Key West and Miami

7th, 8th and 9th February

This morning, 7th February we were due to arrive in Key West.  Doreen was up early watching us approach the Keys in high winds and rough seas and then the ship turned and the captain announced over the tannoy that due to the weather conditions he had aborted the visit to Key West and instead was steaming straight to Miami.

This was a disappointment to us as it was one of the ports we were keen to visit.

However, we arrived Miami at 8.00 that evening, 12 hours earlier than planned, so after dinner we left the ship, caught a bus to the Bayside area, where despite being a Sunday night there were shops, bars and music everywhere.  It gave us a taster of the two days to follow.

We had not arranged any excursions as we had been here before, so we went ashore and jumped on the Hop On Hop Off Bus that does three circuits around Miami to the beach, city and up town.  Our first trip was to South Beach, where after passing the areas where the rich and famous live, we got off the bus at South Beach and walked up Ocean Drive admiring the Art Deco Buildings and sandy beach, before stopping off at one of many roadside restaurants for coffee and pancakes.  As you can see the beach is quite deserted, this is because it was quite cold with a north wind and only a few people ventured out.

We reboarded the Hop on bus and continued around the beach area seeing all the grand hotels and on route passed a memorial to the Holocaust in the Jewish area before getting off the bus, walking down Lincoln Mall an area full of street bars and restaurants and upmarket shops including Macys. 

We returned to Bayside and immediately boarded the uptown Hop-on for a circuit of the uptown area, where we passed Miami Police Headquarters featured in CSI Miami.  After an hour trip sitting on the open top bus we were pleased to return to our ship for some warmth and well earned dinner, as we had not even stopped for lunch today.  Although the ship was staying in port overnight we decided not to get off and we went to the evening show featuring Jeff Stevenson, a comedian.

This morning we decided to complete our hop on hop off circuits and took the final trip, the city loop.  We had decided to get off at the first stop to go to Vizcaya House, however, as we watched the bus disappear we saw a sign saying the House and Gardens were closed on a Tuesday.  Despite using all our charms on the young security guard, he would not even let us in to take a photograph.  He assured us that it was only a 15 minute walk to Coconut Grove, the next stop on the bus route.  We started walking past many beautiful, large houses for over a mile when Doreen was getting desperate for a "restroom".  After speaking to a non English speaking lady without success, Geoffrey approached a man and  asked how far it was to Coconut Grove.  He said we still had 2 - 3 miles to go!!!!!  However, he took pity on Doreen's dilemma and as we were almost standing outside his house he said we were quite welcome to use his bathroom.  It turned out that he was the pastor of the local church and after meeting his two lovely King Charles Spaniels, he gave us a bottle of water and sent us on our way.

We then enjoyed the remainder of our walk, passing by numerous exclusive yacht clubs, where they even have multi story boat parks.  On arrival at Coconut Grove we had lunch before we rebounded the bus to complete our tour via various land marks including the Little Havana area (the Cuban area of Miami), where we had intended to get off the bus but we were cold and tired after our exertions earlier and decided to return to Bayside.

Although colder than we had anticipated Miami proved to be a very successful stopover and we sat up in the Crows Nest Bar at the front of the ship as the Captain manoeuvred us out of the narrow port.