This is a lot cheaper than paying the full price ahead of time online and I just trust the staff’s opinion more than some pictures online.  A good photographer and web marketing can make things very deceiving. 
Anyway, I’ve used this trick a lot on other trips to Vegas, Key West, Chicago etc. Just slid $40 cash along with my credit card and driver’s license at checkin and asked our clerk if any rooms with a nice view were available.  She said she would work on it and call me back in the meantime the pool and other amenities were available to us.  Our $35 resort fee at the hotel came with two beach chairs, bottles of water and towels.  We changed into some proper attire we had previously put in a packing cube for the day so we didn’t have to dig through our whole bag in the middle of the lobby, grabbed a couple rum and cokes at the pool bar and headed to the beach.

This will do nicely, thank you.
 
 
Quite the mix of a crowd on the beach on a Sunday, but it made for good people watching and seeing the parade of ships sail away did not get old.  While watching, the front desk called and told me she had a few options, a tenth floor room with a great view of the city and the bay but no balcony and a ninth floor room on the corner that didn’t have a straight view out at the beach, but had a balcony and a view to the south.  Needless to say, I chose the room with the balcony and we were not disappointed.  





This is a two room suite on the corner with a full kitchen, bathroom with separate shower, tub, toilet and bidet.  The fridge came pre stocked with a selection of wine and beers, the kitchen had all of the necessary cups, plates and silverware one would need to do some basic cooking, but we were just cleaning up to head out for dinner.  When in Rome, do as the Romans and in this case being in South Point meant only one restaurant would do, and that’s the original Joe’s Stone Crab.

 We had no reservation but only waited at the bar for 15 minutes or so before being seated and had an amazing meal.  Bread, constant touches from a variety of staff filling water, cleaning the table, topping off wine, sweeping crumbs, keeping pace of service (we chose a family style large platter of stone crab claws with fried tomatoes and hashbrowns as sides.  This was how I remember the main dining room as a teenager on my first Royal cruises two decades ago but that’s a whole other story.

 
I’m honestly a bit sad we don’t have a whole week to spend here on Miami Beach and in this hotel room but Freedom will be in town to pick us soon, as I type this the other ships are making their way into port.  We checked in on the Royal app the first day we were able to and secured a 10:30am checkin time.  I never understand why people would ever try to fly in the day of or not get to the ship early, but then again we don’t get to cruise often and I am well aware we are overdoing it a bit this time around, but it’s precisely because we don’t get to travel as much now with the kiddos in our lives that I wanted to splurge and make this trip special.  Anyway, time to get packed back up.  We’ll grab a small bite to eat and some coffee and head to the port soon.  Cheers!

 
 
 
 

Saturday - Drove to and stayed at  Rose hotel in Rosemont (suburban Chicago) IL just next to the O’hare complex.  Ohare is a huge airport, obviously, and has a lot of hotel, restaurant and parking options nearby.  We live a few hours away and are constantly debating cost/benefits of taking the smaller closer airports and a connecting puddle jumper type flight vs just driving to the big airport and flying direct.  Winter weather being what it is, this time of year we usually choose to just drive to O’hare.
I’m a Hilton Honors member, the Rose seemed to be the best priced for a new-ish looking hotel in the Hilton family of brands, about $150 plus $30 for parking.  It seems to me like not brand new but more like a reclad and remodel (should I say amplified!?) of a formerly plain looking Hampton.  Booked it for the deal, I don’t know that I would go out of my way to choose it again but it’s certainly fine.  Going for a very modern look, lots of pink and black and white.  We had a single king, checked in with the app, room key and parking was through the app with our phone as a key, nice big bathroom, had a couple drinks at the bar and a bottle of wine with dinner, honestly better food than it had to be which is all one can ask anymore.  We shared some appetizers and a salmon poke bowl that I unfortunately didn’t get pictures of.

 
Parked in the O’hare ramp for Terminal 3 which American flies from.  If you don’t know, O’hare’s main parking ramp next to the airport is labeled in sections with names based on the local pro sports teams which is fun - take a picture to remember where you are!

 
We checked in on our phones the night before and got to the airport about two hours early - American was already offering $300 vouchers for alternate flights (which we weren’t eligible for as I booked us with miles and we had the morning flight we wanted) with all the other madness going on in air travel we wanted to be as prepared as possible and there was also a dusting of snow so we expected some kind of delay just for de-icing at the very least.  There was no line for TSA precheck at 6AM, dropped our bags and met our favorite bartender who is still at the same spot (nothing like knowing somebody) had a few mimosas and left Chicago on a nice big wide body Boeing 787 Dreamliner for clearer southern skies after just over an hour of delays.

 
 

Sunday - Night Zero

 We took a random cab from Miami International after grabbing our bags and I have to say, that was a mistake and I know better.  We’ve been in plenty of cabs before and are used to the rambling and chatting, the not so fresh or new vehicle, the terrible driving, helping the cabbie navigate through the concrete jungle etc but this guy has to win some kind of award for being the most big city cab experience of all time.  We survived and I will be arranging an Uber black or something a bit more polished for the rest of our trip.  Waved at Oasis as we passed by, we would see her sail away later on in the day.

 
After a pretty good amount of research combined with talking to friends and family who live in south Florida and are in the Miami area often we decided on the Hilton Bentley South Beach which is in the south point neighborhood, all the way at the bottom tip of the island.  There are hundreds of places to stay in south Florida, many certainly cheaper or closer to the airport/seaport but after being here I can say this is a new favorite.  I booked the cheapest room I could with Hilton Honors points (95,000) and had planned on tipping some cash to our check in agent upon arrival to see if any upgrades were available.  This is a lot cheaper than paying the full price ahead of time online and I just trust the staff’s opinion more than some pictures online.  A good photographer and web marketing can make things very deceiving. 
Anyway, I’ve used this trick a lot on other trips to Vegas, Key West, Chicago etc. Just slid $40 cash along with my credit card and driver’s license at checkin and asked our clerk if any rooms with a nice view were available.  She said she would work on it and call me back in the meantime the pool and other amenities were available to us.  Our $35 resort fee at the hotel came with two beach chairs, bottles of water and towels.  We changed into some proper attire we had previously put in a packing cube for the day so we didn’t have to dig through our whole bag in the middle of the lobby, grabbed a couple rum and cokes at the pool bar and headed to the beach.

This will do nicely, thank you.
 
 
Quite the mix of a crowd on the beach on a Sunday, but it made for good people watching and seeing the parade of ships sail away did not get old.  While watching, the front desk called and told me she had a few options, a tenth floor room with a great view of the city and the bay but no balcony and a ninth floor room on the corner that didn’t have a straight view out at the beach, but had a balcony and a view to the south.  Needless to say, I chose the room with the balcony and we were not disappointed.  





This is a two room suite on the corner with a full kitchen, bathroom with separate shower, tub, toilet and bidet.  The fridge came pre stocked with a selection of wine and beers, the kitchen had all of the necessary cups, plates and silverware one would need to do some basic cooking, but we were just cleaning up to head out for dinner.  When in Rome, do as the Romans and in this case being in South Point meant only one restaurant would do, and that’s the original Joe’s Stone Crab.

 We had no reservation but only waited at the bar for 15 minutes or so before being seated and had an amazing meal.  Bread, constant touches from a variety of staff filling water, cleaning the table, topping off wine, sweeping crumbs, keeping pace of service (we chose a family style large platter of stone crab claws with fried tomatoes and hashbrowns as sides.  This was how I remember the main dining room as a teenager on my first Royal cruises two decades ago but that’s a whole other story.

 
I’m honestly a bit sad we don’t have a whole week to spend here on Miami Beach and in this hotel room but Freedom will be in town to pick us soon, as I type this the other ships are making their way into port.  We checked in on the Royal app the first day we were able to and secured a 10:30am checkin time.  I never understand why people would ever try to fly in the day of or not get to the ship early, but then again we don’t get to cruise often and I am well aware we are overdoing it a bit this time around, but it’s precisely because we don’t get to travel as much now with the kiddos in our lives that I wanted to splurge and make this trip special.  Anyway, time to get packed back up.  We’ll grab a small bite to eat and some coffee and head to the port soon.  Cheers!

 
 
 
 

Saturday - Drove to and stayed at  Rose hotel in Rosemont (suburban Chicago) IL just next to the O’hare complex.  Ohare is a huge airport, obviously, and has a lot of hotel, restaurant and parking options nearby.  We live a few hours away and are constantly debating cost/benefits of taking the smaller closer airports and a connecting puddle jumper type flight vs just driving to the big airport and flying direct.  Winter weather being what it is, this time of year we usually choose to just drive to O’hare.
I’m a Hilton Honors member, the Rose seemed to be the best priced for a new-ish looking hotel in the Hilton family of brands, about $150 plus $30 for parking.  It seems to me like not brand new but more like a reclad and remodel (should I say amplified!?) of a formerly plain looking Hampton.  Booked it for the deal, I don’t know that I would go out of my way to choose it again but it’s certainly fine.  Going for a very modern look, lots of pink and black and white.  We had a single king, checked in with the app, room key and parking was through the app with our phone as a key, nice big bathroom, had a couple drinks at the bar and a bottle of wine with dinner, honestly better food than it had to be which is all one can ask anymore.  We shared some appetizers and a salmon poke bowl that I unfortunately didn’t get pictures of.

 
Parked in the O’hare ramp for Terminal 3 which American flies from.  If you don’t know, O’hare’s main parking ramp next to the airport is labeled in sections with names based on the local pro sports teams which is fun - take a picture to remember where you are!

 
We checked in on our phones the night before and got to the airport about two hours early - American was already offering $300 vouchers for alternate flights (which we weren’t eligible for as I booked us with miles and we had the morning flight we wanted) with all the other madness going on in air travel we wanted to be as prepared as possible and there was also a dusting of snow so we expected some kind of delay just for de-icing at the very least.  There was no line for TSA precheck at 6AM, dropped our bags and met our favorite bartender who is still at the same spot (nothing like knowing somebody) had a few mimosas and left Chicago on a nice big wide body Boeing 787 Dreamliner for clearer southern skies after just over an hour of delays.

 
 

Sunday - Night Zero

 We took a random cab from Miami International after grabbing our bags and I have to say, that was a mistake and I know better.  We’ve been in plenty of cabs before and are used to the rambling and chatting, the not so fresh or new vehicle, the terrible driving, helping the cabbie navigate through the concrete jungle etc but this guy has to win some kind of award for being the most big city cab experience of all time.  We survived and I will be arranging an Uber black or something a bit more polished for the rest of our trip.  Waved at Oasis as we passed by, we would see her sail away later on in the day.

 
After a pretty good amount of research combined with talking to friends and family who live in south Florida and are in the Miami area often we decided on the Hilton Bentley South Beach which is in the south point neighborhood, all the way at the bottom tip of the island.  There are hundreds of places to stay in south Florida, many certainly cheaper or closer to the airport/seaport but after being here I can say this is a new favorite.  I booked the cheapest room I could with Hilton Honors points (95,000) and had planned on tipping some cash to our check in agent upon arrival to see if any upgrades were available.  This is a lot cheaper than paying the full price ahead of time online and I just trust the staff’s opinion more than some pictures online.  A good photographer and web marketing can make things very deceiving. 
Anyway, I’ve used this trick a lot on other trips to Vegas, Key West, Chicago etc. Just slid $40 cash along with my credit card and driver’s license at checkin and asked our clerk if any rooms with a nice view were available.  She said she would work on it and call me back in the meantime the pool and other amenities were available to us.  Our $35 resort fee at the hotel came with two beach chairs, bottles of water and towels.  We changed into some proper attire we had previously put in a packing cube for the day so we didn’t have to dig through our whole bag in the middle of the lobby, grabbed a couple rum and cokes at the pool bar and headed to the beach.

This will do nicely, thank you.
 
 
Quite the mix of a crowd on the beach on a Sunday, but it made for good people watching and seeing the parade of ships sail away did not get old.  While watching, the front desk called and told me she had a few options, a tenth floor room with a great view of the city and the bay but no balcony and a ninth floor room on the corner that didn’t have a straight view out at the beach, but had a balcony and a view to the south.  Needless to say, I chose the room with the balcony and we were not disappointed.  





This is a two room suite on the corner with a full kitchen, bathroom with separate shower, tub, toilet and bidet.  The fridge came pre stocked with a selection of wine and beers, the kitchen had all of the necessary cups, plates and silverware one would need to do some basic cooking, but we were just cleaning up to head out for dinner.  When in Rome, do as the Romans and in this case being in South Point meant only one restaurant would do, and that’s the original Joe’s Stone Crab.

 We had no reservation but only waited at the bar for 15 minutes or so before being seated and had an amazing meal.  Bread, constant touches from a variety of staff filling water, cleaning the table, topping off wine, sweeping crumbs, keeping pace of service (we chose a family style large platter of stone crab claws with fried tomatoes and hashbrowns as sides.  This was how I remember the main dining room as a teenager on my first Royal cruises two decades ago but that’s a whole other story.

 
I’m honestly a bit sad we don’t have a whole week to spend here on Miami Beach and in this hotel room but Freedom will be in town to pick us soon, as I type this the other ships are making their way into port.  We checked in on the Royal app the first day we were able to and secured a 10:30am checkin time.  I never understand why people would ever try to fly in the day of or not get to the ship early, but then again we don’t get to cruise often and I am well aware we are overdoing it a bit this time around, but it’s precisely because we don’t get to travel as much now with the kiddos in our lives that I wanted to splurge and make this trip special.  Anyway, time to get packed back up.  We’ll grab a small bite to eat and some coffee and head to the port soon.  Cheers!

 
 
 
 

Saturday - Drove to and stayed at  Rose hotel in Rosemont (suburban Chicago) IL just next to the O’hare complex.  Ohare is a huge airport, obviously, and has a lot of hotel, restaurant and parking options nearby.  We live a few hours away and are constantly debating cost/benefits of taking the smaller closer airports and a connecting puddle jumper type flight vs just driving to the big airport and flying direct.  Winter weather being what it is, this time of year we usually choose to just drive to O’hare.
I’m a Hilton Honors member, the Rose seemed to be the best priced for a new-ish looking hotel in the Hilton family of brands, about $150 plus $30 for parking.  It seems to me like not brand new but more like a reclad and remodel (should I say amplified!?) of a formerly plain looking Hampton.  Booked it for the deal, I don’t know that I would go out of my way to choose it again but it’s certainly fine.  Going for a very modern look, lots of pink and black and white.  We had a single king, checked in with the app, room key and parking was through the app with our phone as a key, nice big bathroom, had a couple drinks at the bar and a bottle of wine with dinner, honestly better food than it had to be which is all one can ask anymore.  We shared some appetizers and a salmon poke bowl that I unfortunately didn’t get pictures of.

 
Parked in the O’hare ramp for Terminal 3 which American flies from.  If you don’t know, O’hare’s main parking ramp next to the airport is labeled in sections with names based on the local pro sports teams which is fun - take a picture to remember where you are!

 
We checked in on our phones the night before and got to the airport about two hours early - American was already offering $300 vouchers for alternate flights (which we weren’t eligible for as I booked us with miles and we had the morning flight we wanted) with all the other madness going on in air travel we wanted to be as prepared as possible and there was also a dusting of snow so we expected some kind of delay just for de-icing at the very least.  There was no line for TSA precheck at 6AM, dropped our bags and met our favorite bartender who is still at the same spot (nothing like knowing somebody) had a few mimosas and left Chicago on a nice big wide body Boeing 787 Dreamliner for clearer southern skies after just over an hour of delays.

 
 

T minus one week!  Nearly finished packing the big bag with our packing cubes all set, printed luggage tags, doing final little things like getting wrinkle release spray and other bathroom items bought and packed.  Also things one might not necessarily always think of like updating all the apps on our phones, charging camera batteries and spare battery packs, checking jackets we don’t often use/wear (deep winter here and we’ll be taking spring/summer type zip ups with us) pick up dry cleaning.  I like to throw a dryer sheet in the checked bags to help keep them smelling fresh band make sure we have chapstick, sunscreen, all the other little odds and ends put together.
As they say, the devil’s in the details and there are so many little things with any trip big or small that really do add up.  When we traveled more often before kids and covid these were no big deal and the necessities just stayed in the same bags but it’s been a whole different ballgame after the last couple years.  
Still haven’t booked a Chicago hotel for the Saturday night before flying out of ohare sunday early but there are a zillion options in the suburbs, not too worried about that and with work and weather who knows what time we’ll be heading in anyway.  Inching closer and closer…..

Saturday - Drove to and stayed at  Rose hotel in Rosemont (suburban Chicago) IL just next to the O’hare complex.  Ohare is a huge airport, obviously, and has a lot of hotel, restaurant and parking options nearby.  We live a few hours away and are constantly debating cost/benefits of taking the smaller closer airports and a connecting puddle jumper type flight vs just driving to the big airport and flying direct.  Winter weather being what it is, this time of year we usually choose to just drive to O’hare.
I’m a Hilton Honors member, the Rose seemed to be the best priced for a new-ish looking hotel in the Hilton family of brands, about $150 plus $30 for parking.  It seems to me like not brand new but more like a reclad and remodel (should I say amplified!?) of a formerly plain looking Hampton.  Booked it for the deal, I don’t know that I would go out of my way to choose it again but it’s certainly fine.  Going for a very modern look, lots of pink and black and white.  We had a single king, checked in with the app, room key and parking was through the app with our phone as a key, nice big bathroom, had a couple drinks at the bar and a bottle of wine with dinner, honestly better food than it had to be which is all one can ask anymore.  We shared some appetizers and a salmon poke bowl that I unfortunately didn’t get pictures of.

 
Parked in the O’hare ramp for Terminal 3 which American flies from.  If you don’t know, O’hare’s main parking ramp next to the airport is labeled in sections with names based on the local pro sports teams which is fun - take a picture to remember where you are!

 
We checked in on our phones the night before and got to the airport about two hours early - American was already offering $300 vouchers for alternate flights (which we weren’t eligible for as I booked us with miles and we had the morning flight we wanted) with all the other madness going on in air travel we wanted to be as prepared as possible and there was also a dusting of snow so we expected some kind of delay just for de-icing at the very least.  There was no line for TSA precheck at 6AM, dropped our bags and met our favorite bartender who is still at the same spot (nothing like knowing somebody) had a few mimosas and left Chicago on a nice big wide body Boeing 787 Dreamliner for clearer southern skies after just over an hour of delays.

 
 

Sunday - Night Zero

 We took a random cab from Miami International after grabbing our bags and I have to say, that was a mistake and I know better.  We’ve been in plenty of cabs before and are used to the rambling and chatting, the not so fresh or new vehicle, the terrible driving, helping the cabbie navigate through the concrete jungle etc but this guy has to win some kind of award for being the most big city cab experience of all time.  We survived and I will be arranging an Uber black or something a bit more polished for the rest of our trip.  Waved at Oasis as we passed by, we would see her sail away later on in the day.

 
After a pretty good amount of research combined with talking to friends and family who live in south Florida and are in the Miami area often we decided on the Hilton Bentley South Beach which is in the south point neighborhood, all the way at the bottom tip of the island.  There are hundreds of places to stay in south Florida, many certainly cheaper or closer to the airport/seaport but after being here I can say this is a new favorite.  I booked the cheapest room I could with Hilton Honors points (95,000) and had planned on tipping some cash to our check in agent upon arrival to see if any upgrades were available.  This is a lot cheaper than paying the full price ahead of time online and I just trust the staff’s opinion more than some pictures online.  A good photographer and web marketing can make things very deceiving. 
Anyway, I’ve used this trick a lot on other trips to Vegas, Key West, Chicago etc. Just slid $40 cash along with my credit card and driver’s license at checkin and asked our clerk if any rooms with a nice view were available.  She said she would work on it and call me back in the meantime the pool and other amenities were available to us.  Our $35 resort fee at the hotel came with two beach chairs, bottles of water and towels.  We changed into some proper attire we had previously put in a packing cube for the day so we didn’t have to dig through our whole bag in the middle of the lobby, grabbed a couple rum and cokes at the pool bar and headed to the beach.

This will do nicely, thank you.
 
 
Quite the mix of a crowd on the beach on a Sunday, but it made for good people watching and seeing the parade of ships sail away did not get old.  While watching, the front desk called and told me she had a few options, a tenth floor room with a great view of the city and the bay but no balcony and a ninth floor room on the corner that didn’t have a straight view out at the beach, but had a balcony and a view to the south.  Needless to say, I chose the room with the balcony and we were not disappointed.  





This is a two room suite on the corner with a full kitchen, bathroom with separate shower, tub, toilet and bidet.  The fridge came pre stocked with a selection of wine and beers, the kitchen had all of the necessary cups, plates and silverware one would need to do some basic cooking, but we were just cleaning up to head out for dinner.  When in Rome, do as the Romans and in this case being in South Point meant only one restaurant would do, and that’s the original Joe’s Stone Crab.

 We had no reservation but only waited at the bar for 15 minutes or so before being seated and had an amazing meal.  Bread, constant touches from a variety of staff filling water, cleaning the table, topping off wine, sweeping crumbs, keeping pace of service (we chose a family style large platter of stone crab claws with fried tomatoes and hashbrowns as sides.  This was how I remember the main dining room as a teenager on my first Royal cruises two decades ago but that’s a whole other story.

 
I’m honestly a bit sad we don’t have a whole week to spend here on Miami Beach and in this hotel room but Freedom will be in town to pick us soon, as I type this the other ships are making their way into port.  We checked in on the Royal app the first day we were able to and secured a 10:30am checkin time.  I never understand why people would ever try to fly in the day of or not get to the ship early, but then again we don’t get to cruise often and I am well aware we are overdoing it a bit this time around, but it’s precisely because we don’t get to travel as much now with the kiddos in our lives that I wanted to splurge and make this trip special.  Anyway, time to get packed back up.  We’ll grab a small bite to eat and some coffee and head to the port soon.  Cheers!

 
 
 
 

Saturday - Drove to and stayed at  Rose hotel in Rosemont (suburban Chicago) IL just next to the O’hare complex.  Ohare is a huge airport, obviously, and has a lot of hotel, restaurant and parking options nearby.  We live a few hours away and are constantly debating cost/benefits of taking the smaller closer airports and a connecting puddle jumper type flight vs just driving to the big airport and flying direct.  Winter weather being what it is, this time of year we usually choose to just drive to O’hare.
I’m a Hilton Honors member, the Rose seemed to be the best priced for a new-ish looking hotel in the Hilton family of brands, about $150 plus $30 for parking.  It seems to me like not brand new but more like a reclad and remodel (should I say amplified!?) of a formerly plain looking Hampton.  Booked it for the deal, I don’t know that I would go out of my way to choose it again but it’s certainly fine.  Going for a very modern look, lots of pink and black and white.  We had a single king, checked in with the app, room key and parking was through the app with our phone as a key, nice big bathroom, had a couple drinks at the bar and a bottle of wine with dinner, honestly better food than it had to be which is all one can ask anymore.  We shared some appetizers and a salmon poke bowl that I unfortunately didn’t get pictures of.

 
Parked in the O’hare ramp for Terminal 3 which American flies from.  If you don’t know, O’hare’s main parking ramp next to the airport is labeled in sections with names based on the local pro sports teams which is fun - take a picture to remember where you are!

 
We checked in on our phones the night before and got to the airport about two hours early - American was already offering $300 vouchers for alternate flights (which we weren’t eligible for as I booked us with miles and we had the morning flight we wanted) with all the other madness going on in air travel we wanted to be as prepared as possible and there was also a dusting of snow so we expected some kind of delay just for de-icing at the very least.  There was no line for TSA precheck at 6AM, dropped our bags and met our favorite bartender who is still at the same spot (nothing like knowing somebody) had a few mimosas and left Chicago on a nice big wide body Boeing 787 Dreamliner for clearer southern skies after just over an hour of delays.

 
 

T minus one week!  Nearly finished packing the big bag with our packing cubes all set, printed luggage tags, doing final little things like getting wrinkle release spray and other bathroom items bought and packed.  Also things one might not necessarily always think of like updating all the apps on our phones, charging camera batteries and spare battery packs, checking jackets we don’t often use/wear (deep winter here and we’ll be taking spring/summer type zip ups with us) pick up dry cleaning.  I like to throw a dryer sheet in the checked bags to help keep them smelling fresh band make sure we have chapstick, sunscreen, all the other little odds and ends put together.
As they say, the devil’s in the details and there are so many little things with any trip big or small that really do add up.  When we traveled more often before kids and covid these were no big deal and the necessities just stayed in the same bags but it’s been a whole different ballgame after the last couple years.  
Still haven’t booked a Chicago hotel for the Saturday night before flying out of ohare sunday early but there are a zillion options in the suburbs, not too worried about that and with work and weather who knows what time we’ll be heading in anyway.  Inching closer and closer…..

Last month while answering health questions on the app I came to the block of three questions: Are you vaccinated?
Have you been boosted? Are you more than 23 weeks pregnant?  I miss read the last question and answered yes!  I am a 73 year old man so being pregnant would indeed be a real miracle and shock.  I called and was told to disregard the app and just check in normally at the port check in.  Our check in at the port was super quick with no mention of my pregnancy.  Enjoy your cruise.
Bill

Our daughter in law’s pregnancy question was answered incorrectly.   We panicked and called immediately.   We spoke to the Resolutions Department and they said  it could be taken care of at the port. 
 
We had zero issues checking in at the port….it went very smoothly. 

Beach Club has a hard cap, but costs extra.
South Beach might be the next best bet because it's furthest away from everything

You already paid gratuities for your specialty dining when you purchased the UDP (18% was added to the daily per person price when you checked out).  That covers your specialty dining whether you eat every possible meal as specialty or not.  (Not counting any upcharges for fancy entrees at a few places.)
The standard gratuities which you can also pre-pay cover your room steward, some behind the scenes staff, and your non-specialty dining wait staff.  Even if you never have dinner in the MDR, some of these gratuities still go to them because they also work in the buffet and other dining locations that you may still use. 

Right now people have been using this hack.  As more and more people do this it's is possible and likely Royal may change or enforce the terms and conditions so you could hack your way into paying double, once in the UDP and once by booking the venue directly when Royal doesn't allow cancellations to be converted.
Let's face it.  The UDP is offered at a discount with the trade off of having to book on board with whatever is available.  That's why it's cheaper.  
As more people use this hack Royal will catch on and they will change the rules.  This is inevitable.    

T minus one week!  Nearly finished packing the big bag with our packing cubes all set, printed luggage tags, doing final little things like getting wrinkle release spray and other bathroom items bought and packed.  Also things one might not necessarily always think of like updating all the apps on our phones, charging camera batteries and spare battery packs, checking jackets we don’t often use/wear (deep winter here and we’ll be taking spring/summer type zip ups with us) pick up dry cleaning.  I like to throw a dryer sheet in the checked bags to help keep them smelling fresh band make sure we have chapstick, sunscreen, all the other little odds and ends put together.
As they say, the devil’s in the details and there are so many little things with any trip big or small that really do add up.  When we traveled more often before kids and covid these were no big deal and the necessities just stayed in the same bags but it’s been a whole different ballgame after the last couple years.  
Still haven’t booked a Chicago hotel for the Saturday night before flying out of ohare sunday early but there are a zillion options in the suburbs, not too worried about that and with work and weather who knows what time we’ll be heading in anyway.  Inching closer and closer…..

T minus one week!  Nearly finished packing the big bag with our packing cubes all set, printed luggage tags, doing final little things like getting wrinkle release spray and other bathroom items bought and packed.  Also things one might not necessarily always think of like updating all the apps on our phones, charging camera batteries and spare battery packs, checking jackets we don’t often use/wear (deep winter here and we’ll be taking spring/summer type zip ups with us) pick up dry cleaning.  I like to throw a dryer sheet in the checked bags to help keep them smelling fresh band make sure we have chapstick, sunscreen, all the other little odds and ends put together.
As they say, the devil’s in the details and there are so many little things with any trip big or small that really do add up.  When we traveled more often before kids and covid these were no big deal and the necessities just stayed in the same bags but it’s been a whole different ballgame after the last couple years.  
Still haven’t booked a Chicago hotel for the Saturday night before flying out of ohare sunday early but there are a zillion options in the suburbs, not too worried about that and with work and weather who knows what time we’ll be heading in anyway.  Inching closer and closer…..

T minus one week!  Nearly finished packing the big bag with our packing cubes all set, printed luggage tags, doing final little things like getting wrinkle release spray and other bathroom items bought and packed.  Also things one might not necessarily always think of like updating all the apps on our phones, charging camera batteries and spare battery packs, checking jackets we don’t often use/wear (deep winter here and we’ll be taking spring/summer type zip ups with us) pick up dry cleaning.  I like to throw a dryer sheet in the checked bags to help keep them smelling fresh band make sure we have chapstick, sunscreen, all the other little odds and ends put together.
As they say, the devil’s in the details and there are so many little things with any trip big or small that really do add up.  When we traveled more often before kids and covid these were no big deal and the necessities just stayed in the same bags but it’s been a whole different ballgame after the last couple years.  
Still haven’t booked a Chicago hotel for the Saturday night before flying out of ohare sunday early but there are a zillion options in the suburbs, not too worried about that and with work and weather who knows what time we’ll be heading in anyway.  Inching closer and closer…..

T minus one week!  Nearly finished packing the big bag with our packing cubes all set, printed luggage tags, doing final little things like getting wrinkle release spray and other bathroom items bought and packed.  Also things one might not necessarily always think of like updating all the apps on our phones, charging camera batteries and spare battery packs, checking jackets we don’t often use/wear (deep winter here and we’ll be taking spring/summer type zip ups with us) pick up dry cleaning.  I like to throw a dryer sheet in the checked bags to help keep them smelling fresh band make sure we have chapstick, sunscreen, all the other little odds and ends put together.
As they say, the devil’s in the details and there are so many little things with any trip big or small that really do add up.  When we traveled more often before kids and covid these were no big deal and the necessities just stayed in the same bags but it’s been a whole different ballgame after the last couple years.  
Still haven’t booked a Chicago hotel for the Saturday night before flying out of ohare sunday early but there are a zillion options in the suburbs, not too worried about that and with work and weather who knows what time we’ll be heading in anyway.  Inching closer and closer…..

T minus one week!  Nearly finished packing the big bag with our packing cubes all set, printed luggage tags, doing final little things like getting wrinkle release spray and other bathroom items bought and packed.  Also things one might not necessarily always think of like updating all the apps on our phones, charging camera batteries and spare battery packs, checking jackets we don’t often use/wear (deep winter here and we’ll be taking spring/summer type zip ups with us) pick up dry cleaning.  I like to throw a dryer sheet in the checked bags to help keep them smelling fresh band make sure we have chapstick, sunscreen, all the other little odds and ends put together.
As they say, the devil’s in the details and there are so many little things with any trip big or small that really do add up.  When we traveled more often before kids and covid these were no big deal and the necessities just stayed in the same bags but it’s been a whole different ballgame after the last couple years.  
Still haven’t booked a Chicago hotel for the Saturday night before flying out of ohare sunday early but there are a zillion options in the suburbs, not too worried about that and with work and weather who knows what time we’ll be heading in anyway.  Inching closer and closer…..

T minus one week!  Nearly finished packing the big bag with our packing cubes all set, printed luggage tags, doing final little things like getting wrinkle release spray and other bathroom items bought and packed.  Also things one might not necessarily always think of like updating all the apps on our phones, charging camera batteries and spare battery packs, checking jackets we don’t often use/wear (deep winter here and we’ll be taking spring/summer type zip ups with us) pick up dry cleaning.  I like to throw a dryer sheet in the checked bags to help keep them smelling fresh band make sure we have chapstick, sunscreen, all the other little odds and ends put together.
As they say, the devil’s in the details and there are so many little things with any trip big or small that really do add up.  When we traveled more often before kids and covid these were no big deal and the necessities just stayed in the same bags but it’s been a whole different ballgame after the last couple years.  
Still haven’t booked a Chicago hotel for the Saturday night before flying out of ohare sunday early but there are a zillion options in the suburbs, not too worried about that and with work and weather who knows what time we’ll be heading in anyway.  Inching closer and closer…..

The tradeoff for being able to eat at all the specialty restaurants you can for the price, is you cannot book until you board. I love the UDP and I eat late so I always get my desired times. I have heard that on Wonder, given the capacity it has, you will often not get the best times unless you board early.