Friday, 21 November 2014
Cambria Suites Miami Airport Blue Lagoon — Miami, Florida
Temps: Hi 73F (23C) / LO 72F (22C)
Travel days that are uneventful don’t make for exciting reading. However, since this is a journal of our travels — albeit a public one, I am going to write about our day anyway ;-)
I was up at 6:00a. By then, Mui had been up for two hours! A peek out the window showed wet pavement from overnight rains and a low, gloomy cloud deck, but it was no longer raining … at least not yet.
The 8:30a shuttle to the airport dropped us off at the United Airlines (UA) bag-check counter on the ground floor of the parking garage — very convenient! It took all of five minutes to get our bags tagged for Miami and we were on our way.
You might recall that in September we made a daytrip to San Antonio, Texas for our Global Entry interview. The program allows expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers — that would be us — upon arrival in the United States. A nice side benefit to having a “trusted traveler” number is eligibility for TSA Pre✓ TM — a program that provides low-risk travelers expedited security screening at participating US airports. You can apply for the latter, without the former; but as international travelers, it made more sense for us to apply for the former and get the latter as well ;-)
I’m here to tell you that TSA Pre✓ TM is “da bomb” — although I probably shouldn’t use that combination of words in one sentence ;-) Suffice to say that we loved the experience of going through an airport security check-point today … it took us all of 2 minutes to get through, if that long.
The TSA Pre✓ TM logo on our boarding passes cleared the way to a special lane where we didn’t have to remove our shoes or belts or light jackets … didn’t have to take our laptops out of our carry-on bags … didn’t have to place the infamous 3-1-1 bag of liquids in a tray for screening.
Formalities completed efficiently, we went off to get some breakfast. Einstein Brothers Bagels served our purpose just fine. Tummies sated, we headed to Gate C44 for our United Airlines flight to Miami. It was disheartening to see that rain was falling when we arrived at our gate. At least there was no sign of the forecasted thunderstorms and boarding was called on time at 10:25a.
TSA Pre✓ TM wasn’t the only “first” of our day. On this travel day, we used mobile boarding passes for the first time as well — the benefit of finally entering the ‘smart age’ ;-) We had printed out paper boarding passes when we checked in online — just in case — but we didn’t need them. The scanner read the barcodes on the e-boarding passes on our smartphones and we were heading down the jetway seconds later.
An Airbus A-320, which brought passengers from Fort Lauderdale, is waiting to fly us to Miami.
It seems somehow apt that the first-class start to our day continued with first class seats on UA271. No, we didn’t win the jackpot in a lottery. No, we weren’t traveling on award tickets, either. When we bought our economy tickets months and months ago, the United website popped up a message asking if we wanted to upgrade to first class. It wasn’t the first time we had gotten the pop-up, but for once the difference in the fare was downright reasonable.
Since the flight was just two hours, however, we were about to click the “no thanks” button when we decided to do some math. Unlike some travelers, we don’t pack light. A quick calculation of our expected checked bag fees … and it became apparent that one of the upgrades would cover those fees since first class passengers get two checked bags free. As for the cost of the other upgrade? We decided to splurge — after all, it wouldn’t be fair for one of us to fly in first class and the other in economy ;-)
Happy flyer!
It didn’t take us long to get settled in our seats, and the plane pushed back on time at 10:55a; we were in the air 10 minutes later. As the plane gained altitude, the light outside the porthole brightened. At first, all I could see was a wall of clouds — then suddenly we broke through and we had blue skies to provide brilliant contrast to the bright white of the clouds.
From solid cloud cover …
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… to small breaks | … to total clearing | … to popcorn clouds |
Lunch was preceded by warm mixed nuts and our choice of beverages — Prosecco for me; Malbec for Mui. The meal service consisted of a cream of mushroom soup with a choice of Caprese sandwich or mixed greens topped with grilled chicken. The soup was very, very good; the sandwich OK; the salad good. The pièce de résistance was the warm white chocolate and cranberry cookie that was served as dessert.
We toast to the success of the adventures that lie ahead …
… and then enjoy the lunch service.
When the pilot came on the P/A to tell the passengers that we were descending to land in Miami, he said the temperature was 72F (22C) — we smiled. Then he went on to say that it was raining — boo! We were on the ground at 2:05p — 10 minutes ahead of schedule; but it took us that long to make our way to the terminal, so we broke even.
Another advantage of the upgrade to first class was the priority handling our bags received. They were amongst the first to come off the baggage carousel. Then, Mui left me curbside at arrivals while he went to pick up the rental car. It wasn’t long before he was back and we were heading to the Cambria Suites Miami Airport Blue Lagoon for our overnight stay.
We booked this property by bidding on Priceline as well. I was taken to task in a comment on yesterday’s post for not mentioning the bid we made on the Sheraton in Houston ;-) Well, I’m not going to mention the bid on this one either — sorry, Kevin. I don’t get into what we paid for what in my blog, unless it’s public information … such as admission fees to attractions and such. We all have our own travel budgets and spend accordingly, so what we bid is a moot point.
I will say a bit about the bidding process we follow, however. If you’re not interested, just skip the next paragraph.
When we make travel plans, transportation, hotels, car rentals are all booked fairly soon after our dates are set. Before bidding for a hotel, we search various booking sites to get a sense of what properties are available in the area we’re looking and what the rates are. We also check some bidding help sites – such as The Bidding Traveler. Next step is to place our bid on Priceline. We usually start at 50% of the going rate — sometimes less — and go from there. Sometimes we’re lucky, and our first bid gets accepted. Other times, we have to try several times over a period of days. You can re-bid the same day, but in that instance, you can’t just change your bid amount, you have to also add additional star ratings or areas/neighborhoods … which may or may not work for us. Priceline’s own Express Deals are also helpful in gauging what a winning bid might be. In fact, if we see a price we like in the Express Deals, sometimes we’ll go with one of those. Regardless, we’ve been booking most of our hotels this way for years now, and have yet to be disappointed.
By the way, on occasion, we also bid for car rentals on Priceline.
And we weren’t disappointed with what our bid got us this time either. The Cambria Suites impressed us from the moment we entered the lobby — clean, bright, modern décor, helpful front desk personnel. It’s several miles from downtown, so it wouldn’t be a good option for a long-term stay, but we specifically bid this area since we didn’t want to pay the “beach” and “city” prices for an overnight stay.
Good first impression!
We once again asked for a quiet room and were given 404. In keeping with the theme of the lobby — clean, bright, modern décor. The only criticism I might have of the room is that instead of a full wall, there is a partitioned divider that separates the living room from the bedroom. It looks lovely, but if one half of a couple is an early bird — that would be Mui — then there’s nothing solid to block the light and sounds from the living room.
Pano shot of 404 from the bedroom …
… and from the living room.
More from around Room 404.
Our view of the Blue Lagoon from the room — too bad it’s not a blue sky day.
Since it was still raining, we decided to have a quiet afternoon at the hotel We took advantage of the free wi-fi included in the room rate to check messages and such, and then I processed the photos I took today. Not much work was needed since I took them all with my iPhone — meaning they are jpeg and not RAW … the jury is still out on the quality of the iPhotos … especially those taken in low-light conditions; they may end up being too grainy for my liking.
We went down to Reflect, the bistro in the lobby, for dinner. We were looking for a quick, simple meal. We got much more. The food was excellent; the service was efficient without being hurried — if that makes sense. Mui beat me to ordering the salmon, so I ordered the linguine with shrimp (asked for the no-jalapeno sauce) and we shared. We abstained from dessert since we’ll have plenty of them on the ship ;-)
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Lemon Seared Atlantic Salmon
with Green Chili Grits | Linguine & Shrimp with
Roasted Jalapeno Tomato Cream Sauce |
Returning to the room after dinner, we enjoyed a quiet evening. Mui was fast asleep shortly after 9:00p — par for the course ;-) But he may have to stay up a little later the next six or seven nights. You see, the Caribbean cruise we are embarking tomorrow is a reunion of sorts with a couple of his former Air Force buddies — methinks there might be some late bedtimes in his immediate future … LOL!
Except for the weather, our eclectic trip is off to a good start. The weather forecast isn’t looking good for our embarkation day, but we’ll just go with the flow, make the most of our day anyway, and keep our fingers crossed for some fun in the sun when we reach the islands.
