Carnival Glory: Pre-Cruise Travel to Miami

It’s the day I fly to Fort Lauderdale for a cruise on the Carnival Glory.  When I booked my flight, I was leaving San Diego at 8:30 pm so planned to eat dinner at home before going to the airport.  United Airlines changed the departure to 7 pm a couple of months out so I had leave for the airport shortly after work. Because it was peak traffic time, I took Uber sparing my husband from the traffic.

Travels

Dinner was at the airport and I had a very good steak sandwich with chimichurri sauce at Stone Brewing Company.  The salad was so-so.

My flights from San Diego to San Francisco and then on to Fort Lauderdale were uneventful but very full.  I didn’t really sleep at all but I was able to get on before the overheads were full so had room for my roller bag.

After getting my checked bag, I called the Sleep Inn shuttle where I was going to meet up with sister T who arrived the day before.  It took nearly an hour for them to arrive. If I’d known that beforehand, I would have just taken Lyft or Uber.  We ate the included breakfast together and she checked out about 9:30 and took Uber to the Hyatt Regency Miami.

Miami

During the ride I had a call from Carnival with an offer to upgrade from our inside cabin to a balcony for $250 total.  After conferring with sister T, we accepted.  This turned out to be a good decision but there were problems that will be revealed in later posts.

At the Hyatt I was offered an upgrade to a suite for just $10 but we would have go with a king bed instead of two queen beds so I declined and we had a room on the 22nd floor.

Our room was nice and I worked for a while before we decided to head out for lunch at Bayside Market Place. We got directions to the people mover from the concierge who gave us a map as well. We walked through the center attached to the hotel which has an indoor walkway under the road over to the building with the nearest stop, Knight St.

We waited there for a few minutes for the train and rode it to the Bayside Market Place stop.

Bayside Market Place

From there it was a short block and half to the market where we walked around before deciding on eating at Tradewinds Bar & Grill at a table next to the water.

We started with drinks.  Sister T had a passion fruit mojito she said was really good.

My watermelon dacquiri was not a favorite.

For lunch Sister T. had the oriental salad (their name; not mine) with skirt steak.

My lunch was a grilled mahi-mahi sandwich with potato salad.

We took the long way back to the mover station so we could take pictures and see sights.

Once back at the hotel I worked some more before it was quitting time.

Area 31

Sister T did research on what to do in Miami and found out about an interesting Friday evening happy hour at a nearby restaurant bar, Area 31 at the Kimpton EPIC hotel.

It was a very nice roof-top lounge with unique pricing on Fridays.  From 5 pm to 11 pm, house wines, well drinks and beer is priced by the clock. $5 per from 5-6 pm  and so on.

We found nice seats (it was much more crowded when I left) and enjoyed drinks, appetizers and conversation with an interesting couple from Philadelphia.

I had gin and tonics and you can tell how humid it is from the sweating on the cup.

Our  new friends shared their truffle fries while I waited for my order to arrive.

The pork belly bun was my favorite!

Sister T liked it too.

Looking towards our hotel, we could see the bridge, Capital Grille and more including a roof-top basketball game.

After leaving Area 31 we walked over to Whole Foods and picked up dinner to take back to the hotel.

I had to top it off with a sweet.

We got back right before a storm hit with lightning, thunder and pouring rain.  No word yet from Carnival on our itinerary but we know it won’t be Eastern due to Hurricane Irma.

Tomorrow we embark the Carnival Glory no matter where it goes!